"One Whom God Helps" - Luke 16:19-31

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[Luke 16:19-31] [Jesus said:] “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24And he called out, ‘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.’ 25But 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. 26And 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.’ 27And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

“One Whom God Helps”

I.

Our Gospel today is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man who passes by the poor man at his gate each day – the poor man, “Lazarus”, whose name means “One whom God helps.”

It is not a sin to be either rich or poor. It’s not a virtue either. Instead, the Rich Man’s action, or inaction, shows the condition of his heart. He is callous. He is unmoved by the wounds and the hunger of Lazarus at his gate. The heart of the matter is what the Rich Man believes, or, in fact, does not believe, about himself and the poor man.

The Rich Man is able to say, “What I have is mine and is my right!” because his heart is cold. Jesus tells this parable because when our hands and feet and mouth remain so unmoved in the sight of poverty, those unmoving hands are from an unmoved heart.

What is in the heart comes out through our actions or inaction. How can we know ourselves? What is in, or isn’t in, the heart overflows through our words and deeds. What we do and what we leave undone.

The Rich Man doesn’t believe the poor man is a “Lazarus,” “One whom God helps”, because he doesn’t first know himself as one who needs God’s help. He believes his riches. He doesn’t believe his own natural and spiritual poverty, which the Word of God tells him about —

— That we bring nothing into this world; what we have is from God. And that we bring no merit or worthiness before God but receive His steadfast love and faithfulness as a gift by grace. We are poor, except that He has made us rich.

If I know my own true poverty – sin and death – “a poor, miserable sinner”, in need of mercy – how does this affect how I see the Lazaruses on the sidewalk, or any person who’s in bad shape, maybe because of what he himself did? —

— What have I myself done! Yet God has had mercy on me. “I am one whom God has helped.” That sets my heart right toward the many kinds of Lazaruses in my life who could use my help.

II.

The Rich Man and Lazarus both die. The poor man, Lazarus, is carried by the angels to “Abraham’s side” – perhaps a seat of honor as they rest in heaven’s banquet hall, waiting for the feast which is about to come. (When we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised to see who is sitting at the top. People of such little account in this world that we never knew their names.)

The Rich Man dies, is buried, and his soul is in torment in hades – hell’s jail cell where he waits for trial and verdict. Even in such torment, the Rich Man’s heart is unchanged. He finds it unfair, where he is. “Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue…” He neglected Lazarus on earth, but expects Lazarus to be sent to his aid after death.

The Rich Man does have concern, but only for his own – his five brothers. That gives him no credit. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” [Luke 6:32; Matthew 5:47].

The Rich Man wants Lazarus to be sent to his brothers, if not down to him, to rise from the dead and warn them: “If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent,” he says.

“No,” he is told, for “if they do not hear Moses and the Prophets – if they don’t believe the Scriptures – neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

This final part of the exchange between the Rich Man and Abraham shows that the core issue is faith, believing God’s Word about me and my Savior – and “if they won’t believe the Scriptures, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead”, and someone has.

Scripture says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “All have sinned and fall short…” And are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” [Romans 3:10,23-24]

Believing this about yourself, “no one righteous” – and about what Jesus has done for you – your heart starts changing everyone’s name to Lazarus. People whom Jesus has come to help. There isn’t a person He hasn’t given His life for.

III.

Jesus became the world’s Savior by becoming the ultimate Lazarus on the cross. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” [2 Corinthians 8:9]

What was happening on that cross? Jesus carried in His flesh and soul all the poverty of this world. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” [Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46]. All sin, all death, all the assaults of the evil one. All wounds and all blows. And the guilt of those who gave them. This whole evil existence.

All falls. All failings. All sickness and death. All the accidents on the road. All mistakes made in the hospital. “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” [Matthew 8:17].

All rejection and loneliness. All mockery and being made fun of – they wagged their heads and mocked Him on the cross. All spitting. All prejudice and bias, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”

And all the darkest evils of this world. All shootings, all stabbings, all terror. All wars. And all hatred of God and one another. And, all thirst, all hunger, all poverty. And being passed by.

Jesus became all poverty of our sin and death, hung upon a cross – Yet remained God’s Lazarus, THE “One Whom God Has Helped” by raising Him from the dead. “For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the Afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard, when He cried to Him.” [Psalm 22:24]

You are not overcome by all the poverties of this fallen life because, in Jesus, God is raising you too. God has not passed you by, but has come to you in Jesus, making you also “one whom God has helped.”

Let this determine the heart you have for every other Lazarus whom God is also not passing by. Amen.