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Home , Luke 14, Luke 16, Rich man and Lazarus

THE RICH, THE POOR, AND THE PROMISE OF AN ESCHATOLOGICAL REWARD IN THE OF LUKE

Outi Lehtipuu

In the , the poor and the rich, the mighty and the lowly, the insiders and the outsiders are repeatedly portrayed as contrasting pairs whose status and conditions are reversed.1 “There are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last”2 (Lk 13:30) is a typi- cal example of such a polar reversal.3 This saying, among some other reversal sayings, is traditional (cf. Mark and Matthew)4 but the author has clearly expanded the use of this rhetorical device. A reversal is a salient feature in many of the Lukan and their immedi- ate contexts. There are the sinful woman and the Pharisee (7:36–50), the despised Samaritan and the priest and the Levite (:30–35),5 the prodigal son and his obedient older brother (:11–32), the poor Lazarus and his rich neighbor (:19–31), the penitent tax collector and the arrogant Pharisee (:10–14).6 Many of these reversal texts have a polemical edge, a sharp division between those

1 See J.O. York, Last Shall Be First: The Rhetoric of Reversal in Luke.(JSNTSup 46; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 92–93, 160–63, 182–84. 2 All biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, if not other- wise noted. 3 The term “polar reversal” is from J.D. Crossan,In Parables: The Challenge of the (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 1992), 54. In his words, a polar reversal describes “. . . a reversal of world as such. When the north pole becomes the south pole, and the south becomes the north, a world is reversed and overturned and we find ourselves standing firmly on utter uncertainty.” 4 Cf. :30 par. :31; Matt 19:30; 20:16. See also :11; 18:14 and Matt 23:12; :24; 17:33 and Mark 8:35; Matt 16:25. 5 The reversal also happens between the Samaritan of Jesus’ story and the teacher of law testing Jesus; see the immediate context of the Good Samaritan in vv. 25–29 and 36–37. 6 A reversal pattern can also be seen in the overall structure of Luke’s story of Jesus where the one who is humbled on the cross is exalted in the and ascen- sion into ; York, Last Shall Be First, 166–73. Rhoads elaborates York’s thesis and finds the polar reversal on the one hand, in the resurrection and whose birth and life were humble and whose death was a humiliation, and, on the other hand, the rejection and humiliation of the leaders of Israel who have shed innocent blood by killing Jesus. Similarly, in Acts, the become insiders while the former “people of the covenant” in their stubbornness stay unrepentant and 230 outi lehtipuu who accept Jesus’ message and those who reject it.7 The lowly, poor and outcast receive Jesus while the powerful, wealthy and religiously esteemed do not. A common element in many Lukan reversal texts is their escha- tological overtone.8 Reversal is a divine action that will end earthly injustice. In the very beginning of the gospel, Mary rejoices at how the Lord “. . . has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (:52–53). Luke supplements his to the poor, hungry, and bereaved with woes to the rich, satiated, and laughing (:20–26). In Luke’s version of the of the great supper, it is the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame who will “taste my dinner” (Luke 14:16–24; cf. Matt 22:1–10) while those first invited—probably the “rich neighbors” referred to in v. 12—are not let inside. The eschatological reward and threat are most explicit in the story of the (Luke 16:19–31); a passage where Luke more clearly than anywhere else in his double work reveals how he envisions the otherworld.9 A prominent feature in all of these eschatological reversals is that the two contrasted groups are characterized as rich and poor.10 All through the gospel, the Lukan Jesus promises that the eschaton and the coming of the Kingdom will bring relief to the poor. At the same time, the rich are warned that they will face an unexpected judgment and they will lose what they now have. Strikingly, these eschatological outside. Cf. D. Rhoads, The Challenge of Diversity; The Witness of Paul and the (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 104. 7 York, Last Shall Be First, 132–33. 8 In addition to the texts mentioned below, the promise of an eschatological reward occurs in one form or another in connection with other reversals, such as the Good Samaritan (“do this and you shall live;” 10:28); the table fellowship instructions (“you shall get your reward in the resurrection of the just;” 14:14), and the combination of the stories of the rich ruler (Luke 18:18–30) and Zacchaeus (19:1–10; “Today salvation has come to this house,” v. 9.) 9 Scholars often play down the significance of the scene in the story and emphasize that the story is “. . . not a Baedeker’s guide to the next world.” (S. MacLean Gilmour, The Gospel According to Luke[IB 8, 24th ed. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1982], 290.) The primary point of the story does lie elsewhere, in its exhortation aimed at a change of praxis but the eschatological retribution described in it functions as an integral part of this teaching. In this respect, it does not differ from other apoca- lyptic stories, such as Plato’s myth of Er in Resp. 10:614b–621d. See my discussion in O. Lethipuu, The Afterlife Imagery in Lukes’s Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (NovTSup 123; Leiden and Boston: Brill), 4–8 and 163–70. 10 Usually πλουσιοί and πτωχοί. In the , the verbπλουτέω is contrasted with πεινάω, but the basic idea remains unchanged.