Title: Living with No Regrets
Text: Luke 16:19-31
Thesis: Life lived without regrets is lived with the awareness that our choices matter and make a difference in this life and the afterlife.
Introduction:
I talked with a man this past Thursday evening whose wife is dying of terminal cancer. Knowing that, they decided to do what they can to fully enjoy the time they have remaining… so they have made a “Bucket List” of things they want to do and are checking them off one by one. The next is a quick trip to Europe between Chemo treatments.
A bucket list is a list of things a person has not done but wants to do before they die. It is called a bucket list because these are things you want to do before you kick the bucket, so to speak. There is some whimsy to a bucket list and rarely does a person on their death-bed deeply regret not having visited Rocky Mountain National Park, which is a good thing in that if your death is imminent you may not get to see it before the government shut-down is lifted.
I confess I’ve had my share of whimsy when it comes to those kinds of things. I always thought it would be fun to live in an isolated cabin in Alaska or spend a year living in a little village in Ireland or pull a William Least Heat Moon and drive all the “blue” highways on a road map of the United States. But failing to get to do any of those things will not result in deeply felt regret when I die.
But there are things people regret when it comes to the end of life. A number of people have taken the time to compile a list of deathbed regrets.
Bonnie Ware is an Australian palliative care nurse who has cared for many patients during the last twelve weeks of their lives. She took the time to record their personal insights and regrets at the end of life and found that there were five common recurring themes:
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
At the end of life we do not want to look back with a list of, “I wish I hads…” Our text today is a parable about a man who in the afterlife looked back with considerable regret.
Jesus introduces us to two characters in this parable.
I. The two characters in the parable
“There was a certain rich man who lived splendidly… at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who longed for scraps from the rich man’s table.” Luke 16:19-21
A. The Rich Man -
1. Splendidly clothed in purple and linen
2. Lived and feasted in luxury every day, i.e., a gourmet glutton!
(It is said that in that culture a rich man would use a loaf of bread to wipe his hands following a meal and it was that bread that was tossed to the dogs.)
Summation: Characterized by self-Indulgence
B. The Poor Man
1. Laid at the gate
2. Covered with ulcerated sores
3. Longed for scraps to eat
4. Dogs licked his sores (making him ceremonially unclean, i.e., as a leper)
Summation: Characterized by abject poverty
Once the characters are introduced the parable moves quickly from one reality to another reality.
II. The two scenes in the parable, 16:22-23
“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and went to the place of the dead.” Luke 16:22-23
Note there were two distinct realities: This life and the afterlife. Note the total reversal of circumstances the men experienced in the afterlife.
In the afterlife Lazarus is in heaven… hanging out with Father Abraham.
A. Lazarus is in Heaven
Summation: Afterlife in heaven
B. The Rich Man is in Hell
“In hell, where he was in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at this side.” Luke 16:23
Summation: Afterlife in hell
The real meat of this parable follows in the ensuing conversation between the rich man and Abraham.
III. The Conversation, 16:24-31
“The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have pity! Send Lazarus over to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.” Luke 16:24
I wonder if the rich man was even aware of the disparity between his circumstances and those of Lazarus. I wonder if in his mind it was perfectly natural for there to be rich people and poor people. I wonder if he didn’t see wealth and poverty as inevitable realities in life.
Interesting how the rich man knew Lazarus by name. He knew Lazarus was living in abject poverty outside the gate of his estate. He knew Lazarus was poor, covered with ulcerated sores, starving and defiled by the unclean dogs licking his wounds and did nothing in behalf of the poor man.
In the afterlife the rich man apparently does not feel remorse for the way he neglected Lazarus. In fact,
adding insult to injury… having looked down on Lazarus in the this life and after having done nothing to ease his suffering, in the afterlife the rich man continued to look down on Lazarus and considered him someone who should be sent to alleviate his suffering. He wanted Abraham to send Lazarus on a mission of mercy to cool his tongue. The man who was neglected in this life becomes the man expected to serve the rich man in the afterlife.
