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If you think of yourself as extremely rich, raise your hand.
If you think of yourself as terribly poor and needy raise your hand.
What does it look like to be extremely rich today? What about terribly poor and needy?
In Luke 16 Jesus gives us a picture of these two opposite socio-economical conditions. It’s in this story of the rich man and Lazarus. In fact, Luke’s gospel is full of teaching concerning the rich and poor. Luke, the beloved physician, is inspired by God to write this gospel of Jesus Christ and as the Holy Spirit leads him along, he unfolds a message from God’s heart concerning God’s love for and ultimate blessing on those who are poor. And with it comes a warning to the rich.
It all starts in Luke when Jesus was born into a poor family. Joseph and Mary were not suburbanites from middle class America. Joseph was a carpenter, or stone mason who most likely worked for a day’s wages and hired himself out to build houses, or whatever, for those who did have riches. In those days the poor were at the mercy of the rich. Sometimes the rich would hire laborers who broke their backs working all day in the heat and elements only to be refused pay at the end of the day. The book of James, who incidentally is the Lord’s half brother, addresses this in James 5:1-6.
5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!
4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Did you hear that? James speaks as one with experience, doesn’t he? Perhaps he has seen his dad, Joseph, come home from working all day, exhausted and dejected, because the man that hired him refused to pay. For the day laborer like Joseph, this made the difference in whether or not his family had food to eat or went hungry.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “give us this day our daily bread,” most of us have no concept of what that means. In those days, many went without food some days. Not because they were fasting, but because they were poor and did not have food. Jesus grew up in the midst of a culture where poverty was the accepted norm among most people. Those of us who have gone to Honduras have seen some of this. There are poor people there who would hear Jesus words in a different light than we do here today.
When Jesus entered his ministry back in Luke chapter 4, do you remember what he read in the synagogue? Look at it again with me. Luke 4:16-19
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
18 "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN,
19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."
20 And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him.
21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus, God’s Messiah, had come to bless the poor with good news from God. Look at chapter 6:20-21, 24-25. Later when John the Baptist was in prison and sent messengers to Jesus, listen to Jesus’ response: Luke 7:22. Jesus ministry was a ministry to the poor. In chapter 12:16-21 Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool who decided to store up his wealth by building bigger barns to keep all his harvest. He funded his retirement but thought nothing about the poor or God who gave him all his blessings. Listen to the haunting words of Jesus and think about God’s judgment on him:
16 And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a certain rich man was very productive.
17 "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’
18 "And he said, ’This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 ’And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."’
20 "But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
21 "So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
But how do you do that? How can you be rich toward God?
In chapter 14 Jesus gives the Pharisee who invited him for dinner this advice: Luke 14:12-14. Then he told a parable of a king who gave a great banquet and when those he invited didn’t come, he made his servants go out and fill his house with the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.
Where do all our blessings come from anyway? And how does God want us to think about them? After this parable, Jesus makes it clear that no one can be his disciple unless we renounce all that we have... I am not making that up! Look at Luke 14:33.
What is it about riches and poverty that Jesus is teaching us? Why does God’s word in the gospel of Luke keep hammering on this? Luke 15 tells a story about what appears to be a wealthy man who has two sons. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, the Father divides the inheritance between his sons and the younger son gathers up his money and takes off to a distant land and wastes it all. Then when he has nothing and a famine comes upon the land, the younger son is in need so he hires himself out to a pig farmer where his job is to feed the pigs. He gets so hungry the pig food begins to look good to eat. And Jesus said, “No one gave him anything.” This young man is in poverty. And it is here, in the poverty and the smell of the pig pen, where he is broken and starving that he comes to his senses and realizes his true condition. Scarcity shows us things about ourselves that riches can not.
As we turn back now to the rich man and Lazarus, what lessons do we learn about wealth and poverty and their relationship to our eternity?
I don’t think anyone here is as wealthy as this rich man. But I don’t see anyone here as poor and needy as Lazarus either.
Is it not tempting to want to be rich?
Is it not also tempting to look down on those who are in poverty?
What does God think about this? What is his word to us on these things?
Here are a few applications to take home.
1. Those in poverty give us with plenty an opportunity to be rich toward God.
We who have are tested by how we handle our possessions. Riches and pursuit of wealth easily blinds us from the kingdom of God and chokes out the word of God from bearing fruit. But those who follow Jesus Christ and are blessed with wealth may by their generosity prove their faith to be real and actually store up treasures in heaven. Listen to 1 Timothy 6:17-18
17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.
2. Jesus teaches us that when we show love to those in need, especially other Christians in need, we actually do it for him. God has given us members here who are sometimes sick. Others who are elderly and shut in or in nursing home. If you want to serve the Lord schedule time to go visit and care for our own who need attention. The crumbs of your schedule would be a blessing for someone at our gate. Don’t miss that opportunity.
3. Notice what the rich man was concerned about after he realized it was too late for himself. He said, “I have 5 brothers!” Send Lazarus to warn them so they will not come to this place! One day we will all know what really matters. Let us listen to God now before it is too late.
4. How do we know God has a heart for the poor? Look at Jesus. His very life and death are clearest evidence for how God responds to those in need and how he wants us to. Jesus left the glories of heaven and became a servant, lowly and obedient. He willingly suffered and died on the cross for our sins. Not because he wanted to, but because we needed him to. He was willing, not wanting to give his life. Don’t wait till you want to help the poor or you will never do it. Be willing and obey now. God will accept your offering, perhaps especially when you make yourself surrender to do what you are repulsed by doing. And you do it because you love God and surrender to his will not because you want to or enjoy it. Believe me, joy will come. But it will be a joy given from God.
Ok, two stories and the lesson is yours:
St. Lawrence was a deacon of the early church who was martyred under the persecution of the Emperor Valerian in 258. The Prefect of Rome ordered him to turn over what he believed to be the fabulous treasures the Church possessed. In response, St. Lawrence gathered the poor and needy and presented them to the prefect, saying "These are the true treasures of the Church." In anger, the Prefect ordered him to be grilled to death over a fire.
A man was visiting a family with lots of children and he wanted to relate to the kids, so he asked one of the girls about her doll collection.
“Which is your favorite doll?” he asked.
“Promise not to laugh if I tell you?” she replied.
He promised and the little girl got up and ran into her room and brought back a worn-out, tattered doll that looked like a refugee from the trash pile. One arm was cracked and it was all marked up and bald headed.
He didn’t laugh, but was surprised and asked, “Why do you love this one most?”
She replied, “Because she needs it most. If I didn’t love her, nobody would.”
(Taken from “Ordinary People” by Johnathan Emerson-Pierce at sermoncentral).
Perhaps that helps us understand the heart of God for the poor. He loves them. They are made in his image too.
