Genesis 15:1-6; 1 John 4:16-21; St Luke 16:19-31
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Abram believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteousness. When the Lord made the promise to him that he would be the father of many nations and that from his loins the Promised Seed would come, all Abram had was the Word. The meager Word. No son, no heir. The heir of his house was Eliezer of Damascus. He was already old. Sarah too. He had nothing to show for God’s great promise, only the Word. The Word that God was gracious and merciful to carry through and bring forth the Seed who would bring blessing to all nations. Faith clings to this Word. Abram believed and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. This faith alone saves. But such faith is never alone.
St John writes, This commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Let no one comfort himself that he shares the faith of Abraham if he is without love toward the brother. Faith alone justifies; is reckoned as righteousness, apart from works of the Law. But the faith that alone justifies is never alone. It is always accompanied by the fruits of faith. The works of love.
Did the Rich Man in the parable have such faith? He certainly thought so. Even in the torments of Hades he lays claim to being a child of Abraham. And perhaps odd to our ears, Abraham returns the sentiment by calling him Child.
But his faith was a sham. This is revealed by the fact that he could walk past the beggar Lazarus, the man placed at his gate for him to love. He was a gift. An unusual gift, but a gift. Actually, a repulsive gift, but still a gift. A gift from God to the self-absorbed Rich Man. We like gifts covered in bright wrapping paper. This gift of God was covered with sores. We like gifts surrounded by pretty ribbons. This gift was surrounded by dirty dogs. We like gifts to be useful, but what are you going to do with a useless beggar named Lazarus laid at your front door?
Yet there he was - right at the Rich Man’s front door. It was as if God was preaching to him even after he left synagogue. For it is entirely probable that the Rich Man never missed at chance to attend church. He may have even had a seat of honor - the rich and famous often did. It is also possible that Lazarus attended the same church. St James tells a similar parable about two men like these who come to church. If a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into church and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2-4).
The Rich Man was there. He heard the words of Moses and the Prophets read and proclaimed in the synagogue. He listened. But he did not take them to heart. He did not let the words sink into him and reduce him to fear. He did not realize that God meant exactly what He said: Cursed is he who does not continue in all that is written in the book of the Law and do it (Dt 27:26). For when he got home and saw the poor fellow lying there - God preaching to him, saying, “Here, Rich Man, show me your faith. Here you go, you can’t miss him. Show me you love me by loving that repulsive beggar. Show me your life is more than just eating and drinking and wanting more stuff.”
But he failed. In the words of St James he dishonored the Poor Man. He showed partiality as he claimed to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (James 2:6, 1). For all his pious pretense, for all his worldly possessions, for his pride and vain-glory, all his calling Abraham “Father,” the Rich Man was an unbeliever.
How do we know? He ends up in hell. And being in torment, he still thinks only of himself. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Make that beggar, whom I despised and ignored, serve me. No. Not possible says Abraham. No one can cross between heaven and hell. The time is gone.
“Than send him back and warn my brothers,” he pleads. And Abraham responds, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them. And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent. Even in hell unbelievers despise the Word, think little of it, and do not afford it the power that it truly has.
Abraham, though, is no unbeliever. He knows the power of the promises of God, the might of His Word. The Word that called him from unbelief to faith. The Word that brought him from death to life. The Word that gave him a child and through the child the promise of the One who would bring blessing to all. That Word sustained him all the days of his pilgrimage. That Word kept him humble before God so he never trusted in his own deeds or riches or prestige.
Faith alone in that Word alone was reckoned to him as righteousness. It saved him. But the Word also made him fruitful in good works; in charity and love for his neighbor. And that Word at last brought him to the eternal Promised Land to recline with the Seed surrounded by the angelic host and all the company of heaven as numerous as the stars. And so he says to the Rich Man, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
Here we sit. Richer in the Word than they. For God has not only given you the witness of the Apostles and Evangelists to add to Moses and the Prophets. Indeed He has fulfilled them! You have not just the foretelling of the One who would bring blessing to all. You have the fulfillment.
