Luke 16:19 – 31
I look at Facebook four or five times
a week. I don't put much on facebook but I enjoy seeing what members
of my extended family post. And there are a couple of communities I
enjoy – one is for permanent deacons. A few days ago I ran across
something called “global rich list”. It's a calculator that
allows you to enter your annual income, or alternatively your total
net worth, and find out how you stack up against the rest of
humanity. I'm ashamed of where that puts me – but I think you
would be as well. Face it, we Longmeadow people, even relatively
poor ones, are way up there in the top 5% in terms of how rich we
are.
Today Jesus in a few words paints a
picture of a rich man – dressed in purple, when the only way you
could get purple dye was to collect a certain species of shellfish
and extract the dye; and fine linen, which was very expensive because
it was spun from very fine threads, which took a lot longer than the
coarse material most people wore. And while our gospel reading says
“he dined sumptously” the actual Greek text says “he made merry
in luxury” or as we might say today, every meal was a party. So to
me he doesn't look like a mean-spirited king or a conniving merchant
– he looks round and silly and oblivious to his surroundings,
thinking primarily of himself.
Lazarus is a caricature as well. In
fact he sounds a lot like Job, from the Old Testament, who was
reduced to sitting on a pile of manure scratching himself with a
piece of broken pottery. And I think Jesus is deliberately painting
these extreme pictures. Notice that Jesus names Lazarus, the only
time a person in a parable had a name. And Lazarus means “God is
my helper”.
Now it sounds like the rich man went
to hell and Lazarus to heaven. But that is not what Jesus says. He
says they both ended up in Hades – which means “the netherworld”.
There was a common belief that people went to a temporary place
after death. Some people said that's where you spent eternity;
others said that you would eventually move on – perhaps to
reincarnation, perhaps to resurrection, as some Jews believed, or
perhaps to something more in keeping with our concepts of heaven and
hell. But a lot of people including many Jews believed that you had
one final chance to learn what you needed to learn and move on to a
good end. And I think when we look at this story, we can see that.
After all, if Jesus is trying to show
us how to avoid hell, we never find out why the rich man is there in
the flames. If all he did was enjoy life and burn through his money,
does he deserve eternal punishment? I hope not. And he calls
Abraham his father, and Abraham refers to him as “My son”. The
bond between the holy patriarch of the Jewish people and the rich man
is not broken. And there is that interesting reversal; “you had
your good things during life; and it's Lazarus' turn now.” This
doesn't make sense – if laying around having dogs lick your sores
and longing for the crumbs of the rich man's table is enough to have
eternal happiness.
And with Jesus' parables we often try
to see which character we relate to. We don't relate to Abraham, we
don't relate to Lazarus, and I would venture to say we shouldn't
relate to the rich man either. We may be rich, but rich as we are, I
think most of us would not step over a beggar on our porch and most
of us would not spend our money on horribly expensive clothing, and
most of us would not have a wild party for ourselves and throw food
on the floor every day. And most of us do try to give something back
– money, time, talent – we aren't oblivious to the fact that
there are people in trouble, and most of us try to do something about
that.
I don't think the rich man is burning
for all eternity in hell. I think he is learning a lesson. He
starts out seeing that he is in torment and Lazarus is up there with
Abraham. He recognizes that he is supposed to be there – he
doesn't ask to get out, he just wants a drop of water. And when that
doesn't happen, he finally begins to think of someone else – his
brothers. And he says that if someone rises from the dead, they will
surely repent. And in the context, if they repent, they will change
the way they see things, they will see their own Lazarus and be moved
to take pity on him. And Abraham says, in effect, now you are
catching on, that's why they have Moses and the Prophets. And Jesus
ends the story there.
So who should we identify with? I
think it's the brothers. I think this parable is a reminder that the
most important thing about religion after our duty to God is our duty
to our neighbor, the neighbor who has a name, a name we don't yet
know. The neighbor who is loved by God just as much as He loves us,
just as much as he loves the greatest saints, just as much as he
loves the Blessed Mother; because God loves with His whole being,
with all the love of which he is capable. A few weeks ago we heard
about how Jesus shocked the pharisees because he sat down and ate
with sinners. This was not because the Pharisees wanted nothing to
do with sinners. They had a saying: “It is a good thing to feed a
sinner who is hungry. It is an evil thing to sit down and eat with
him.” The Pharisees thought that shunning a sinner was the best
way to bring him back to righteousness, to rejoining the community.
Jesus disagrees. Jesus wants each of us to be responsible for our
brothers and sisters – on a personal level. And that is a real
challenge.
We each have our Lazarus. Do you know
his or her name? Do you step around him or her when you go out of
your house or place of work? Or will you change the way you see
things, which is what repentance means. And reach out to him or her
in love.
I think the rich man will eventually
learn his lesson and join his brother Lazarus in the bosom of
Abraham, because God is infinitely merciful. But you can think what
you want. Just recognize your brother. Once you learn his name, you
cannot do otherwise.
