The Rich Man And Lazarus
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
LUKE 16:14-31
The rich man was a self-indulgent show-off!
Verses 14-18. These verses form a highly condensed account of a clash with the Pharisees. As a class they loved money. As one commentator remarked: “Money-making generally agrees well with religious separation among the Jews and Christians alike.” Compact groups of sufficient size and disparity provide a common market and a mutual aid society which can be financially very effective. The Pharisees, to be sure, paid their tithes, but mechanical giving can be without grace, and can mean nothing in real terms of godliness.
The word on divorce (16:18) no doubt came from the same discourse on the legalism of the Pharisees. The liberal school of Hillel allowed divorce on the most trivial grounds. The stricter school of Shammai was not the target of this implied reproach.
16:19-31. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus must be interpreted in the manner already stressed. It is designed to teach that the place and time of opportunity is here and now, that the measure of earthly prosperity, social standing and wealth is no indication of a man’s standing before God. The rabbis regarded riches as a special mark of God’s favor. Obviously the details of the picture are figurative. Paradise and hell are not visible each from each, with facilities for communication but none for transfer. “Abraham’s bosom,” “the great gulf fixed,” “this flame”—all are apocalyptic details, and not intended to teach physical realities.
This fact by no means strips the story of its deep significance. Heaven is not won by charity, but the rich man’s callous carelessness for the sad need in sight was an indication of his hard and alien heart, a sure measure of his lovelessness; love awoke too late (16:28).
Misery had not turned the poor man to God, for want is no more a way to heaven than plenty, and it was the grace of God rejected or embraced which reversed circumstance in the other world. Like his brothers the man had God’s word. Hence the sad prophecy: those who failed to heed the word failed also to heed when One indeed came back from the dead.
Notes 16:16: cf. Galatians 3:24; Matthew 11:12. 16:23: “Hades” (Old Testament Sheol), in Jewish belief an abode of all the dead, but in New Testament the place where unbelievers await final judgment. 16:24-25,28: note the evidence for continuance of personality and place of memory. 16:29: the Old Testament is adequate to point to Christ.