When God Turns Things Upside Down—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 16C (Luke 16:19-31)

 

Luke 16:19-31 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

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                Jesus had a lot to say about money and wealth. What he had to say probably didn’t sit well with the rich and famous in his neighborhood. Fortunately for us, we have ways of getting around Jesus’ pronouncements. We just ignore them! However, if we wish to be faithful readers of the Gospels, we probably should pay better attention to what Jesus had to say. His pronouncements were in line with what many of the prophets had to say about the rich and powerful. It is worth remembering what Jesus had to say to his disciples in the closing verse of the previous week’s reading: “No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13). Now we have the well-known parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man,” a parable that carries its own punch in the gut for the wealthy.       

The parable/story of “Lazarus and the Rich Man” is often used as a proof text for those seeking to prove the existence of Hell (on the question of Hell, I will point readers to my recently co-authored book with Ron Allen, Second Thoughts about Hell, WJK Books). While it seems like this is a word about what happens in the afterlife, we need to be careful in how we read it. After all, this is a parable, and parables make use of metaphor. Jesus is making a point, but perhaps it’s not about Hell or the possibility of some form of eternal torment. Rather, this is a parable that speaks of a reversal of fortunes. There is this man who had been impoverished in life who changes places in the afterlife with the rich man at whose gates he had sat as a beggar. The poor man has a name—Lazarus (not to be confused with John’s Lazarus), who had sat at the gate of the rich man in life, hoping to receive a few scraps from the rich man’s table, but received nothing but abuse. Interestingly, the rich man in this story remains unnamed. While he lived the good life while alive, dining on the best of everything, when death came, things changed. Angels took Lazarus to sit with Father Abraham, while the rich man was sent to a separate corner of Hades, where he experiences some form of torment.  

After this reversal of fortunes took place in the afterlife, the rich man who was suffering saw Lazarus sitting next to Abraham. Although the rich man took no steps in life to help Lazarus as he sat at his gate, with even the dogs licking Lazarus’ sores, for some reason, he thought Lazarus might help him out. So, seeing Lazarus sitting with Abraham, the rich man called out to Abraham, asking that he would show mercy on the rich man by sending Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch his tongue, cooling his agony caused by the flames. In other words, he wanted Lazarus to do for him in the afterlife what he was unwilling to do during life. So, it seems that things don’t change even in Hades. The rich man still thinks he’s better than Lazarus, even though their places have been reversed.

When the rich man, who received the name Dives (Latin for Rich Man) by tradition, sought the mercy of Abraham. But Abraham, true to God’s preferential option for the poor, responded to the rich man’s request with a flat denial:  “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.” This doesn’t make sense to great numbers of people. Why would God bless a poor beggar and condemn an upstanding citizen, a man of wealth? But according to Jesus, that’s the way things work in God’s economy. The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. Being that I’m part of the middle class, such that I’m neither rich nor poor, with whom should I side? I would much rather be rich than poor. Yet God seems to be on the side of Lazarus. So, where do people like me fit? It is worth noting that the rich man was self-centered and even narcissistic. He assumed that people like Lazarus existed to serve him. He’s not alone in that assumption. So, while middle-class folks like me might take a certain satisfaction when we see the rich struggle or fail, let us remember that, in a global sense, we middle-class folk are rather affluent. Of course, there is more to this story. First, as Amy Jill Levine points out: “His appeal to Abraham will not yield its desired results, because he has not fulfilled his role in Abraham’s family; he has failed to display hospitality on earth, and he has failed, even in the pain of torture, to understand his sin.” As she continues: “Knowledge without action will count for nothing. He refused to recognize on earth that Lazarus, too, was a child of Abraham and so should have been treated as a welcome member of the family. He had the resources; he had the opportunity; he had the commandments of Torah. He did nothing, and he still does nothing” [Short Stories by Jesus, Kindle p. 288]. But, even if Abraham was interested in helping the rich man by having Lazarus relieve his torment, it was an impossible task. That’s because a chasm existed that separated Lazarus from the rich man. No one could cross from one side to the other. So, the message is that the rich man had made his bed, so he’ll have to lie in it. Could that be true of us even if we do not interpret this parable as a reference to eternal torment?  

The rich man has another request of Abraham and Lazarus. They might not be able to help him, but he still has living members of his family. So, perhaps Abraham could send Lazarus to them so he could warn them so they wouldn’t suffer his fate. You might say that he wanted to send Lazarus to his family in the role of Jacob Marley or the three Christmas ghosts. Again, the rich man is assuming that poor Lazarus was still subservient to him. However, Abraham once again rejects the rich man’s request. He tells them that his family already has Moses and the prophets (the Scriptures), which lay out God’s expectations. So, if they didn’t listen to Scripture, why would they listen to someone rising from the dead?

The rich man and his family had access to Torah, which was God’s revelation to the people. Torah and the Prophets revealed God’s expectation that to follow Torah was to show hospitality. However, the rich man failed to honor this calling by not providing help to Lazarus during his lifetime. Therefore, Abraham isn’t inclined to help alleviate his suffering, especially since he didn’t seem to understand why he ended up in the bad part of Hades. Amy-Jill Levine points out the place of grace in relation to Law, writing:  “The parable’s emphasis on the importance of Torah disturbs those readers who want to set up a law-versus-grace dichotomy, see the Law as impossible to follow (hence the need for the Christ), or are worried about works-righteousness. But this commendation of the Law and the Prophets would not have disturbed Jesus’s initial audience, and it makes good sense on the lips of Jesus the rabbi” [Short Stories by Jesus, p. 293].

The message we see revealed in this parable fits with Jesus’ message of the Kingdom, and as we see here, it is also part of Jewish tradition. The importance attached to hospitality is found not only here but also in the words Jesus shared about the day of judgment when Jesus divided the sheep from the goats based on how they treated the least among Jesus’ family, that is, the poor, the sick, the hungry, thirsty, naked, and imprisoned (Matt. 25:31-46).

At a time when we are seeing efforts to undermine the government’s safety net, including cuts to food aid and health care for the poor, this parable has a message to share. While some Christians believe that social justice is something to jettison, here we have a reminder that if we want to be on God’s side, we should follow Jesus’ example and side with the poor. As for Abraham, remember how he entertained angels, not knowing who they were (Gen. 18:1-15).  So, if Abraham is the patron saint of hospitality, does this not say something about our responsibility for those in need? Additionally, while Abraham doesn’t send Lazarus to warn the rich man’s family of their impending doom, might the message to us also be one of repentance? If so, might we need to repent, trusting in the promise of God’s grace?      

Image Attribution: Terbrugghen, Hendrik, 1588?-1629. Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55720 [retrieved September 23, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_ter_Brugghen_-_The_Rich_Man_and_the_Poor_Lazarus_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.