PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 16:19-31
NOVEMBER 22, 1998
Bill Gates is the Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft, the computer software giant, is in the midst of an antitrust trial. It is said that it has been a hard time for Bill Gates. He has been harassed by litigation and by federal regulatory agencies. But I think, on balance, many in this room would not mind changing places with Bill Gates because Bill Gates is said to be the richest man in America and one of the richest men in the world. But we should be careful about seeking or wanting wealth.
The Bible warns us of the dangers of wealth. Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus said, “Beware of all covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the sum of his possessions.” Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.” The Apostle Paul writes, “There is great gain in godliness with contentment.” We brought nothing into the world. We can take nothing out of the world. “But if we have food and clothing, with these we should be content. For those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Now, in this parable for today, we have the story of a rich man who came into divine judgement. He made three mistakes, and these mistakes should serve as warnings to us this morning. First of all, this rich man was selfish. He was selfish.
This past May, the United Nations published its annual human development report. The United Nations sounded an alarm expressing concern that there is increasing economic polarization in the world. The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. The middle class is shrinking. According to the United Nations, the three wealthiest people in the world have combined assets greater than the collective gross national products of 48 developing nations. That is economic polarity.
According to the United Nations, the 225 richest people in the world have collective assets exceeding $1 trillion. They have collective assets greater than the combined annual incomes of 47% of the earth’s population. The 225 richest people in the world have combined assets greater than the collective annual income of 2,500,000,000 people.
The United Nations tells us that 20% of the earth’s population consumes 86% of this world’s goods. The United Nations tells us in this report that Europe and North America annually, every year, spends $37 billion on dog food, perfume, and cosmetics. The United Nations claims that this money would be enough to eradicate all poverty in the world. This $37 billion spent on dog food, perfume, and cosmetics would provide food, clothing, shelter and even health care for every single poor person in the world and leave $9 billion left over.
The United Nations claims that the developed nations need to help the less developed nations learn how to produce. They claim that those who have need to learn to be more generous. No matter what you think of the United Nations, how can you argue with that? We are called by His name. If you call yourself a Christian, He has called us to learn generosity. He warns us with regard to selfishness.
One-third of the people of this planet go to bed hungry every night—almost two billion people. Of course, we live in the United States of America. We’re blessed to live here, one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Most of us not only live in the United States but we live in suburbia. By global standards—certainly by God’s standards—each of us gathered in this place this morning is rich. You see, the urban community and the poor are at our gates.
We have this parable, and in this parable Jesus describes an economic polarity. He describes a rich man and a poor man. The rich man has fine clothing. He is clothed in purple and fine linen. This was the clothing of the rich. He had an extravagant lifestyle. He ate sumptuously every day. He lived in a grand house. The poor man was at his gate. The Greek word for gate is a special word that was used at the gate of a city or the gate of a palace. Jesus wanted His audience to know this rich guy had a big house. He had a poor man at his gate. We don’t know what his clothing was. He was probably clothed in rags. We don’t know what his diet was, but we are told that he longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He was riddled with sores, perhaps a result of malnutrition.
You see, the rich man was selfish, and for this he was condemned. The rich man viewed the poor man as simply part of the landscape. He just viewed it as part of the natural order of things and he lived out his life in the extravagance of his class, without giving it a thought—just enjoying every day and ignoring the poverty-stricken at his gate.
I promise you that we cannot afford to do the same thing. Now, this is a suburban church, and the poor are at our gate. The urban community is at our gate. There are many who have much need. That is why we’re constantly inviting you to give of your time and of your talent and of your treasure. That’s why we have a Manna Ministry here at the church. We just had our Thanksgiving Outreach. We have our Christmas Outreach that is coming up. We invite you constantly to support Manna and to give of your time as well to help these people who are at our gate. That is why we support Whiz Kids and Save our Youth in the inner city. That is why we send teams of people down to Juarez in Mexico with Ed Bullis and Gary Fields. That is why we support relief agencies who give help and provision in the name of Christ all over the world.
