Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

Antioch Christian Fellowship

Sept. 30, 2007

Our life depends on our circulatory system.  In delivering oxygen and nutrients all over our body, it could be said that our circulatory system delivers life.  We treasure our hearts because they are the control center of whole system.  The condition of our hearts is the condition of our life.  There are key indicators used to measure the condition of our hearts.  The last thing we want to feel is numbness on our left side or a pain in our chest.  We know that a bad cholesterol number, a bad EKG can reveal that immediate action may be required to avoid disaster, medication or even invasive surgery may be required just to stay alive:  severe treatment for a severe condition.

Today, Jesus is concerned about the condition of our hearts, our spiritual hearts because the condition of our hearts is the condition of our life.   Jesus tells a parable in response to the scoffing Pharisees, who are described in Luke 16 as “lovers of money.” The Pharisees as a group are not followers of Jesus, even though they do seem to be around him a lot.  When we encounter them, we generally find them questioning Jesus, discussing him among themselves or as we read here, scoffing at him.

Scoffing, mocking, ridiculing is never a good thing in Scripture.  Some of the harshest judgments in Scripture are reserved for scoffers.  Scoffing is a key indicator of the condition of our hearts and is dangerously close to disaster.  Luke uses the word again in chapter 23 describing those standing under the cross, looking at Jesus scoffing, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God . . .!"

How do we become scoffers?  It’s like plaque that builds up in our arteries, it doesn’t happen over night and it gets worse over time.  It begins early, it begins when we are children and are hurt by those we least suspect, by those we consider family or friends.  Scoffing is a way of protecting myself; it’s a way of hurting someone else before they can hurt me.  Because we learn that we can’t depend on people, we turn to things, things of the world to depend on.  People scoff at Jesus because he attacks something they trust in, something they feel a need to protect, something they depend on.  Jesus has just been speaking about the perils of wealth, about how easily money can become our master and he gives a general principle for living, saying “No one can serve two masters; for you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  And then just in case the Pharisees are not getting the point, he gets very specific, saying, “You cannot serve God and money."

It is at this point that the text says,  “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him.”  The Pharisees scoffed at the wisdom of Jesus because of the condition of their hearts.  Their hearts were hard.  This metaphor is used throughout Scripture, old and new testaments to describe us when we are no longer able to receive the refreshing air and the renewing nourishment that God provides to our lives.  We become so dependent, so trusting in other sources that we no longer see a need for him and we come dangerously close to disaster.

So Jesus tells a parable to people flirting with disaster.  It is a story of a rich man and a poor man, but could just as easily be a story about a well educated woman and an uneducated woman.  It could just as easily be a story about an influential family and a nobody.  Wealth is used as the symbol of any worldly resource that replaces our heavenly resource.  Relying on worldly resources focuses our attention on today’s world, which is transitory in nature.  We cannot focus on two things at once and when we focus on the resources of this world, our vision of God becomes dim and remote; we loose focus on him and feed our hearts in unhealthy ways.  And so Jesus tells us a severe parable intended to awaken us to note the condition of our hearts.  

Just before he tells us this parable, Jesus says, “God knows the condition of your heart.”  Jesus tells us this parable because, being God, he knows the condition of our hearts.  He looks beyond what we do, he is not interested in what the world thinks of us, but sees and judges our hearts.  Again, Jesus gets specific saying, “What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.”  Jesus tells a parable, illustrating just how detestable it is to God.

It is the story of a man with a serious heart condition.  He is an unnamed, lavishly wealthy man, living royally.  His life is an example of one lived relying on worldly resources.  This man is so consumed with his own life that he takes no notice of the man, Lazarus laying at his gate, his need exposed to the world.  It is significant that this man is named in the parable; he is the only named person in any of Jesus’ parables.  Lazarus means “God helps.”  Lazarus is probably crippled and has been dumped at the gate by others, either too ill or too hungry to move away from the wild dogs that harass him in the street.  The rich man is blind to the need around him, blindness resulting from the condition of his heart.  Lazarus would be content with only the crumbs from the rich man’s table, but none are provided.  Lazarus is not out of sight, but clearly out of mind.  His need is obvious to any who bother to see.

Upon their deaths, unencumbered by worldly resources, their situations are different.  The man who used to be rich can now see and he sees Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, a place known by Jews to be the place of blessing, where the faithful would be received.   The rich man is seen as suffering, tormented even.  What the man, who used to be rich discovers is that what he devoted his life to, those transitory things he trusted in life cannot help him in death.  It is in this state of suffering that the man who used to trust in money now sees Lazarus.  The man who used to rely on wealth cries out to Abraham to relieve his suffering. 

But his ancestor cannot help him.  There is a yawning chasm that divides them.  Given that it is too late for him, the man who used to honor money cries out on behalf of his five brothers, those still alive.  Wanting to spare his brothers from his own judgment, he cries again to Abraham, “Send Lazarus, send him to tell my brothers it matters how you live, it matters what you believe.”    But Abraham says, “They already have been told.  They have Holy Scripture.  Any message that someone from the dead could bring would be no clearer.” 

It is true.  The Israelites had been told for centuries about the importance of the condition of their hearts.  They had heard from Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos to name just a few.  This is not new news.

But knowing his brothers well, knowing the strong seductive power that worldly resources held over him, the man insists,  “They need a miraculous sign, then they will believe, if a dead person visits them, they will believe.”  Abraham says, “Why another sign when so many have been given?  God has often worked mightily only to see people’s lack of belief.  Failure to believe Moses and the prophets demonstrates the condition of a person’s heart.  If they do not believe Holy Scripture, they will not believe even if a man should rise from the dead.”

It is true.  Those reading Luke’s gospel immediately recognize that even Jesus’ resurrection is not enough to convince.

What is the condition of your heart?  Scripture uses the heart as a figure of speech for the whole person.  Are we a hardened, scoffing people?  Where is our trust?   What do we rely on?  Have we been so disappointed, so wounded, so abused by life that we don’t believe that anyone can really help and so we turn to what gives us some temporary relief?  The answer to our hardness, our scoffing lies in the name of the man no one would help, Lazarus, which means “God helps.” 

The prophet Ezekiel (19:6) foretells of a time when God will give to his people a new spirit.  He will “take out our stony hearts and give to us hearts of flesh.”  He gives living hearts able to hear his voice and follow him.  He gives freely to any who desire it.  If we are in need of a heart transplant, God is just the physician to do it.  We can accept the offer, or reject it.

The man who once relied on money rejected it and so did his brothers.  But we today are hearing the story.   What do we hear?  Do we hear the plea to repent of our scoffing, hardened hearts?  This is not a story we want to hear because it attacks those things we rely on.  It attacks whatever we honor, whatever we consider more important than God.  That is why we scoff and harden our hearts because it is easier to ridicule God than to give up what we honor most. 

We are privileged to hear this story today, painful though it is.  We have the diagnosis and treatment for our terminal illness.  The only question is how will we respond.  It makes a difference how we live.  How we live is directly proportional to the condition of our hearts.  Does our heart belong to God or the world?  We cannot serve two masters.  It makes a difference who we belong to.  It makes a difference eternally.