Rich Like Lazarus Luke 16:19-31; Amos 6:1-7; 1 Timothy 3:1-13

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who makes us rich.

 

We’re going to talk about being rich like poor Lazarus in today’s Gospel.

 

A number of our readings in the past few weeks have been related to the topic of worldly wealth, and the right use of it, and right relationship to it.

 

This is something Jesus addressed frequently during His ministry.

 

Last Sunday we heard Him say, “No servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and money.”

 

Even in ancient times, when most people had far less than we have today, materialism was a constant danger.

 

All these years later nothing has changed. The temptation is still great for us to put our trust in money over God, and to love our possessions more than our neighbors. 

 

So we all need the grace and power of God to keep our hearts from being controlled by worldly greed. 

 

God keeps us from the love of money by making us rich. Not rich in worldly possessions, but rich like Lazarus.   

 

In the Bible, there are two men named Lazarus: one poor and one rich by earthly standards, but both rich by godly standards.

 

One is Jesus’ good friend from Bethany, whose family seems to have been fairly wealthy, and who, in John 11, Jesus brings back to life after he had been buried.

 

The other Lazarus is the poor man in today’s Gospel. 

 

He may or may not have been a real person, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Jesus had an actual person in mind when he told this parable, maybe a poor man he knew or had encountered.

 

Or maybe Jesus didn’t have an actual person in mind. This is just one of many interesting things that we’ll be able to find out in Heaven.

 

In today’s parable, Jesus contrasts Lazarus, a poor, hungry, homeless beggar, covered with painful sores, to a wealthy man, who lived in luxury and was clothed and covered with expensive purple cloth. 

 

Faithful Lazarus died, and was carried into Heaven by angels. 

 

Since this is a parable, we don’t know if this is a promise that angels will carry and escort our souls into the realm of Heaven when we die, but they might. 

 

Story of sparkles of light rising from dead mother… unbeliever saw it… told his Christian brother… brother told him about parable of Lazarus…. He said, “I don’t know about that, but I know I saw something…

 

Was it angels? Maybe…

 

Certainly angels will guard our souls, as God charges them to do; and so when we die they’ll protect us, and Satan will have no claim over our souls.

 

So it was for faithful Lazarus, but not for the rich man who loved worldly wealth above God and above all things; his brief life of luxury had ended. 

 

There were no angels sent to protect and keep his soul when he died.

 

He found himself in Hades, forsaken and tormented. He looked up, and far away he saw Lazarus in glory, being honored at Abraham’s side. 

 

So will people in Hell be able to see those in Heaven? Again, this is a parable, and that’s not the point of it, so we can’t necessarily draw that conclusion.

 

Later in the parable, it says there’s a great and infinite chasm between Heaven and Hades that can’t be crossed over, which would indicate that there’ll be no connection between the two worlds. 

 

The formerly rich, now suffering man begged for Lazarus to give him even a drop of water to cool his tongue. 

 

But it wasn’t possible; there’s no relief in that forsaken place. So we see why God so much wants to save us from that being the outcome of our lives. 

 

Then the man thought of his family; he asked that if Lazarus couldn’t be sent to bring him some water, that he be sent to his rich, unbelieving brothers back on earth, to warn them that Hell is real, and it’s horrible beyond anything that can be experienced or imagined on earth.

 

Abraham said, “They have God’s Word to believe.”. 

 

The forsaken man said, “They won’t believe the Word, but they’ll believe somebody who comes back from the dead to warn them.”. 

 

Abraham said, “No, they won’t.” If their hearts are hardened and unrepentant, and set on loving money over God, then they’re not going to believe no matter what. We can only believe with repentant hearts.

 

This can be a scary parable, because, relative to the history of the world, we live in a wealthy time and place; and we’re wealthy people.

 

Jesus isn’t saying that only poor people can be saved, and rich people can’t be. 

 

Nor is He saying that poor people are automatically saved, and rich people automatically condemned.

 

But there is a kind of theology that teaches that. It’s called liberation theology, and it’s a blend of Marxism, or Communism and Christianity; 

 

Basically it says that the rich are evil, and the poor are righteous, and that salvation comes in opposing the rich. 

 

That’s not what Jesus teaches. Jesus doesn’t judge people for being rich, but for misusing their riches. 

 

It wasn’t being rich that condemned the wealthy man in our parable; it was his reliance on his wealth rather than on God. In other words, his failure to repent and believe. 

 

The rich can be evil and unbelieving, as can be the poor, but they don’t have to be. 

 

Consider the other Lazarus in Scripture, Jesus’ friend from Bethany, and his sisters, Martha and Mary, who were probably what we would call today, upper-middle class, or maybe lower upper class. 

 

They were well off, and they followed Jesus; they believed He was the Messiah to save them from sin and death.

 

They didn’t put their wealth above God; and they didn’t use their material resources in unjust and ungodly ways, trusting in their money over God.

 

When Mary, in thankfulness to Jesus for making her brother alive again,  poured a jar of expensive oil on His feet, worth maybe 50,000 dollars or more, she clearly demonstrated that her first love, her ultimate loyalty was to her God, and not to her money. 

 

If she would have loved her money and possessions more than Jesus, she never would have done that. She did it because Jesus meant everything to her.  

 

Mary and Martha and Lazarus realized what made them rich wasn’t having a lot of money in their life, but having a lot of Christ in their life. That’s when we’re truly rich.

 

It’s also important to remember that the love of money is not the exclusive domain of the rich; the poor and the middle can be greedy too.

 

We’re all by our fallen nature, sinful and selfish, and so we all can fall prey to greed.

 

In our parable Jesus tells us where it will lead to if we let greed get control of our soul; then the love of money will drive out the love of God. 

 

But for His baptized children, there’s no need for greed, because we’re already rich -- rich like Lazarus in our parable; richer than the richest people, richer than all the billionaires on earth; richer than the richest kings and emperors in history, and some were worth trillions of dollars. 

 

We’re richer. In Christ, far richer. We’re rich in soul now, having an abundance of love and grace and all God’s spiritual blessings to His Church on earth; and we’ll be rich in soul and body in the glory and the abundance of Heaven.

 

May it be the goal of your life to be rich… rich like poor Lazarus was, not rich in the things of this world, but rich in things from above.

 

Not rich in the things that appease the body, but rich in the things that fulfill the soul -- God’s grace and gifts of faith, love, hope, joy, and so much more. 

 

May you always be rich in these greater gifts of the Gospel, including the peace of God that passes our understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, in whom we are truly, extravagantly, and eternally rich. Amen.