“Now a certain man was rich and he dressed in purple and cambric, daily making merry splendidly. Now there was a certain poor man named Lazarus, who had been cast at his portal, having ulcers, and yearning to be satisfied from the scraps which are falling from the rich man's table. But the curs also, coming, licked his ulcers. Now the poor man came to die and he is carried away by the messengers into Abraham's bosom. Now the rich man also died, and was entombed. And in the unseen, lifting up his eyes, existing in torments, he is seeing Abraham from afar, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he, shouting, said, ‘Father Abraham, be merciful to me, and send Lazarus that he should be dipping the tip of his finger in water and cooling my tongue for I am pained in this flame.’ Now Abraham said, ‘Child, be reminded that you got your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. Yet now here he is being consoled, yet you are in pain. And in all this, between us and you a great chasm has been established, so that those wanting to cross hence to you may not be able, nor yet those thence may be ferrying to us.’
Yet he said, ‘I am asking you then, father, that you should be sending him into my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may be certifying to them, lest they also may be coming into this place of torment.’ Yet Abraham is saying to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them! ‘Yet he said, ‘Not, father Abraham, but if someone should be going to them from the dead, they will be repenting.’ Yet he said to him, ‘If Moses and the prophets they are not hearing neither will they be persuaded if someone should be rising from among the dead." Luke 16 :19-31 concordant
This is a parable with some seriously solemn and grave implications if indeed this story is to be interpreted as a vivid description of conditions as they actually exist for men immediately after death, as some preachers have proclaimed. Those in heaven would be able to see fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives across the gulf and be aware of their torment and fiery anguish. Parents would be able to see children in the lurid flames of hell and hear their piercing cries as they call for water to cool their pain.
How awful that would be for any mother! Could any parent enjoy heavenly bliss while compelled to listen to the hopeless pleas of tormented loved ones and friends just across the gulf? Would not such harrowing din somewhat disturb the heavenly choir with its discord? Would not the mother be as much in torment as the son, and in fact, would not heaven be more a place of torment for the mother than hell would actually be for that son?
From what you know of Jesus’ teachings, could you not say that He could be using figures of speech such as that the rich man, well clothed, and well fed, lifted with pride, representing of all rich me? Remember Jesus said not one thing concerning the rich man being a sinner. He did not accuse him of doing anything wrong. He was simply a rich man, and lived a good life every day, just like millions of good Christian people do today. Abraham’s word to the rich man was:
“Remember, be reminded that you got your good things in your life, and likewise Lazarus evil things.”
The vast majority of the people in the United States today have as much or more than that rich man possessed. If the people of that day could have possession of the luxury afforded the majority of Americans today, they would have been in a class entirely unique, yet modern day people think of modern luxuries as necessities. This being the case, and if the popular church interpretation of this scripture be true, WE HAD BETTER GET RID OF ALL OUR POSSESSIONS, OR WE WILL SURELY END UP IN A TORMENTING BURNING HELL WITH THE RICH MAN!
Then again, Jesus never did say that Lazarus was a good man, a righteous man, a Christian or anything of the sort. The only reason given by Jesus for his being in the bosom of Abraham was that he had lived a hard life in this world. If that is the sole requirement for a place of honor in the hereafter, then I say all the teachers, preachers and believers of a literal interpretation had better get busy getting rid of all their possessions and live a destitute kind of life!
Instead of praying for healing, blessing, and prosperity they should be seeking to become homeless beggars, full of sores, rotting away with loathsome diseases. Otherwise they are going to miss Abraham’s bosom and end up in the same painful condition with which the rich man is tormented. But, many contend that in this parable, Jesus taught a doctrine of ETERNAL DAMNATION.
I charge these fundamentalist preachers of misapplying this parable in using it as a basis for belief in eternal punishment. The only thing in the parable which advocates for eternal torture is the literal reference to a hell of lasting fire and torment. But if they attempt to explain the remainder of the parable, most all scholars are compelled to apply symbolic meanings. Otherwise, they are faced with unreal circumstances which they do not themselves believe. But this parable, like other parables and teachings of Jesus, is a parable of the Kingdom of God that teaches us SPIRITUAL TRUTHS.
