Luke 16:14-31 The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

 It is important to notice that in this passage Jesus is no longer talking to his disciples. The previous parable of the Unjust Manager (Lk 16:1-13) was directed to his disciples. In that parable he says to his disciples that we should use mammon shrewdly to gain entry to the eternal homes. And Jesus finishes that sequence with the warning that we cannot serve two masters. (Lk 16:13) Let’s make God the unifying heart of our lives! That Jesus teaches his disciples this means that he knows his disciples don’t have unified hearts. Our hearts are divided and distracted by many things. And the antidote to this idolatry is to follow Jesus. We don’t follow Jesus because God’s love lives in us without competitors; we are disciples so that through following Jesus our hearts will come to love God alone, and all else through and because of this love.

And then, immediately after that parable and its teaching, from 16:14 onward, we are told that the Pharisees – “who were lovers of money” - ridiculed Jesus. But Jesus sees their hypocrisy. Their hearts do not match their outward piety, and they justify themselves in the sight of others. But God does not love outward show, but it is the heart, and the true heart, that God desires in us. Jesus tells them that the law is to be fulfilled, and not ignored or only acknowledged by outward behaviour. (16:16-18)

Then – and Jesus is still addressing the Pharisees not his disciples – he tells this parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. It means something that the text deliberately has Jesus tell this parable to those who are lovers of money and will kill him, and not directly to his disciples.

But what does it mean? Sometimes, it is easier to say what a passage doesn’t mean before we turn to what it means. This is one of those passages. Here are some thoughts on what this passage does not mean.

• It does not follow from this parable that wealth is evil. It is not wealth that is the problem. On the contrary, wealth is a blessing from God. The problem is that we make wealth into mammon.
   
• It does not follow from this parable that we should feel guilty about wealth. The presence of poverty does not mean that wealth is morally wrong.
  
  
• And it does not follow from this parable that the presence of poverty means that the disciples of Jesus must universally be without wealth.

It does follow from this parable that the Pharisees, as opponents of Jesus, and who were lovers of money and hypocrites, rejected the law and the prophets and neglected their duty to the poor. So, just as in the parable, the rich man’s rejection of his duties to the poor and his rejection of the law and the prophets resulted in his rejection in the post-mortem reversal, so too the Pharisees are rejected. So, the parable is a parable of condemnation and rejection of the rich man and therefore (because the parable is directed to them) of the Pharisees. But the parable also points to the larger story of the gospel. The Pharisees reject Jesus in his ministry, preferring their vanity and love of money, and refuse to hear the call of God. And this rejection of Jesus will result in his crucifixion, and when he returns from the dead they will still reject him and his message! (Lk 16:31)

But is that all we are to make of this parable? No. Like any other parable of condemnation there is a message for everyone, whether disciple or not. In the previous parable of the Unjust Manager, the disciples were told to use their wealth to be welcomed into the eternal homes. (Lk 16:9) It is the divided human heart, the heart that prefers competitors to God, that is to be combatted by a generosity of giving and living. And Jesus then tells us that we cannot serve two masters. We are to serve God alone. (See also Lk 4:8 for an account of Jesus rejecting this temptation.) That Jesus teaches the danger of a divided heart to his disciples means that he knows his disciples have divided hearts. (Otherwise, why bother telling us this?) It is in the following of Jesus that our hearts will be purified. If our hearts become more and more divided, and gradually turn more and more to God’s competitors like mammon, then we will lose our discipleship. We will end up loving a competitor to God, not God. And that is the warning for all disciples in this parable and teaching (Lk 16:14-31), even though it is directed at the opponents of Jesus. The end point of the unhealed human heart is rejection of Jesus, and our rejection according to the parable.

(And remember, the full sweep of the good news of Jesus is for all people, even those who have rejected Jesus.)