Trinity 1 – Luke 16:19-31
The story of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel from St. Luke is intriguing in many respects. It is often referred to as a parable, but it does not bear some of the common characteristics of a parable.
Usually when Jesus tells a parable, he says that it is a parable, and then afterwards gives a more literal explanation of its meaning. His parables also don’t include actual names: no specific name is given, for example, for the good Samaritan or the prodigal son. They are just symbolic people.
But in today’s story, Lazarus and Abraham are both named. And the other typical features of a parable are also missing. This leaves us with the thought that when Jesus said, “There was a rich man,” it is possible if not likely that there really was a rich man.
And this leaves us with the thought that the events in the afterlife involving this rich man, and Lazarus and Abraham, may very well be real events, which, in their essence, really happened as Jesus describes them.
The TV show “Cheers” from several years ago had a theme song that said, “You wanna go where everybody knows your name.” I suppose that’s true.
We all eventually want to go to paradise – to heaven – where God will know our names, and accept us as one of his own dear children. We want to have the comfort of knowing that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
But does God, in this sense, actually know your name? Will he recognize you, and welcome you into heaven, when the time comes?
It is noteworthy that Abraham is named in today’s story. The Bible calls Abraham the friend of God.
Abraham is also the spiritual father of all people – from all nations – who believe God’s life-giving Word, and whose faith is credited to them as righteousness. God definitely knows Abraham, and he calls him by name.
It is also noteworthy that the poor beggar Lazarus is likewise named. In his miserable earthly life he was probably one of the most anonymous people in his community. Few noticed him. Even fewer knew anything about him.
But God knew him as his own dear son. The rich man who lived on the other side of the gate, near where he sat, likely did not know his name. But God knew his name.
His name was Lazarus. That name means “God provides help.” And God was indeed his helper.
Neither the rich man nor anyone else gave him anything, but God in his rich love gave him the gospel. He gave him an eternal hope, and a pledge that his sins were forgiven through the promise of the coming Messiah.
And, like Abraham his ancestor, Lazarus believed God’s promises, and was saved in that faith. When he died, therefore, the angels gently carried him to paradise, and to the fellowship of Abraham and all the saints.
In the eternal scheme of things, it mattered that God knew him personally, by name, and that God claimed him as one of his own. In the eternal scheme of things, it didn’t matter that in this world he was a nobody – unnoticed, and without any power or prestige.
In marked contrast to Lazarus and his impoverished existence, the rich man did have power and prestige in this world. He was wealthy, and lived in great comfort. And he no doubt went to great effort during his earthly life to “make a name for himself” in his community.
He was probably aware of the sick and needy beggar sitting outside his gate, but he didn’t care about him. He gave him nothing – not even the scraps from the table that were going to be thrown away anyway.
The rich man thought only about himself. Other people were important and useful only insofar as they could do something to serve him, or to contribute toward the increase of his comfort.
We can assume that the rich man was someone who was very well-known in his community. But we don’t know his name, because in the Lord’s story, he is anonymous.
From God’s perspective, he had no name. He was a man without repentance and faith; a man whose heart remained hardened against God’s Word.
On Judgment Day – after the general resurrection of all the dead and the reunion of the souls and bodies of all men – this rich man will therefore be among those to whom Jesus will soberly declare:
“I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Like the rich man, maybe we spend quite a bit of effort in “making a name for ourselves” in this world. Do we desire fame? Are we driven by a desire for people to know who we are, and to notice us?
But please remember that in the eternal scheme of things, it doesn’t matter how well-known you are in this life, or how many people know your name. What matters is whether or not God knows your name.
If in your heart you push back against the working of God’s Spirit – proudly defying God’s will, and denying your need for his grace and pardon – and if you therefore have not experienced his deliverance from the guilt and corruption of sin that God offers only in Christ, then, in that sense, God does not know your name.
If in this life you live only for yourself and your own fame, for the satisfaction of your selfish cravings and the fulfillment of your personal ambitions; then in the next life you will be anonymous, as far as God is concerned.
You will have no place in the company of Abraham, Lazarus, and all the saints who died in faith, knowing God, and being known by God. Instead, you will be cast out.
But God does know your name when the name of his Son is placed upon you in your baptism; and when, in repentance and faith, you receive the saving name of Jesus into your heart and life, and place your trust in it. Of Jesus, St. Peter says:
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
And you can be assured that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life when you cling for salvation to the Lamb of God himself, who alone takes away the sin of the world.
