16 Pentecost

 

September 28, 2025

 Luke 16.19-31

 + Well, I just gotta say:

 It’s good to see all of you made it.

 All of you survived yet another Rapture this past week.

 So, either it didn’t happen, or we’ve all been left behind.

 Shucks!

 But, just in case you haven’t had enough of all that talk about the end times and heaven and hell and who gets in and who doesn’t, we get this parable this morning.

 Ok.. . .I  weirdly love the parable we heard today.

 I think I might be one of the very few people who do actually love it.

 For some, it’s just so weird and…well, bizarre.

 It’s such an interesting story.

 There’s just so much good stuff, right under the surface of it.

 So, let’s take a look at it.

 In it, we find Lazarus.  

 Now, if you notice,  it’s the only time in Jesus’ parables that we find someone given a name—and the name, nonetheless, of one of Jesus’ dearest friends.  In most of Jesus’ parables, the main character is simply referred to as the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son.  

 But here we have Lazarus.  

 And the name actually carries some meaning.  

 It means “God has helped me.”

 Now the “rich man” in this story is not given a name by Jesus, but tradition has given him the name Dives, or “Rich Man”

 Between these two characters we see such a juxtaposition.  

 We have the worldly man who loves his possessions and is defined by what he owns.  

 And we have Lazarus who is poor, who seems to get sicker and hungrier all the time.

 In fact, his name almost seems like a cruel joke.  

 It doesn’t seem like God has helped Lazarus at all.

 The Rich Man sees Lazarus, is aware of Lazarus, but despite his wealth, despite all he has, despite, even his apparent happiness in his life, he can not even deign to give to poor Lazarus a scrap of food from all that he has.

 Traditionally of course, we have seen them as a very fat Rich Man, in fine clothing and a haughty look and a skinny, wasted Lazarus, covered in sores, which I think must be fairly accurate to what Jesus hoped to convey.  

 They are opposite, mirror images of each other.  

 But there are some subtle undercurrents to this story.  

 Lazarus is not without friends or mercy in his life. In fact, it seems that maybe God really IS helping him. 

 He is not quite the destitute person we think he is.

 First of all, we find him laid out by the Rich Man’s gate.  

 Someone must’ve put him there, in hopes that Rich Man would help him. Someone cared for Lazarus, and that’s important to remember.

 Second of all, we find these dogs who came to lick his sores.  

 The presence of dogs is an interesting one.

 Are they just wild dogs that roam the streets, or are they the Rich Man’s watch dogs?

 New Testament theologian Kenneth Bailey has mentioned that dog saliva was believed by people at this time to have curative powers. (We now know that is definitely NOT the case)   

 So, even the dogs are not necessarily a curse upon Lazarus but a possible blessing in disguise.

 Finally, when Lazarus dies, God receives him into paradise.

 In fact, as we hear, “angels carried him to be with Abraham.”

 The Rich Man dies and goes to Hades—or the underworld.  

 Lazarus goes up.

 Dives goes down.

 He literally dives.

 The Rich Man, in the throes of his torment, cries out to Lazarus.

 And Lazarus, if you notice, doesn’t ignore him or turn his back on him, despite the fact that the Rich Man did just that to Lazarus.

 Lazarus does not even scold him.  

 It almost seems that Lazarus might almost be willing to go back and tell the Rich Man’s friends if only the gulf between them was not so wide.

 There really is a beauty to this story and a lesson for us that is more than just the bad man gets punished while the good man gets rewarded.

 And it is also not really about heaven and hell either.

 I get a lot of people who, when they hear that I do not believe in an eternal hell, remind me of this parable.

 I, in turn, remind them that it is a parable.

 It is a story that Jesus is telling.

 He is not talking about literal people here.

 And he is not talking about literal places.

 Like it the Rapture, It is poetry and poetic imagery.

 And that is vital to remember.

 What we find is that, by the world’s standards, by the standards of those who are defined by the material aspects of this life, Lazarus was the loser before he died and the Rich Man was the winner, even despite his callousness.

 And the same could be said of us as well.  It might seem, at moments, as though we are being punished by the things that happen to us.  

 It is too easy to pound our chests and throw dirt and ashes in the air and to cry out in despair and curse God when bad things happen.  

 It is much harder to recognize that while we are there, at the gate outside the Rich Man’s house, lying in the dirt, covered in sores, that there are people who care, that there are gentle, soothing signs of affection, even from dogs.  

 Actually, there have been times when I have been soothed more by dogs than humans.

 And it is hard sometimes in those moments to see that God too cares.

 I have done that.

 But the fact remains, Paradise awaits us.

 That place to which Lazarus was taken by angels awaits us and, for those of us striving and struggling through this life, we can truly cling to that hope.

 For those of us still struggling, we can set our eyes on the prize, so to speak and move forward.  

 We can work toward that place, rather than “diving” like Dives himself, into the pit of destruction he essentially created for himself.

 In a real sense, the Rich Man was weighed down by his wealth, especially when he refused to share it, and he ended up wallowing in the mire of his own close-mindedness and self-centeredness.

 What happens to this Rich Man?

 Well, the chickens came home to roost.

 The rich man, the narcissist, full of hubris and pride, full of arrogance and selfishness and self-centeredness.

 The rich man, who did not care for the poor, who ignored the needy, who cared only for himself,

 The rich man who boasted and blew smoke and walked around with his puffed-out chest,

 The rich man fell, as all such people we find will fall.

 Scripture again and again tells us such people will fall.

 History again and again tells us such people will fall.

 The chickens ALWAYS come home to roost.

 Though sometimes they so agonizingly slow.

 The moral of this parable is this: let us not be like the rich man.  

 Let us not follow that slippery, dangerous slope to destruction.

 But for those of us who, in the midst of our struggles, can still find those glimmers of light in the midst of the gloom, we are not weighed down.  

 We are freed in ways we never knew we could be.  

 We are lifted up and given true freedom.

 We are Lazarus.

 God has truly helped us.

 And God continuous to help us again and again.

 And when God does help us, it is then that we see most clearly God’s amazing love, grace and mercy.

 Amen.