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18. Sunday after Pentecost, 09/30/2007
Sermon on Luke 16:19-31, by Hubert Beck
[Jesus said:] "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
"But Abraham, replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
"He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
"Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
"'No, father Abraham,' he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
"He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced if someone rises from the dead.'" (NIV)
ARE YOU LISTENING?
Well . . . what would you do if someone appeared at your door claiming to be your late Uncle Robert who had always been considered a no-good beggar, the black sheep of the family? You say, "What do you mean, you are my Uncle Robert? He has been dead for years now!"
"True," he says, "as has your uncle John, the true success story of the family who left you the considerable inheritance on which you now live. You should see the condition he is in now, though! The Lord has consigned him to regions unspeakable because he only lived for himself and never gave a hoot for anybody else - and especially not for the likes of me whom he considered lazy and no-good. I have been sent on a special mission from heaven, however (at your uncle John's request by the way), to warn you to do better than he did with the stuff he left you. You had best see what you can do for the poor and needy around you now so that you don't end up as his next door neighbor in the world to come."
You would probably stall him at the door as long as possible or even invite him just inside the doorway where you could keep an eye on him, absenting yourself just long enough to get to the phone to call for the men in white coats to come and take him away. You certainly would not take any of this seriously, would you? Nor would it much affect the way you look at or care for the poor and needy, would it?
Jesus knew that, for he concludes this little story we have set before you in modern dress by saying, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
A LOOK AT THE "INSIDE" OF THIS STORY
The need for the rich to care for the poor, a matter that dominates the early part of this parable -- is a constant theme in Luke. It is established early in the book when Mary exclaims, among other things, in her pregnant joy, "He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their throne but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." (Luke 2:51-53 NIV) While the babe was still in her womb Mary exulted in the way her son Jesus would turn everything upside down.
This theme concerning the necessity for a proper use of our earthly substance runs throughout Luke's Gospel. It was forcefully stated again in the words shortly before our text that served as the Gospel reading last week. It was a commendation for the shrewd usage of that which lies at a person's disposal. The steward around whom the parable of last week was woven was dishonest, to be sure, but as a man of this world he knew how to make the most of a bad situation by taking care of himself when he fell into dire straits. Jesus instructed his hearers to do the same thing "in reverse," so to speak - to use the earthly means at our disposal in as shrewd a way as possible in order to best serve God. He said by way of interpreting that parable, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" (Luke 16:10, 11) What God gives is to be used as a means of extending his care to those whom he has placed around us.
Those words recorded only a short time before our Gospel for today could almost serve as a text in turn for the parable we have before us this morning. A rich man disregards a poor man - Uncle John disregarded Uncle Robert as a pain in the you-know-where who was always a constant shadow on the street corner of his life. But in the end it was the poor man who inherited the life that really counts. It is noteworthy that nothing of the beggar's "inner life" is recorded. We only know that he was poor. When he died this is all we are told: "The angels carried him to Abraham's side." The rich man, meanwhile, ended up in hell (although nothing, again, is said about his "inner life"). All we know is that he had ignored Lazarus in his need!
The major point of this "inner story" of the parable, then, is simply that the rich man used his material means purely as a way of enjoying his personal life, disregarding the possibilities of using those same means to care for others. In this life he never thought of "dipping his finger into water" in order to put at least a little salve on the life of Lazarus. He left that task to the dogs!
It must be noted that this has nothing to do with wealth and poverty as such. After all, Abraham, a major player in the story who is sheltering Lazarus in his bosom, was quite a rich man himself and yet it is to him that the rich man of the parable addressed his request. There is certainly no "merit" in being wealthy or poor. The question at this point simply revolved around how one handles the means at one's disposal.
We hear this same emphasis in the fierce warning Amos addresses to the people of his time in the First Lesson. "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion . . . You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. . . You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end." (Amos 6:1-7 NIV) The rich are complacent and do not recognize the danger into which they place themselves when they ignore justice and trample on the needs of the poor.
The Second Lesson employs the same warning: "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (I Timothy 6:9, 10 NIV) The parable represents a theme that runs heavily throughout the whole of Scripture: Use what you have with wisdom, for it is a means that God places at your disposal for serving him through his needy children!
This is the warning that the rich man wanted Lazarus to carry to his five brothers back in the world of the earthly living, for it was clear that his example was being closely followed by those of the rest of his family. And it was this warning that father Abraham refused to send back with Lazarus.
