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Sermon Text: Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 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.’
25 “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. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “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.’”
Did you know that, according to a recent survey, only a little over half of Americans believe in the existence of hell? What about you? Do you believe in hell? Do you believe that a loving God would actually banish a person to unimaginable torment forever? And if you do, have you ever wondered whether one day you would end up there? What are the chances that on the day you breathe your last breath, you or I will be separated from God for eternity? These are the questions that Jesus is asking us to consider in our scripture lesson today. Today, we take up another one of those hard sayings of Jesus, one of those words that God uses to wound us so that he can ultimately heal us. Jesus wants to teach us that there’s a connection between what happens on this side of the grave and what will happen on the other side of the grave. And Jesus does that by means of a story, a parable if you wish. Today, we’ll call it,
The Tale of Two Lives Lived—for Eternity
It’s the account of the rich man and poor Lazarus. As we dig into these words recorded by the Evangelist Luke, we’ll see that this lesson
It Comes with a Warning
It Comes with a Promise
It Comes with Reminder for all
Jesus begins, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” Honestly, you and I might not appreciate what it meant to be dressed in purple. I mean I could probably go down to the Bargain Garden and buy a purple paisley shirt for a couple of bucks. But back in Jesus’ day, only the ultra-wealthy wore purple. Why is that? Because the dye used to create purple cloth had to be meticulously extracted from Mediterranean Sea snails, one tiny drop at a time. In fact, it took 10,000 to 12,000 snails to produce the dye for a single garment. Purple garments were literally worth their weight in gold. The only reason people wore them was to show how absolutely filthy rich they were. That was this man, who “lived in luxury.” He basically had everything he ever wanted.
Now, contrast the life of that man, with the life of another man. Jesus says, “At the gate of the rich man 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. Notice a few things about this man, Lazarus. Notice, first of all, that this man “was laid” at the gate. In other words, he was disabled. In Jesus’ day, there was no federal welfare program, no disability insurance. So, his friends strategically placed Lazarus in a location where a rich man would see him every day and hopefully provide him with some assistance. And notice, Lazarus not was not asking to be adopted into the rich man’s family. He’s not expecting to be invited inside the mansion. No, he was just looking to dig through the rich man’s kitchen scraps. Lazarus “longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.” Notice it’s not he even received that. No, he wished that he could eat the table scraps. But the rich man gave him nothing—which maybe explains why this malnourished man had a body that was covered with sores, a body that was too weak to fend off the dogs that licked the puss off his open wounds. And understand, these dogs were not friendly golden retrievers or well-groomed poodles. Back in Jesus’ day, dogs were mangy, dirty, like junkyard dogs. Today we might say that Lazarus was licked by rats or possums.
Boy, you talk about two people at opposite ends of the spectrum. One man has basically everything he could ever want, living high on the hog. And the other man is living among the dogs. He has nothing, not even his health, to show for it. It appears that one person has everything going for him, and one person has nothing going for him. But appearances can be deceiving. What is true today is not necessarily true tomorrow. You see, death has a way of kind of reshuffling the deck—I mean, dramatically. Jesus says, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.” In other words, Lazarus went to heaven. He went to be with Abraham, who was the father of all believers, because Lazarus, too, was a believer.
In contrast, Jesus says, “The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with the Lazarus at his side”. That word Hades is another word for Hell, a place of physical and emotional torment. We get a little glimpse of that torment when the rich man calls out, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue because I am in agony in this fire.” Now, you and I cannot fathom what an eternity of burning in the fires of hell will feel like, but Jesus makes it clear that there will be not even a split second of relief. And why is that? Why is there unending agony for the rich man? Abraham tells him, “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 set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
With those words, Abraham answers two questions. First, why is this rich man in hell? And second, why can’t Lazarus bring him some relief? The answer to the second question is because there is a chasm between heaven and hell. There is no transportation between the two. Hell is absolute separation from the presence of God. It’s the ultimate form of isolation. And why did the rich man end up there? Abraham says, “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.” Now it would be easy to misunderstand those words, to think that Abraham is saying that the rich man is in hell because he is filthy rich, and Lazarus is in heaven because he suffered so much in this life. But Abraham doesn’t use the word “because.” He says nothing about cause and effect. Rather, he simply saying that the good things that the rich man enjoyed in life, don’t necessarily carry over to the afterlife. And what people consider to be bad things on earth, whether it’s pain or sickness or poverty—those things don’t necessarily extend into eternity.
Well, if it’s neither riches nor poverty that determines where a person spends eternity, then what is it? I think you know the answer to that question. The Bible tells us, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” (John 3:36). In other words, in the end, it’s faith in Jesus that saves. It’s trusting in the mercy that God has shown us in Christ that makes us right with God. And ultimately, it’s that God-given mercy that in turn leads us to want to show mercy to others. That’s what was missing in this rich man’s life. This man had no mercy for the poor beggar at his gate because he felt no need for mercy from God. He felt he had everything he needed. In that sense wealth became his God. And because he felt he didn’t need God, because he didn’t want God, ultimately God said, in effect, “Okay I’ll give you what you want, namely, a life without me, forever.”
