WEEKLY
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An
international Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday June 24, 2018
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THE
RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
(Reaping
GOD’s justice)
(Luke
16:19-31)
In Luke chapter 16, verses
19-31, JESUS relates the parable of an unnamed rich man, and a poor man named
Lazarus. Because JESUS does not normally use personal names in HIS parables,
many scholars tend to believe that this story relates to an actual event. The
New Testament tells us of many people who were forced to result to begging due
to indigence caused mostly by a debilitating sickness or physical condition.
Most Christians wholeheartedly agree that
giving of their time, money, and skills to those who are destitute and in need,
is a good and meritorious thing to do, in the eyes of GOD, and man. However, the
rich man in this parable refuses to render any help whatsoever to the needy
Lazarus, and as a result of his mistreatment of those in need, he died and woke
up, and found himself on the wrong side of the “great chasm” (in Hell) (v.26).
Here in this passage we see that the rich
man is portrayed as being fully conscious and aware of his surroundings while
he sat suffering in the fires of Hell. We see that he is able to “see”, “hear”,
“feel”, and “remember” very clearly, and besides, there is no biblical basis to
support the notion that death is an unconscious state anyway. In fact, this
parable clearly suggests that human personally, fully conscious and aware, does
persist, even after physical death has occurred.
JESUS tells us that the rich man, who was
in much torment, could see Lazarus, the man he denied help to in the physical
life, at a distance in Heaven, in the company of Abraham, the great Jewish
patriarch. The rich man, who was now anguishing in the flames of Hell, shouted
to Abraham, begging him for mercy. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus over with
just a drop of water so that he could cool his tongue.
Abraham said to the man, “Son, remember that during your lifetime, you
had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being
comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm
separating us. Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at
its edge, and no one there can cross over to us” (Vs.25-26 - NLT).
Then the man asked Abraham to send Lazarus
to his father’s home to warn his five brothers about Hell, so that they won’t
have to go there when they die. However, Abraham responded, “Moses and the prophets have warned them.
Your brothers can read their writings anytime they want to” (v.29). The man
then said, “No father Abraham! But if
someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will turn from their sins”
(v.30). Abraham replied, “If they won’t
listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from
the dead” (v.31).
Perhaps JESUS relates this parable to us to
help show us that “being rich” has nothing to do with “being righteous”, and in
fact, “riches” and “righteousness”, much more often than not, manifests
themselves as being polar opposites in the real world. One, like the rich man
in this story, lives in complete luxury, perhaps desiring to interact only with
his peers, while the other man, Lazarus, lives with abject poverty, hunger, and
poor health as his daily challenge. Such a person is much more likely to turn
to help from GOD, by way of the mercy and grace of their fellowman.
None of us were put here, as “a man alone
on an island”, who, can depend only on himself for survival. GOD put us here to
survive by depending on each other, and interacting with other, and from the
enlightment that we receive from closely associating with each other, we can
readily react to each other’s needs in a positive way, sometimes without being
asked, or told. When we show that we care for each other, we show that we love
GOD, WHO made us in HIS OWN “spiritual image” (Genesis 1:26).
In
the biblical Greek, the name “Lazarus” means “GOD the Helper” and so maybe
JESUS chose this name, not because of one of HIS best friends (Lazarus, the
brother of Mary and Martha, whom JESUS would later raise from the dead), but
rather, because the character HE was trying to depict (who very well may have
been a real person whom JESUS had met) was a poor man who had decided to depend
on GOD for his daily provisions, even unto his death.
Ultimately, and, ironically, the rich man’s
“walls of his house” became the “great chasm” that helped prevent Lazarus from
receiving “physical salvation”, and he himself, from receiving “spiritual
salvation”. I say this because, here, Scripture says that Lazarus lay, quite
literally, at the rich man’s front door (v.20), perhaps on his front porch even,
and the rich man never tried shooing him away, asking him in, or sending him
something out to eat. Instead, he just simply must have stepped over, or walked
around him day by day, either just ignoring what his eyes had seen, or taking
enjoyment, or mocking, at “Lazarus’ inferior position in life”, all the way up
until the time he died and was carried away by angels of GOD.
After the rich man met his physical demise,
he found himself in a place called “Hell” (“Sheol” in the Hebrew, “Hades” in
the Greek”), in “total conscience torment”, in “his spiritual life” after death.
He was residing directly across “a great chasm” that “separated” himself from
Lazarus, the man whom he had daily refused to give alms to on his own front
porch.
Lazarus, on the other hand, was now
residing in the comforts of Heaven at Abraham’s side. He was enjoying a “spiritual
life” after death that is prepared by GOD, only for those who are obedient to,
and dependant on HIM, in their “physical” lifetimes. Just think of how many
people, who could have gone to Heaven, who have actually “read” or “heard” the “Word
of GOD” since JESUS was raised from the dead, but have chosen instead, to go to
Hell.
In the Gospels of Matthew (7:24-29) and
Luke (6:46-49) JESUS concludes HIS, now famous, “Sermon on the Mount” with this
warning for us to build our foundations on the “Most High Faith”
(Christianity). There we see JESUS demanding two things. First HE demands that
we “hear” (receive the Word of GOD into our heart spiritually), and then HE
demands that we “do” (live the Word of GOD with our physical bodies). Knowledge
does not become relevant until it is, first, “put into action”. In GOD, “knowledge
must become action”, “theory must become practice”, and then “theology can
become life”.
In Matthew 25, verses 31-46, JESUS gives us
the answers to how, we “as human beings” can be “successful” under GOD. There
we see that it is very different from the world’s view of what “success” is.
There, JESUS tells us that when HE returns to judge us, HE will base HIS
decision upon “how we reacted to human need in our lifetime”.
So remember, while we do need to be “shrewd
managers” of what GOD has blessed us with, we must also strive to balance that “shrewdness”,
with the “compassion” that HE has also blessed us with. In addition, that compassion,
which governs GOD’s OWN nature that is embodied in each of us, was demonstrated
to us, quite vividly, and, quite thoroughly, by CHRIST JESUS in HIS lifetime,
here on earth. And so, here in the so-called “Church Age”, all we need to do is,
“follow HIM”.
A Sunday school by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY
D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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