“Who Are We Listening To”
I think I mentioned last Sunday that by this time in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross, the crowd that was following Him had grown from the original twelve to probably several hundred, maybe even thousands. And what was Jesus doing? Well, He was doing what He did a lot of [preach, teach, heal the sick, and raise the dead]. He was teaching those who were following, including Pharisees and teachers of the law about how they should live here on earth as they prepare for the kingdom of heaven.
Over the past few Sundays, we have sat at the feet of Jesus as He explained about where to sit when invited to a banquet; not the highest but the lowest, so our host can say to us, “Friend, move up to a better place. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” And whom we should invite when we hold our own banquets.
Maybe one of His tougher lessons was: If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”
An idol is anything more important to you than God. That’s what Jesus is saying here, we can’t love anything or be devoted to anything more than Him. Our temptation is to turn what we consider good things into God things. 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
Mammon, or money, which can become an idol, makes us look up at those above us with envy, not down to those below us with gratitude for what we have. This cultural idol distorts our view of reality.
Last week, Jesus shared one of His parables about a shrewd business manager who squandered away his master’s money and was forced to do some quick thinking reminding us that we can’t serve two masters, God and money.
And then comes a bridge that leads us into our parable for today. “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight’” (Luke 16:14-15 NIV).
Luke 16:19-31
The Pharisees considered wealth to be a proof of a person’s righteousness [God’s approval]. Jesus startled them with this story, in which a diseased beggar is rewarded, and a rich man is punished. The rich man did not go to hell because of his wealth but because he was selfish, refusing to feed Lazarus, take him in, or care for him.
You may have heard about a young woman about to get married who said to her mother, “I can’t marry him, mother. He’s an atheist and he doesn’t believe there is a hell.”
Her mother responded, “That’s all right, dear, marry him and between the two of us I am sure we can convince him.”
The rich man in our parable was hard-hearted despite his great blessings. The amount of money we have is not as important as the way we use it.
When we try to generalize people—the poor, the rich, the elderly, teenagers, the left, the right, the clergy, the laity, etc.; we dehumanize them.
How do we humanize them? We get to know them by name—and with that, we form a relationship.
Jesus, in His parable for today, does something He doesn’t do much of. He gives us names for His cast of characters. The beggar’s name is Lazarus, not to be confused with the Lazarus whom Jesus would raise form the dead. We have Father Abraham, who the angels carried the beggar to in heaven. And the rich man, some refer to as Dives—pronounced “Div-ees”—though that isn’t his name. Dives is simply Latin for “rich man.”
Speaking of names—do you remember the Olympic skier Picabo Street? She won the gold medal for the downhill in the 1998 games. She also won the World Cup downhill titles in 1995 & 1996, the first American woman to do so and she was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame. I didn’t even know there was a Ski Hall of Fame. But she’s more than just an athlete because now she’s a nurse working in the Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital. But she’s no longer allowed to answer the phones. It caused too much confusion when she would answer the phone and say: “Picabo, I.C.U.”
How about Stuart Hamblen, does anyone remember him? He was a well-known radio host/comedian/song writer in the 1950’s. It is said that Hamblin, a heavy drinker, attended a tent revival which really got him to thinking. A couple of nights later Hamblin showed up drunk at the hotel of the preacher and asked him to pray for him. The young preacher refused to pray for him, but they talked throughout the night till Hamblin dropped to his knees and with tears, cried out to God.
Stuart Hamblin was a changed man but lost his job—many of his friends—and couldn’t seem to write music that anyone wanted to hear. One of those friends, named John, took him aside and John told him, “All your troubles started when you ‘got religion,’ Was it worth it all?” John asked him if he missed the booze, his old way of life, and how he could give it up so easily. And Stuart’s response was, “It’s no big secret. All things are possible with God.” John said, “That’s a catchy phrase, you should write a song about it.” This is what he wrote:
“It is no secret what God can do.
What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you.
With arms wide open, He’ll welcome you.