THE MEAT OF THE STORY
But why not? It would seem to be the way of mercy - or at least a godly kindness - to send Lazarus back with this message, would it not? At first glance father Abraham almost sounds cruel hearted - or at least cold hearted if not cruel!
Here we come to the very heart of the story. It is hard to escape the rich / poor, justice / injustice, neglect / care theme as a significant part of this parable, for it continues a line of thought that Luke quite obviously considered highly important. He has emphasized it very strongly throughout his Gospel and placed it quite squarely in the eyes of his readers in the immediate section before this. Yet the parable probes still deeper when one follows it to its ultimate conclusion - the definitive point Jesus was making when he tells this story.
It is stated ever so plainly by father Abraham in the concluding verse of the Gospel: "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (v. 31) The point is very clear. Great miracles - even a visit by a person returning from the dead - will never be enough to convince a person of anything if that person has not evidenced an interest in the word that precedes, interprets and presses beyond the miracle itself.
It will only be a short time after this, according to John's Gospel, that another Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, will be returned to the living from the dead by the word of Jesus. Did that convince anybody that Jesus was who he claimed to be? Well, yes . . . a few.
But not those who opposed him. It only heightened their antagonism, their sense that they needed to rid themselves and Israel of this man who threatened the very foundations of their religious understandings. Their earlier decisions regarding the need for his death governed their charges against him, and not even such a miracle as raising a man from the dead would alter their course of action. Father Abraham was right! "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
This parable is part of a larger section in which Jesus is addressing the very ones who are plotting his death . . . and he is either putting out a warning to them that they should take the very Scriptures they hold so dearly more seriously or, more likely, he is saying that he knows what is in the air for it is all part and parcel of that concerning which Moses and the Prophets were speaking and writing long ago.
Father Abraham's words must be pressed still further, therefore. Anyone who would then / will today refuse to listen to him who stood there speaking to them, admonishing them, instructing them, encouraging them, warning them - and then himself going to death and rising again - then surely the words of Moses and the Prophets will have fallen on deaf ears, for they speak of him! If a listener is not convinced by the words of Moses and the Prophets that the one standing before them filled those words to the fullest brim of their meaning, they will never be convinced that Jesus was who he said he was even on the evidence of his resurrection from the dead.
His resurrection did, indeed, confirm that he was who he said he was for those who loved him. But that confirmation came to those who had listened to him earlier, who had followed him faithfully, and who had believed in him wholly. Their faith, seemingly dashed for the moment by his crucifixion, leaving them fleetingly empty and unsure of what would come next, was simply reawakened and increased when they saw him risen from the dead. His words, previously of great import to them and received eagerly, now took on monumental proportions for them.
For those who were unwilling to listen to either him or Moses and the Prophets, however, there was only one recourse - to pay the guards to tell a lie about Jesus' resurrection. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, no faith was aroused nor trust awakened among those who had already decided against him.
This is as much of a recurring theme in the gospels as is the aforementioned theme of providing justice and mercy and care for the poor and needy by those who are rich and powerful. These themes run parallel with one another, for Jesus constantly insists that it is only when one takes the word of the Lord seriously that one can find how to live life in a godly fashion.
He had made this emphasis in the strongest possible way earlier when he said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here." (Luke 11:29-32 NIV) "The sign of Jonah" was the power that resided in his preaching - in his setting before them the word of the Lord! The Ninevites listened to the word of the Lord set before them by Jonah, repented, and turned from their evil ways - which is what the rich man hoped would happen if Lazarus returned from the dead to speak to his brothers. The only problem was that the rich man placed his hope in the miracle of a man returned from the dead - and Jesus says that miracles (not even one like sending a person back from the dead) do not bring people to repentance. Only the word of the Lord will do this!
THE "US" IN THE STORY
The rich man is so like us in our normal human condition. We want the Lord to show himself in majestic, marvelous, miraculous ways. If / when he does this, then we will believe him and trust in him! At least this is the argument born of our human nature. Poor simple words are a dime a dozen. Who needs more words? What we need is sight - certain evidence - clear proof behind the words.
We are not instructed to just listen to words of some kind here, though. We are instructed to listen to Moses and the Prophets, the word of Jesus, the word of the Lord!
