Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Series C)
September 25th, 2016
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31
Epistle: 1 Timothy 3:1-13 or 6:6-19
Lesson: Amos 6:1-7
Psalm: Psalm 146
CLB Commentary – Rev. Gary Witkop
The rich man and Lazarus is a familiar story but also one with all kinds of various interpretations and thoughts. How much a person believes this is literal is one of the places where people differ in how to interpret it. Lenski says simply that “we do not need to disturb ourselves as to whether this is a real parable or not and puzzle about the definition of a parable.” It matters not whether the people in this story were actual people for the interpretation to make sense.
Two men, one rich and one poor. One who used his riches for himself and ignored the cries of the poor, the other was one of those poor whose cries the rich man ignored. Both end up dying as all people ultimately will.
In the place of death, believed to be a holding place for all souls before the resurrection of Jesus, both men could see each other across a great divide. A great deal of disagreement hangs over the understanding of this part as well. I won’t go there as it really doesn’t change the meaning of the parable.
Without including other verses on faith this text could be used as a proof text for works righteousness. The poor man goes to heaven while the rich man who didn’t help his neighbor, ended up in hell. But we cannot take one biblical text and stand it alone without also including the rest of scripture. Romans, Ephesians, Galatians as well as many other parts of the bible, show that we are saved by faith apart from works.
What is important here is that (1) all people, rich and poor alike die; (2) we can take no material wealth or goods with us to the other side; (3) once we die our eternal destiny is sealed and cannot be changed; (4) we cannot help the living when we are dead.
What does all this add up to for preaching? That we must all have faith for we will die someday and when we do it won’t matter who we were or what we did, it will only matter if we believe in Jesus. And that while we are on this earth we should be doing all that we can to help people. That would include doing all we can to lead others to faith in Jesus and helping those less fortunate. When we are gone we cannot do anything more to help those we leave behind either physically or spiritually. We need to do our good works, prompted by our faith in Jesus, in this world.
The rich man wanted help he could not receive for himself and then he thought of his loved ones who were still living as selfishly as he had and wanted someone to warn them. Neither was possible because when we die we leave this world and our eternal destiny is sealed and we will be unable to affect anyone who remains behind.
Do you believe? Do you have people you know who need your help in this world? Do you know people who need to know Christ so they can believe? Be about these things now.
The parable ends by pointing us to the cross, vs. 31 “even if someone rises from the dead.” Though Lazarus did rise from the dead, and some believed, but the Pharisees did not, this must be understood as ultimately referring to Jesus. Point everyone to the cross, it is our hope, it is our motivation for doing good works, and it is the hope for all our loved ones. We believe because He enables us to. We do good works because He helps us to. We can share the gospel because He equips us to.