“Listen up”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, September 25, 2022
Luke 16:19-31 (Forward, p. 58) CEV p. 1084
Today’s account of the rich man and Lazarus has to be one of the most damning accounts in all of Holy Scripture. There isn’t even a shred of commendation, a shred of positivity, that can be said about the rich man. The account tells us that he wore expensive clothes and every day eat the very best food. In the culture and society of that day, both of these were rather excessive. Very few people could afford to wear that kind of clothing, and certainly not on any every day or casual basis. And, as for food, the majority of people living in Palestine at the time lived basically from hand to mouth and could barely afford even one decent meal a day. Fancy meals like this were a rarity, reserved only for very exceptional and unusual circumstances. And so, by the standards of his day, this rich man was clearly ‘over the top’, clearly excessive.
And what was even worse with this man than his conspicuous excessive consumption, was his utter blindness or disregard to those living around him, those living at his very doorstep. How could he not have noticed the beggar who either was daily dropped off at his gate or actually lived there permanently? One would think that this rich man could not have missed seeing him, missed stepping over or aground him as he came and went. And yet, he seems obvious to his existence, and was happy just to let him feed on his table scraps. And, not only that, but how could he not have noticed the man’s abject state, his pussy running sores such that even the mangy street dogs would come to lick them? And yet, even this, the rich man seems to have failed to notice.
As it transpired, both of these men died, which given the abject state of the beggar, was quite expected. With the rich man, perhaps not. In life, they had shared the same community and neighbourhood, but in death this was not to be. The beggar, here identified by name (Lazarus), ends up in heaven, ‘in the bosom of Abraham’, the place of honour next to Abraham, while the rich man finds himself suffering greatly in the place called Hades. In great pain and torment, he begs Abraham to send the beggar to him to relieve his torment. Interestingly, the rich man had no use for him in life, and very little contract either, but now expects Lazarus to be his errand boy. He still is dismissing Lazarus as a real feeling person and expects him to still be subservient to him.
So, even in his death, the rich man has not lost even an iota of his self-absorption or his sense of entitlement. He is unable to hear, or to see, either the needs of those around him, or the words of the Hebrew Scriptures. In a sense, he was both deaf and blind, fixated, concerned, only with his own welfare and ease.
Abraham tells him, reminds him, that now the tables are turned, that justice is finally being done. Whereas he, the rich man, had enjoyed a life of ease and abundance during his earthly life, while Lazarus had not, now things are changed. Now Lazarus is happy and fulfilled, and he, the rich man, is unhappy, destitute and in pain.
And, even when he is rebuffed and reproved by Abraham, the rich man still cannot ‘get out of’ the hole he has dug for himself. He still is blind and uncaring. The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to go to the rich man’s brothers to warn them aware from this awful fate. (in a sense, he is finally thinking of someone else, but not much. He still sees Lazarus as his flunky.) Abraham tells him that they have already been warned, warned by the Scriptures. So, like himself, his brothers have been blind to the human needs around them and blind to what the Scriptures say about our need, our responsibility to care for them. But then the rich man protests, ‘yes, but if someone from the dead was to return and warn them, it would be different. They would indeed listen.’
However, even in this logic, he is lambasted by Abraham. In what we, in hindsight, can see as a reference to Jesus and His resurrection, he tells the rich man that even if someone was to rise from the dead, they would still not listen. And, indeed, is that not the case, the case in Jesus’ day and the case now? People do not listen, or heed, either the Scriptures or human need, even though Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. I pray that none of us should ever be like this. Amen.
Forward notes: “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’” (verse 31).
“A very faithful Christian I know recently shocked me. He confessed that his brother-in-law has never understood the centrality of his faith in his life. This man quit his job to engage in full-time philanthropic work. He has been doing remarkable things to bring hope and healing to our world for the last 10 years. His brother-in-law referred to his faith as a ‘crutch’ and wondered why he couldn’t set it aside. He also couldn’t understand why he quit his job to work full-time at giving back and helping to heal our broken world.
“Some people will never get it. Just as in this story, ‘even if someone rises from the dead,’ they won’t open themselves up to a different way of life. As for me, my faith is not a crutch that I cling to because I’m not strong enough to walk through this life on my own. My faith is not some lucky rabbit’s foot on a key chain that I carry around with me just in case. No, my faith is central to my life. Far from being a crutch, it guides me, uplifts me, and sustains me.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Do you have someone in your life who sees faith as a crutch? How can you talk to them about your experience of the risen Lord?”
A concluding note: those who see our faith as a ‘crutch’ miss out on several realities. Firstly, and most importantly, it is not actually our ‘faith’, whether that faith is defined, incorrectly I might add, as a set of beliefs, or is defined as an active trust in someone or something, that is the crutch. It is the person, namely Jesus Christ, that is the crutch. Secondly, a crutch is more than necessary for a person has broken his or her leg such that regular walking is impossible. The crutch is necessary, and vitally important, for the person to regain strength and mobility in that limb. And thirdly—this truth would counter any claim that such a crutch is necessary only for a short time, only temporarily—is the reality that all of us need help. As one of the Twelve Steps of AA and associated programs remind us, “We are powerless to help ourselves.” That truth is valid on all sorts of levels, not only in power to overcome obstacles and problems but also to give us meaning and purpose and strength and direction. Any person who can’t see or appreciate this has simply never looked carefully at his or her own life and functioning and spotted what is missing.