Several days ago an interesting link to a news article
popped up on my phone. The title
of the article, The Dark Side of Being
Rich, intrigued me. My first
reaction was to wonder, wait, what? There’s a dark side to being rich? (Since reading the article I have been
unable to find the link again so I am unable to provide it for you,
unfortunately.) The author of the
article listed several reasons as to why there is a dark side to being rich,
and the most interesting to me was his contention that wealth – especially
great wealth – tends to lead people into extreme self-interest, which leads
them away from concern for those who struggle in life.
There is something
about human nature, especially when combined with nearly unlimited resources,
that tends to favor a path of self-interest. With great resources I may be satisfied to simply indulge
myself in my personal desires without regard to the needs and concerns of
others. The greater the resources,
we can say, the greater the odds that we will travel the path of
self-interest. Some people,
admittedly, might say this is nature’s way of programming us for survival. After all, they might say, it has taken
a certain level of self-interest over the millennia to ensure the survival of
the human race. The gospel
message, however, tells us something very different. The gospel message challenges us to understand that the
health, and indeed the future, of the human race necessitates that we care for
one another and not simply care for ourselves. We are, in essence, our the keepers of our brothers and
sisters.
This morning we are
talking about The Other Lazarus. We are very familiar with the character
of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, whom Jesus resurrected from the dead,
as told in John chapter 11. In
this morning’s Scripture passage, we find another character named Lazarus. He is one of two characters in this
parable Jesus tells, as found in Luke 16:19-31 –
19 “There
was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury
every day.
20 At
his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
21 and
longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The
time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.
The rich man also died and was buried.
23 In
Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with
Lazarus by his side.
24 So
he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the
tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this
fire.’
25 “But
Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good
things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you
are in agony.
26 And
besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so
that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over
from there to us.’
27 “He
answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,
28 for
I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to
this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham
replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No,
father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will
repent.’
31 “He
said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be
convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
In this parable we
are told of a rich man, a man rich enough to pursue what he wanted in
life. He lived a life of luxury
and though it seemed he had everything, in the end he lost his soul, which is
one of the great warnings of Jesus (What
good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his
soul? Or what can a man give in
exchange for his soul? Matthew
16:26).
This is a very common
theme in the teaching of Jesus – the danger of having so much but in the
process losing one’s soul. A
common theme of the gospels could be called be
careful what you wish for, because the things we so often desire – such as
riches – are, in the eyes of Jesus, very dangerous. I should note that the Bible does not say, as many people
assume, that money is the root of all
evil. What the Bible says is
this – the love of money is a root of all
kinds of evil. Some people, eager
for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs
(I Timothy 6:10). The Bible does
not condemn money and wealth as much as if offers warnings about its
dangers. Much of Luke’s gospel, in
fact, centers on this warning – wealth can be very dangerous. It’s not that Jesus is condemning of
wealth in and of itself; but he recognizes the many dangers riches and wealth
pose for us. That is why, in
chapter 12 of Luke Jesus tells us that a
man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15)
and that we should work toward treasure
in heaven (Luke 12:34).
In verse 19 we are
introduced to the rich man. The
rich man lived in luxury every day (verse
19). He dresses, Jesus says,
in very fine clothing and lived in luxury
every day. Architectural Digest would photograph
this man’s home and GQ would put him
on the cover. This is the guy who
would be the envy of everyone because he
had it all. It wasn’t an occasional indulgence, but indulgence was the
order of every day.
The second character
introduced by Jesus is Lazarus, and there couldn’t be a greater difference
between the lives of these two men.
While the rich man enjoys great wealth Lazarus leads a pitiful existence. He is in such poor health someone has
to carry him each day and lay him at the gate of the rich man, in hopes that he
will receive at least some pittance of aid. To add insult to injury, he is covered with sores and is so
weak he could not keep away the dogs that came to lick his sores. Not a pretty picture. It is very easy to recoil and protest
against the graphic nature of this description, but Jesus wants to lift the
veil to disclose reality.
Resources, especially when they are vast, can remove and isolate us from
what constitutes reality for so many.
While the financial
distance between these two men was unimaginably wide, the physical distance was
not. Every day, as he walked
through the gate of his home, the rich man would have to walk by Lazarus. It wasn’t that the rich man had to
venture out in the world to find poverty; poverty was literally on his
doorstep. We don’t have to travel
far to find poverty either, as it is at our doorstep as well. Kentucky has the 5th highest
level of poverty among the fifty states.