What lies behind and within this word of the Lord that makes it so different, though? Amos could only insist that the Lord "saw through" what was going on in the present time, giving him (Amos) a word that had the authority of God's future in it. Nobody was paying attention to that word. Timothy is urged to speak the word of the Lord to those in his charge as the word of salvation, the word of life. He was to tell them to "take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time." (I Timothy 6:112b-15a NIV)
This word is about the seeming weakness and helplessness of one who claimed to be the Son of God while suffering at the hands of human tormentors and dying at the hands of human executioners. What kind of power lies in a man like that? Timothy was to proclaim "a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Paul presents himself to Timothy as "the worst of sinners" so that "Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." (I Timothy 1:15, 16 NIV) It is the word of salvation!
This word calls us to Jesus Christ. The word of the Lord tells of the eternal, divine love that was so great that it withheld nothing . . . not even the life of God's Son . . . in its urgent desire to rescue a humankind that was determined to have its own way in opposition to its Creator. While we busy ourselves looking for majestic, marvelous, miraculous proofs of God's presence, he hides his presence under the form of the man who speaks this parable as an exhortation to find God, not in amazing, spectacular, breathtaking bursts of divine glory, but in listening to the still small voice speaking through the Law and the Prophets. He shows himself in fleshly form through Jesus of Nazareth to whom the Law and the Prophets have been pointing all along. One would not think to find God in this way, for we love to stress God as all-knowing, everywhere present, great, almighty, magnificent, glorious in every way. We look for signs in the sky or miracles in nature or images of splendor - and while we are looking for all that he "sneaks up on us" in love and mercy and grace and forgiveness offered through the suffering sacrifice of his Son.
Those who will not see God in the cross or believe in God's mercy through his servanthood in Christ will never find God as God wants to reveal himself in the places where our eyes want to wander - in the immense complexity of the universe or the powerful manifestations of nature - or not even in the unexpected twists and turns that occur in the realm of the natural world that are termed "miraculous." "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." That is the ultimate word of this parable. And it is the decisive word to us gathered here today. The Word made flesh is the Word within the word spoken here. He is the Word within the waters of our baptism and the Word within the bread and wine that nourishes us at this altar. Soft, unconvincing in its outward form, quietly nestling among us, this word boring into our lives with the Word of Life is what we really need when all is said and done.
It brings with it a new life of its own - and it brings new eyes and new hands and a new tongue with it. It opens the eyes of a rich man to see the desperate plight of Lazarus so that he has mercy on him. It opens the ears of a rich man so that he hears the desperate cry of those who have been dealt with unjustly and trampled upon by the feet of the powerful, forced to sit at the city gate where the dogs come to lick their sores. It opens the hand of the rich man eating from a well-laden table to give more than crumbs to those who long to eat from what falls from that table. It opens the mouths of those whose lives have been renewed with a tongue that speaks in behalf of those who have no voice of their own because their voices have been stilled by the strong and mighty of the earth. It gives strength of heart to those who are called to do those things necessary in order to show the love of God in the face of all who think those who act in God's behalf a fool.
This is not to oversimplify the bridging of the gap between Lazarus and the rich man. It is not to suggest that we who listen to Moses and the Prophets and Jesus himself are to become heroic figures bounding over buildings and breaking down the doors of the powerful in order to show forth the glory of the Lord. Yet it is Jesus, indeed, who clearly says, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. . . Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry." (Luke 6:20, 21, 24, 25a NIV) These are the words to which we must listen if we believe in the enfleshed Word who speaks them and acts them out in our behalf. He who fed the Lazaruses of his time calls us to feed the Lazaruses of our time as the way to show forth his grace and mercy. It may be as simple as caring for your family. It may be as near as your neighbor who is in need. It may be in the electoral process of identifying those who will act in our name in behalf of Lazarus at the city gate. It may be in becoming involved in delivering Meals on Wheels to the poor or in writing letters for Bread for the World to press our representatives in congress to take into serious consideration the needs of the powerless. It may be as simple as sending money to Lutheran World Relief or as involving as becoming engaged in an organization of your city or county that represents those who would have no representation if it were not for people like you.
So the two levels of the parable find their joining here - when we listen to Moses and the Prophets along with him who joins his voice to theirs we realize how seriously we must understand the relationship between the rich man and Lazarus. Father Abraham has linked the needs of the world to the word of the Lord in a tight bond. One might even say that the Crucified and Risen One is the Rich Man of the parable when this story is turned inside out and the word of the Lord becomes its new interpretation. It is he who has fed all of us poor beggars at the gate with the Bread of Life. In his life, suffering, death and resurrection we find what Moses and the Prophets were talking about long ago - and we rejoice to hear Jesus say to us in turn when we see and respond to the Lazaruses of our day - "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." (Matthew 25:35, 36 NIV)
Are you listening?