Staying with Lazarus.

Luke 16:19-31

I.

            After he tells the Pharisees that a person cannot serve God and wealth, that a choice must be made between these two, that they are mutually exclusive, Jesus doesn’t skip a beat before launching into one of his most unambiguous and direct parables.  It is a parable of which it is impossible to miss the point.  It compares and contrasts an unnamed rich man with a poor man named Lazarus.  This parable depicts in starkest contrast the theme of social and economic reversal that has characterized Jesus’ whole ministry, and even goes back to his mother’s hymn in chapter 1.

            The first part is very simply stated.  Jesus briefly describes these two people.  “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.”

            Jesus does not give the rich man a name.  He is anonymous.  His name doesn’t matter.  All we know are his attributes.  He dresses and eats very well.  He consumes resources at a prodigious rate.  And he passes by the poor man every day.

            Jesus does not tell us how he got rich.  He does not tell us how many jobs he created.  He does not tell us all the good things his investments were doing in the community.  He doesn’t tell us if he gave a lot of his money to charity or supported the local synagogue with significant donations.  Jesus does not tell us any of this because none of that matters to him in the least.  All Jesus cares about is that he is rich, comfortable, and well-fed… and that he virtually steps over this poor man all the time.  These are the only facts that Jesus considers relevant enough to give us in this parable.

            I do get a little impatient with interpreters who want to say that “that was then, this is now.”  They say that maybe a long time ago people got rich by exploitation of others, but under our economic system this never happens anymore.  Now people only get rich by hard-work, ingenuity, creativity, and sacrifice.  In fact, our economy is so benign that we do good simply by doing well.  They say that Jesus’ teachings on wealth and poverty simply don’t apply today.  And under Capitalism, we are told, this little parable would just never happen.

            And yet, we live in this parable daily.  Today, the richest 300 people in the world have as much wealth as the bottom 3 billion.  Rich countries have engineered the world economy so that each year 2 trillion dollars is sucked out of poor countries.  So we are living in a world that market economists say is impossible.  We were told that everyone would get richer if we followed certain policies and philosophies.  That didn’t happen.

            So Jesus’ parable remains an accurate depiction of reality.  There is a rich man with everything, and a poor man with nothing.  The poor man represents the vast majority of people in Jesus’ day.  In our day, he represents a billion people, nearly half the people on the planet.

II.

            The poor man does have a name.  Lazarus.  The fact that Jesus names him – and very few figures in his parables have names – means that Jesus particularly wants us to consider him a person, not just a representative character.

            Lazarus is not just poor but also sick; he suffers from some skin disease for which the only treatment he gets is the ministry of dogs.  He longs only to eat the refuse of the rich man’s table; maybe he is camped where he is so he can sift through the garbage when it is put out.  He is a living example of what we call “trickle-down economics.”

            Jesus also does not appear to be concerned at all about how Lazarus got this way.  Nothing about his previous life is important enough to Jesus to be mentioned.  Was he born poor?  Is he poor because he is disabled and cannot work?  Is he poor because he is lazy, and doesn’t want to work at all or to be responsible for himself, but to live a life of dependence on others?  Is his poverty a result of poor moral choices?  We don’t know.  If it matters to Jesus, he would say so.

            But once again we see Jesus concerned exclusively for the situation in the present moment, which in this case is a rich man and the poor, sick man at his gate.  The visible inequality, the suffering of Lazarus, and the extreme wealth and apparent carelessness of the rich man… this is all that interests Jesus.

            The story goes on.  Both men die.  And Jesus matter-of-factly mentiones the ultimate destination of each.  The rich man goes to Hades, which is the Greek realm of the dead.  There he is tormented in flames.  Lazarus is carried away by angels to be welcomed into the bosom of Father Abraham.

            Such a turn would not have been intelligible to everyone listening.  There was and remains in human society a bias towards the successful.  Wealth is considered a blessing showing God’s favor.  Poverty and illness are often suspect.  They are thought to reflect divine disfavor.  People assume they were punishment for sins.  So the idea that Lazarus goes to be with Abraham and the rich man winds up in Greek Hell, probably concerns some people.  Why would God reward the poor sick man, and punish the guy who had a successful life?  Doesn’t that sort of incentivize failure?  Doesn’t it discourage people from making something of themselves?  Who is going to tell this story to their children, with the moral: “If you work hard and get ahead, and make lots of money, you too could end up in Hell”?

III.

            The standard belief is that you go to Hell because you do bad things.  But Jesus never indicates that the rich man does anything bad.  His entire crime is being rich, and implicitly allowing Lazarus to suffer at his gate.  And there is even less indication that Lazarus is particularly good.  All Jesus tells us about him is that he is poor and sick.  Yet he receives this reward.

            So, the rich man looks up and far away in heaven he sees Lazarus chilling with Abraham.  And he begs Abraham for some relief.  So he, being a rich guy and used to telling people what to do, instructs Abraham to send Lazarus to help him.  As if Abraham were subject to him, and as if Lazarus were some servant to be ordered around.  As if Abraham is going to obey him and treat Lazarus like a slave.

