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Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.1 The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. As we continue our study on the parables, I I was reminded this week that actually what we're doing here is, probably very similar to how Jesus taught the parables, meeting here in a parking garage. You know, Jesus didn't have a fancy huge church building, but He would teach out in the countryside. Sometimes He had to improvise, get in a boat slightly off shore, do whatever it took.
Joel Brooks:He preached in places where there would have been children running around, maybe a camel walking by that caught everybody's eye. He taught in parables, probably at least in part as a way of vividly telling a story to gather people's attention during this. So I like to think of what I'm doing as very Christ like. Alright? And, and you are just like those who listened to him 2000 years ago.
Joel Brooks:So we are continuing our study in the parables. The last 2 weeks, we've done parables that Jesus then gives us the explanation for. This will be the first one that Jesus does not explain. And I realized I made a horrible mistake in picking this parable. There is a whole lot in here.
Joel Brooks:There is a lot of depth, a lot of theology here, and we're gonna try to navigate through all of this in under 20 minutes together. But I would say that few parables have actually had more of an impact on me over the years than this parable that we were about to read. Luke 16, we'll begin reading in verse 19. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.
Joel Brooks:Moreover, even the dogs came and licked the sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, child, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner, bad things.
Joel Brooks:But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you is a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. And he said, then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house. For I have 5 brothers, so that he might warn them unless they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets.
Joel Brooks:Let them hear them. And 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 hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Joel Brooks:If you would, pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word, and we simply ask that you would give us ears to hear, that the seed of your word would once again fall on fertile soil and grow. Pray that my words will fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I've mentioned this before, but one of the most profound experiences that I had came when I was in seminary. And we had a visiting professor. His name was James Houston. And he was teaching a class on prayer.
Joel Brooks:He was really, really old. And after class, I went to him and introduced myself and he looked me in the eyes and he asked, so Joel, who are you? It's like, okay. So I I, you know, I told him, you know, where I grew up, where I lived, how I came here to be in Birmingham, the job that I have. I finished all that and he goes, perhaps he didn't understand me.
Joel Brooks:I asked, who who are you? I was like, he is old. I'll repeat myself. And so I I basically said the same things again, maybe with a few more details. And he looked me in the eye and he said, you're telling me all the things that you've done or maybe the places you've lived, but who are you?
Joel Brooks:That is a very hard question to answer. Typically, we respond by just saying the things that we've done or the things that we have or the places we grew up. But actually saying who we are is a much more probing question. I've thought about this question over again these these last few weeks as I've been reading, numerous articles about racism. And in these articles, they have the phrase, perhaps you've heard it, white fragility.
Joel Brooks:It's an interesting term. It's been it was coined by Robin Deangelo, a decade ago and it's basically used to describe a condition in which a white person's identity is so bound up in their whiteness that any slight or even a perceived slight against that person being white causes an over the top reaction, or causes that person to crumble. And I actually think as I was reading through D'Angelo's article, one of her articles, that what she was onto was something quite profound, But it had nothing to do with race. But what she said was quite profound because she recognized every human being had this need to attach themselves to something or someone for identity. And whenever they attach themselves to something or someone for identity, there was a fragility that came with it.
Joel Brooks:Their identity could be attacked. Their identity could crumble when that thing was come under attack or was or crumbled itself. For instance, some people might attach their identity to their sexuality or to their gender. And and any slight, or perceived slight towards their sexuality or their gender is gonna immediately put them up in arms or cause them to crumble, because their sexuality or gender is where they find their identity. Some people, they they might attach their identity to a political party.
Joel Brooks:And so if if if any one of their candidates is attacked from that political party or any position of that political party, if there's a slight towards it, they immediately are up in arms. Why? Because it's attack on them. Their identity is bound with that political party. People attach their identities to their education or to the fact that they are married or that they're a stay at home mom or that they homeschool their children or that they're a really fit person.
Joel Brooks:And if they are to if they were to perceive any slight against one of those things, you get an over the top reaction or they crumble. The reason is they've attached their identity to this. This story here that we have, this parable that Jesus tells us, is about a number of things. It's about there is how there is a judgment and there is a heaven and a hell. It's about how we need to be generous with our resources and money.
Joel Brooks:But really more than any of those things, this is a story about identity. What is your identity? What are you building your life on? Are you building your life upon something that's solid or something in which there is a fragility? Now the reason that we know that this story at its most basic level is about identity is because of how Jesus identifies the characters in this story.
