Sermon text: Luke 16:19–31
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
So begins our Lord’s parable this morning: the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It is one of the most sobering texts in all of Scripture, for it pulls back the curtain on what lies beyond death — and what it reveals should make every one of us tremble.
Two men. Two deaths. Two eternities.
The rich man: clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day. He had everything this world could offer. And at his gate — at his very gate, close enough to see, close enough to help — lay Lazarus: poor, covered with sores, longing for the crumbs from the rich man’s table.
Note well: the rich man is not condemned for being rich. Abraham was rich. David was rich. Joseph of Arimathea was rich. Wealth is not the sin. The sin is what the rich man did — or rather, what he did not do — with his wealth. Day after day, he stepped over Lazarus at his gate. Day after day, he feasted while Lazarus starved. His sin was not his purple linen. His sin was his hard heart: a heart closed to his neighbor in need, a heart that loved the gift more than the Giver, a heart that trusted in riches rather than in God.
“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”
Two men. Two deaths. Two eternities.
Lazarus — whose name means “God has helped” — is carried by the angels to Abraham’s side: to paradise, to rest, to the bosom of the father of the faithful. The rich man — whose name we are never told, for his name is blotted out — is buried, and in Hades, in torment.
And now the tables are turned. Now it is the rich man who begs. “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”
But Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
The chasm is fixed. There is no crossing over. There is no second chance after death. This is the sobering truth that our age refuses to hear: that how we live in this life determines where we spend the next. Not by our works — for Lazarus was not saved by his poverty, nor was the rich man damned by his wealth — but by faith. Lazarus believed the promise. The rich man believed in himself.
Then the rich man begs for his brothers: “I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”
But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”
There it is. The heart of the parable. “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” The rich man’s brothers do not need a miracle. They do not need someone risen from the dead. They have the Word. Moses and the Prophets — the Scriptures — are sufficient. “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
And Someone did rise from the dead. Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter morning. And still, many are not convinced. For the problem was never a lack of evidence. The problem was — and is — a hard heart that will not hear Moses and the Prophets.
So hear them. Hear Moses and the Prophets. Hear the Law that shows you your sin — your hard heart, your closed hand, your love of the things of this world. And hear the Gospel that shows you your Savior — Jesus Christ, who became poor for your sake, who was laid at the gate of heaven covered with the sores of your sin, who died and was buried, and who rose again, that you might be carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.
Two men and the Prophets. Hear them, and live.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.