I meet every month with Jack LaPietra and Luis Villarreal. They are pastors of one of the inner-city churches with whom we are yoked in relationship. They have been very active in leading the Save our Youth ministry in the inner city where we provide tutors to inner city kids, that they might acquire a greater education and someday be able to compete for the dignity of a job. We provide tutors for the inner-city kids who are also allowed to share their faith in Jesus Christ with these kids. It is a wonderful ministry that gives a hand up to those who need it.
Jack and Luis told me at lunch this last week that we are three hundred tutors down. We have three hundred fewer tutors than we once had. We need your help. Now, this church provides more tutors… more of you volunteer from this church than from any other church in suburbia, and that is great. But we ought to provide the most and we need to provide more. So, this call of Christ is upon us. We cannot be selfish. We must reach out to those who are at the gate.
You know, Marilyn vos Savant writes a column called “Ask Marilyn.” It’s in one of our local newspapers and it’s syndicated across the country. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Marilyn vos Savant has one of the highest IQs in the world. She was recently asked what she considered to be the supreme compliment that anyone could pay her. She said three words: “I love you.” You do not have to love with our words, but with our actions. The Apostle John writes in the little letter of 1 John, “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother or sister in need and closes his heart against him or her, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let not your love be in word or in speech but in deeds and in truth.”
The first mistake that this rich man made was that he was selfish and then he was arrogant. This was his second mistake. He was arrogant.
A few months ago, British Airways announced that they were beginning a new flight from Denver to London, from DIA to Gatwick. They announced a special price to try to get folks here in Denver to go to England. They were offering a $99 special, direct non-stop from DIA to Gatwick in London. Barb got on the phone and she said, “Wow! We have got to get this!” Of course, she couldn’t get through for hours, and when she did, all the tickets were sold. We did, however, get tickets for $198. Barb and I, my brother Greg and his wife and Judy, and Gary Fields all went to England together a couple of weeks ago. We spent seven days there. For Barb and me, it was a particular pleasure because our son is over there going to school this semester in Lancaster. We wanted to see him, and it was great to see him.
We went into London and went into Westminster Abbey. Some of you have been there. In Westminster Abbey, you see the coronation throne where British monarchs have been crowned for centuries. Beneath the coronation throne, you see a box. There is a sign there in Westminster Abbey which says, “In this box, the Stone of Scone was once kept.”
The Stone of Scone is sometimes called the Stone of Destiny. Now, this stone is called the Stone of Scone because, in the 8th century, it was brought to a monastery in Scone, Scotland. For more than four hundred years, all the kings of Scotland were crowned sitting on the Stone of Scone, sitting on the Stone of Destiny. That is where their coronation took place. Then in the year 1296, King Edward I of England brought the Stone of Destiny down to Westminster Abbey and placed it beneath the coronation seat. For almost seven hundred years, all the kings and queens of Great Britain have been crowned sitting on the Stone of Destiny.
In 1950, Scottish nationalists tried to steal the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey and return it to Scotland. That almost caused a war. It revived old hostilities between England and Scotland. In 1996, just a couple of years ago, on St. Andrews Day, they decided to return the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey to Edinburgh Castle, and it is there. We went there to Edinburgh Castle. I was interested in seeing what this Stone of Scone looked like. We went into the place where the crown jewels are kept, and the Stone of Scone is right there. I was stunned when I saw it. I mean, it just looks like a rock. It just looks like a dumb rock. It does not even look good. It is just an ugly rock. For 1,100 years, Scottish kings and the nobility and the royalty of Great Britain have been crowned sitting on that stone. By sitting on that stone, they have been elevated to greatness, exalted, moved from common to uncommon. How incredible.
Most of you know people, either at work or perhaps in your neighborhood or maybe in your own family, who act like they have sat on something special. Do not you know people like that? Do not you know people who act like they sat on the Stone of Destiny? They act like they have just been destined for greatness and they are somehow superior. Do you know that God hates that? Do you know God hates arrogance? God hates it when we feel superior. When we feel exalted above others, God hates that.
As you look at this little parable, you see more than a little arrogance in this rich man. He is arrogant by his lifestyle and by his clothing. He clothes himself in purple and fine linen. Purple garments were so rare. They were made from a purple dye which only came from shellfish and was so expensive that it took the average wage earner in Israel one thousand working days, three years, to make enough money to buy one purple garment. Therefore, the average wage earner in Israel never bought a purple garment. Only the very rich had them and they only wore them rarely. But the indication in this passage is this rich man wore purple regularly.