Joel Brooks:You have the rich man and you have Lazarus. Jesus told many stories, many parables, yet this is the only time in which he ever gives someone's name. He names a character in this story. So I mean, you've got, you know, the other parables. You've got the parable, the sower and the seeds and the the shrewd servant, the prodigal sons and the father, the man giving the feasts, parables about the the talents and the servants.
Joel Brooks:You have all of these different stories, but he never once names anyone in them, except here. So this has got to be significant. Right? It's got to be that he names somebody in this parable. It's the biggest contrast we see.
Joel Brooks:You've got a whole lot of contrast here. You've got the rich man. You've got the poor man. You've got the man covered with purple and linen. You have the other man who's covered in sores.
Joel Brooks:You have one man who sits at, you know, the table. The other man is laid at the gate. You have one person who's who's eating all this sumptuous food. You have the other person who has dogs coming and licking his sores. You have all of these contrasts, but by far the biggest contrast is one of these has a name and the other does not.
Joel Brooks:The poor man's name was Lazarus. The rich man? Well, he was just a rich man. Nothing more. He he has no other identity.
Joel Brooks:He's either rich or he's nothing. He spent his whole life likely pursuing riches and when he got them, at some point along the way, riches just overtook him. They consumed him. But this man when people thought of him, the first thing they thought of was he's loaded. This is man who's loaded or this is the man who's the CEO of this company or this is the man who has that huge house and that gated community.
Joel Brooks:Lazarus however, had a name. This man only had riches with no other identity. This is the biggest contrast. And the name that God gives here is important, that that Jesus says his name was Lazarus, which means God helps. This is a man who trusted in God, who built his identity on God.
Joel Brooks:So we do have all these contrasts here. We do have one commonality between both the rich man and Lazarus, and it's this, They both die. Both of them die. No matter how wealthy you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter your education, your status, you will die just like the poor man. And what Jesus teaches us here in this story is that although, you have your wealth and your status and all these things, he teaches us that these things you have them in this life, they will not carry over to the next life.
Joel Brooks:But one thing does, your identity. Your wealth doesn't carry over to the next life, your education level, your your health, your status, none of those things carry over to the next life, but your identity you take with you. Although this rich man is in Hades or what we would call hell, nothing about his identity has changed. For instance, he still thinks of himself as a religious insider. When he looks up and he sees Abraham off in the distance, he calls him father.
Joel Brooks:Father Abraham, will you help me? He still, although he's in hell, he still thinks of Abraham as his father. He was probably raised in the south going to church, thinking that of course, I'm a believer. Of course, I'm of the household of faith. I was born into it.
Joel Brooks:His deception doesn't end here. He also still sees himself as being a man of high status, Although he clearly is in torment in hell, and Lazarus is clearly in paradise, happy next to Abraham, he still thinks of Lazarus as being beneath him. That Lazarus should even serve him. He says, Abraham, can can we get Lazarus to go on a few errands for me? Could you go send him maybe to bring me some water?
Joel Brooks:Could you go send him to go, with this errand to my brothers? This rich man is incapable of seeing the change in his status. He still thinks he is of high status, and Lazarus is a nobody. He doesn't realize that things have reversed. This man still thinks of himself as a rich man in hell.
Joel Brooks:Actually, this week, I was really convicted by something that we see here, just in the way that this rich man interacts with Lazarus. Because he's ignored Lazarus his entire life. But now he notices him. Why? Why does he notice Lazarus now?
Joel Brooks:It's because he needs him. The rich man only notices the poor man or anybody when he needs him. He only seeks to build a relationship with people who can benefit him. And this hit me hard this week as I was thinking through this. Every day, Lazarus laid outside this man's gate.
Joel Brooks:Every day. And yet, the rich man never once noticed him, or at least never gave him any attention. But here he does because he needs him to do something. And we actually find out that the rich man does know Lazarus' name. He calls him Lazarus.
Joel Brooks:He just never needed to call on him before. So how often do we treat people the same way? How often do we notice people only when we know they can offer us something? How often do, if you're in a family, how often do our families only notice the singles when they need a babysitter? I can see some of the singles underneath their mask saying, Preach.
Joel Brooks:How often do I only receive a text from you when you need a truck? Alright. Oh, We we think of these we we think of people as commodities, and and I will reach out to them. I will build a relationship in order to gain something. We all have that default in our hearts.