            Abraham just lays it out.  He replies to the rich man: “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.”  That’s the way it works.  The first shall be last and the last first.  The hungry are filled, the grieving comforted, the lowly are lifted up, the rich sent away empty, and the gentle inherit the earth.

            And anyway, Abraham says, “You can’t get from here to there.  You want Lazarus to visit you?  You had ample opportunity to enjoy Lazarus’ company all those years when he sat suffering in front of your house.  There was no chasm between the two of you then.  But did you act to alleviate his suffering?  You worked hard every day to make your life a certain way, to be a success.  Where you are now is what you made for yourself.”            

            So the formerly rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his 5 brothers about the consequences of wealth.  To which Abraham replies that there are ample warnings in the Bible.  To which the rich man replies, “The Bible?  Who reads that?  There are so many interpretations, it’s all so confusing.  The Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes all say different things; who can make head or tail of it?  But if someone were to come back from the dead, now that would really get their attention, then they will repent.

            But Abraham just shakes his head and says, “Nah.  If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

            Of course they won’t be convinced if someone rises from the dead.  They’ll waste time arguing over whether he’s a ghost or a zombie or a figment of their imagination or an imposter.  They will not believe anyone who tells them something they don’t want to hear, especially if what they don’t want to hear has anything to do with losing their wealth.

IV.

            Part of what Jesus is saying here is that if they don’t believe the Bible then they are not going to believe him when he returns from the dead.  Still less will they believe Jesus’ apostles when they bring the good news of his resurrection.  So, if they, being the rich, don’t believe the apostles, or the risen Jesus, or the Bible, what hope do they have?  Well, beyond those sources, none.

            But Jesus’ point is that they do have those sources!  They can still turn their lives around based on what the Torah and the prophets say.  They can find the Lazaruses in their own experience and context, and use their wealth to comfort and serve them, that is, our needy neighbors.  They don’t have to wait for God to enact justice; they can start enacting God’s distributive, reversing justice now.

            It’s like that old commercial for oil filters for your car.  The mechanic says, holding up a filter that costs about 10 bucks, “you can pay me now, or you can pay me later,” meaning some future time when your engine needs 800 dollars worth of work because you didn’t change your oil filter.  It is a lot cheaper to pay now, believe me.

            That’s what the 5 brothers have to be warned about.  The situation is not what we think.  God does not reward the successful; just the opposite.  The ones who are first in this life are the ones who find themselves hammered in eternity.  Those who are last this life are the ones who are first in eternity.  “What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God,” Jesus said last week.  Our goal in this life is not to claw our way to the top; in a very real sense it is a race to the bottom.

            Therefore, whatever of the earth’s resources we manage to accrue in this life?  Well, give it away as fast as you can, because anything you’re left with will be held against you.

            Here we see the ethic that has always pervaded the message of Jesus, and the communities he establishes.  I have talked about it repeatedly in this past year of sermons on Luke.  We are not here to collect, or hoard, or save, or keep what God gives us.  Rather, we are here so that those resources flow through us into the world, landing in the places where there is need and want.  Whatever talents we have, whatever wealth we receive, whatever health or creativity or insight or gifts we are given… are given for the common good.

            Do not ignore that person you practically have to step over on your way to work.  Do not dismiss or blame or close your eyes to the people at the bottom.  Especially let’s not delude ourselves that our greed is helping them in some way.  It isn’t.  We can pay God now in obedience and working for justice; or we can pay God later when we suffer the consequences of our sins.

V.

            What do we think the reaction was to Jesus’ parable?  I suspect the Pharisees just snickered.  “Ooh, a scary story!  Guess I’ll consider myself warned… and pass the word to my brothers!  A teaching that blesses beggars!  What next?” 

            To which Jesus may have replied, “That parable wasn’t addressed to you.  It was certainly not to warn you or your rich friends about God’s judgment.  Indeed, I just said that such warnings have no effect on you.  You have received your reward; your destiny is sealed, whether you believe me or not. 

            “No.  That parable is intended for my disciples so that they will know where to find the doorway to eternal life.  So that they will not be tempted to suck up or sell themselves to you people.  They have to know the consequences of injustice and inequality, so that when your faithless ignorance and greed begins to attract the disasters and catastrophes they always attract, my disciples will know with whom they must stand so that the storm does not touch them. 

            “We will be with the Lazaruses of the world, because that’s where God is.  The future belongs to the losers.  Your empire of greed will fall.  You will be remembered forever as heartless and corrupt leeches, bleeding the people dry.  That is your legacy.  But it is the Lazaruses of the world, the ones who suffer, who are redeemed.

            “For I am with the Lazaruses, and the tax collectors, and the prostitutes, and the ‘sinners,’ and the women, and the sick, and the blind, and the lame, and the children, and the aliens, and the hungry, and even the dead.  I am with everyone whom you have written off.  I am gathering them all together, which is the thing you fear the most.  And so you should.  Because for every one of you, there is a billion of us. 

            “This is why you are going to kill me.  I came to give these people hope.  You will not listen to me, even when I am raised from the dead.  But they will.  It may take many centuries; but these are the people who will inherit the earth.

            “I guarantee it.”

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