1st Sunday after Trinity + Luke 16:19-31 + June 3, 2018

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Two very different men live two very different lives. The first man is very wealthy. He wears the color of kings. His clothing is soft and luxurious. His table is always filled with good things to eat. The second man is the opposite in every way. Instead of great wealth he has great poverty. Instead of being clothed with the finest linens, his body is covered in terrible sores. Instead of full table, Lazarus has a perpetually empty stomach. The rich man’s crumbs would have been a feast to Lazarus, but none fell from the rich man’s table. The rich man lived a life of comfort and ease. The only comfort poor Lazarus received was from dogs who came and licked his sores. As they are very different in life, so they are very different in death. The beggar Lazarus dies and angels carry him away to paradise, the bosom of Abraham, where finally receives comfort and rest from his burdensome life. The rich man dies and goes to Hell. There are no comforts in Hell. Just the gnawing worm of regret and a torment of soul which feels like a flame of fire.

The destination of both men reveals one more aspect of how their lives were different. Where they both end up shows us something that Jesus left unsaid. Their destinations show us their spiritual states while alive. The rich man lived his life in unbelief and impenitence. Consider how he treated poor Lazarus. St. John tells in today’s epistle, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” It’s obvious that the rich man did not love Lazarus. He could have provided crumbs from his table. He couldn’t plead ignorance of Lazarus because Lazarus laid at the rich man’s gate. Perhaps the rich man looked the part of the pious man. Perhaps he tithed and gave money to the local synagogue. He wasn’t an overt sinner, murdering or whoring around. He seems like a respectable member of Israel, which was both the church as well as state at the time. Perhaps he looked out at his wealth and judged that because God had given it to him, God must have been well-pleased with him. This is the, “if you’re doing God’s will then he’ll give you lots of good stuff” mentality. Perhaps that’s why he looked down on poor Lazarus. With that mentality, if someone is suffering it must be because they’re doing it wrong and God is trying to get their attention. But that is not how God works. In the end, the rich man did not love his neighbor. From that we can draw out that he had no love for God and lacked truth faith in God.

Lazarus, on the other hand, had nothing except that he loved God. Jesus doesn’t tell us that Lazarus had all sorts of good works because in all honesty he probably didn’t. He didn’t have opportunity or ability to perform them for others. But the fact that poor Lazarus ends us in the bosom of Abraham, enjoying the bliss of heavenly comfort and rest, shows that in his life he actually did please God, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). The rich man gloried in his riches. He trusted in them and used them as a barometer for what God thought of him. Lazarus had no riches in which to glory. He had no wealth in which to place his trust or take comfort. He believed the Word of God spoken in Moses and the prophets. Moses and the prophets foretold Christ and promised that He would come to comfort all who repent of their sins and forgive all who flee to Him for mercy. The rich man had no faith in the Word of God in Moses and the prophets. This is evident from his demand from Hades. “Send Lazarus to my five brothers,” he says, “so that they will see a man risen from the grave and that will make them repent and avoid this terrible torment.” Even in Hell he shows that he does not understand faith and love.

He doesn’t understand love because he wants to interrupt Lazarus’ much deserved rest at Abraham’s bosom. He still thinks of himself as being above Lazarus. Nor does he understand faith if he thinks that seeing a man risen from the dead will convert his unbelieving brothers. You see how ridiculous this is, don’t you? Especially this side of the resurrection of Christ. Christ is risen from the dead. “He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:5-6. Yet how many heard the news of his resurrection and did not believe? How many today refuse to believe it, in spite of more eye-witnesses than most news stories today have? This is not the way the Lord has chosen to bring men to repentance and faith, so that He can bring them at death into everlasting joys. He works repentance and faith not through miracles, but through Moses and the prophets, through His Word. So it is today. Many say they will believe if God only gives them an obvious sign. But if they will not hear Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, they will not be persuaded by a man risen from the dead. The main difference between the rich man and Lazarus was nothing external at all.

The difference between these men was faith borne from the Word of God. This difference led both to their destinations at the moment of their deaths. So it is even now. Christ wants you to be Lazarus. It doesn’t matter if you have great wealth or you live in abject poverty. He does not want you, like the rich man, to glory in your treasures and take comfort in your wealth so that you believe you can judge God’s favor based on how easy and comfortable your life is. Too many today believe as the rich man did, that if things are going well then God must be well-pleased with them and the lives they are living. He trusted in his easy life and put aside repenting of his sins and faith in the promised Messiah. You may think to yourself, “I am not wealthy, therefore I can’t be like that.” But that is not true. You don’t have to have wealth to trust in it. Luther often said that a God is that to which we look for every good thing. So if we imagine that more wealth and riches would make our lives better, then we are making wealth into a god because we imagine that with it we would be happy and content. It is as St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:9, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

Christ wants you to be Lazarus. If you have wealth you don’t have to give it up to be Lazarus. Many great saints of the both Testaments were wealthy men, include Abraham. We are not to emulate Lazarus’ lifestyle. You are to emulate his faith, the same faith of which we sang in the Introit earlier. “Oh Lord, I have trusted in your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). Christ wants you to trust in His mercy not your wealth. You know you have a loving and gracious God in heaven, not because of worldly blessings He may or may not shower upon you. You know God as a loving Father because of His promises to you in Moses and the prophets. There God promises to give you Christ who would die for you and endure all the pangs of Hell for you upon the cross, so that when you die, the angels can carry you to the bosom of Abraham, where you will enjoy your heavenly rest until the resurrection of the body on the Last Day. Do not look at what you lack in this life. Don’t gauge your eternal life based on the things you have or don’t have. Be Lazarus. No matter your lot, look to Christ and take comfort in Him.

May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.