The Rich man and Lazarus
Luke 16:19-31
As we have walked with Jesus through the Parables this year we have been taught how God values each one of us, men and women, boys and girls, young and old and rich and poor.
Jesus has given us insights into how to live for God while we seek to live as God’s children awaiting the Kingdom of God. What Jesus repeatedly reminds us of is that the Kingdom of God is all around us and each one of us who love and trust God as our Heavenly Father are citizens of that Kingdom with privileges and responsibilities that amount to blessings both here and now and in eternity.
For us living in this world in its fallen state is difficult, but we must remember that Jesus told us “take heart for I have overcome the world”.
John 16:33 New International Version
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
As followers of Jesus we are “Saved” and are indwelt with the gift of the Holy Spirit who is changing us from the inside out so that day by day we become more and more like Jesus in our thinking, in our doing and in our living as Christians.
In the Gospel of St. Luke and St. Matthew we see how Jesus has incrementally laid down God’s teaching on stewardship, charity and compassion one lesson after another. Ever larger crowds have been following and listening all along the way and they have been wondering where all these Parables are leading them to.
In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus brings all these lessons to a grand conclusion as He shares a story that has the ring of truth to it that overshadows the previous Parables.
Bible scholars and students of every century have taken sober notice of the unique things that Jesus exposes in this passage. In this account they note we learn some deep things about Heaven and Hades and life and death that are perceptions only someone could know by being there.
Sources used are:
“Believers Bible Commentary pg.1433-1444 Dr. William MacDonald – Thomas Nelson Publishers 1980”
“Thru the Bible Commentary Vol. IV pg.320-322 Dr. J. Vernon Thomas Nelson Publishers 1983”
“Life Application Study Bible NIV pg.2181-2182 Zondervan 1988
One of the first things they point out is that this is not a Parable like the previous teachings of Jesus. This rather presents as an eye witness account of real events. Jesus for the first time in His story telling refers to someone by name “Lazarus”. He is not the Lazarus who is Jesus good friend, no, this is someone else.
Jesus gets His Jewish listeners attention right away by suggesting a Rich man died and went to Hades. This was absolutely confusing to His Jewish audience because they were taught that a Rich Jew was automatically also a good Jew. They believed it was God who made faithful Jews rich as part of their relationship with them. So for them eternal life in the “Bosom of Abraham” was considered a for sure thing not Hades. They were all listening very closely now.
Saints remember this; all this teaching about Heaven and Hades is happening before Jesus is crucified, before His resurrection from the grave.
Heaven had not yet been opened to the souls of human beings. When Jesus dies He rips open the curtain to the Holy of Holies and enters into Heaven as the first person ever to do so. Prior to this Jews understood that a place called Sheol or Hades existed and held both the righteous and the unrighteous.
Gotquestions.org S. Michael Houdmann puts it this way…
Sheol also known as Hades was a realm with two divisions—a place of blessing and a place of judgment;
Matthew 11:23 Matthew 16:18
Luke 10:15 Luke 16:23 and Acts 2:27–31.
The abodes of the saved and the lost are both generally called “hades” in the Bible. The abode of the saved is also called “Abraham’s bosom” KJV or “Abraham’s side” NIV in Luke 16:22 and “paradise” in Luke 23:43.
The abode of the unsaved is called “hell” KJV or “Hades” NIV in Luke 16:23.
The abodes of the saved and the lost are separated by a “great chasm” Luke 16:26. When Jesus died, He went to the blessed side of Sheol and, from there, took the believers with Him to heaven Ephesians 4:8–10. The judgment side of Sheol or Hades has remained unchanged. All unbelieving dead go there awaiting their final judgment in the future."
Other amazing things are divulged by Jesus here; we will be conscious of where we are after death just as Lazarus knew and understood where he was so too the Rich man knew and understood where he ended up.
We will also be aware of our loved ones who remain alive. There will be a great chasm separating souls in torment and souls at peace. There is no crossing over from one place to the other. This fact will put a lot of Psychics out of business.
The Rich man could see and talk to Abraham and make requests but he could not go to where Abraham was and because of that the Rich man wanted to warn his five brothers who were still alive about the consequences that eternity holds.
Jesus gives us a life lesson here that is for both this life and the next. There are needy people at our doorsteps who need our compassion, love and resources in order to survive. Our wealth should not remove us from them because they are in fact right on our very doorsteps. Instead we should use our wealth to ease their suffering, hunger and need.
If we fail to recognize this basic truth then we are lying to ourselves and we will find ourselves separated from God in eternity in the same way we have separated ourselves from the needy in this life.
Someone has come, raised from the dead to tell us this and Jesus is His name. Jesus said…
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48
Give Saints as it has been given unto you – Amen.
