Luke 16:19-31 (NIV): “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 even if someone rises from the dead.'”
The sin of the rich man illustrated in this parable was a lack of love for those around him who were in need. Lazarus was very close by, right by his front gate every day, but the parable clearly portrays the rich man as uncaring. Lazarus “longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.” This intimates that his longing went unfulfilled. He was not given even table scraps by the rich man.
When the rich man died, he who had so much, but who was ungenerous with it ended up in torment. Lazarus, who had nothing but suffering, ended up being comforted. I don’t believe that Lazarus went to Paradise simply for being poor. That would run contrary to so much of the rest of Scripture. We must assume that he was also “poor in spirit,” humble and God-fearing.
The attitude of the rich man, even in Hades, is remarkably annoying. Far from being ignorant of Lazarus and his former plight, he knows who Lazarus is even from a distance. And he also sees it as perfectly fitting that Lazarus be assigned to bring him some water to relieve his thirst.
Apparently the rich man’s five brothers were just as rich (and just as unloving) as he was. Now that he has seen where his unloving actions and attitudes have landed him, he wants to wave them away from the same fate. But even in this act of compassion for his brothers, he wants the “lowly” Lazarus to be sent back to his miserable earthly existence for the purpose of saving his own brothers.
Abraham’s response is key: “They (the five brothers) have Moses and the prophets (that is, the Scriptures); let them listen to them.” God had already given to them all that they needed to know how to live so that they could avoid the suffering of hell. The fact that they would not read the Scriptures, would not pay attention to them, would not change their lives to fit what God had laid out for them in His word, was not God’s fault. He had given them all that they needed. And even if someone rose from the dead, that would still not be enough to turn their hardened hearts, unwilling to believe in the Scriptures, to repentance.
This was proven in spades when a man, interestingly enough named Lazarus, was raised form the dead by Jesus not too long after this parable was spoken to the Jewish leaders. Lazarus’ resurrection did nothing to change the minds and hearts of these leaders. To the contrary, they actually plotted to kill the risen Lazarus, because it was inconvenient for them to have this proof of Jesus’ power walking around (John 12:9-11)! These same leaders were even unconvinced when Jesus Himself rose from the dead. Their response was to concoct a story about how His disciples had stolen His body from under the very noses of a Roman guard (Matthew 28:11-15), and then to threaten His disciples who were insistently preaching the good news of His death and resurrection (Acts 5:25-28). They would not believe, even though someone, even though TWO someones, did indeed rise from the dead!
Today it seems that we still have many who will not believe the Scriptures, Moses, the prophets, and the whole New Testament. They will analyze them, argue about them, and explain them away, but they will not read them for the truth that they are. And they will not change their lives to fit what God has laid out for them in His word. Those people look at the Scriptures as a dusty, musty relic of a bygone era, an irrelevant document that must either be reinterpreted according to modern opinions and modern sensibilities, or scrapped altogether. But, in allowing themselves to become so hidebound in this view of Scripture, they end up blinding themselves entirely to what is actually contained in it: the very word of God to a humanity that He loves, and wants to seek Him so that He can save them.
The sad thing is, many people still think that if only God would do some mighty miracles, maybe raise the dead, that some of those people would believe. But God is still doing miracles all the time. And now, as then, they are merely explained away by people who have no heart for God and His word, or written off as oddities by those who have settled themselves into a worldview where God and His miracles do not conveniently fit.
Father, it is really sad to consider this. But I know from experience that this really is true. Even in my own case, until I was willing to come under the authority of Your word, until I was willing to believe what it told me about who You are (the one true and living God), who Jesus is (Your One and Only begotten Son who came, lived, died, and rose again to pay for my sins, and to set me free and give me the victory over sin and death), who I was (a sinner who was hopelessly lost on my own, whose most righteous deeds were like filthy rags in Your sight, but who , for reasons I still can’t fathom, was loved unconditionally by You), and what I had to do to be saved (repent by intentionally turning away from my sins and my self-sufficiency toward You, surrendering my whole life to You, and receiving the completed work of Jesus as my salvation), I could not be saved, no matter what I did. But when I repented, when I relented, when I came under the authority of what was contained in the words of Your Scriptures, You saved me, remade me, transformed my whole life, and set me on a trajectory that will ultimately shape me into a holy disciple of Jesus, bound for an eternity with You in heaven. Thank You, with all my heart! Amen.