.jpg)
.001.jpeg)
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Lectionary 26, Year C
Opening prayer:
Heavenly Father, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Please help us oh Lord as we receive your word into our hearts, souls and spirits, AMEN.
Sermon: “Lazarus and The Rich Man”
The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is an extreme example, an embellished tale about two people in drastically different circumstances suffering drastically different fates. The exaggerated nature of this and other parables is intended to surprise us and warn us. It is intended to remind us to notice the people and things that are in front of us, things that should really appall us, make us righteously indignant, and drive us to action.
However, sometimes when we are comfortable and content in our own lives, it becomes awfully easy to do nothing and allow ourselves to be lulled into ignoring them. This parable should warn us not to be complacent and miss the opportunities to be in His service as we go through our daily lives.
Interestingly, there are at least seven different versions of this story in rabbinical sources according to one commentary. However, despite the short account, the story is rich in detail, simple and complex, clear and puzzling. So why did Jesus feel the need to not only repeat it but to embellish it?
Jesus shared it so that the Pharisees and anyone else who is listening will understand that a great reversal is taking place. With Jesus, the entire system of the world was upended, turned upside down. Notice the people Jesus spoke to in the beatitudes. He said blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who are meek. Who does he not bless? The people who have the best of all this earth has to offer, like our rich man.
We will begin with him. He dresses in the finest clothes available, dyed a royal purple. He eats whatever he wants and however much he wants every single day. We would say he’s in the top 1%.
Then there’s Lazarus. Right off the bat, there is something noteworthy about him. He is given a name. No other character in any of Jesus’ parables has a name. Not even the rich man has a name. Lazarus name happens to mean, of all things, “God helps.” Lazarus is in the bottom 1%.
Jesus really piles on the details about Lazarus. Even giving him a name is designed to evoke our sympathy. Because the more you know about a person, the more likely you are to sympathize with them. Jesus provides some very detailed visuals of Lazarus, and those visuals are kind of gross. In the time before napkins, they say wealthy people used to use pieces of bread to wipe their mouths and plates and then toss it to the floor for the dogs. That’s what Lazarus wants to eat. If he could just get one spit-covered piece of leftover bread with some half-chewed pieces of food, he would be satisfied.
And then there are the open wounds all over his skin. Every day, right there in front of the rich man’s house, right where Lazarus lays, the street dogs come to lick his sores. I would like to think that the dogs are licking poor Lazarus in some sort of sympathetic gesture but really, they are just dogs being dogs and poor Lazarus is just too weak to shoo them away. So that is a day in the life of Lazarus, lying at the rich man’s gate, dreaming about scraps of slobbery bread while dogs lick his wounds.
The first part of this two-sided parable is designed to evoke deep sympathy for Lazarus. He really is a pathetic sight. Except the rich man apparently doesn’t see it or doesn’t want to see it.
We might ask ourselves if the rich man knew Lazarus. He seemed to know his name, at least in the afterlife. Did the rich man actually see the man and his situation and just ignore him? Or was he just too busy making a living, focusing on his own concerns and being self-indulgent and thus blind to the misery on his doorstep?
We, as Christians, need to notice the kinds of people God has decided to bless, the kind of situations God has chosen to get involved in. He wants us to bless the bottom 1%. These are the people that God calls upon us Christians to serve.
There are some sharp contrasts between the two men. The lavishness of the life lived by the rich man versus the extreme dismal state of Lazarus. Even in death, the rich man died and was buried; the poor man just died, no word of a funeral.
Of course, the real interesting action takes place after the two men die. Lazarus is whisked away by the angels to rock in the bosom of Abraham and the rich man goes down to Hades where he suffers in extreme heat, it is even hotter than Houston in August and he didn’t get to bring his water bottle.
Suddenly, for the first time, the rich man sees Lazarus! He notices him because Lazarus has something that he wants. Abraham and the rich man go back and forth over his request for a little water droplet until finally the rich man thinks of someone besides himself…his brothers, who are probably just as well-off as he was.
Jesus’ parable ends with a bit of foreshadowing. Those who are not able to understand the nature of God through God’s Word are probably not going to understand God’s essential nature of goodness and blessings even should someone rise from the dead.
Wealth, possessions, material things can blind us to that great reversal that Jesus set into motion. And it’s not just affluence that does it. Our educational level, class, race, even technology can blind us. Sometimes, the better off we are, the more our own innate selfishness is reinforced.
Today’s gospel is intended, not only to evoke our sympathy, but also suggested the possibility of place-sharing, trading places with each other. According to Father Abraham, this is not possible after death. However, as we walk this earth today, we should try to put ourselves into another’s shoes and see the challenges they are facing.
It also echoes a common theme: that the pursuit of wealth in this world can lead us away from being focused on Christ. The pursuit of wealth is not where we want to be as Christians. Instead, as the reading from 1 Timothy reminds us, we should pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness, so that there is no “poor man named Lazarus” dying at our gates.
The second part of this two-sided parable is intended to remind us that how we treat people in this life impacts our afterlife.
The very idea of afterlife is hard to fathom isn’t it? The concept of eternally living in heaven or hell is mind blowing. Are they real places? Do we experience time the way that we experience it here? Will we experience ecstasy in heaven or pain and anguish in hell?
I know that there are some people who believe that hell is reserved for those they perceive as truly wicked, such as Nero, or Adolf Hitler, or Saddam Hussein. People who have wreaked horror against others, even their own people. Some agree that it would be OK if those people suffered in eternal torment. But what about the others? Those who like the rich guy in our gospel, was just too self-absorbed? What about the people who have never heard of Christ? What about those who lived “good lives” but never had a relationship with Christ?
Some people don’t believe that hell, at least in the “Dante’s Inferno” version. How could a God who loves everyone and wants no one to perish ban people to hell for all eternity? 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that the Lord is patient with us, “Not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
These are some great questions. I wish I had all the answers! I have read the scripture and have had some interesting discussions about the afterlife with various individuals (who had very differing opinions by the way)! One thing I do know is that God is God and I am not! God will judge and our God is a just God.
Fortunately, as Christians, he tells us that our eternal salvation is secure, regardless of what eternity looks like. We are saved by grace through faith. Knowing this, we can share with our neighbors, confident that God will continue to provide for our needs. Instead of being complacent, we should be asking ourselves, how can we serve those God wishes to bless? What can we do? What am I missing? Ask me Lord, choose me! Amen? AMEN!