From this conversation we discover that Heaven and Hell are two identifiable and distinct afterlife destinations…
A. Heaven and Hell are real places
Abraham said, “Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted and you are in anguish. And besides there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over…” Luke 16:25-26
1. Chasms exist in this world between rich and poor, etc. Circumstances separated the two men in this life.
2. Chasms exist in the next world between the saved and the lost… in the parable the circumstances of the two men are reversed in the afterlife. The poor man went to heaven and the rich man went to hell.
Summation: So we can conclude everyone will spend his or her afterlife in either heaven or hell.
Knowing that, this life provides every one the opportunity to make a decision regarding their destination of choice in the afterlife.
B. Everyone has enough truth in this life to make a “preferred destination” decision
“Then the rich man said, ‘Please send Lazarus to my father’s home to warn my five brothers so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote. If they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:27-31
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could come back from eternity to give guidance to those we love and care about? Inventor Robert Barrows has filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office on a remote controlled, video-equipped tombstone.(MEM – Making Eternal Memories) People visiting the cemetery can use their Smartphone to scan a code that links them to a site where they can read the obituary, see a slide show, read tributes to the deceased, read their writings and even read email messages, listen to audio and view video clips made before death messages can still be sent by the deceased. However, any post-death messages are impossible.
Meanwhile, from what Jesus said in this parable we can assume that from simply hearing or reading Moses and the Old Testament Prophets was sufficient for anyone to know the truth about God’s compassion. So in our time we can assume that having both the Old and New Testaments, all of Scripture, the Bible in its entirety we have knowledge sufficient to know about the truth of God’s compassion.
Conclusion
When I was growing up I watched Dobie Gillis and his best friend, beatnik Maynard G. Krebs and their struggles in life.
Early on, most of the action centered around the Gillis grocery store, Central High School, and the Central City Park, where Dobie often went to think "when things bugged [him]". The park scenes are used as the show's framing device, with Dobie sitting on a park bench in front of a reproduction Auguste Rodin's statue, "The Thinker". Speaking directly to the audience, he would explain to the viewing audience his problem of the week, usually girls or money. The viewing audience would see Dobie emulating the trademark pose of "The Thinker" - head planted on fist in deep contemplation - before turning and acknowledging the camera.
Interestingly the statue of “The Thinker,” as set in Rodin’s Museum in Paris has “The Thinker” sitting on the top of Rodin’s greatest masterpiece, “The Gates of Hell.” “The Thinker” is thinking about an eternity of judgment separated from God.
Jesus tells us The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus again today to make us think about this life in how the way we treat the poor today may have eternal implications in the afterlife.
Apparently the parable is designed to have us reflect on how we respond to and treat people like Lazarus. This parable comes on the heels of the Parable of the Shrewd Manager where in verse 9 Jesus said, “Here is the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others. “
In conclusion I would like to make a few reflections on the text: How we respond to the poor, i.e., people like Lazarus is important to God.
Obviously in this parable the lifestyle choices of the rich man benefited only himself. He denied himself nothing while denying the poor man at his gate even a little something like the bread scraps from his table…
Jesus minces no words about how we are to think and act in the social arena. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus specifically says that failure to care for the poor and marginalized people at our doorstep puts a person on the fast track to a very unpleasant afterlife. A thoughtful reading of the Parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us that the world is at our doorstep.
In James 2:14-17 God asks us, if you have faith but don’t show it by your actions, how can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see someone with no food or clothing and you say to that person, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well” but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing… what good does that do? Faith isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
The rich man had all kinds of faith… Abraham was his father. But the rich man totally bombed in having a living faith that acted out in compassion for the poor.
In I John 3:16-20 the Bible says, if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God’s love be in that person? Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, and we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings and he knows everything.
Woven throughout the Old Testament is clear teaching about God’s concern and compassion for the poor. Unfortunately that aspect, was lacking in the rich man’s faith and it came back to haunt him in the afterlife.
Jesus said in Luke 6:36, “You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”
This Parable is not about doing good deeds so we can earn our way to heaven… it is about faithfully demonstrating in the way we think of and care for the poor the reality of our faith.
One very evident takeaway today is simply this: One takeaway is that we will not regret being more attuned to the opportunities we have to honor God and to make a difference in someone else’s life?
