Luke 16:19-31
Week after week the Gospel texts have presented us with a range of challenges. This week’s text is no exception. In the present climate of the cost-of-living crisis and growing concern over fuel prices can the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus provide some light for our path?
At first sight the parable is a warning about riches and the fate of those whose earthly life focused on wealth alone. Luke uses the framework of a well-known Egyptian folktale to begin his parable. His hearers will know that there will be a reversal of fortunes. With all the skill of a story-teller Luke paints a picture of Lazarus’ desperate situation. The writing is vivid. It makes my hair stand on end.
And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores.
In the very next line of the text all is made right as Lazarus enjoys bliss in ‘the bosom of Abraham.’ The rich man’s fate is described equally vividly. There is to be no bliss for the rich man. We have no doubt where our sympathies lie. The Rich man’s arrival in Hades doesn’t prompt him to examine his heart, but rather he wants Lazarus to ease his suffering. He has missed an opportunity for conversion. In stories such as A Christmas Carol and It’s Wonderful Life the main characters get a chance to put things right. There is no such second chance in this parable. Not only is there no second chance, but there is a gulf that cannot be crossed:
…between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.
In the second half of the parable the rich man pleads on behalf of his brothers. Some scholars suggest that this is the main point of the parable and that it should be called the Parable of the Six Brothers. Herein lies the tragedy: not only is the Rich Man suffering in Hades but he has five brothers who are just like him. They live lives of luxury and block out God’s Word.
When a parable presents us with stark contrasts it is easy for us to see the path we would hope to be taking. In our daily lives the path might not be so clear. It might not be wealth or luxury that blocks out God’s Word in our lives. We may have created a gulf with other things and now find we cannot cross. This parable gives us a chance to examine our hearts and reorient ourselves.
There’s no doubt that we are witnessing an ever-widening gulf between the rich and the poor. Just as we wish for a change of heart for those who have power and influence, so too we must be ready to change our own hearts.
Where is God calling you to a change of heart?