And yet, how often are we the brothers of the Rich Man, for too we have dishonored the Poor Man just as he. The Rich Man hated Lazarus, but that doesn’t mean he kicked him or ordered him off his property. He just hated him in the most common way that we hate: we ignore, we neglect, we don’t see what God wants us to see. We ignore the burdensome, the bothersome, the nobodies, the time-suckers, all the people God puts in our path to exercise and show Him your faith which you confess. Even though God gave him Lazarus as a gift to notice and to serve, he lived as if Lazarus were invisible. And only in hell did the Rich Man finally realize what an opportunity he had missed. And it was too late.
In the Rite of Individual Confession we say, “I have not let God’s love have its way with me, and so my love for others has failed.” That should have been the Rich Man’s confession. He failed to love God in the person of Lazarus whom he could see. But that is our confession too. How many burdensome, difficult, inconvenient people have we hated by our neglect? Even those in our own family? Our church? Our neglect may not have been as heinous as the rich man’s, but based on the quality of our love for others, we could certainly be one of his doomed brothers.
But you are not one of his hell bound brothers. For God is still the great Gift Giver and Lover of man. St James earlier writes, Every good gifts and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shadow or variation due to change. Of His own will be brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures (James 1:16-18).
Again this morning, in this assembly, this congregation, He has decided to love someone as undeserving as you. For the greatest gift, the Perfect Gift who came down from above, from the Father of lights, is the Gift of His sole begotten Son who came to be your Brothers. He came down from heaven to take on your flesh and to do what we have often refused to do - act in love. To be not only a hearer of the Word, but a doer also.
For Jesus your Brother not only said, “I love God,” but He then showed it by loving who the Father wanted Him to love: burdensome, difficult, inconvenient, troubled, poor, miserable sinners like us. Jesus, God’s Rich Son, for your sake became poor - poor like Lazarus - so that through His poverty, you might inherit the riches of heaven. Jesus, who came not only to be an example of faithfulness and obedience, but even better, came to be affixed to a Cross, to be the Bridge out of eternal torment and into everlasting life.
For hell is real. And if you don’t want the God who is love, you will get the god you desire in hell, cut off from God’s redeeming love forever.
And though He was innocent and perfect and righteous, this is exactly what Jesus suffered on the Cross. He was cut off from God His Father, suffering and experiencing the true hell of anguish and torment of His soul. When He screamed out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me, He was experiencing hell in your place. Experiencing hell so you wouldn’t. This is your true Brother!
For who is Lazarus really? Who is the Poor Man referenced by St James? Of whom is this a picture? An image? He is Jesus, who came to be your Brother. Your Brother in the flesh, who came to be so close to you that He was willing to become your Sin, to be covered in the sores of your unrighteousness and guilt and shame. To suffer it. But more, to triumph over it so that by faith in Him you become the righteousness of God. For such faith alone saves. But such faith is never alone. It is bound to bring forth good fruits, works of love and charity and mercy for the good of another. The one whom God puts into your way to help. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment. We love because He first loved us.
First and last and always. See how He continues to love you. Though a sore-ridden, sin-sick beggar, He clothes you in the fine linen of your Holy Baptism and calls you His child. He sets before you a sumptuous feast, His true Body and Blood back from the dead to strengthen you in faith toward Him and fervent love toward one another. He gives you His Word; meager though it may seem, but the power of God unto salvation. He gives you these to create and sustain the faith which alone justifies. But such faith is never alone. Thus does He give you your particular Lazaruses to help to exercise this faith.
