The Rich Man and Lazarus -- Revisited

It's amazing to me how often we can miss the point of Scripture, simply because we always read the same stories the same way. It's hard to accept a new interpretation of Scripture, especially when "that's just how we've always understood it."

But the Bible isn't a book that we should impose ourselves upon. Instead, it is a book (or, rather a collection of 66 books) that should impose itself upon us ... because in it are words of life, unlike any other book that has ever been written.

Yet, I know that so often I read the Bible as if it were some other book, full of stories and passages that I've read before. And so often I read this book through the lens of my own personal experience.

"Yep. I heard a sermon on that passage once ... it means this...."

or

"Oh yeah, so and so said that this passage really means this ...."

It's so easy to use the same old filters that we've always used to keep the words on the page, and to keep God in the box that we've got Him in ... where we are comfortable with Him.

Maybe it's just me... maybe I'm the only one who makes this mistake.

But recently I was re-reading a section of Luke's gospel that is very familiar to me: Jesus' parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus. Now I've heard many different people give many different opinions about this passage. Most of it focuses on hell. Is it real? Is Jesus just using hyperbole? Does this story have some theological significance for the intermediate state for Old Testament believers? Is this story more than a parable because Jesus mentioned Lazarus by name, instead of using generic characters?

And all of these questions are good to ask, and it is right to find answers to them. However, in my most recent reading of this passage I just wanted to let the text speak for itself. What was Jesus trying to communicate to His original audience to whom He was telling this parable? Forget all the stuff that might be buried ... what was He telling them?

A major problem for modern readers of the Bible when reading parables is that we fail to understand the nature of a parable. Much like a joke, a parable was told to elicit a response from the hearers. Hopefully when you tell a joke, people laugh. Similarly, when you tell a parable, those listening should react in some way which would really drive home the point. And usually, just like with a joke, if you have to interpret a parable, you lose much of what was being communicated (although you may see what you should have laughed at, an interpreted joke is never as funny as one that is heard and understood immediately). So to truly hear Jesus' parables, we must put ourselves in the shoes of His original audience to try and hear what they heard.

To find the context of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), we need to go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 15.

Luke 15:1-2 ~ Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

It seems clear that Jesus was having a meal, and these undesirables (the tax collectors and "sinners") were coming to hear Jesus teach. This bothered the religious elite, the Pharisees and teachers of the law, who muttered about the company Jesus allowed. Apparently, they were eating there too and did not appreciate the newcomers!

Jesus responded to their muttering by beginning to teach in parables (Luke 15:3). After this, Jesus began to speak with His disciples in parables (Luke 16:1). Can you picture this scene? Wherever Jesus is, He is surrounded by His own disciples and a larger group of religious people ... and they are eating. And as they are eating, some tax collectors and sinners come to hear Jesus teach. When the religious folks grumble, Jesus addresses them in parables and afterward He begins to converse with those who are seated around Him: His disciples. However, the Pharisees were listening in on this conversation and The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus (Luke 16:14).

Jesus, knowing this, He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight (Luke 16:15).

Jesus then goes on to tell these Pharisees who are sneering at Jesus and the company He allows the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the hearing of all who are present (including Pharisees and teachers of the law, tax collectors and sinners, and the ubiquitous disciples).

¹⁹"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²²The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴So 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.' ²⁵But 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. ²⁶And 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.' ²⁷He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' ²⁹Abraham 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.' ³¹He 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.' "

When dealing with parables we must identify the points of reference. This is not an allegory, so we need not make something up for every element of the story, but the major elements should be accounted for. In this story, we have two main characters being contrasted: The Rich Man and Lazarus, and in the listening audience we have two main categories of people: The Religious Elite and the Despised Tax Collector's and Sinners (the disciples were looked down upon as well). It seems clear enough that Jesus was identifying the Pharisees and teachers with the Rich Man, and the despised were associated with Lazarus.

Re-read the story, keeping these identifications in mind.

The religious elite live in luxury every day, and they look down upon those for whom they should be showing compassion. Lazarus (the sinners) longed to eat what fell from the table of the rich man, but instead kept company with dogs (who at least tried to alleviate their painful condition).

When they died, contrary to what the hearers would expect, Jesus tells them that the Rich Man (the religious elite) go to hell, and that Lazarus (the sinners) goes to be comforted in Abraham's bosom! This twist would have appalled the Pharisees and amazed the rest!

Notice that in verse 24, when the Rich Man looks up from his agony and sees Lazarus at Abraham's side, he still demonstrates a belief of superiority and asks Abraham to send Lazarus to minister to him in his agony. Of course, Abraham refuses. Finally finding some compassion, the Rich Man now pleads for his brothers (others in the religious elite who are still among the living), yet he still fails to recognize that Lazarus is not his slave when he asks that Lazarus be sent back from the dead to warn them.

But Abraham tells the Rich Man, your brothers have Moses and the prophets (in fact, no one should be better versed in the Scriptures than the teachers of the law and the Pharisees to which this refers), they should listen to them (cf. Micah 6:8).

But the Rich Man does not accept that this is enough, saying that they will listen if only someone would tell them from beyond the grave. But Abraham tells the Rich Man plainly, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'

The parable ends here. And what I had never seen before was the amazing truth that Jesus was declaring to these individuals ... He was telling them that even a Resurrection wouldn't convince them of their error. What is amazing is that Jesus was telling the very people who would ultimately lead to His crucifixion, and who would still reject Him as the Messiah even after His own Resurrection from the dead. Jesus was teaching constantly about the Kingdom of God, how it was right in their midst ... He was healing the blind, the deaf, the lame, the sick. He was raising people from the dead. He was fulfilling Scripture before their very eyes ... and the tax collectors and sinners recognized that Jesus was someone special ... and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were blinded by their own pride ... the very people who should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, who had Moses and the Prophets, are the very ones who rejected Him when He came!

I had never seen it before, but Jesus was telling them plainly that even when He rose from the dead they would persist in their stubbornness of heart. Accepting Jesus is not a problem of lack of evidence. It is a problem of the heart.

Is there anything that is keeping you from recognizing who Jesus is? Do you, like the Pharisees, reject Jesus because He doesn't fit into your preconceived notion of what God is or should be like? The fact is that Jesus of Nazareth proved His radical claims of deity when He walked out of that grave nearly 2000 years ago. He is risen and He is still alive today. And He is coming back. Are you ready?

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. ~ Acts 17:30-31