C, Post-Pentecost 16 Proper 21 - Luke 16 "Rich in God"
The psalmist thinks about his
death. He calls on God’s name as he
ponders his mortality, lifting up God’s cup of salvation. In the presence of his people, he peacefully
can make promises to God. A confession made,
and paid with God’s peace, even while he remembers his forthcoming death.
Elsewhere in the Psalm he cries
out to the Lord, “The snares of death
encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and
anguish. Then I called on the name of
the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet
from stumbling; I will walk before the
LORD in the land of the living.”
(Psalm 116: 3–4, 8–9 ESV)
In the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, Jesus focuses us on death, heaven and hell, or Hades. This parable follows on from the beginning of
Luke chapter sixteen, where Jesus tells of another rich man who recalls the
management of his dishonest servant.
Both these texts put life in
context with our upcoming death. In the
parable of the dishonest manager, which we heard as our Gospel reading last
week, the rich man says, ‘What is this
that I hear about you? Turn in the
account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ (Luke 16:2 ESV)
Jesus puts it to us that one day
our management will end. We hear how the
manager reacts; how do you react as Jesus puts the question of your death
before you? What has your management of
God’s gifts been like? Digging or
begging like the dishonest manager is not going to work. After all, the more you dig the more you
realise you are only digging you way further into dishonesty! And begging seems shameful because of corrupt
pride within.
The dishonest manager then
decided to cut the rich man’s debts in half so the rich man’s debtors will
receive the dishonest man into their houses.
The dishonest man can’t dig or beg, so he does what he is good at! He is dishonest with the rich man’s money!
This parable messes with our
heads, because we think the dishonest manager should be disciplined for his
dishonest affairs with the rich man’s debtors.
But no! The master commends the
dishonest manager for his shrewdness, his thoughtful actions. Why does he praise him? Why does it mess with our heads?
Jesus sets us up in this parable,
to expose the reality of our human nature.
Our sense of human justice and the richness of our righteousness is
cornered by our human-centred sense of right and wrong; good and evil. This parable messes with our heads because our
focus is on ourselves and money, rather than God or the rich man’s mercy.
The parable starts to swing into
context when we realise, we are the dishonest managers and death recalls our
management. Payment of debt is not money,
but rather the cost of sin before God.
The dishonest manager acts shrewdly by not exacting the full debt from
the rich man’s debtors. Likewise, we who
have wittingly and unwittingly misused God’s gifts, dishonest managers in God’s
eyes, forgive others their debts just as our debts are forgiven, by he who
honestly manages our affairs.
Jesus is the one true honest
manager serving God in the face of death.
He ends by saying, “No servant can
serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
money.” (Luke 16:13 ESV)
However, Luke reveals not just
the disciples were listening to Jesus but also the pharisees who were lovers of
money, and they ridiculed Jesus. These
temple men saw themselves as rich men.
Like us their focus and perspective was wrong. Their sense of right and wrong was built on a
richness other than the mercy of God and his love.
He addresses the pharisees with
the Gospel reading for today, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. But in doing so introduces the parable with four
very unusual verses.
“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and
they ridiculed him. And he said to them,
“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. “The Law and the Prophets were until John;
since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces
his way into it. But it is easier for heaven
and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries
another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband
commits adultery.” (Luke 16:14–18
ESV)
Jesus, who brings the good news
of the kingdom of God, speaks to those under the Law and the Prophets. But
their justification and righteousness was not looking for a Saviour
through the Law and the Prophets. Instead, the dishonest pharisees were seeking
to force their way into the kingdom of heaven, through their own richness.
Then there is the strange
inclusion of verse eighteen about divorce and adultery. It seems completely out of place. However, this is the link verse for the
dishonest ones who don’t see God as the merciful rich man. Those whose earthly management of God’s gifts
has been dishonest and are seeking to violently push their way into his eternal
dwelling. All but Jesus Christ have
divorced themselves from God and were yoking themselves in adultery to their
riches.
Both parables have rich men in
them, showing they are linked, but where the rich man in the parable of the
dishonest manager is God, here in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the
rich man is not God but one under Abraham having descended into hell. The theme is still death, but this parable
speaks to the pharisees, and us, from the other side of death from two
eternal dwellings.
Here on the other side the rich
man is nameless in Hades, literally the place “unknown below existence and on
the bottom”. He looks up and sees
Lazarus with Abraham. The poor man has a
name in the parable, unlike the rich man unknown by God. Lazarus is with Abraham the father of God’s
promise, the father of Israel, who was rich in both possessions and faith. Jesus sets the richness of the rich man against the richness of Abraham and now Lazarus.
The rich man appeals to Abraham
to send Lazarus back, to be resurrected to save his brothers. But Jesus ends the parable, saying, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets,
neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke
16:31 ESV)
Jesus has risen from death, and
the Holy Spirit encourages us to hear these words of Jesus as we ponder our
death, what our wealth and treasure is, and the great chasm that exists between
eternal life with God and the eternal separation from God.
We cannot force our way into the
Kingdom of God, the Law of God cannot be avoided, only those who are holy can
be in the presence of a God who is holy.
However, we are received into God’s holy and eternal dwelling through
the richness of Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit wants and wills each of us to turn over our management to Jesus Christ
who has bridged death’s great divide, the great chasm between sin and salvation,
with his cross.
The psalmist in psalm one
hundred and forty-six praises God for his existence even while he is in the
prison of death and a tired traveller on the road of salvation, from death to
life eternal in ever-present richness of God.
Praise the LORD! Praise the
LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD
as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of
man, in whom there is no salvation. When
his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans
perish. Blessed is he whose help is the
God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that is in them, who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free; the
LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD
watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the
way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The
LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 146 ESV)
Let us pray. Heavenly Father infuse within us, the
righteousness of Jesus, godliness, faith, steadfastness, and gentleness. Continue to fight in us the good fight of
faith with your Holy Spirit. Help us to
use the richness you have given to us to love and serve one another. To your glory, Amen.