It is no secret, what God can do…”
Stuart Hamblin’s friend was John Wayne. The young preacher who refused to pray for him but sat up all night with him: Billy Graham. And now—as Paul Harvey would have said: “You know the rest of the story.” [Aren’t you glad you came this morning?]
The rich man in our Biblical story today—Dives—is described as clothed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. Purple, of course, was the color of royalty; it was very expensive because it was so scarce. You might remember that the robe placed on Jesus before His crucifixion was purple because Pilate referred to Him as “King of the Jews.”
Dives “lived in luxury every day,” his life was one long party. The beggar, Lazarus, desired to be fed.
Dives is richly clothed and fed; Lazarus is too hungry to refuse the pieces of bread which Dives has used for a napkin, and too weak to drive off the scavenger dogs that lick his sores. Wealth is not necessarily wicked, but it has temptations hard to resist; poverty is not necessarily virtue, but it can more easily be turned into the soul’s account.
Dives was too absorbed in himself to be able to see; was so close to himself that he couldn’t see Lazarus, though the beggar was as near as his doorstop.
Dives from his place of torment begs a drop of water, as Lazarus, which means “God helps,” on earth had begged a scrap of bread.
In reply, Abraham reminded the rich man that in his lifetime he enjoyed good things, while Lazarus endured evil things. Now their positions were reversed.
Dives, in his torment, still expects someone he considers to be lower than he to bring him some water for his tongue. But we must give him a little credit, after Abraham’s response he did consider the future of his five brothers still alive and asks that someone go and warn them. But Abraham reminds Dives that because of their own lack of faith and their own choices “They will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
This is ample evidence that if people won’t listen to the Word of God, the written Scriptures, they won’t be convinced by any miracle. Jesus asked a lot of questions during His three-year ministry. Anyone know what His favorite question was? “Have you not read?” Unbelief is primarily a moral rather than a mental matter. In most cases people don’t believe because they will not believe.
Most of the Jews then and still today don’t believe in bodily resurrection; this is what Abraham was pointing to when he made this comment; that even Jesus rising from the dead wouldn’t convince them. Thankfully, we believe that Jesus died for our sins but was resurrected that we might have eternal life with Him in heaven.
Jesus was concerned about the poor—as today’s story and many other of His teaching’s reveal to us—just as the early church was concerned. If you love God, you care about people—all people.
What parable would make a man with three doctoral degrees [one in medicine, one in theology, one in philosophy] leave civilization with all of its culture and amenities and depart for the jungles of darkest Africa? What parable could induce a man, who was recognized as one of the best concert organists in all of Europe, go to a place where there were no organs to play. What parable would so intensely motivate a man that he would give up a teaching position in Vienna, Austria to go and deal with people who were so deprived that they were still living in the superstitions of the dark ages for all practical purposes. The man who I am talking about was of course, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. And the single parable that so radically altered his life, according to him, was our text for this morning, the parable of the Rish Man and Lazarus.
The Rich Man and Lazarus were neighbors, you know. They saw each other every day. Maybe not socially but there was contact. Every day the Rich Man saw this beggar at his front gate.
I honestly don’t know if Dives ended up in a physical hell or not. I do believe this—there probably wasn’t much joy in his life while he was alive. You can’t have an abundant life without Christ….and you cannot love Christ without loving your neighbor.
Dives ignored Lazarus at his door, and he paid the price. We pay a price when we ignore our neighbor too.
In closing, try to imagine the population of North America—around 316 million people. Now, try to imagine a population almost 3 times bigger. That is the number of people worldwide that don’t get enough food—over 840 million people [hard for us to imagine isn’t it]. We are told about 1.1 billion people do not have clean drinking water. About 25,000 people die each day from hunger or causes related to hunger. Can you imagine every 4 days a small town the size of 25,000 being wiped out?
Hunger doesn’t just happen overseas. We are told that 31 million people, 12 million of them children, live without enough food right here in the United States.
You [Eastman first] gave out a little over $450.00 worth of food this week in small increments through the Blessing Box ministry. Don’t think that the problem of hunger isn’t right outside our doors.
John Wesley said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” You know what, I believe that if old John were here today, he would add: “And start right now!”
Eastman First Methodist Church 