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Home , Rich man and Lazarus

:19-31 – “Which One Are You: The Rich Man or Lazarus?” by Pastor Kevin Wattles preached at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Falls Church, Virginia 19 th Sunday after Pentecost, October 3, 2010

Right now in our home stories are a big thing. Our family has my wife, Jill, an almost ten-year-old Kortney, six- year-old Josh, sixteen-month-old Jason, and myself. With children the age of my family’s, you can understand why stories are a big thing in our family right now. Often stories are being read; and stories are being listened to.

Jesus was quite a story-teller while he was on earth. Everything did while he was on earth he did expertly…perfectly…completely. When Jesus gained our salvation…he gained it fully, completely, perfectly— there’s nothing yet to be done in terms of our salvation. When Jesus healed someone; the person was healed. The leprosy didn’t come back in six months. When Jesus forgave someone her or his sins; they were forgiven. There was no need for penance; no need to do something to complete the forgiveness process.

The same can be said for Jesus’ story-telling ability. Jesus was a master story-teller. He could really engage his listeners. Jesus was a master illustrator. He could powerfully apply his messages to his listeners’ lives.

Last Sunday we had one of Jesus’ stories as our message lesson, “The of the Shrewd Manager.” Today we have another story of Jesus before us. It’s the story that’s often called, “The Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus,” or sometimes he’s called “…Poor Lazarus.” Just like last Sunday when I asked you to listen to the story and think about what the story was about, I’m going to ask the same of you today. What’s Jesus’ story of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” about? Plus, I’m going to ask you to think about another question: “Which one are you, the rich man in the story or Lazarus?”

In Luke 16—starting at verse 19—Jesus tells a story. It’s a story that really gets our attention. Jesus says that there were two men. They couldn’t have been more different. They were opposites. One man was very rich. The other was so poor…that, as the saying goes…he didn’t even have two pennies to rub together.

The rich man lived in a big house…in a big , wealthy, gated community. He wore the most expensive clothes possible. He was on the cover of GQ magazine—frequently! His clothes were made of the finest fabrics! He’s what grown-ups call a “conspicuous consumer.”

Then there was the other fellow. His name was Lazarus. By the way, we don’t know the name of the rich man. In fact, of all the stories of Jesus that we have recorded for us in the this is the only one in which one of the characters has a name. It makes one think about what Jesus said in his story about himself as the ; and that he calls his sheep by name. But it doesn’t seem as if Jesus knows the name of this rich man…this one who was not in his “sheep fold”…I’ll talk more about that later.

Now Lazarus…we don’t even know if Lazarus had a home. It seems that Lazarus spent a lot of his time lying up against the gate of the rich man’s house. Why did he lie there? He lay there because he was extremely poor…and extremely sick. He was so sick that he couldn’t get up and walk. He had a disease that caused his body to rot. As his body rotted dogs would come and lick his skin. As the dogs licked his skin they would also lick the pus that was dripping from his sores. Can you imagine someone being so sick!

Because of this man’s physical condition, he couldn’t work and make a living. And so his friends dumped him off at the rich man’s gate in hopes that every once in a while the servants of the rich man would bring out scraps

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of food for the poor man. Maybe the poor man would have to fend off the dogs for some of the rich man’s scraps.

Jesus describes these two men. We hear this story and we think, “That is terrible! That’s not just! That’s not right…for one person to have so much and to be so selfish; and for another to have so little, basically nothing.”

Almost every day the rich man would be driven out through the big golden gates of his property; and he would go about his day’s work; and then he would be driven back. The rich man saw the poor man lying at his gate…but he would just look the other way. Finally, the rich man looked away from that poor man so many times that even when he looked at the poor man he didn’t see the poor man. He was a man who was totally caught up in who he was.

Then Jesus says that both of those men died . The poor man was taken to be with God’s people…with , the patriarch of God’s Old Testament people…to be in —the most wonderful place ever! Lazarus was healed! He was made whole! He had all that he needed! He lacked nothing ! He enjoyed the wonderful life of !

But the rich man—when he died—he didn’t go to heaven. He went to …a place that’s as far away as one can get from good and from happiness.

Jesus said this rich man, who was in hell, could look way far away. He could see into heaven. He saw Abraham. And the rich man said to Abraham (Notice the rich man doesn’t talk to the poor man. All his life the rich man had been used to talking to “the most important people.” In hell he is no different. He hasn’t changed.), “Have Lazarus stick his finger in some water (Note that the rich man is in hell and he still thinks he can call the shots; can order people around and tell them what to do!), bring it to me, put it on my tongue and cool me off. I’m burning here in hell! (Note that the rich man doesn’t ask if there’s some way he can get out of hell and get to heaven. He asks if there’s some way hell can be made more bearable.)

Abraham said, “No. You had your chance, Mr. Bigshot! You had your chance…and you didn’t pay any attention to God, God’s Word, or other people.”

And so the rich man thought about what Abraham had said. We think about what Abraham said, and we think, “Wow, that’s really good. The rich man got what he deserved, didn’t he?”

But then the rich man says, “Well, what about my brothers? I’m wondering if I can, perhaps, save them before they die?”

In a sense, the rich man’s thinking about his brothers. But in another sense the rich man is criticizing God, isn’t he? (Again, we note that the rich man—even though he’s in hell—still thinks he can call the shots!) “God, you didn’t give me enough information during the course of my life to get to heaven! So why don’t you send someone to go and warn my brothers about hell so they will get to heaven instead?”