And in such faith you can be confident of dying a blessed death, the prayer of Lazarus your own prayer: “Lord, let at last Thine angels come, to Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home, that I may die unfearing. And in its narrow chamber keep, my body safe in peaceful sleep until Thy reappearing. And then from death awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God Thy glorious face, my Savior and my Fount of Grace. Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend, and I will praise Thee without end” (LSB 708:3). Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Abram believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteousness. When the Lord made the promise to him that he would be the father of many nations and that from his loins the Promised Seed would come, all Abram had was the Word. The meager Word. No son, no heir. The heir of his house was Eliezer of Damascus. He was already old. Sarah too. He had nothing to show for God’s great promise, only the Word. The Word that God was gracious and merciful to carry through and bring forth the Seed who would bring blessing to all nations. Faith clings to this Word. Abram believed and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. This faith alone saves. But such faith is never alone.
St John writes, This commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Let no one comfort himself that he shares the faith of Abraham if he is without love toward the brother. Faith alone justifies; is reckoned as righteousness, apart from works of the Law. But the faith that alone justifies is never alone. It is always accompanied by the fruits of faith. The works of love.
Did the Rich Man in the parable have such faith? He certainly thought so. Even in the torments of Hades he lays claim to being a child of Abraham. And perhaps odd to our ears, Abraham returns the sentiment by calling him Child.
But his faith was a sham. This is revealed by the fact that he could walk past the beggar Lazarus, the man placed at his gate for him to love. He was a gift. An unusual gift, but a gift. Actually, a repulsive gift, but still a gift. A gift from God to the self-absorbed Rich Man. We like gifts covered in bright wrapping paper. This gift of God was covered with sores. We like gifts surrounded by pretty ribbons. This gift was surrounded by dirty dogs. We like gifts to be useful, but what are you going to do with a useless beggar named Lazarus laid at your front door?
Yet there he was - right at the Rich Man’s front door. It was as if God was preaching to him even after he left synagogue. For it is entirely probable that the Rich Man never missed at chance to attend church. He may have even had a seat of honor - the rich and famous often did. It is also possible that Lazarus attended the same church. St James tells a similar parable about two men like these who come to church. If a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into church and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2-4).
The Rich Man was there. He heard the words of Moses and the Prophets read and proclaimed in the synagogue. He listened. But he did not take them to heart. He did not let the words sink into him and reduce him to fear. He did not realize that God meant exactly what He said: Cursed is he who does not continue in all that is written in the book of the Law and do it (Dt 27:26). For when he got home and saw the poor fellow lying there - God preaching to him, saying, “Here, Rich Man, show me your faith. Here you go, you can’t miss him. Show me you love me by loving that repulsive beggar. Show me your life is more than just eating and drinking and wanting more stuff.”
But he failed. In the words of St James he dishonored the Poor Man. He showed partiality as he claimed to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (James 2:6, 1). For all his pious pretense, for all his worldly possessions, for his pride and vain-glory, all his calling Abraham “Father,” the Rich Man was an unbeliever.
How do we know? He ends up in hell. And being in torment, he still thinks only of himself. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Make that beggar, whom I despised and ignored, serve me. No. Not possible says Abraham. No one can cross between heaven and hell. The time is gone.
“Than send him back and warn my brothers,” he pleads. And Abraham responds, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them. And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent. Even in hell unbelievers despise the Word, think little of it, and do not afford it the power that it truly has.
Abraham, though, is no unbeliever. He knows the power of the promises of God, the might of His Word. The Word that called him from unbelief to faith. The Word that brought him from death to life. The Word that gave him a child and through the child the promise of the One who would bring blessing to all. That Word sustained him all the days of his pilgrimage. That Word kept him humble before God so he never trusted in his own deeds or riches or prestige.
Faith alone in that Word alone was reckoned to him as righteousness. It saved him. But the Word also made him fruitful in good works; in charity and love for his neighbor. And that Word at last brought him to the eternal Promised Land to recline with the Seed surrounded by the angelic host and all the company of heaven as numerous as the stars. And so he says to the Rich Man, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
Here we sit. Richer in the Word than they. For God has not only given you the witness of the Apostles and Evangelists to add to Moses and the Prophets. Indeed He has fulfilled them! You have not just the foretelling of the One who would bring blessing to all. You have the fulfillment.
