"The Rich Man and Lazarus"
Luke 16:19-31
Trinity 1
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In our society we tend to see a lot of things in terms of economic class.  And so today's Gospel might be understood as how the fat cat rich guy stuck it to the little guy.  Instead of sharing his wealth with Lazarus, he kept it all to himself like some greedy corporation.  And then we could rail against the rich and comfort ourselves with the thought that if we were there, we surely would have helped poor Lazarus if we had all that money.  Then the moral of this Gospel would be "What goes around comes around."  The rich guy got his in the end.  He's in hell.  And the little guy is in heaven.  Eternity is the great equalizer.  All things even out in the end.

But that is not necessarily true.  There are some false assumptions there.  First of all, the poor can be just as greedy as the rich.  It's just that the poor man covets what the rich man already has.  The whole reason why lottery tickets and bingo and the casinos and wealth seminars are so popular is because everyone wants to be the rich man.  And besides, how many us often act as if the needy like Lazarus aren't really there, or that they're not our problem?  Or how many of us would like a public comparison of what we give in charity and offerings vs. what we spend on our own entertainment and recreation?  And if we do give a lot, doesn't our sinful pride want everyone to know about it so they'll see what great people we are?

No, today's Gospel is not primarily about money, rich vs. poor; it's not even about suffering, as if our suffering somehow earns favor with God.  The difference between Lazarus and the rich man is not found in their wallets, nor in their experiences, but in the trust of their hearts.  For while it seems as though hungry Lazarus has nothing besides the mercy of the dogs, in truth, he has riches the world can scarcely imagine.  He has Moses and the prophets.  Which is another way of saying, he has the Scriptures; he has God's Word.

The rich man rejected Moses and the prophets.  He put his trust in other things.  He probably honored religion as something good.  But his real confidence was in his own abilities, his own resources, his own power and standing as a pillar of the community.  Even in the fires of hell, the rich man rejected Moses and the prophets.  Did you notice that?  When the rich man wants to use Lazarus to go back to his brothers from the dead and warn them, Abraham says that Moses and the prophets are more than enough, all that his brothers need.  But the rich man doesn't think that's good enough.  He thinks that Scripture is empty, that it doesn't have the power to bring them to repentance or to save them.  He wants a miracle.  Even in hell his trust is in something else than God's Word.  The hard-heartedness of the unbelieving goats perseveres into eternity.  His unbelief becomes a part of his eternal torment, as his hard heart grows increasingly more frustrated and angry at the ways of God.

Lazarus, on the other hand, clung to Moses and the prophets.  The Word of God was his hope.  For you may remember that the name "Lazarus" literally means "God is My Helper."  Even though Lazarus longed for mere crumbs from the table, even though the street dogs licked his wounds, even though in this world Lazarus had nothing-not even his health-in truth, Lazarus found what he was seeking.  He found mercy that endures forever.  He received Living Water and Bread from Heaven. He obtained perfect satisfaction and health.  It was all there for him in Moses and the prophets.  For there in Moses and the prophets was the Messiah, Jesus, his Help and his Savior.

You recall that when Jesus was walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it is written that "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."  Moses and the Prophets are all about Jesus.  So Lazarus went to heaven because he believed Moses and the prophets.  Or to put it more precisely, he believed in the Messiah Jesus whom they prophesied, who would take the sins of the world upon Himself and earn for him God's favor and a place in heaven.

Lazarus found there in the Scriptures a man much like himself, in fact, in even worse shape than himself.  Isaiah prophesies that the Christ is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected by men, one without any attractiveness that we should desire to be near Him.  Jesus Himself said in the Psalms that He was surrounded by unbelieving dogs who mocked Him in His pain, who pierced His hands and His feet.  And yet, Isaiah says, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. . .  And by His wounds we are healed."  The blood that flowed from those wounds cleansed us of our sin and bought our eternal healing, the restoration and resurrection of our bodies to glory on the Last Day.

Truly Jesus made Himself to be just like Lazarus for us.  For notice how Lazarus is comforted there in the bosom of father Abraham.  That is a clear picture for us of the first two persons of the Trinity, the eternal Father and Son, as John 1 states, "No one has seen God at any time."  But, "The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known."  Jesus made the love of the Father known and manifested it to us by coming down from heaven into the midst of our poverty and affliction in order to raise us up and bring us back with Himself to heaven.  It is written, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich," rich with forgiveness and mercy and life.

Lazarus was a true son of Abraham, not only by blood, but also because he had the same faith as Abraham.  You recall that the elderly, childless Abraham was told by God that he would be the father of many nations, that his descendants would be as countless as the stars.  And even though Abraham had no evidence or experience to go on, he believed God's promise, and God credited it to him as righteousness.  Abraham was righteous by faith alone.  And so was Lazarus.  Lazarus, too, trusted in God's promise that He would not forsake the lowly, that no one who puts his trust in Him would ever be put to shame, that the Lord saves those who have a humble and contrite and penitent heart.  Even when all of the evidence and experience of Lazarus' life said that God had forsaken him, he still clung to God's promise.  By that faith he was accounted righteous before God.  He was saved.
 

And so it is also for you.  The evidence and experience of your life may seem to suggest that God doesn't like you, that He's forgotten you, or at best that He's ignoring you.  But don't judge God by what you see or feel.  Instead, go on His Word and His promises.  Trust that what He says is true and real.  For God does not lie; He does not break His Word.  He will come through for you-maybe not the way you want right now; maybe not even in this life.  But most assuredly He will do so in the life to come.  For He has conquered your sin and death by His own death and resurrection.  By faith in Him, you are accounted righteous before God.  You are holy in His sight, without a single flaw.  The comfort and happiness of heaven is yours, entirely by the grace of God.  You don't have to earn it by your works.  Notice that there's no purgatory here where you have to suffer for a while before you get into heaven.  No, it's all a gift of Christ's love for you.

Those who are like the rich man refuse to believe this.  They want a god who rewards people based on merit, and so they get what they deserve, the fire of hell.  Abraham reminds us that even if someone like Lazarus were to rise from the dead, that wouldn't cause anyone to believe who didn't already believe Moses and the prophets.  In fact, some have suggested that this Lazarus is the one that Jesus did raise from the dead right before Holy Week.  That miracle caused the rich Pharisees and chief priests to plot Jesus' death even more fervently.  Beware of desiring miracles and signs, needing to see such things before you'll believe.  Miracles don't create faith.  If God gives them, they only confirm the faith that He has already worked through His Word and Spirit alone.

Let us rather be like Lazarus in spirit-helpless, weak, dependent on the Lord, satisfied with no other food than what comes from His table, licking Christ's wounds at the altar for our salvation, eating the crumbs of the Bread of Life that satisfy completely.  Let us set our hearts on that Day when the angels will bear us home and we will be drawn to the Father's side in Christ, there to bask forever in His goodness and love.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit