Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 16:19-31)
He said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” [Abraham] said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
Think about this: God has put eternity into your heart.
A philosopher in the 1700s called Voltaire said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” This is a popular belief for many people today. Many people think that God is just something that stupid people have made up because it serves their purposes, it gives credit to their crazy ideas, or else, it gives people an explanation to things they can’t understand.
I once heard someone on the TV say that because primitive people didn’t know where thunder and lightening came from, they invented God to explain it. Now that we understand the science for thunder and lightening, we don’t need to believe in God anymore.
But the book of Ecclesiastes makes a different claim which is completely different: God has put eternity into our hearts, it says.
What do you think? Did God put that into your heart, or was it put there by people? Did people make up eternity, or did God put it there?
This is a critical thing that we need to ask ourselves today.
Many people like the idea of living forever, but they also hope that God won’t be there. The idea of heaven is not all that dangerous to people—they think that going to heaven will be like going to an old abandoned warehouse, which they can renovate as they please. They don’t believe that heaven will be already furnished with a feast prepared, and with guests invited, and that the banquet will have a host, a master of the house who is paying for it all—who is God himself.
Our Gospel reading today is one of the sharpest passages in the Gospels, where Jesus teaches us about eternity.
He places before us two men, and their earthly lives. And then he places before us the same two men, with two very different experiences in eternity.
Jesus places before us riches and poverty, heaven and hell.
Many people today balk at the idea of hell. Recently I heard one of the most senior Christian figures in our country say that he didn’t believe anyone was going to hell, but he did agree that there was a purgatory where people got polished and cleaned up before they entered heaven.
But people don’t believe that there is a hell, because they don’t believe the voice of the Holy Spirit that they are responsible for their own sinfulness. People think that they aren’t really sinners, so of course, they are not deserving of any punishment. So if there is a hell, then it must be God’s fault. There is no sin in God—but because of the fall, there is sin in us. And sin has to be dealt with: it has to be died for, and it has to be taken away through the resurrection of Jesus.
God is the one who has put eternity in our hearts. We can’t take God out of the picture. Eternal life has to be his gift, and his gift alone. As it says in Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.”
So here in our Gospel reading about Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus puts eternity on our hearts. He sets before us heaven and hell: he sets before us heaven in order to inflame and kindle our desire to be carried on angels’ wings to Abraham’s bosom, and he sets before us hell as a loving warning to increase our hatred of anything that smells of it.
And so Jesus says: There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
It is easy for everyone to picture the difference between these two men. We don’t know this rich man’s name: all we know about him is that he is rich. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. Purple cloth was expensive and normally worn by kings. This man dressed like a king, and he also ate like a king: he feasted sumptuously every day.
Jesus also describes a poor man called Lazarus. He was laid at the rich man’s gate. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that Lazarus sat there, or sat himself down, or laid himself down, but he was laid there. By whom? Who put Lazarus there? God did. God worked things in such a way that He Himself put Lazarus there. He didn’t even ask for a bowl of soup, but he simply wanted a few crumbs. He wanted to eat what the dogs and the rats eat, but he didn’t even get that. Even the dogs took pity on him and licked his sores. Even the dogs, from their animal instinct, knew better than the rich man.
The rich man probably received a good funeral, and Lazarus was probably swept up and thrown in an unmarked mass grave somewhere. But Jesus doesn’t tell us about that. When the two men die, the tables are turned.
We read: The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
Look what a wonderful funeral God gave Lazarus! Look what a poor funeral God gave the rich man!
Our English translations often say that Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s side, which makes us think of authority and status. But actually the word is “bosom”, which makes us think of Abraham’s love and embrace and warmth.
Now, we have to understand that this passage is not teaching us that rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven. The rich man did not go to hell because he was rich. After all, Abraham was wealthy. Lazarus didn’t go to heaven simply because he was poor. It just happened that way. Lazarus was saved by faith in God’s promises.
It’s not a sin to be rich. The seventh commandment teaches us that it’s wrong to steal. That means that it’s a good thing and a gift of God to have wealth and property. It’s a blessing from God.
But it’s amazing how quickly our flesh and our sinful nature want to turn around God’s gifts. As soon as we hear that there’s nothing wrong with money and wealth and property, we say to ourselves: Great! I’m off the hook! Now I can do whatever I like! I can make as much money as I want at anyone’s expense!
And then people say: Look, I’m rich! This is proof that God loves me! You’re poor. This is proof that God hates you.
I’m healthy, therefore God loves me!
You’re sick, therefore God hates you!
I’ve got an easy life, therefore God loves me!
You’ve got a hard life, therefore God hates you!
But God doesn’t see it like that. He loves the poor, he loves the sick, and he loves those who are suffering. And when this valley of suffering is finished, when God finally draws us to himself, he will give us all the riches of heaven, heal us completely in body and in soul and put an end to our suffering so that there will be no more tears.
Tears, sickness, poverty, suffering—all these things are the blessing of God under the cross. Christ will not let one tear fall to the ground unavenged. He will not let one sickness go untreated and unhealed. He will not let one ounce of poverty go unrepaid.
But then we read a conversation between the rich man and Abraham.
We read, in Hades (that is, in hell), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his bosom. And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
This is Jesus’ own rejection of purgatory. He is saying to us: Don’t wait until you die to settle your account with God, do it now. The time of grace, the time of repentance is now. When you’re dead it will be too late. In eternity, there is a chasm fixed between heaven and hell. Now is the time to fix your heart on God’s promises for you, which Jesus won for you through his death and resurrection.
And then we read: And he said, “Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Do you hear those words? If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then even someone rising from the dead will not convince them.
Well, we know that Jesus is risen from the dead. And we read in the New Testament that he appeared to Mary Magdalene, Peter, the twelve disciples and over 500 witnesses. And still that doesn’t seem to convince people.
But the church is here as the living temple of God on earth to speak to the human race from the other side of the grave. In this place, we speak the words of Jesus, and his words are words that have been paid for with his blood, and confirmed and proved through his wonderful resurrection on Easter day. He commands his church to speak the forgiveness of sins freely to all people because of the atonement of Jesus’ death.
The Holy Baptism is where the Holy Spirit has descended on each person. It is a gift from the other side of the grave which unites you to your risen Lord Jesus.
The Lord’s Supper is also a gift from the other side of the grave: the resurrected and glorified body and blood of our Lord Jesus, given for us and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins to keep and preserve us in body and soul to life eternal.
So ask yourself—What will convince you? Either you can listen to Moses and the Prophets to convict you of your sin, and trust the words of the risen Lord Jesus for your forgiveness, or the alternative is scary.
But God will not neglect you—he will remember the Lazaruses of the world. He lifts up those who are bowed down. He fills the hungry with good things. He promises this to you, and he has risen his Son from the dead for you.
Dogs won’t lick your sores forever. The angels will carry you to heaven, not because you have paid your way in, or because you are well-dressed, or well-fed, but because Jesus has redeemed you with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering death, that you may he is own and live under him in his kingdom.
This is most certainly true.
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, open our ears to listen to Moses and the Prophets. Convince us of our sin while the doors of your grace are open. But also convince us the resurrection of your Son Jesus from the dead, so that we can also be carried to heaven on the wings of angels. In his name we pray. Amen.
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