Joel Brooks:We are drawn to people who will benefit us. We ignore those who won't. For the last few weeks, we've actually we've had a number of homeless people all around the church. I know that you probably haven't been around the church building lately, but we have quite a number of homeless people. They'll hang out on our steps.
Joel Brooks:But we've actually had one homeless man. He's been sleeping at our side door. In other words, he's laying at our gate. Okay. He's laying at our gate.
Joel Brooks:And now, if this man had been at the door wearing a suit, I would have quickly noticed him and run up to him and said, how can I help you? Do you need anything? How can I help you? But this was just a poor man at the gate. And so I got to confess that the default of my heart was to ignore him.
Joel Brooks:Now I can't, you know, say I'm just gonna ignore this guy because, you know, Christians, we do some kind of middle gymnastics. We relabel things. So I just said, you know, he probably doesn't want to be disturbed. He probably doesn't want to be disturbed. But here's a question.
Joel Brooks:Can I really call Abraham my spiritual father and just walk around him as I go to MELT to meet a member for from the church for lunch? Can I really do that? No. No. As Christians, we cannot do that.
Joel Brooks:And I needed I needed Jesus. I needed his spirit to convict me and to change my heart to give me compassion for the least of these because I recognize the default of my heart isn't that. My default is to build relationships with people who will benefit me. When we read this parable, make no mistake. There's there's hints at least of other sins that got this person into hell.
Joel Brooks:But the only actual sin that is clearly spelled out for us is that this rich man ignored the needs of those around him. Now back to this rich man. In addition to him thinking himself still religious, still a son of Abraham, still rich, He also is absolutely convinced he's still right. He's right. When he asked Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead, to go to warn his brothers, Abraham tells him, your plan won't work.
Joel Brooks:Your plan's not gonna work. Your brothers, they have Moses and the prophets. If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they're not gonna listen if I send back Lazarus from the dead. The rich man then tells Abraham he's wrong. Think of the audacity of that.
Joel Brooks:The rich man is in hell, and he is correcting father Abraham and his theology. Abraham, you're wrong. In in his you know, when he says, I'm correct and you're wrong, he's also implying something else. He's implying, Abraham, the reason you are wrong is because I had Moses and the prophets, and they were not enough for me. Look where I am.
Joel Brooks:I had my bible. I heard sermons preached, and none of those things were enough to get me out of here. But if you had sent somebody from the dead to warn me, things would have been different. Then I would have listened. That's what you should have done for me.
Joel Brooks:It's your fault. I'm in this pain. So here we see that this rich man, he's still making excuses. He's still blaming others. He certainly does not believe that he's in hell due to any fault of his own.
Joel Brooks:And the truth is, of course, Abraham's right. He's wrong. Abraham's right. Moses and the prophets is enough. This will actually be dramatically shown later, because, after Jesus tells this story, you know, he actually is going to raise somebody from the dead.
Joel Brooks:I don't think it's a coincidence that the name of the person he raises from the dead is named Lazarus. He literally raises a Lazarus from the dead. And the reaction of the people all around was not to deny that a miracle had happened. You can't deny, there's actually a living person walking around. They all knew he was dead, but in no way did that lead them to repentance.
Joel Brooks:No way did that lead them to faith. Actually, they just wanted to put Lazarus back to death. Abraham's right here. The word of God is enough. It's one of the reasons we spend so much time with the word of God during our services.
Joel Brooks:We open our services with the reading of the word. We read the text before we preach on it, the word. It's because the word of god is powerful when it comes to changing hearts, even more so than if somebody from the dead were to rise. So basically, what we see here is that who this man was in his earthly life is the exact same man he is in the next life and will be for all of eternity. And the end result of all of this is that he is a man who thirsts.
Joel Brooks:He his trust and his riches has led to an everlasting thirst. Hell is described here as a place of fire in which there is no relief in an existence where we are forever thirsty. Now because I'm a pastor, I often get asked questions about judgment and hell. And, so usually, I give, 2 responses to this. And people are they're surprised by these two responses when people ask me my belief on judgment hell.
Joel Brooks:First thing I always tell them is, you do realize that Jesus taught far more on hell than he did on heaven. As a matter of fact, Jesus taught more on hell than the rest of the people in the Bible combined. So when you think of Jesus, he was a hellfire damnation preacher. He he was always bringing up hell. And that usually surprises people, and it also scares people.