And he ate sumptuously every day. The Greek indicates feasting on extravagant delicacies. Of course, the average person in Israel only ate meat once a week in the time of Christ. This guy was not simply rich. He was in-your-face rich! There is a little arrogance about that, but it wasn’t simply that. You go through the parable, and you see his attitude toward the poor man even when they have gone to their separate destinies. The rich man has gone to Hades, which in the New Testament is virtually synonymous with Gehenna or hell. The poor man has gone to Abraham’s side. He’s gone to heaven.
This rich man in the parable, as he looks across and sees Abraham and Lazarus, he still kind of views Lazarus as his errand boy. “Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Send Lazarus to warn my brothers.” There is a certain kind of arrogance that Bible scholars see still in this rich man. It is a sense of superiority. He still feels above this guy, and God hates that. He does not like any kind of arrogance. He does not like racial superiority. Of course, in this little parable, there is no racial superiority. These are both Jews. That is why He calls Abraham “Father Abraham” and He calls the rich man “son.” That is why Lazarus went to Abraham’s side. These were both Jews. But there was socio-economic superiority, and God hates socio-economic arrogance.
So, we have this warning regarding selfishness and this warning regarding arrogance. Then finally and most importantly, there’s a warning here regarding unbelief. This rich man was not only selfish and arrogant, but he was without faith. Nothing is more important than this.
The Romans controlled Israel, controlled Judea, for hundreds of years. From the very beginning of Roman rule in Israel, a group of Jewish people called zealots began to resist the Romans. There were various segments of people within the zealot party. There was the Sicarii, a word which means “dagger man.” They were those who filtered through the crowds, found Romans, and stabbed them in the back. You can imagine how this facilitated peace between the Romans and Jews. Of course, most of the zealots were more noble in their activity than that.
The year was 63 AD when a group of zealots seized control of the Roman fortress at Masada. This began a great movement against the Romans that swept across the population of Jews in Judea and Galilee. The rebellion against Rome spread from Masada to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and up north into Galilee. The Jews seized control of the holy city of Jerusalem once again, and the Romans were cast out.
Now, in Rome, the Emperor Nero heard of this, and Nero was enraged. He sent General Vespasian to stem the rebellion. After a few years, Nero died. Vespasian had to return to Rome, but his son, Titus, was placed in charge of Judea. It was April of the year 70 AD when Titus and 80,000 Roman troops began their siege of Jerusalem. The Jews were within Jerusalem’s fortress walls. The Romans began their siege under the leadership of Titus in April of 70 AD. After a few weeks, many of the Jewish people within the walls of the city of Jerusalem began to starve because the Romans had cut off their food supplies. They began to starve, and the situation began to be bleaker. The Jewish people inside the walls of Jerusalem held the daily sacrifices until July 17. On July 17, the sacrifices in the Jewish temple ceased because all able-bodied people had to man the walls. Then on August 10, through a combination of battering rams and catapults, the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem. The Roman armies just came flowing into the holy city. Jewish people began to run. They ran to the temple mount. They ran into the temple.
Titus had given instruction not to destroy the temple. That was the one edifice he wanted to leave standing. But in the midst of their rage and in the midst of their excitement, the Roman soldiers set fire to the Jerusalem temple. Of course, the stone walls would have remained, but the fire melted the gold, and as it rolled down the walls, the Roman soldiers pushed the stone down, stone slab off of stone slab. They just pushed them down to the ground in order that they might get to the gold, and the temple was completely destroyed.
What did all of that happen to the holy city of Jerusalem? Why did God allow that? The Bible says it was because of unbelief. You see how it was prophesied by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. On Palm Sunday, in Luke, chapter 19, we read about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He comes with the crowds, down the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the walls of the holy city as He approaches the city of Jerusalem. The people are shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” But Jesus looks on the city of Jerusalem, and the Bible tells us in Luke 19 he wept. He began to cry. He said, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace, but they are hid from your eyes. I tell you that the day will come when your enemies surround you, cast up a bank about you, hem you in on every side, dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and not one stone will be left lying upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Here He was, the King of Kings coming into that city, and they would not believe.
