The Rich Man and Lazarus
(Bible Study - June 1999) There was a certain rich man … and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. (Luke 16 19, 20)
The story of the rich man and Lazarus is perplexing! It seems to be teaching wrong doctrine; the setting of the parable is ludicrous, and the point of the story is not immediately obvious. We need to delve into the possible motivation for telling this story, and also understand the cultural context, in order to appreciate its meaning.
Furthermore, there is the temptation to explain this parable by noting what it is not saying, rather than focusing on the positive Bible lesson being taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. We often take this approach in an attempt to make Bible doctrine crystal clear to interested friends and Sunday school scholars, not realizing that, by doing it this way, we may be forfeiting the heart of the message that Jesus was seeking to teach.
This is a parable
Obviously, this parable was not told as a conundrum concerning the nature of the
afterlife. The object of the story was aimed at the behavior of the Pharisees right then
and there! Even the most orthodox Bible commentaries are forced to admit that this is a "parable"
and not a story about absolute reality. The sequencing in the Gospel of Luke makes it
clear that this is one of a series of parables aimed at correcting the false attitudes of
the Pharisees.
T his tale pictures "souls" being blessed, or tormented, in the afterlife, and while this image may be embraced by many in Christianity as authentic, the concept of saved and condemned souls having conversations with each other across a "great gulf" strains credulity. One orthodox commentator considering this says: "It is probable that there will not be, nor are, any such dialogues or discourses between glorified saints and damned sinners."
You cannot have it both ways! Either this is an allegory or it isn’t. Orthodox commentators seem to pick and chose which parts of this parable are reality, and which aren’t, in an attempt to satisfy their preconceived notions. The scriptures plainly say that the "soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4, 20) so attributing any idea, other than allegory, to any part of this parable would be a stretch of the imagination. If we accept this story as reality (or bits and pieces of it as some would have it) then we might as well believe that animals actually could talk, in Aesop’s fables, or a Mouse (Mickey) can sing for that matter!
Prevailing myths of Jesus’ day
Why then does Jesus use this setting to make his point? To answer this question we
have first to take a closer look at the religious context of the first-century Jews.
At the time of Christ, Greek culture and philosophical ideas had permeated the entire ancient Roman world. The Greeks believed in an immortal soul that was inherent in man and was the seat of his intellect and life experience. Upon death the essence (soul) of a person descended to a nether world of disembodied spirits who resided below the earth in Hades, a place reached by a journey across the mythical river Styx.
Whether Greek intellectuals actually believed this or not is a matter of conjecture. Some Greek philosophers, such as Lucretius, had actually done experiments aimed at disproving the very nature of an immortal soul. Nevertheless, we might call this belief a common Greek superstition, and one the Jews (at least some!) had expropriated in the following way: some believed that upon death "souls" went to the Garden of Eden, a belief transformed by Islam into Allah’s Garden of Paradise, but the most prevalent idea was that the "souls" of the righteous were held in Abraham’s bosom to await reuniting with the body on the day of resurrection.
It was a confused belief (and still is), and one almost has the feeling that Jesus is deliberately using it to both debunk it, as well as to point out an important moral message in terms that the Pharisees could not reject, since it was based on one of their own cultural myths.
Obvious folly of the idea
The Jews accepted this picture of Abraham’s bosom very much like many Christians
accept the idea that the Apostle Peter supposedly sits at the Heavenly Pearly Gates, with
the ledger of the faithful dead, and the keys of admission to bid them enter. It is a
fanciful picture, and if you believe in universal accountability, it presents an almost
impossibly busy task for the Apostle! So it would be with Abraham, if this picture were
literal, how crowded and unpleasant would the situation become as tens upon thousands died
and were comforted in his bosom.
Amazingly, most believers in such myths rarely examine the details, nor bother to figure out the logical conclusion of the imagery. Again, perhaps that was exactly what Christ was trying to do with the Pharisees; i.e. not only teach them an important moral lesson, but also show them what an impossibly ludicrous position a belief in the soul residing in the bosom of Abraham must have been.
We do know that faithful followers of Christ had no doubt as to the truth of the matter. In dealing with her brother, who was, of course, also named Lazarus, Martha could say: "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24). Notice that she didn’t say, "I know his soul is comforted in Abraham’s bosom"! Now that we know what the parable is not saying let’s get on with the message!
