Trinity Luke 16:19-31
13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
“Money is a dangerous goal,” says our Savior. Today we see Jesus explaining this truth to His disciples. They needed encouragement because following Jesus wasn’t very profitable. They certainly weren’t in it for the money. In fact, more than likely, people pitied them for following a Master who categorically condemned the pursuit of money as an abomination before God. “Ye cannot serve God and money,” He taught. Well, it so happened that some Pharisees, who had a singular attachment to money, were listening in on this discussion, and they found His remarks so ridiculous that they didn’t try to rebut. They simply turned up their noses, a common reaction among sinful humankind. If people don’t like what God says, they don’t have to say anything. They just ignore Him.
However, Jesus did not ignore them. He recognized that His disciples could easily be tempted to give up the ministry with Him for greener pastures. He turned to the Pharisees and said, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. “ The Pharisees were unscrupulous in their effort to make money. St. Matthew writes “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer.” Matthew 23:14. They manipulated the lives of others, and then covered it up in the name of religion. It is easy enough to deceive men, but it isn’t so easy to deceive God. People considered these Pharisees high and holy but God considered them a despicable abomination, simply because God looks beyond the façade of money to the heart. With God, there is no cover-up. “for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
To make this point, Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The life-style of the rich man is summarized in one sentence, “He was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.” He was rich. He could have anything He wanted. He spent money freely on the very best clothes, purple and fine linen, and he “fared sumptuously.” Those two words in the Greek say it all. We can translate them this way: “Day in and day out, he partied to the limit.” This doesn’t mean that he didn’t go to church. He went to church, however, not to a church that had anything to do with the love of God in Jesus Christ. He based his hope of heaven on the fact that he was a physical descendent of ancient Abraham. He was even charitable. He allowed a homeless beggar to lie at his gate.
As the rich man was rich, so the poor man was poor. He had no money, no purple and fine linen. Every day He longed to be fed with the scraps from the rich man’s table. He had a body with festering wounds that the dogs would lick. He could eat no costly dishes but crumbs; He could never enjoy parties and good times, but had to cope with sores and boils. You and I can’t empathize with this beggar because we never have had to live that way. How easy it could have been for this beggar to envy the rich man for his luxurious life or to blame God for the way he had to live, but he didn’t do that! The miserable beggar was a believer. While the rich man had no name; (it wasn’t going to be recorded in heaven anyway), the poor man was called “Lazarus,” a name that means, “God is my help,” a truth we confess every Sunday morning when we sing, “Our help [is] in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8 Trust in his heavenly Father made his miserable life endurable. Faith that God would make the worst situation turn out for his good gave him an inner peace and happiness that all the parties, pleasures, and luxuries of the world could never give. He didn’t need to understand why he had to suffer so, because he knew that God had better things in store for him.
Riches in themselves are not wrong, but the love of money is a soul-destroying sin, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” Riches tend to make us proud, to make us wise in our own conceits so that we look down on others, as the rich man did on poor Lazarus. “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.” Romans 12:16, writes the Apostle. Riches tend to make us forget that every good thing is a gift from above. That is why the Savior said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:24. That is why the Psalmist warns, “If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” Psalm 62:10.
The difference between Lazarus and the rich man is really brought out when they died. When the rich man died, he had a funeral. Think of the eulogies that the important people of this world must have read over his dead body! Lazarus, on the other hand, simply died, with no mention of a funeral. Lazarus did not need eulogies. He was unnoticed except by God who sent His angels to carry his soul “into Abraham’s bosom,” while the rich man, by default, went straightway to hell.
What a radical change death brings. If there is any truth this text emphasizes, it is this, that the changes of death are permanent. At this point, the rich man could do nothing to change his fate. No amount of whining or complaining or blaming God would help. During his lifetime, he had rested his hope for the future on physical descent instead of on Jesus Christ, his Redeemer. This parable is unique, because it records a conversation between heaven and hell, something that is impossible. The Savior, however, records this conversation with Abraham in a parable to give us an insight into the heart of the rich man. The first thing he does is to complain about his torments in hell. Listen to his words, “ Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” After Abraham had explained that this was not possible, the rich man pleaded, “I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” In reply to which Abraham very simply stated the only way to salvation is the spoken word of God, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” Did you notice that the rich man showed no thought of God, no regret over his high and mighty behavior, nor any admission that he deserved the fate that he was suffering!
On the contrary, he blamed God for the way He chose to save humankind, intimating that believing in Jesus Christ just doesn’t work. “Who reads the Bible?” “Who listens to Moses and the prophets?” “Who is interested in the truth that God rescued Adam and Eve from eternal death by the promise of Jesus, a promise repeatedly prophesied by Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament?” “Who wants to go to church to find out that he is a sinner and needs forgiveness?" This whole idea of faith in Jesus Christ is below the dignity of man.
What you need, he tells God, is something more dramatic, something that will catch the attention of people. Real Gospel-preaching isn’t very exciting. Think of the host of churches that no longer trust the power of the word, but change their message and rely on strategies and innovations to attract people. What could be more compelling, suggests the rich man, than that someone would come back from the grave and tell people about Jesus? Can you imagine that in a Sunday service?
What does Abraham reply? “If your sons don’t believe the Word of God, Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rose from the dead.” Why? Because someone did come back from the grave on Easter morning, namely, Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, but the world doesn’t believe Him! He sent His disciples throughout the world, and He still sends them to proclaim the Gospel to every creature, to baptize and instruct, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, riches that are ours free of charge, riches that promise heaven instead of everlasting perdition. There is no other way that the Holy Spirit creates faith than by the simple Word of God, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” The ending is tragic: the rich man didn’t believe, and from what we know, neither did his sons.
This morning Jesus is reminding us of the sin of making the pursuit of riches a goal in our lives. If Solomon, the wisest man of his generation, fell prey to the temptations of money to the point that his faith was in question, what hope is there for you and me? The answer is simple. We have Moses and the prophets pleading with us to put first things first, to keep our hearts and lives focused on Jesus Christ. Where that is the case, no matter what our estate here on earth, we have riches in heaven, which no one can take away.