And yet, how often are we the brothers of the Rich Man, for too we have dishonored the Poor Man just as he. The Rich Man hated Lazarus, but that doesn’t mean he kicked him or ordered him off his property. He just hated him in the most common way that we hate: we ignore, we neglect, we don’t see what God wants us to see. We ignore the burdensome, the bothersome, the nobodies, the time-suckers, all the people God puts in our path to exercise and show Him your faith which you confess. Even though God gave him Lazarus as a gift to notice and to serve, he lived as if Lazarus were invisible. And only in hell did the Rich Man finally realize what an opportunity he had missed. And it was too late.
In the Rite of Individual Confession we say, “I have not let God’s love have its way with me, and so my love for others has failed.” That should have been the Rich Man’s confession. He failed to love God in the person of Lazarus whom he could see. But that is our confession too. How many burdensome, difficult, inconvenient people have we hated by our neglect? Even those in our own family? Our church? Our neglect may not have been as heinous as the rich man’s, but based on the quality of our love for others, we could certainly be one of his doomed brothers.
But you are not one of his hell bound brothers. For God is still the great Gift Giver and Lover of man. St James earlier writes, Every good gifts and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shadow or variation due to change. Of His own will be brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures (James 1:16-18).
Again this morning, in this assembly, this congregation, He has decided to love someone as undeserving as you. For the greatest gift, the Perfect Gift who came down from above, from the Father of lights, is the Gift of His sole begotten Son who came to be your Brothers. He came down from heaven to take on your flesh and to do what we have often refused to do - act in love. To be not only a hearer of the Word, but a doer also.
For Jesus your Brother not only said, “I love God,” but He then showed it by loving who the Father wanted Him to love: burdensome, difficult, inconvenient, troubled, poor, miserable sinners like us. Jesus, God’s Rich Son, for your sake became poor - poor like Lazarus - so that through His poverty, you might inherit the riches of heaven. Jesus, who came not only to be an example of faithfulness and obedience, but even better, came to be affixed to a Cross, to be the Bridge out of eternal torment and into everlasting life.
For hell is real. And if you don’t want the God who is love, you will get the god you desire in hell, cut off from God’s redeeming love forever.
And though He was innocent and perfect and righteous, this is exactly what Jesus suffered on the Cross. He was cut off from God His Father, suffering and experiencing the true hell of anguish and torment of His soul. When He screamed out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me, He was experiencing hell in your place. Experiencing hell so you wouldn’t. This is your true Brother!
For who is Lazarus really? Who is the Poor Man referenced by St James? Of whom is this a picture? An image? He is Jesus, who came to be your Brother. Your Brother in the flesh, who came to be so close to you that He was willing to become your Sin, to be covered in the sores of your unrighteousness and guilt and shame. To suffer it. But more, to triumph over it so that by faith in Him you become the righteousness of God. For such faith alone saves. But such faith is never alone. It is bound to bring forth good fruits, works of love and charity and mercy for the good of another. The one whom God puts into your way to help. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment. We love because He first loved us.
First and last and always. See how He continues to love you. Though a sore-ridden, sin-sick beggar, He clothes you in the fine linen of your Holy Baptism and calls you His child. He sets before you a sumptuous feast, His true Body and Blood back from the dead to strengthen you in faith toward Him and fervent love toward one another. He gives you His Word; meager though it may seem, but the power of God unto salvation. He gives you these to create and sustain the faith which alone justifies. But such faith is never alone. Thus does He give you your particular Lazaruses to help to exercise this faith.
And in such faith you can be confident of dying a blessed death, the prayer of Lazarus your own prayer: “Lord, let at last Thine angels come, to Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home, that I may die unfearing. And in its narrow chamber keep, my body safe in peaceful sleep until Thy reappearing. And then from death awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God Thy glorious face, my Savior and my Fount of Grace. Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend, and I will praise Thee without end” (LSB 708:3). Amen.
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