What Jesus meant to do with this parable is to hold up to ridicule the teaching and spirit of the Pharisees, scribes, and doctors of the law, whose focus was being enriched in earthly goods with earthly positions of honor, wealth, and power rather than of attaining HEAVENLY CHARACTER. How this marvelous story bids us behold His prophetic vision that scans unborn centuries to emerge focused on the greatest blessing of all time — to be found in the bosom of the PROMISE made to Abraham’s seed.
Why was the rich man tormented and the poor man comforted? There was nothing in the disposition of the inner nature of either man that would of necessity open or shut to them the gates of the Kingdom of God. No man was ever lost in lasting torment simply because he was rich with earthly goods. Neither has any man ever been saved simply because in this world he had been poor and miserable.
Both the rich man and the beggar had passed through life in the position in which it had pleased God to place them. That POSITION could not be, in itself, qualification for honor or dishonor. On the contrary, God had given opportunities to both to honor and glorify Him. It was THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR HEART’S RESPONSE to those opportunities. One was broken, crushed, and humbled, while the other one was self-sufficient and proud. That’s what made the difference in judgment between these two men.
The parable, and its particulars throughout, show an awful warning addressed to those who, in Jesus’s day, enjoyed the greatest, most prestigious privileges as God’s representatives. Observe the particulars respecting the rich man. He was one of Abraham’s seed, one who even in hell could not forget his election, but still cried, “Father Abraham.” He had been clothed in purple and fine linen, the raiment of the Jewish nation’s leaders, and, as a leader of the nation, he “fared sumptuously every day.”
Jesus meant the rich man of this parable to represent the religious leaders of the Jewish nation, the priests and scholars who embodied the personality and spirit of the entire nation. This rich man according to the law comes to be in torment in the unseen after death. He was calling on Abraham, and FATHER Abraham also recognized such a relationship as he speaks to the rich man as CHILD, or SON. “Son, remember...”
Here the rich man is seen as separated from the Father he trusted, for in hell (Hades, the unseen) he lifts up his eyes, being in torments, to see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. He said, “FATHER ABRAHAM, have mercy on me...” but Abraham said ... “SON [Grk., teknon-offspring], between us and you [Greek, YOU PEOPLE] is a GREAT GULF FIXED: so that they [Greek, the ONES] which would pass from hence to you [Greek, YOU PEOPLE] cannot; neither can they pass that would come from thence.”
When we rightly divide this scripture, we see that a plurality of people is being addressed, rather than a single individual. Clearly, this rich man was symbolic of the religious leaders of the nation of Israel. Many, called Pharisees, boasted of their natural descent from Abraham and expected to enter Paradise because of that fact.
This rich man fared sumptuously every day. At that time, the Jewish nation was favored with rich mercies and blessings of God. This nation, the house of Judah, had elaborate services of sacrifice in their great temple in Jerusalem, of which the priests received their portion. They had the Old Testament scriptures, knowing Moses’s laws and the covenants made of Yahweh. They had oracles of God from the prophets. They were rich in the promises of God that had been delivered only to them. Judah as a nation was, indeed, a RICH MAN. Judah had the very riches of oil and wine, rich in doctrine, rich in word, rich in history of holy men, rich in ritual, pomp and ceremony. Ah - how rich was this vast wealth possessed by Judah:
“Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: the sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s first born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: the sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.” Genesis 35:22-26
This passage plainly reveals that JUDAH had five brethren. Jacob’s first wife was Leah, and of Leah were born Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. These were all full-blood brothers. Judah was one of Leah’s six sons. He had five brethren! So when the rich man of this parable says, “I’ve got five brethren,” Jesus clearly identifies who he talking about!
If this telling detail has no significance for modern day evangelists, be assured that it meant a great deal to those to whom Jesus was speaking. They knew the history and held great pride in their ancestry. They knew who their brethren were, so they knew exactly who He was talking about! Jesus was establishing the identity of the rich man as the people of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israelites called the Jews.
