The fourth reading is from Luke 16:19-31, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
It's easy to get wrapped up in your own life and not notice those around you who have needs greater than your own. The rich man in the story is not pictured as a bad man, he just didn't pay attention to the poor beggar, Lazarus. How often do we look at someone in great need without really seeing them? Sometimes it's our busy schedule that distracts us. Sometimes it's just the routines of life. Whatever the reason, we need to be more diligent to pay attention to those around us in need. God will hold us accountable not only for overt acts of oppression but also for "inadvertent" acts of neglect. But are they really inadvertent, or do we just pretend not to notice the needs of those around us?
In his book, The Literary Function of Possessions in Luke-Acts, Luke Timothy Johnson traces Luke's use of wealth as a literary device in Luke-Acts. For Luke, "possessions are a sign of power." Wealth is a great danger to those who possess it in these books, for they have a tendency to rely on money rather than God. The rich man in the story is not named in the best manuscripts, but a few Coptic manuscripts (from Egypt) and a single very old Greek manuscript reflect the name "Nineveh," perhaps because of the legendary wickedness of the capital city of the Assyrians. Other names that appear in Christian writings include Dives (the Latin word for rich), Phinehas (son of the priest Eleazar = Lazarus in the Old Testament), and Amenophis (= Amenhotep, name of several Egyptian kings, perhaps chosen because of Israel's bondage in Egypt). Purple cloth was expensive and was reserved for the elite of society. "Attaining the purple" was a Roman phrase that indicated becoming emperor, so the rich man's choice of clothing showed expensive taste and perhaps also ostentation. The notion of a separate eternal fate for good and bad was a relatively new notion in the first century. The dominant Old Testament idea was that all the dead go to Sheol. However, the idea of a separate heaven and hell was a comfort to the oppressed, who saw at least some hope of reward in the next life.
This passage will be read in the light of the situation of the poor, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is one of the most striking indictments of the corrupting influence of wealth and its consequences in the gospels. The rich man in the story lives a life of comfort, while Lazarus suffers right outside the gates of his house. In the afterlife their roles are reversed, with Lazarus resting in the "bosom of Abraham" and the rich man suffering the torments of hell. Nowhere in the story does it say that the rich man was bad or that the poor man was good, much less anything about justification by faith. The clear implication is that those who are poor and who suffer in this life are destined for a blissful afterlife, while those who are rich and live extravagantly now will suffer torment in the hereafter. But there is more to the story. Although the story doesn't explicitly say that the rich man was bad or that he persecuted the poor, his attitude toward them can be deduced. First, he wore fancy clothes and feasted every day, a clear case of conspicuous consumption. Second, he was aware of the fact that Lazarus lay outside his gates day by day, for he calls specifically for Lazarus by name to bring him water. Had he ever sent water out to Lazarus, much less food? Apparently not. Third, he shows concern for his brothers' fate, implying that he now understands that his former lifestyle led directly to his current condition. The rich man didn't consciously harm Lazarus. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice him at all. That fact is an indictment of almost all of us who live in the affluent West. To some extent we've managed, like the rich man, to keep the poor outside our gates so we won't notice them. We live in neighborhoods where there are no poor people, or if there are, we don't know about it. We drive through the run-down, poor parts of our cities with our doors locked and our windows rolled up. And as for the poor in other countries, well, who really cares about them, anyway? If they were more ambitious, we tell ourselves, they would be able to drag themselves up out of poverty. When Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, his disciples probably identified with Lazarus, because most of them were poor, too. When we read the story today, we should probably identify with the rich man. Are riches a help or a hindrance to our Christian testimony? How can we use our money to help the poor? There are of course many good non-profit organizations that minister to the poor, and many churches do as well. In addition to giving our money, we can give our time. We can build a Habitat House, or work in a clothes closet, or help out in a homeless shelter, or go on a mission trip to help build a new school in a poor village. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus ends on a note of irony that is doubly ironic today. In response to the rich man's request to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, Abraham reminds the rich man that they have Moses and the prophets to warn them. "'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even in someone rises from the dead.'" The irony in the story is that Jesus is the one who rose from the dead, but many of his contemporaries still refused to listen to the testimony of the disciples. The second irony applies in our time, because modern Christians have supposedly accepted Jesus as the risen Lord, yet we still ignore the warnings of Moses and the Old Testament prophets, not to mention the message of Jesus himself. Christians today buy into the culture of consumerism with gusto, so that it is difficult or impossible to tell a Christian from his non-practicing neighbor. God calls us to be different from the crowd around us, and God specifically calls us to care for the poor. When we do that, we will demonstrate that we have been truly transformed by our contact with Christ.
The contrast between rich and poor is a constant theme in scripture, and, contrary to the contentions of those who proclaim the health and wealth gospel, it is the poor who are generally portrayed as favored by God, not the rich. The prophets are full of messages of God's judgment on the rich for their treatment of the poor, for example, Isaiah 1:21-23; Amos 2:6-7; Micah 3:1-4. Luke begins his treatment of this theme with Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55, which proclaims a reversal of fortunes for rich and poor, and he makes the first public words out of Jesus' mouth a quotation from Isaiah 61:1-2. Luke's portrayal of the Rich Young Ruler is less sympathetic than in the other gospels. In Luke, for example, he is not "Young," so he is mature enough to be responsible for his actions, or his inaction. In the present story, the contrast between the condition of the rich man and Lazarus in the present world and their condition in the afterlife couldn't be more stark. Luke follows in the tradition of the prophets in proclaiming that although it is possible to consider wealth a gift from God, it is often a curse, because it turns people from the ways of justice.
Consider these visual representations of the story by artists from the 16th and 17th centuries.
| This drawing by Aldergrever portrays a banquet at the rich man's house, lively and distracting. Lazarus sits against the wall holding a beggar's bowl (empty), and dogs are sniffing at his legs. |
| Veronese painted this picture of a banquet at the rich man's house. The guests are focused on the music being played by the ensemble gathered on the porch, while Lazarus begs in the courtyard, unnoticed by the others. |
| In this painting by Horenbout, Lazarus has already died, and his soul is being transported to heaven by angels. A knock at the door above indicates that death has come to claim the rich man as well. The dogs run to the door to greet the visitor, and their attraction to death calls to mind their licking the wounds of Lazarus--the dogs are attracted to corruption. |
| In this engraving from a famous early anti-witchcraft book, Malleus Maleficarum, the rich man is restrained in hell by demons, while Lazarus sits childlike on Abraham's lap. Both are naked, Lazarus in innocence but the rich man in shame. |
| This engraving is from the title page to a book containing a sermon by Martin Luther on this passage, which he preached in 1522. The central frame holds a simple picture of Lazarus, childlike, sitting on Abraham's lap, looking at the rich man standing in the midst of flames. Interestingly, hell itself is portrayed as the mouth of a giant dog, in contrast to the dogs in the story that licked Lazarus' wounds. |
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© 2011, James R. Adair, Jr.