THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS – Part 1

Do you believe that Baal is a god? Did the prophet Elijah? In 1 Kings 18:27 (NIV), we read that he called Baal a god at the height of his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel: At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” Elijah's words were not expressing a truth. Elijah was taunting his opponents, with satirical statements.

Do you believe that all prophets had to be killed in the city of Jerusalem? In response to the Pharisees' suggestion that Jesus leave Jerusalem, he replied (in Luke 13:33 NIV), “In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day -- for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” Many prophets had died elsewhere. Obviously Jesus knew this. But he was being sarcastic in his statement.

In the two examples cited, the statements by Elijah and Jesus certainly should not be taken in a literal sense. If they were, they would contradict known fact and other Biblical passages. The same is true for the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus that Jesus told as recorded in Luke 16:19-31:

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire." But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us." He answered, "Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment." Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them." "No, father Abraham," he said, "but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." He said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

This is a strange story that Jesus told. The rich man dies and is buried in hell. Hell is here translated from the Greek word "hades." Hades is equivalent to the Old Testament Hebrew word "sheol." If Jesus' story is taken at face value, he is contradicting what the Old Testament teaches about sheol. A few examples (RSV):

Ecclesiastes 9:5 ~ "...the dead know nothing..."

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ~ "...there is no work, or thought, or knowledge or wisdom in sheol..."

Isaiah 38:18 ~ "For sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit [sheol] cannot hope for thy faithfulness."

Psalm 115:17 ~ "The dead do not praise the Lord."

Psalm 6:5 ~ "For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in sheol who can give thee praise?"

It is often assumed that this is a story about a good man who dies and goes to heaven and a bad man who dies and goes to hell. In fact, this story is often one of the few Biblical passages used to teach and/or defend the doctrine of eternal torment. Please note, however, that this point of view requires reading into the story some things that the story does not say. Nowhere does it state that the rich man is bad, only that he is rich. Nor does is say that the poor man is good, only that he is a poor beggar. Nor is heaven ever mentioned, only Abraham's bosom. (Nowhere else does the Bible use this term.)

The story does seem to say a strange thing: a person who is rich now will be in a bad position after death, but a person who is poor now will be in a good position when he dies. Those who have it good while living will have it bad when dead, but those who have it bad in this life will have it good in the next. The fact that there is a great gulf separating the two groups is particularly emphasized. Apparently, it is impossible to move from one group to the other in either life.

Jesus used story-telling as a teaching method quite often. He usually told His stories to the crowds which were following Him or to His disciples. But the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is instead told to the Pharisees. (See Luke 16:14) It is very different than the parables he used in teaching those who believed in Him.

The Pharisees were the aristocracy of Israel. They were the most important and powerful group, controlling all of Jewish society. Jesus was often in conflict with them. They taught a doctrine of purgatory and prayers for the dead. They taught that the distinction between the rich and the poor in society was part of God's plan. Poverty was a virtue to be rewarded with wealth in the life to come. If they helped the poor, therefore, they would be interfering with God's plan and risking the future rewards of the poor.

The Pharisees used excommunication from the religious life of Israel against any who transgressed the law (written or oral) or any who crossed them. Those excommunicated, were labeled "sinners." There was virtually no way back for a sinner. But a poor person who accepted his poverty was believed to be accepting the role God had placed him in and therefore could continue to function on the fringe of society. To attempt to change his position would be seen as rebellion against God.

The poor and sinners flocked to Jesus. He accepted them and often gave them hope. The Pharisees were upset by Jesus and the attraction he had for the downtrodden of society. Many hoped and believed that Jesus might be the long awaited messiah. He was a threat to the position that the Pharisees held. In Matthew 12:22-32, Jesus identifies them as men whose doom is sealed by their blasphemy against God’s Holy Spirit.

The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a satirical story directed at the Pharisees and their teachings. It exposes many of their positions and practices. Otis Q. Sellers, in his 1962 booklet (now out of print) about this story, lists the positions and practices of the Pharisees as follows:

1. Their assumption of the position and rights that God had ordained for the king in Israel.

2. Their intrusion into the priest's office. They had taken over the chief work of the priests ~ that of teaching ~ leaving the priests to perform empty ritual.

3. The luxurious and magnificent style in which they lived at a time when most of Israel was suffering great hardship due to the Ro- man occupation.

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4. Their shameful neglect of the poor in Israel in direct violation of God's instructions in Deuteronomy 15:7-11. They justified this by their teachings.

5. Their harsh treatment of the sinners in Israel.

6. Their teaching that at death certain angels carried good men to a place that they called "Abraham's bosom," while others were taken to a place where "temporary punishments" were meted out to them "agreeable to everyone's behavior and manners." They held that poverty and hunger were God's punishments upon men while they were upon earth, and if men accepted their punish- ment without complaint they would not need to pay for these sins in the future. They held that riches were a sign of God's favor, and that poverty was evidence of His displeasure. They claimed that if they helped the poor they would be acting contrary to God.

7. The caste system which they had established in Israel and which they rigidly maintained.

8. Their idea that God would speak to them in a special way, and not in the manner in which He spoke to the common people. They were so exalted in their own minds that they rejected the idea of God speaking to them in the same signs He gave to oth- ers. This is seen in their actions of demanding a sign from heaven immediately after Jesus had fed four thousand from a supply that was hardly enough for one man.

9. Their teaching that if a man received evil things in this life, he would receive good things in the life to come. This teaching was concocted by the rich rulers in order to keep the poor in subject- tion. It was a "pie in the sky" sort of doctrine, which was intended to keep the hungry from demanding bread here and now. The Pharisees never followed this teaching out to all of its conclu- sions. (To be continued)

L. Urbaniak

“Some men make God’s Love too narrow by false limits of their own,

And they magnify His vengeance with a zeal He will not own.

Search the Scriptures, Search and See;

Let their records gladden Thee!”