Joel Brooks:Like, oh, no. And then I tell people this. I actually don't think that the flames of hell are literal. They might be literal, but I personally think that they're a an image, a symbol, or a metaphor, that Jesus uses to describe hell. And usually when I say that, I get this reaction.
Joel Brooks:Man, that's so good to hear. And I say, well, hold on. It's a metaphor for something far worse. And then the smile goes away. I mean, Jesus, he's looking for an image, for for a metaphor to use, and the closest thing he has to something far worse.
Joel Brooks:And people begin to get nervous as they hear this. I no more believe actually in the literal fire of hell than, let's say, the heaven having the pearly gates or the streets of gold, those being literal as well. Those are metaphors or images for, I believe, something infinitely greater. I'd actually be disappointed if heaven's just streets of gold. I think that's kind of gaudy and it's gonna hurt your eyes, you know, and it's it's representing something far greater.
Joel Brooks:Make no mistake. The fire and the flames and the thirst represents something far more horrible. This rich man is in torment, forever thirsty. When one trusts in wealth instead of God, one will forever be thirsty. It's one of the things Jesus is bringing out here.
Joel Brooks:When one trusts in wealth instead of God, one will forever be thirsty. And it's not just wealth. When one builds their their life on anything other than God, they will forever be thirsty. Always drinking of this, always drinking of their wealth or of their education or being of a higher status, always trying to drink of these things yet never being satisfied. And we might experience a little bit of this that dissatisfaction in this life.
Joel Brooks:But remember, god made you for eternal life. And that dissatisfaction will go on on growing and growing and growing for all of eternity. When that thirst goes on for all of eternity, Jesus calls this hell. So this forever thirst we see as hell, and I want you to see that this should give us a much fuller understanding of the love that Jesus displayed on the cross. When Jesus was on the cross, He said a number of things.
Joel Brooks:He said to John, he said, John, take care of my mother or behold your mother. He spoke to the man, the thief on the cross next to him and said, today, you'll be with me in paradise. He prayed for his father to forgive his enemies there. But one of the things he never spoke about was the physical suffering of the cross, which is usually the thing that everybody focuses on. But Jesus actually never spoke about his physical suffering there.
Joel Brooks:He does cry out twice in pain though. Twice in pain. But the pain he's talking about, he doesn't say, my hands, my hands. They hurt. They have nails through them.
Joel Brooks:Or my feet, my feet, they hurt. Or my head, my head at this crown of thorns. He doesn't say that. The source of his pain is this. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Joel Brooks:That's the deepest source of his pain. And then he also cries out, I thirst. I thirst. And what you need to understand is that these are the same cries. These are the same cries.
Joel Brooks:That my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And I thirst. They're all wrapped up in the same idea of the fountain of living water has now been denied him. The relationship that he has known for all of eternity with God, that fountain of life, he is no longer experiencing that. Instead, what he is experiencing is thirst, everlasting thirst.
Joel Brooks:In other words, he's experiencing hell. We just read from the apostles' creed earlier. And in the apostles' creed, we had that line, he descended into hell. It's likely not actually an original line. It it it came in shortly later in the Apostle's Creed.
Joel Brooks:The Reformers in the 16th century decided to keep this line. And one of the ways they understood it was they understood that Jesus descended into hell on the cross. That was the reformer's understanding of this. On the cross, Jesus experienced hell, as he felt his father's abandonment. As he felt the water that he has known, the eternal water, that fountain that never ran out that was denied him.
Joel Brooks:And he cried out, I thirst. And here's the good news of the gospel, people, is that Jesus was denied that water so that we might never be denied that water. Jesus experienced that eternal thirst so that we might never ever know that thirst. Jesus went through that for us. So now the question is once again, so who or what are we going to build our life upon?
Joel Brooks:Who are we? Are we going to build our lives upon something fragile, something in which we'll forever fill ourselves, but yet never be fully satisfied? Or will we build our lives on Christ, the solid rock? Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we thank you.
Joel Brooks:We thank you for the suffering you endured on the cross on our behalf, that you endured thirst so that we might never. And, lord Jesus, we pray that the only response that we could have would be to throw our lives completely upon you, that we would be like Lazarus, and we would see you as our only help. We pray this all in your name, Jesus, for your glory and our joy. Amen.