Abraham says, “No, you had God’s Word. You had God speaking to you through Moses and the Prophets (That’s “code” for “the Old Testament.” Remember there was only one “testament” at this time because the New Testament was still being lived out.). That was enough. If you had paid attention to it you would have known the things that really matter in life.”

Then the rich man said to Abraham, “But if Lazarus would go back from the dead and warn them, then maybe my brothers would repent.”

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Then Jesus, who must have been thinking about his own , has Abraham say, “No, even if someone was to come back from the dead and announce to people the news about heaven and hell there are still some people who just won’t listen; who just won’t believe.”

And…that’s the story of “The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus.”

So, what’s this story about? Jesus talks to us about a lot of things in this story. Jesus talks about the . He talks about heaven. He talks about hell. Jesus talks about wealth. And Jesus talks about poverty—being poor. And Jesus talks about being sick. But are these things what this story is about? What is this story—told by the Master Storyteller—about?

My friends, this story does talk about the afterlife...and heaven…and hell…and about being rich…and about being poor…and about being sick…but…if we think the main point of this story is about one or all of these things, then we’ve missed the main point of the story!

The point of “The Story of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus” has to do with paying attention to God and listening to his Word…because that’s how we find out about God’s love and salvation! God’s love will have an effect on a person! God’s love does affect people! God’s love has had an effect on us! But God’s love had not had an effect on the rich man because the rich man wasn’t paying any attention to God and his Word! The rich man was so consumed with himself and the matters of his life that he didn’t have time for God! And it showed, didn’t it? Why did the rich man ignore Lazarus? He ignored Lazarus because he didn’t know the love of God! Because he didn’t know the love of God, how in the world was he going to show love to somebody else!

The final verse of this story helps us with this understanding of this story. That’s where the rich man is asking Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers so that they too can learn about hell and heaven. Jesus has Abraham reply that the rich man’s brothers should listen to Moses and the Prophets (the Word of God) and that even if someone would rise from the dead (come back from the dead) and speak to them…they still wouldn’t be convinced.

Here’s a question for you: why wouldn’t someone be convinced about God…and heaven…and hell…if the person saw someone who had come back from the dead? The reason is that if someone would see someone who had returned from the dead that would immediately cause fear—great fear—in that person unless the person knew why the one who’d returned from the dead had come back. Someone returning from the dead—a resurrection from the dead—that act alone conveys power! It conveys might! It conveys something that is beyond what our minds can comprehend! It is like a “nuclear blast action” for our minds to handle! Boom! Wow! The person’s there! Oh my! Now what!

But that’s all fear-based. It scares a person. It doesn’t tell a person anything about heaven, or hell, or how one gets to heaven. None of that.

Think of Jesus’ disciples on Easter. Why were Jesus’ immediate words to the disciples, “Peace be with you”? He wanted to let them know that he had not come to judge them or use the same awesome power he used to rise from the dead to beat-up on them in any way. He had come to show himself to them as their loving Savior. But how were they going to know that? How were they going to recognize him as such? When he spoke a message of love and peace to them…as they had heard him do before…as they knew from the Word of God!

You see, we don’t find out about God’s love for us from Jesus’ resurrection alone. Jesus’ resurrection—without the message of God’s love connected with it—would simply cause a person fear; make the person afraid. But knowing about God’s love…and seeing the Risen …it just completes the picture of what God thinks of us…and what God has done for the purpose of our salvation! God’s Word tells us, “God so loved the world 3

that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s Word tells us God loves us! We see that love in action—at work—in the coming, in the life of, in the death, and in the !

Some take-aways:

• Note that the rich man didn’t go to hell because he was rich. The rich man went to hell because he only cared about himself. He didn’t care about God, didn’t listen to God’s Word, and therefore, didn’t care about Lazarus.

• Note that there are implications for our future life based on what we believe and what we do in this life. These things do impact our eternal destiny.

• A teaching of this story is that when a person stops listening to God the person then also stops listening to the crying needs of humanity and ceases to consider the eternal world and its terrors. This story gives us a classic example of someone in denial—avoiding what’s reality. “I’m just not going to think about it. I’m just not going to deal with it. I’m just going to pretend it isn’t there.” That’s the mindset of the rich man.

• God took the life of the self-centered, selfish rich man very seriously because God loves the man. Note that Jesus has Abraham call the rich man “Son.” That’s a term of endearment. It pains God when people are lost to eternal damnation.

• The rich man’s goals in this life were set too low.

Getting to the second question I asked you to consider regarding this story…which one are you? The rich man or Lazarus?

The answer? We’re both, aren’t we? Or more correctly said, we used to be the rich man but our loving God rescued us from the path that we were on…the path of selfishness…of self-centeredness…of only thinking about ourselves…about not giving a rip about God or others…about not listening to God. God’s love has reached out and touched us! That’s why we’re here today! We’re not here today on our own accord! God has enabled us to see ourselves like Lazarus…that before his holiness we sin-sick beggars at his gate; that we bring no righteousness of our own before him. By God’s grace we recognize that our righteousness must come from God. He is the only one who can truly heal us, who can makes us truly whole.

And so we are like Lazarus right now knowing that we are loved by God and knowing God’s salvation for us in Jesus Christ alone! Through faith in Jesus we, like Lazarus, will have all that we need in the life to come! We will experience the complete awesomeness of the love of God; everything that’s good; total happiness; and complete paradise! Amen.

*** Note: Commentary on “The Rich Man and Lazarus” by Pastor John Yates was used in preparation of this message.

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