Tell me, is there a bit of warning here for you and me? I think there is. We are truly blessed, materially speaking. We have everything we truly need. We are wealthier than millions of people in our world today. But could it be that are wealth has made us blind to the need for God’s mercy? Has our wealth led us to turn a blind eye to the needs of others all around us? Do we see our possessions as things that we earn, they are for our benefit? It doesn’t take much for us to push God aside, to say, “God, I don’t really need you.” to the point that, in the end, God says, “Okay, have it your way. A life without me forever. My friends, that’s the warning that is contained in this tale of two lives.
And yet, right along with that very real warning, there also comes a beautiful promise. A promise contained in the life of Lazarus. Think about it. In spite of the pain and suffering he had to endure, in spite of being snubbed by the man who could have provided for his physical needs, Lazarus continued to put his trust in God. He believed that God had promised him a better home, and in the end, God did not disappoint him. When Lazarus’ last hour came, the angels carried him to Abraham’s side, for Lazarus was a believer. He was a child of God. The father knew him by name. In fact, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in Jesus’ tale of two lives, Lazarus is the one who has a name. God knew his name. Lazarus had an identity. And that identity was not defined by his physical health or lack thereof. It was not defined by social or economic status. No, his identity was defined by the blood of the Lamb. Lazarus knew that Jesus had rescued him from something much worse than poverty or disease. Jesus had rescued him from the fires of hell forever. And that fact, namely, that Lazarus had an eternity with God waiting for him—that’s what allowed him to endure a temporary pain of life on this side of the grave.
My friends, isn’t the same thing true for you and me today? No, we may not be left to beg for food on somebody’s doorstep. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t face trials and tribulations. Whether it is economic hardships, or physical pain or strained relationships, it’s all part of living in a broken world. But when we consider what life is like on this side of the grave versus life on the other side of the grade—how does Saint Paul put it? I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18). By his perfect life and innocent death on the cross, Jesus has won for you a one-way trip in the arms of the angels to Abraham’s side in heaven. That’s the promise that God has made you here in his holy word.
And, you realize, it is that Word of God that has the power alone to keep you believing that promise. Isn’t that the point that Abraham makes here in our text. When the rich man demands of Abraham, “I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment,” what was Abraham’s response? Abraham says simply, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.” What does Abraham mean by “Moses and the prophets”? He means the Old Testament scriptures, the inspired words of God from Genesis to Malachi. Do you realize what Abraham is saying? He’s telling this rich man, and you and me as well, that when it comes to keeping people out of the fires of hell, there’s only one thing that is needed. And that’s…the Word of God. What does Scripture say? Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17). Even if the only scripture in existence when Jesus spoke these words were the Old Testament scriptures, Jesus was saying, “That’s enough.” The Old Testament scriptures speak the truth about the One who would be pierced for our transgressions, the One who would crush the serpent’s head, the One who would bring salvation to the ends of the earth, the Ones who would allow believers to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. These are the gospel promises that God the Holy Spirit uses to work saving faith in human hearts.
Now, I realize sometimes people think, “But is the Word of God enough?” In fact, isn’t that what the rich man said? He demands that Abraham send someone back from the dead to make his brothers believe. Abraham’s response? “If (your brothers) do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” It’s true, isn’t it? When Jesus raised from the dead the “other” Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, how did the Jewish leaders react? They plotted all the more fervently to take Jesus’ life. When Jesus raised himself from the grave, how did those same Jewish leaders respond? They paid people to say that his disciples stole his body from the tomb. By nature, the hearts of humans are hard. Not even a resurrection from the dead can make someone a believer.
So, does that mean that there’s no hope for unbelievers? No, there’s still hope for unbelievers. And that hope is found the same place our hope is found. And that is, right here in the Gospel, the good news that the sins which once separated us from God have been taken away by Jesus. The death that was once the penalty for our sins, has become, in Jesus, the method that God uses to take the souls of believers to heaven. The God who you once had every reason to fear, has become, in Jesus, the God who loves you, who forgives you, who walks with you even through the most difficult days of your life. My friends, the message in Jesus’ tale of the two lives lived for eternity, is simply this: Living the good life here on earth does not guarantee the same in the hereafter. But trusting in what Jesus has won for us on the other side of the grave, gives us the ability to endure whatever comes on this side of the grave. And we have that confidence because of the promise that God has made to us in his holy word. Or to put it another way, Is hell for real? Yes, it is. But so is heaven. In Jesus, God has given to you a free ticket into that Mansion of glory. Hang on to that ticket for dear life, life now and life forever, and ever. Amen.