Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, March 4, 2021

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

The Lord vividly portrays the characters in this parable.  So much so that it begs the question of whether the events in the parable reflect actual events.  For instance, the Lord never otherwise names the characters in his parables.  Because the Lord only names the poor man, whose name, perhaps, few would have known — and not the rich man — it seems as though he allows it gradually to dawn on his audience that he is speaking about people they knew.  The realization would have shaken the members of his audience and could have led them to rethink their own lives.

The characters are described in some detail.  The rich man dresses in “purple and linen” and dines “sumptuously” every day.  We learn from this portrayal that the man did not merely possess an abundance of money, but a super-abundance of money.  On the other hand, Lazarus was “covered with sores” and pined for the scraps that fell on the floor of the rich man’s dining room.  His condition rendered him so helpless that he could not even shoo away the dogs which came to lick his sores.  The dog, we recall, was abhorred by the people of the ancient Middle East, as it is in some countries there even today.  Dogs were seen as carrion and scavengers.  The Lord paints these two characters with marvelous consistency, so that when they have died, their souls carry on in much the same manner in which they lived on earth.  Lazarus, for instance, does not speak a word in the parable, not even when he is held close to the bosom of Abraham, and not even when the rich man is conversing with Abraham.  He does not gloat over the rich man’s damnation, he does not cast insults at him, he does not demand greater punishment for this man.  He is meek, has suffered dramatically, but without complaint.  If he ever regarded the rich man as winning against him, he has forgiven him.  He is completely at peace and at home in the arms of Abraham.  The rich man, by contrast, remains haughty and demanding.  Rather than ask Lazarus to help him, he asks Abraham to ask Lazarus.  He will not talk to this low beggar.  In addition, the rich man makes the exorbitant request that Lazarus be sent from the dead to his brothers.  Abraham closes the conversation by observing that the brothers have the Law of Moses to help them, and that if this did not, then a man raised from the dead would not help either.  

What sin led to the rich man’s damnation?  It is not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to stand by and let others starve.  As it is written in the Letter of James 4, 17: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”  Beyond his letting Lazarus (and how many others) starve, the rich man possessed a personality unfit for heaven: self-absorbed, addicted to displays of extravagance, given to self-indulgence.  Now, destitution is not itself a virtue, and Lazarus did not attain heaven because of it, but rather because of how he maintained his faith in the most terrible of circumstances, and suffered without rancor or vindictiveness.  He does not blame God for his situation, nor does he blame the rich man.  And so he passes from the company of flies and dogs to the company of Abraham, in the house of God.

We must correct our faults, and we must correct and reform our personalities so that they fit those of the saints.