There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “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 if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:19-31)

Jesus as Storyteller

Jesus had an amazing gift: the ability to tell stories that made ancient and eternal truths accessible to people who heard him in the first century. During that time, many of the people to whom Jesus spoke would readily respond to the theme of this parable from Luke. Many of them knew firsthand about abject poverty. Without question, the minority of the people who possessed wealth felt offended by the story. They knew nothing about a life characterized by wanting and not receiving, about living on scraps with starvation a real possibility, about being cold and not having clothes and shelter enough to deal with the discomfort.

A Surprise Ending

The conclusion of the story may have surprised many people who listened to Jesus. It contradicted a popular theology that affirmed God would reward the righteous person with the good things of life. In the common view, the person with whom God was pleased could anticipate a long life filled with material goods and luxury. I find it interesting that the same theology is highly popular among people of our society. If you tune in to the telecast services from some churches, you get the idea that the person of real faith will be healed of at least one cancer and enjoy huge success in the business world. You hear testimonies from people about how their failing business turned around when they gave their lives to Jesus. Perhaps like some people in our time, many people in Jesus’ day thought God would have favored the rich man over the beggar Lazarus. Jesus shattered their expectations.

The Death of the Rich Man

As the story developed, the poor man died. No one was surprised. The mystery was how he managed to survive so long in his pitiful condition. After all, he had no medical attention, no proper food to eat, and no adequate shelter from the wind and rain. Nothing is said about a funeral. After all, the beggar was a nobody. No doubt the people charged with such responsibility dragged his body off and threw it into a pauper’s grave.

Then the rich man also died. There is the shocker. Are we not surprised when a person of wealth and fame dies? Such a person’s defenses may delay the moment for a few years, but inevitably the rich will follow the poor in the great equalizer of death. “The rich man also died and was buried.” Death plays no favorites. All of us must leave this life through the same narrow door.

One phrase in the description of the rich man is missing in the one about Lazarus. We are told that the rich man “was buried.” Of course he was. It was imperative for society to recognize that an important person was suddenly absent from its ranks. Such a person required an elaborate funeral, accompanied by appropriate eulogies emphasizing his importance for the community.

On the Other Side

As Jesus told the story, the scene shifted to the other side of the grave. The two characters appeared once again and still existed in totally different circumstances. Contrary to expectations, however, the poor man was welcomed by God and enjoyed the bliss of heaven. On the other hand, the rich man led a tormented existence. We are told that a great, impassable gulf separated the two men. This is simply the eternal manifestation of the gulf that existed between them in their earthly lives. It is important to note, however, that God was on the side of the gulf with the poor man Lazarus.

An interesting aspect of the story is that the parable does not mention the moral and religious lives of the two men. The rich man may have lived a moral life, possibly as a leader in society and the synagogue. He may have been a generous giver of alms, as many wealthier Jews were. After all, we are told that he allowed Lazarus to scrounge for crumbs that fell from the table while he and his guests “feasted sumptuously.” The story doesn’t fit into the orthodox pattern that we have been led to accept.

The Lesson of the Story

What does the story teach us? It says we can allow the poor to feed from the crumbs that fall from our table and still do nothing to build a bridge across the gulf that separates us. If we create a gulf between us and the poor, the story emphasizes that God will stand on the other side of the gulf with the poor. God is for the poor. That is a recurring theme in the prophets and the Gospels. “God is on the side of the poor,” a good friend once observed, “not because they are good but because God is good.”

The Request of the Rich Man

An interesting interchange occurred between the rich man and Abraham at the conclusion of the story. Giving up hope of any possibility of ameliorating his condition, the man thought about his brothers. They were living the same kind of life he had lived, measuring their success in terms of the amount of goods they accumulated, the size of the abodes in which they lived, the richness of their clothing. The rich man’s plea for a miracle, that is, for Lazarus to go to them as an emissary from the grave, was rebuffed. Such a move, according to Abraham, would be useless. The brothers already knew enough to understand what God wanted of the people. They had the teaching of the prophets. What would they discover if they took the prophets seriously? For one thing, they would have heard Isaiah excoriating the Israelites in harsh terms: “They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the holy one of Israel, they are utterly estranged” (1:4b). The Israelites’ attempts to gain God’s favor by going through the rituals disgusted the Almighty, or, as Isaiah says, God hid his eyes from them and did not listen to their prayers (1:15).

The Prophets’ Message

What must people do to get right with God? Isaiah spells it out in these words: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (1:17). In other words, we need to get on God’s side of the social gulf by caring for the unfortunate and disadvantaged in our society. The rich man and his brothers had access to the prophets. They could have taken seriously many other texts in Moses (the Pentateuch) and the prophetic writings. They chose to ignore the texts that would have led them to change their selfish pursuit of houses and lands, clothes and food, and all that they and other people considered so important.

In the Gospels, this parable probably disturbs me more than any other passage. At some point, I realized I am not the poor man. I am the rich man. Perhaps spending time in Brazil did it. As missionaries, we, a family of four, received approximately $300 per month. Hardly anybody in this country would have said we were rich. But the Brazilians did. They called us rich Americans, and they were right. We didn’t worry about having enough to eat or something to wear. Because adequate housing was provided to us, we didn’t have to be concerned about a place to live. On the other hand, many people in our churches earned thirty or forty dollars a month. No wonder they called us rich!

I am the rich man in the parable. I can’t escape that truth. A great gulf separates me from many of God’s underprivileged children. The challenge is for me to find ways to get on God’s side of the gulf—the side with those in need.