A little more than 823,000 Kentuckians, or 19.4 percent of
the state’s population, suffer through poverty (that compares to 15.9 percent
nationally). And this does not
include the thousands more who are barely above the poverty line and live lives
that are very precarious financially.
If we condense Kentucky’s population into our congregation
this morning, forty out of every two hundred people (two hundred being our
average worship attendance) live in poverty, so we could basically take most of
one of our three sections of seats this morning and consider them as living
below the poverty line. That
brings things home in a more realistic way, doesn’t it?
One of the dangers of
wealth, and the rich man in this parable is an example, is the insulation it
provides from reality. Even though
the rich man was not a great physical distance from Lazarus, he was so
insulated from physical need that he became self-absorbed and was, as my mom
would say, unable see beyond the end of his own nose. He was not only indifferent to the need of Lazarus;
evidently, he was blind to the existence of Lazarus. If this rich man noticed Lazarus at all, it was probably to
complain about having to step over him or walk around him when he left his home.
But Jesus puts a
face, and a name, on poverty.
Though the rich man is not named in the parable he is usually called
Dives, which is Latin for rich. In this parable the poor man has a name
while the rich man goes unnamed. Isn’t
that interesting? It is the poor
who are the nameless and the faceless in society. We know the names of the rich – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett –
because you can be famous simply because you are rich. Has anyone ever become famous because
of their poverty? No, because the
poor are anonymous. (There are
people who happened to be both poor and famous – such as Mother Teresa and
Mahatma Gandhi, but they were known for their work with and for the poor, as
well as their advocacy of non-violence.
They were poor, yes, but that is not the reason for which they were well
known). No one has ever gained
fame because of poverty. But here,
in this parable, the poor man is the one given a name and the rich man is
anonymous. When you name the poor,
they become real. Jesus gave the
poor man a name – Lazarus, which means
God is my help. Jesus gave
Lazarus a name because the poor mattered to Jesus.
To make the poor
person the hero in the parable would be a shock to those listening to Jesus,
but it was an even greater shock that one as pitiful as Lazarus would be
granted the seat of honor in eternity – verse 22 says he was seated at Abraham’s side. And what a jolt for the rich man, as
the tables for these two men are turned once they were in eternity.
Jesus was always
reversing the standards and ways of the world – the last will be first, and the first will be last
(Matthew 20:16); the greatest among you will be your servant
(Matthew 23:11); and for whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it
(Matthew 16:25). Here, in keeping with the way Jesus often presented an
opposite way of thinking, it is the poor man who was deemed as righteous. In the day of Jesus the rich were seen
as righteous because they were rich.
If you were poor it was because God had chosen not to bless you, so if you
were poor it was your fault. It
was a first-century version of today’s prosperity
Gospel. If you are wealthy, it
is because God has blessed you. If
you are not wealthy, you must have done something wrong. Who often gets blamed for poverty
today? The poor. They are blamed for their condition
because, as we often hear, they are lazy, they’re not interested in education, they
manage their money badly, etc.
There are some cases where that may be true, but we can’t forget that
there are powerful forces that structure society in ways that make it very
difficult to escape poverty. The
poor may be poor not through any fault of their own but because of the economic
injustice that is so prevalent in our world. Blaming the poor for their plight is not only tragic; it is
also one way to escape any sense of obligation to reach out to them and
minister to them. In our society,
we often like to proclaim how we have pulled
ourselves up by our bootstraps.
But what if you don’t have any boots, let alone the bootstraps that go
along with them? It is a mostly
mistaken assumption to believe that we get to where we are in life purely by our
own hard work and initiative. I
did not. I am blessed to have a
wonderful support system that has helped me throughout my life. I was born into a family that had the
resources to provide me with not only my needs, but many extras as well and, very
importantly, to see that I was able to get a quality education. All along the way I had the benefit of
mentors and benefactors who have helped me in so many ways. There are rare individuals who
accomplish a good deal in life solely on their on merits and efforts, but the
truth is, most of us get to where we are because we are blessed with a great
deal of help and are given a start in life far ahead of many people in our
world. So we must resist the
temptation to place blame upon people for their difficulties in life and, at
the same time, we must recognize and give thanks for the help that we have
received.
Opportunity to help
Lazarus came every day to the rich man but he was indifferent to it. Lazarus is
need personified but his need was ignored by the rich man. It’s not that the rich man was cruel to
Lazarus. He did not curse him as
he stepped around him at the gate of his home or treat him in an ill manner. The tragedy of the rich man was that he
simply didn’t notice Lazarus.