The rich man
Our story starts (Luke 16:19) by describing the opulence of a "certain rich
man," -- he was arrayed in purple and fine linen and dined at the most expensive
restaurants every day. The word "certain" here, as in the next verse,
has the general sense of "any man," implying that the message of this
story should be applied in a broad sense. Namely, wherever wealth is blind to the needs
of those less fortunate.
Sometimes there is a tendency in our industrialized western culture to blame misfortune entirely on the individual. Even worse, we might expect that the needs of others are entirely the social responsibility of the State. Yet this parable is not aimed at the State, nor even at the Synagogue (which, like our modern ecclesias, made welfare provision for its members). Instead the focus here is on personal accountability.
The rich man is not named, but tradition has often referred to him after the name "Dives" which is the noun used in the Latin Vulgate Bible for "rich man." He is dressed in purple, mention of which may seem rather strange to our present thinking, yet cloth dyed purple was extremely expensive. The dye was made by crushing the small gland of the marine mollusk of the species murex or purpura (hence the name of the color). The Phoenician people developed this process and, for a long time, they kept it a closely-guarded secret. It took a great deal of work, and a large number of mollusks, to extract enough dye to make a cloth big enough for a normal garment. Nevertheless, the brightness of the color, and the fastness under laundering, made it worth every drachma to those who could afford it; only nobility and very rich merchants were in that class. So when Jesus says that this man was dressed in purple, he was indicating that this was not a person who was just rich, but one who was fabulously rich and probably a nobleman.
The desperate beggar
While the rich man is unnamed, except by tradition, the poor man is called Lazarus,
the only name explicitly mentioned in any parable. The name is derived from the Hebrew
El-Azar meaning appropriately, "God help him." Whether there is any
connection between this name and the friend of Jesus raised at Bethany is a matter of
conjecture, but I am not one who generally believes in coincidences in scripture. God has
put everything in His word for a purpose.
This parable preceded the resurrection of Martha’s brother and may well have been a prophetic sign to the Pharisees which, of course, they ignored. In fact, rather than being impressed by the "sign" of the raising of Lazarus of Bethany, they sought instead to kill Jesus as a result of this miracle (John 11:53). The concluding words of the story would seem to indicate as much, "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31). This conclusion naturally applies, even more so, to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Death changed everything
Lazarus sat at the gate of the rich man, where that man had ample opportunity to see
him every day and be aware of his plight. Sometimes we are ignorant of the needs of
another, but to be fully aware and do nothing is to be without excuse. We find that the
beggar Lazarus died first, to be followed sometime later by the rich man. Both are laid in
the grave and we find death is the great equalizer! The grave neither knows rich nor poor,
regardless of the size and wealth expended on the tombstone or mausoleum.
The parable then depicts a complete reversal of fortune for each man after death. Alive, the rich man enjoyed nothing but pleasures while poor Lazarus faced only misery and sorrow.
The Psalmist says he was envious of the foolish, who prosper in this world, until he went into the sanctuary of God and understood their end (paraphrased from Psa. 73:3, 12, 17). In capsule this Psalm parallels very closely the message Christ is conveying in this powerful parable.
Direct hit on Pharisees
The Pharisees believed wealth in this life indicated God blessed a person and poverty
was a curse as a result of sin. Recall, even the disciples equated sin with a
person’s misfortune in life when they inquired concerning the blind man: "Master,
who did sin, this man, or his parents?" (John 9:2).
Indeed, poverty can come from laziness as Paul indicated in the epistle to the Thessalonians: "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat" (II Thess. 3:10). But being poor may simply be the result of circumstances beyond the control of an individual, for not all have been born with the same advantages in life, nor with the same talents.
In the same manner those who are rich are indeed blessed by God, but not in the way the Pharisees believed. Riches in themselves are not a guarantee of the favor of the Lord; instead it is what one chooses to do with those riches that really matters. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (I Tim. 6:17). He didn’t tell the rich to give up their wealth, but rather the message is to use it wisely and generously in the service of the Lord.
So it was with the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man in this parable was selfish and uncaring. He used his wealth only for himself, ignoring the very obvious needs of his brother Lazarus. In the age to come there will be neither riches nor poverty, but only those who are rich in the things of God will experience its blessings.
Next, God willing, "Some funny stories"
John C. Bilello