The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
Lesson Plan:
1. A Contrast in This Life (vs 19-21)
2. A Contrast in the Next Life (vs 23, 23)
3. Separation in the Next Life (vs 24-26)
4. Opportunity in This Life (vs 27-31)
Lesson Setting:
Time: January, A.D. 30.
Place: The parable was spoken in Perea beyond Jordan on the east.
Inductive Study of the Lesson:
a. Read the entire passage, Luke 16:14-31.
b. For purple and fine linen (v 19) see Exodus 26:1, 31, 36; Proverbs 31:22, 24; Ezekiel 16:10;
27:7; Mark 15:17, 20; Revelations 18:12, 16.
c. For the “gate” as the entrance to a house see Matthew 26:71; Acts 10:17; 12:14.
d. For the
crumbs falling from the table (v 21) see Matthew 15:27.
e. With “in Abraham’s bosom” (v 22) compare Luke 13:28; Numbers 11:12; John 1:18; 13:23.
f. For
Hades as a place of punishment (Gehenna) see Psalm 9:17; Proverbs 15:24; Isaiah 30:33;
33:14; Matthew 3:12; 10:28; 13:42; 22:13; 25:41; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelations 14:10, 11;
21:8, etc.
Introduction: What was the occasion of this parable? – It is perhaps the most striking and terrible parable ever spoken by the Lord. Probably no other of the Savior’s parables needs to be so cautiously handled. There were Pharisees listening to the parable of the unjust steward, and it was very unpalatable to them. Love of money was a characteristic of their order, and they reckoned their prosperity a mark of God’s special favor. The Lord’s discourse touched them to the quick, and they sneered (v 14). The Romans had a corresponding phrase, “to hang on the hooked nose.” The jeering was doubtless aimed by these haughty and respected plutocrats at the deep poverty of Jesus and His humble followers.
How did Christ rebuke these money-loving Pharisees? – He acknowledged (v 15) that they succeeded in justifying themselves in the sight of men, but warned them that they scarcely seemed to care to consider whether they were justified in the sight of God. He declared that the finality and sufficiency claimed by the Pharisees for their goodness was the most perilous and destructive opposition to God. It was an abomination in the sight of God: a disgust, a stench and loathing – the word means all this.
Scripture Reading: Luke 16:19-21
1. A Contrast in This Life
What was the name of the rich man of the parable? – He is left nameless, perhaps to imply that his name was not ‘written in heaven’ (Luke 10:20). Legend gives him the name, Nimeusis. Dives is simply the Latin for ‘a rich man.
What kind of life did the rich man lead? – His life was baptized with luxury. His outer garments were very costly, dyed “purple,” (v 19), the royal color. His inner garments were of ‘byssus,’ the “fine linen” of Egypt, a robe worth its weight in gold. He feasted daily in a sumptuous, glittering way, with much merrymaking. We can picture a well-built house, well-kept grounds, costly furniture, luxury and elegance. “His house was the castle of the district. His feasts were known far and wide; he was a patron of the arts, and had an eye for beautiful things. His days were so occupied with large affairs, and his evenings with splendid hospitality, that he had no leisure for private charity; but there was in him a generous heart, and he would have done kindly things if had only thought” (Maclaren). If he had been notoriously selfish and uncharitable, his gate would not have been chosen as the beggar’s asylum. The Pharisees were never clothed in purple and fine linen, being instead remarkably abstemious in diet and modest in dress. Penuriousness and prodigality are opposite sins growing from the trunk of worldliness, one finding its pleasure in hoarding and the other in squandering.
Whom does Christ contrast with the rich man? – The greatest possible contrast, the “beggar Lazarus” (v 20). The name is the Hebrew Elazar, meaning ‘he whom God helps.’ Edershim translates it, “God help him!” “Since this is the only name in the parables, it is natural to give it significance, and it most likely suggests that the beggar clung to God as his stay” (Maclaren).
What was the condition of Lazarus? – He “was laid at” (v 20) the rich man’s “gate” implying a stately portal. Literally, was thrown, cast carelessly down by his bearers and left there. The rich man was not bound to go and hunt for poor people, but here was one pushed under his nose, so to speak. Lazarus was “full of sores,” “covered with ulcers, therefore needing to be carried to the rich man’s gate; supposes to be a leper, hence the words lazaretto, lazar, etc.” (Expositors Greek Testament).
Then, he was hungry “desiring” (v 21) to eat the fragments that “fell from the rich man’s table.” Orientals did not have knives or forks. So, after feeding they wiped their fingers on pieces of bread, casting it out in Eastern fashion onto the street for dogs or beggars. To complete the picture of his misery, the dogs, prowling for garbage, would lick his festering sores, probably the only dressing they every got. Sad to say, the dogs were nobler that the rich man and kinder than his inhumanity. Others, however, remembering that the dogs that swarm in Eastern streets are foul beasts, despised by the people. Consider this statement merely an indication of the helplessness of Lazarus: simply too weak to drive them off. This is perhaps the most perfect picture of want and wealth that can be found in any literature.
What would Christ say of the poverty today in Christian lands? – It is everywhere. Do you live in a nice, roomy home in or near a great city? There is no doubt want and misery somewhere close to you, perhaps within a stone’s throw. Is your home a nice little resting place in some quiet town? Pay close attention to the path you follow on Sundays going to worship. Are you a farmer’s daughter or son? Have you ever seen a beggar turned away by barking dogs? “The poor ye have always with you,” said the Lord. No matter where you live; no matter where you are or will be, there is a Lazarus near. The beggar you meet may be a Lazarus. It is much better for our charity to go astray, than for our hearts to become deafened and hardened? We are to remember two things: (a) in and of itself, poverty is not a virtue. There is as much iniquity among the poor as among the rich. What counts before God is not what a man has, but what a man is. Riches test character in one way, poverty tests it in another; and the character that stands the test in either condition will be approved by God. (b) We are not to believe that it is God’s will that any should be poor in his world of abundance. Whether poverty springs from sin or from unjust social conditions, it is something that all Christians should strive to abolish.
What was wrong with the rich man? – What was the ladder by which he went down to hell? Not his wealth. The poor can be, in their own way, as godless as the rich. Lazarus was not received into Abraham’s bosom because he had been poor, but because God had been his help. This is clear, because Abraham was rich. The crime of Dives was a lazar lying at his gate, and lying unrelieved. To have money is no crime, but to have money and do no good with it is a crime. The rich man left God out. He enjoyed the advantages of wealth and completely forgot his responsibilities. He despised Moses and the prophets; he had a talent but he buried it in the ground. Our youth should be learning from us at an early age how needful it is to be kind and giving.
Scripture Reading: Luke 16:22-23
2. A Contrast in the Next Life
What became of Lazarus at death? – “Nothing is said of his burial; perhaps he was not buried at all. What really happened to the carcass is passed over in delicate reserve” (Expositors Greek Testament). “Rattle his bones over the stones; He’s only a beggar nobody knows” (Frances E. Tyner). But if they did bury him, it was not Lazarus they buried but only his sores. Lazarus had left this earth, carried by angels up the steps to heaven – perhaps talking, praising, and rejoicing.
v 22 ... “Abraham’s bosom” was one of the three names common among the Jews, denoting the future state of blessedness. The other two were Paradise (Lk. 23:43) and The Throne of Glory. The phrase is drawn from the customs of a feast, where each man reclining on his elbow leans on the bosom of the man to his left. Thus Lazarus is supposed to be seated next to Abraham in the banquet of the blessed. “Abraham became the friend of God. On this account Christ said that Abraham’s bosom is a sort of fair haven and sheltered resting-place for the just” (Asterius, A.D. 375-405) – The highest place of honor that Paradise could give.
What became of the rich man at death? – The record is significant ... “the rich man also died” (v 22), the one great fact common to both rich and poor “and was buried.” Perhaps he caught a little cold on some great occasion, perhaps after a big political meeting. If so, the very ablest physicians were surely summoned, but it was all in vain. What a day his funeral must have been. The world, loving its own, no doubt followed him with its pomp and pride, till it could follow no further. Imagine a long procession of hired mourners, the smell of spices and precious ointment wrapping the body, and the costly sepulcher, on which the departed’s genial virtues were recorded. Then, as quickly as a thief can strip a home of its valuables, he is stripped of all the inexhaustible equipment for comfortable living which had characterized him in life. “Hades,” to which he fell, was regarded as “the receptacle of all the departed until the time of final judgment, and included both Paradise and Gehenna” (Int. Crit. Com.). Alexander Maclaren wrote, “Christ takes their own notions of it – angel bearers, Abraham’s bosom, the two divisions in Hades, the separation, and yet communication, between them. These are Rabbis’ fancies, not Christ’s revelations.” Do you agree?
What are we to believe about hell? – “The same Bible that tells us of heaven tells us of hell” (Moody). Penalty is simply sin bringing forth after its kind. It is sin with its pleasure gone, leaving only the sting. In nothing are men allowed to have their own way more unreservedly than in the matter of the future. Hell is prepared only for those who prepare it for themselves by kindling its fires here and now.
Dives was “in torments” (v 23) said Christ ... “tormented in this flame” (v 24). Beyond the awful truth that death brings no forgiveness, thus retribution continues beyond the grave, pressing the details of the imagery is not warranted. The flame was not material fire, because material fire cannot touch a spiritual being.
What added to the rich man’s torments? – The sight of the beggar’s happiness. According to Rabbis, abodes of the blessed and the doomed were nigh one to the other. According to one there was only a span between them, according to another the boundary was a wall. It was a bitter aggravation of the misery of the unrighteous that they continually beheld the felicity of the righteous, knowing they could never share it.
What punishment is sure to come upon the selfish? – (a) Unhappiness and dissatisfaction in this world; (b) Lack of real friends; (c) Consciousness of failure in spite of outward success; (d) In the world to come their worst punishment will be the knowledge of permanent character, which they formed for themselves. God Himself cannot make us contrary to what we will-ourselves to be. Character is an enduring engraving. It lasts. Death does not modify it. Eternity keeps what time has prepared.
Scripture Reading: Luke 16:24-26
3. Separation in the Next life
What pitiful request did Dives make? – The rich man recognized both Abraham and Lazarus, and remembered how Lazarus had lain at his gate, and thought of this as a bond between them. The rich man would have made friends with Lazarus now, but could not remember any good deed he had ever done to help him to do so. Once Lazarus wanted just the crumbs from the rich man’s feast; not the rich man wants just a drop from Lazarus’s banquet. Poor as poor can be. In the Talmud “the righteous is seen beside delicious springs, and the wicked with his tongue parched at the brink of a river, the waves of which are constantly receding from him. But in the Jewish legend the beatified is a Pharisee, while the sinner tormented with thirst is a publican!” (Edershim).
Of what did Abraham remind Dives? – “Son, remember” (v 25), Abraham commanded. Remember! Remember! Had he remembered while on earth, he would not have been called to remember in hell. For want of remembering, people perish.
Illustration: On earth the sinner is like a man looking out of a brilliantly lighted room, unable to pierce through the darkness outside. However, in the next world the sinner is like one looking into a brightly illuminated mansion from the dark.
The rich man was asked to remember that in his lifetime he had received to the full his “good things” (v 25), and Lazarus his “evil things,” and now it was fair that conditions should be reversed. The rich man was not tormented in the life to come because he received good things while on earth. How do we know that to be true? Because Abraham himself had been very rich on earth: in cattle, silver and gold (Gen. 13:2). They why was the rich man tormented? Because he made such a very poor use of his many possessions.
How did Abraham picture the separation between heaven and hell (Paradise and Gehenna)? – He said “beside all this there is a great gulf fixed” (v 26), separating Paradise from Gehenna. This chasm that cannot be crossed is a chasm of character. Change of place does not produce change of soul. “It should be remembered that our Lord is speaking of ‘the intermediate state,’ before resurrection and final judgment, and that the intention of the narrative is not to reveal the mysteries of the final state. But still the impression left by the whole is that life here determines life hereafter, and that character, once set and hardened here, cannot be cast into the melting-pot and remolded there” (Maclaren). If we dig a gulf between ourselves and the poor, making it impassable on earth, we shouldn’t expect to cross it in the world to come?