Ponder these things especially when you are preparing to partake of the Lord’s Supper. There we praise Christ, the Lamb of God, as he makes himself sacramentally present among us on his altar-throne; and as he feeds us with his body and blood for the remission of sins: so that we can be at peace: with God and within ourselves.
Some people might wonder if there is a possibility for people to repent of their sins and be converted once they are already dead and in hell. The Bible does not hold out such a possibility, and today’s story likewise doesn’t suggest that such a thing happens. Just the opposite, in fact.
When the rich man found himself in the torment of Hades, he was able to see Lazarus a long way off at the side of Abraham. Lazarus was experiencing the bliss of heaven, and all the comforts that he had been denied during his earthly life.
But the rich man was not able or willing to grasp any of this. He was at this point languishing in hell: on account of the sinful callousness, and indifference to suffering, that had marked his earthly life.
But when he noticed Lazarus at the side of Abraham, all he could see was a man whose reason to exist was to serve him. He said to Abraham:
“Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”
The rich man had not changed in the least. In hell he was just as selfish and self-centered as he had been in his earthly life. And he was just as dismissive and dishonoring of Lazarus as before.
But Lazarus was not going to be sent away from the joys of his new heavenly home to be the rich man’s servant, or to wait on him. Abraham replied to his damned descendant in Hades:
‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.”
Jesus does not tell us this story in order to satisfy all our curiosities about the afterlife. This story is not a comprehensive explanation of what heaven and hell are like, as the souls of the dead who are now there await the resurrection of all flesh and the final judgment.
But Jesus tells us this story in order to warn us about the fate of people like the rich man. He tells us as much as we need to know, to be able to avoid that fate for ourselves.
As the story continues, we see that the rich man once again wants Lazarus to be sent out of paradise, to perform yet another task at his bidding. He then said to Abraham:
“I beg you…, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.”
On one occasion Jesus had said to his listeners:
“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
The rich man’s request may therefore have been an indication of the remnants of a natural human affection for his brothers that still remained in his unregenerated and now unregeneratable heart. He was a condemned man, but he was still a man.
But this request may also have arisen from the rich man’s desire to avoid the added misery of having his brothers join him where he was, and then to rebuke and berate him for eternity because of the bad example he had set for them in life: which had resulted in their sharing in his punishment.
It’s easy to imagine that the damned spend a lot of time blaming each other for their fate.
In any case, Abraham answered this second request with these words:
“They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”
Indeed, the rich man’s brothers did have Moses and the Prophets. And so do we.
Through Moses and the Prophets – and through all of Holy Scripture – God himself speaks to the human mind and conscience. Listen to him. Listen to God as he warns you of the consequences of unbelief.
A proud skeptic not accepting the reality of hell doesn’t make hell cease to exist, by means of his skepticism. An arrogant atheist not expecting to be judged for his evil life after death, doesn’t cause that judgment not to happen, by means of his atheism.
A general indifference toward the warnings of a holy and righteous God, which characterizes so many people today, does not result in God’s warnings being about nothing.
But also, listen to God as he invites you to come before him in humility; as he invites you in faith to receive his gracious forgiveness and cleansing in Christ; and as he invites you by the indwelling of his Spirit to be at peace with him, now and forever.
God would have wanted the rich man’s brothers to heed this call to repentance, from the Prophet Isaiah:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
God also wants us to heed this call; to repent of our sins; and to go forth from our own encounter with God’s mercy bearing the fruits of repentance, in lives of loving service to those in need.
And, God wants you to be comforted by these words from the same prophet: as your faith in Christ inclines your hearts to the promises of God, and opens your hearts to the gifts of God:
“You will say in that day: ‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.’”
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.’”
The Lord truly has done gloriously, in the deliverance from death and judgment, and in the salvation from sin and despair, that he has prepared for you, by the death and resurrection of his Son. He has done gloriously in making the testimony of his Word available to you, and in offering you the grace of his sacraments.
He has done gloriously in inviting you to share in the eternal blessings that he bestows on Abraham and Lazarus – and on all who trust in him. And as to one whom he knows by name, and whom he loves fully and deeply through his Son, God gives to your faith this song to sing:
Lord, let at last Thine angels come, To Abram’s bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber, keep My body safe, in peaceful sleep,
Until Thy reappearing.
And then, from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior, and my Fount of grace,
Lord Jesus Christ, My prayer attend, And I will praise Thee without end. Amen.