Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, March 20, 2025

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.’ ”

“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.”  On first hearing, it seems that Jesus is equating poverty with virtue and wealth with vice, but this is not so.  Many people in poverty commit vicious sins just as many who live comfortably do so.  The poor man in the parable inherits everlasting life not because he is poor but because he is righteous even though poor.  The rich man is damned not because he is rich but because he failed to live by the Law, according to which he should be generous with those in need, for God had been generous with him.  Many protections are given to the poor in the Law of Moses such as the right to glean a field after harvest, but it is all summed up in Leviticus 19, 18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”  At the end of the parable, the rich man, in torments, begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to cause them to repent of their wickedness before they die.  Abraham points out that they have the teachings of Moses and the Prophets to do this.  The rich man replies that Moses and the Prophets are not sufficient for them.  He knows this all too well because he himself did not take their words seriously.  And this is why he was damned.  His riches did not cost him his soul but his selfishness and obliviousness to the desperate needs of others did,

It is probable that Jesus, in telling this parable, was speaking of real people: Lazarus and the rich man.  Jesus need not have named the rich man; everyone in the crowd knew who he was, and who Lazarus was as well.  Jesus, a visitor to the town, would not have been expected to know them and so his narrative would have especially held the attention of his hearers, particularly when the Lord reveals their fates in the next life.  But the Lord uses this example to teach the people about themselves and their responsibilities towards others.  Who is the Lazarus in their lives?  It could be a beggar living on the curb in front of their house.  But it could also be a son or daughter who feels ignored by a parent preoccupied with their career.  We ought, while we have time, to consider the question for ourselves.