Why is the separation between heaven and hell inevitable? – The joys of heaven are spiritual. There is no pleasure there for a man who has no fear of God; for a man who has no pleasure in obeying Him.
Illustration: A prisoner once said to his friends looking through the bars, “I cannot go out and you can’t come in.” In a far more awful way, one who has shut himself up within himself, who has darkened his soul with sin and deceit, will one day have to say, “There is no passing back and forth from me to you or from you to me.”
Scripture Reading: Luke 16:27-31
4. Opportunity in This life
What request did Dives make next? – Thinking that, if there is a gulf between Paradise and Gehenna, there is probably none between Paradise and the earth, he asks that Lazarus may be sent to warn his five brothers, lest they meet his own sad fate. “This request, if less selfish than the first, is also less humble. It implies that he has scarcely had a fair chance. If God had warned him sufficiently, he would have escaped this place of torment” (Int. Crit. Com.). It would have been much better if he had developed a missionary spirit before dying and going to Hades. Abraham answered that the brothers had “Moses and the prophets” (v 29). In other words, they had faithful and full warnings against sin and its dire consequences.
When hearing Abraham’s answer, the rich man impudently ventured to argue: There is a surer way than this way that God has taken; they will repent if someone goes to them “from the dead” (v 30).
What did Abraham say to this plea? – “You err, my unhappy son,” said Abraham, closing the scene. “It would not move them in the least; for so amply are the Scriptures fitted to persuade men to repentance that those whom they do not win to it would not be persuaded even “if one rose from the dead” (v 31). All the lights required for their short voyage were burning on shoal, reef and shore, so they might successfully make the harbor. “The denizens of Paradise set little value on the unusual as a means of grace. Abraham does not say that a short-lived sensation could not be produced; he does say that they would not be persuaded” (Expositors Greek Testament). There is no speech on earth in which to tell the mysteries of heaven and hell. No sight can ever create faith; for sights are things seen and faith deals only with things unseen. Modern spiritualism builds itself upon the craving of an unbelieving heart for better evidences than God has seen fit to give of His existence and providence. It leads men farther away from Him into despair and darkness. We are not saved by apparitions. Were the Lord’s adversaries persuaded by the rising of Jairus’s daughter or the son of the widow of Nain? Were they persuaded when He raised Lazarus of Bethany? They were not even persuaded when He Himself rose from the dead? Neither was Saul led to repentance when he saw Samuel at Endor. Moses and the prophets alike taught the duty of caring for the poor. If the Jews did not follow such teachers, their case was hopeless.
Illustration: A boy stood on a muddy road and promised God that he would be a Christian if then and there God would dry up the puddles? He wanted a miracle to make him a believer. If we are not persuaded by the Gospel then we’ll never be persuaded by a ghost. Let no one wait for something extraordinary too happy before accepting Jesus. Cities visited by cholera became accustomed to appalling sights; still those living through such an event went about their business as usual.
What opportunities does God give us in this life? – All we need. If He gave us more light we would only have more light to sin against. If there is nothing in our present circumstances or in the opportunities we now enjoy to make us realize our duty, then most likely in no circumstances and in no opportunities shall we find anything that will. The one we help sullenly, almost angrily; the one whose frequently recurring necessities we resent and spurn; the one who crossed our path when we were occupied with our own joys to observe his face of starvation or disease; such persons are determining our eternal condition.
Illustration: “Don’t write there,” said an airport employee to a young fellow about to scratch something with his diamond ring on a mirror. “Don’t write there!” “Why not?” “Because you can’t rub it out!”
Illustration: The Indian who, for a string of beads, sells enough territory to make a state is wise compared to a man who for the trinkets of earth barters heaven.
Illustration: An old Puritan saying, “Brethren, take a look out of your graves.”