Lazarus was not part of the rich man’s landscape and it seemed perfectly
acceptable that while he wined and dined and lived in luxury that Lazarus
should live in such poverty and misery.
Interestingly, someone shared with me a great observation about this
parable after the early service.
Even in eternity, they observed, the rich man could only see Lazarus as
one who ought to be serving him. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham,
have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool
my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in
your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things,
but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides
all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those
who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to
us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my
family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that
they will not also come to this place of torment.’”
Notice
in verses 24 and 27 the rich man was requesting that Lazarus be put to work to
help him. That’s a fascinating
insight, I think, and I appreciated hearing it.
Early in my ministry here, I told a story about
an experience I had while in seminary.
I’m going to repeat the story, but with a portion that I had not shared
the first time I told the story.
But first, I want to quote some song lyrics. The band in which I play, Hush Harbor, has a new singer,
Aaron Crane. Aaron is the worship
leader at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville and is not only a great
singer, but a very fine songwriter as well. Aaron has written a song title People Like That, which speaks to not only this parable, but also an
experience I had related to the story which I am about to tell (you can hear
Aaron’s song here – https://youtu.be/6zDMq5q4yMM). The lyrics are as follows –
Verse 1
Wind torn shoes
and a t-shirt twice his size
He saw quiet
desperation pouring from that child’s eyes
Then the light
turned green and then he just drove on
Chorus 1
He said, I got a
think about myself,
There’s no time
for no one else
Oh, people like
that. Yeah, people like that.
No matter what I
do or what I say.
It won’t make a
difference any way.
Oh, people like
that. Yeah, people like that.
Bridge
Just one more
thing, I’m not to blame
Oh, for people
like that, people like that.
Yeah, people like
that, people like that.
Verse 2
There’s times in
my life, I was once there too
Been all of them
even walked in their shoes
The privileged and
rich the cast in the ditch
Aren’t really that
far apart.
Without love and
kindness in their heart.
Chorus 2
We gotta open our
eyes and open our ears,
To the pain and
the suffering and all the tears from people like that.
Yeah, people like
that.
Cause what we do
and what we say, can make a difference why I’m here today, for people like
that.
Oh people like
that.
Outro
We all want to
feel love not just despair and shame
It starts with me
and you too, let’s be the change
Oh cause we all
gotta a name
We’re all, people
like that. People like
that.
Ooh, people like
that. People like that.
Oh, people like
that. Yeah, people like
that.
Ooh, people like
that. Yeah, people like
that.
Getta a little
love and hope and faith, people like that.
When I was in
seminary I had a class that was about experiencing the realities of life and
ministry. One of three very
interesting and required projects was something called The Plunge. We were asked to refrain from shaving
and bathing for most of a week, to put on old clothes, and then were left in
downtown Louisville for a weekend with nothing but one piece of identification
and one dollar. Do you know where
you go to eat when you have one dollar?
White Castle. At that time,
which was 1983, you could get a meal for a dollar. But a dollar’s worth of food from White Castle won’t get you
through an entire weekend. Not
only were meals a concern, but finding a place to sleep was very much a concern
as well. I slept on a pile of
plywood in the foundation of the Galt House East, which was under construction
at the time. I thought it was nice
to tell the rest of the class that I stayed at the Galt House.
On Saturday I was
really hungry, and I met two young men about my age who had been living on the
streets for quite a while. They
told me they would take me to a mission that served good food, and I was very
appreciative of their help. I have
to say, being a somewhat picky eater, that the meal I received was one of the
best meals I have ever been given.
When you’re hungry, you find that you get far less picky about what you
will eat. Those two young men were
really helpful to me, and I was grateful for their help and for the assistance
that I received from that mission.
The next week, as I
was driving through downtown Louisville making a delivery for work, I looked
out the window and saw one of those two young men walking down the street. This was someone who took me in and
helped me when I was vulnerable, and I felt a sudden stab of compassion and, a
measure of guilt, as I was able to go back to my life. I stopped at a traffic light and
wondered what I should do, and just like the character in Aaron’s song, when
the light turned green, I went on my way.
After all these years – 34 years – I still feel guilty and wonder what
happened to those two young men, and I wonder what I could have done to help
them.
There are few ways in
which the church can be as powerfully like Jesus as when they love and care for
the poor. What is God saying to us
about the poverty in our world? Do
we hear God telling us that life is not about amassing for ourselves while
others are suffering in poverty?
This is more than a parable; it is a warning, and one I hope that we
heed.
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