There is this warning in the Bible regarding unbelief. What is true of the city of Jerusalem is true of us individually. If we reject Christ, judgement is coming. You come to this parable and you see this rich man and this poor man. The poor man is given a name. This is the only parable in the whole of scripture where a name is given to a character in the parable, but Jesus gives the poor man a name. He gives the rich man no name. Sometimes the rich man is called Dives, but that is simply from the Latin Vulgate Bible. Dives means rich man. Jesus does not give the rich man a name. He only gives the poor man a name and this is to kind of exalt the poor man, a flip-flop of how the world treats the poor. But the name he gives the poor man is Lazarus. This is a Latinized form of the Hebrew or Aramaic name Eleazar, which means, “the Lord is my help.” Surely Jesus gave that name in this parable to help us understand that this poor man had faith but the rich man and his brothers did not have faith. Jesus says of the rich man through Abraham in the parable that he and his brothers have ignored Moses and the prophets. They had ignored the Old Testament. They had ignored the scriptures. Jesus said, “They wouldn’t believe even if someone were to rise from the dead.” He foreknew he would rise, but they would not believe. They still would not be convinced. Unbelief. We have this warning. It is a warning given to each of us. These are the consequences of unbelief.
A week ago, last Friday, Bruce Ramsey passed away. You know that. Bruce hit a tree up at Keystone. Bruce was our pastor to single parents and blended families. He had a wonderful ministry to them. We grieve with Sally, Bruce’s wife, and with the family, but we do not grieve for Bruce. We do not grieve for Bruce because Bruce was a believer. Bruce had faith. He had faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior and as his Lord and he lived for Christ. Bruce has gone to heaven. He has gone to that place in this parable which is called Abraham’s bosom or Abraham’s side. Of course, in heaven there is not only Abraham but all of the Old Testament saints and all of the angelic hosts. In heaven there is all of the assembly of the first born, all of the believers in Jesus Christ. “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived of the wonderful things that are there.” Bruce is seeing those things today. We do not grieve for Bruce because he had faith.
The thing to ask yourself this morning as we draw to a close is ,”Do you have faith? Do you believe?” Remember, belief is a commitment. It is a commitment. It is not mere intellectual assent. It is a commitment of life. Let me give you a little example.
I think most of you know that on September 3, Swiss Air Flight 111 crashed into the Atlantic near a fishing village on the coast of Nova Scotia. Two hundred and twenty-nine people, everyone onboard, died. They all had faith. All 229 people were believers. They believed in that airplane. They made a commitment. They got on board. They believed it would take them to their destiny. They believed that MD-11 would get them there. I am sure most people if you would ask them if they believed an MD-11 could fly across the Atlantic would give intellectual assent to that. But faith, in the sense of the Greek word used in the Bible, requires commitment. If you really have faith, you commit yourself. Some of those people on that plane, they might have had phobias. They might have had doubts. They might have had fears. But they had faith enough to make a commitment and they got on board.
Now, the ship of Christ is not going to crash. I believe that. But you understand that if you have faith in Christ, if you really believe in Christ, you ‘re not just giving intellectual assent that Jesus Christ is the Son of God or that He rose from the dead or even that He died for the sin of the world. But you have made a commitment. If it is biblical faith, you have made a commitment. You have committed your life to Him. You are trusting His sacrifice on the cross to save you, and you are committed to His Lordship. You want to please Him. You have decided that you want to seek personal holiness, and you have decided you want to seek social justice because you know these things please the Lord. You have made a commitment to Him.
I would ask you today, and God would ask you today, “Have you made that commitment? Have you asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior? Are you trusting Him and His cross for your salvation? Have you embraced Him as Lord? Have you made that commitment to live for Him?” Not for yourself, but for Him. That’s faith. It does not mean you’ll never sin. It does not mean you will not make a mistake. We all sin. But your heart’s desire and your struggle day-by-day if you really believe is to live for Him. And this is your commitment. If you have not made that commitment, you can make the commitment today as we close. So, we are warned regarding selfishness. We are warned regarding arrogance, and we are warned regarding unbelief. Let us pray.