The Jews’ table was laden with rich foods and dainties, at which abounded the provision of God for His people. But Judah’s disposition stemmed largely from the preoccupation with the blessings of good things God had given them, which later brought judgment against them. The law in its fading glory was cause for great pride in their Pharisaic self-righteousness. It gave them pride for what they were and what they had — having then sole possession of a purely divine religion that proclaimed themselves the chosen of heaven.
But rather than becoming a kingdom of priests that blessed all the nations of the earth, as God intends, they despised those who were not favored as they were and regarded other nations with scouring contempt. Their spirit was indeed one of extreme exclusiveness. They are a prototype of Christian people in the Laodicean church whose boast is most Pharisaic in spirit:
“I am rich ... and have need of nothing…” Revelation 3:17
“Thus seeing that you are indifferent, and are neither zealous nor cool, I am about to spew you out of My mouth. Seeing that you are saying that Rich am I! and Rich have I become, and of nothing have I need! and you are not aware that you are wretched and forlorn and poor and blind and naked, I am advising you to buy of Me gold refined by the fire, that you should be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not be made manifest, and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may be observing.
Whosoever I may be fond of, I am exposing and disciplining. Be zealous, then, and repent! 'Lo!’ I stand at the door and am knocking. If ever anyone should be hearing My voice and opening the door, I will also be coming in to him and dining with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:16-20 concordant
That utterance embodies in a simple phrase the same abominable attitude of the Pharisee toward others that Jesus points to as the reason for honor or dishonor. It echoes the language of him who thanks God that he is better than other men, “…not being as this publican.” Little glimpses reveal the truth about the rich man’s disposition from God’s perspective, showing that he is “poor, blind, miserable, and naked,” even as the Laodicean church members in their vain self-sufficiency.
Jesus was not invoking a tirade against His enemies, for He loved His enemies as He taught that others should. But He saw piety being turned into a pretense by the religious teachers of His time. He saw how they shut up the FLOW OF MERCY against men and went not into Kingdom principles themselves. He knew how they devoured widows’ houses and, for a pretense, made long prayers. He understood how they compassed sea and land to make proselytes, who, when made, were but another child of perdition.
He saw how they painfully kept the letter of the law in the traditions of men, while they omitted the WEIGHTIER MATTERS OF MERCY, FAITH, AND LOVE TOWARD GOD AND MAN. He saw how they loved the uppermost seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplace. He knew how they bound men with religious burdens that were grievous to bear, while they touched them not with one of their fingers. He saw the outward show of how they disfigured their faces and put on a sad countenance that they might appear unto men to fast, while they were full of hatred and hypocrisy inside.
Such insincerity disguised as a right standing privilege with God is such a degradation of holy office! Such wrong is done to the sacred instruction to damage souls, such blind leading of the blind. Such obstruction was to Jesus treason against what is holy in heaven. It GRIEVED Him. It was an observance that saddened Him wherever He went as long as He lived. They called Him a wine bibber, a sabbath-breaker, a blasphemer, a devil. They tried Him with questions in attempts to trap Him so they could weave a web of lying conspiracy about Him to stir up the people. Their purpose was to incite fear out of jealousy, then they resolved to put Him to death.
All this He could endure with serenity and utter not a word in self-defense, but the hypocritical religious tyranny of His time was to Him a perpetual grief. It required rebuke from Him. In His scathing, consuming denunciation of them, there must have been in His voice and in His face an expression of fearless TRUTH. It terrified His foes, stinging them into religious fury as He tore the mask from their depravity, uncovering what was in their hearts.
He is the same today who clearly speaks to His own followers in the last of the church candlesticks that His coming is SPIRITUAL. He is coming within us to open the doors of our lives so we may see and understand the voice which comes from above, from the throne. Christ coming within us makes it possible to overcome the rich man’s pride in each of us as we grant His Spirit to indwell.
This is clothing our spirit until our spirit becomes one with HIS SPIRIT, our spiritual eyes opened to see how to give more attention to those enduring refining fires. Many sons are being raised into new dimensions of the Kingdom of heaven, thus purging them from any personal portrayal of the attitudes and disposition of that certain Rich Man within their lives.