Genesis 15:1-6; 1 John 4:16-21; St Luke 16:19-31
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
We don’t know his name. He is simply called, a rich man. We don’t know his name because Jesus doesn’t know his name. His name is unknown to our Lord because it is not recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. His name is not inscribed with the Blood of the Lamb nor his name joined to the Name of the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - by water and Word in Holy Baptism in which he abided until death. He died an unbeliever. So we don’t know his name.
But everyone who knew him certainly knew his name. His friends and coworkers, his business associates and liaisons, powerful men in powerful positions. They knew his name. The invoked it when asserting their power. They dropped it when showcasing their prestige.
Everyone around the village knew his name, too. They exclaimed it with awe when speaking of the best men in town. They attached it to the list of those certainly blessed by God. They whispered it in their heads as the one they admired, aspired, coveted, and defamed.
The early Christians called him Dives. Its just the Latin translation of “rich man.” Mr Dives. Mr Money. It is not his riches, however, that are a problem. Nor his diet or attire. Jesus points out his purple clothing and fine linen, his sumptuous feasting, and wealth as symptoms of the rich man’s deeper problem. Mr Dives had a diseased heart. A heart filled with greed and complacency. A heart twisted by mammon and covetousness. A heart with no room for altruistic compassion, unconditional mercy, or self-sacrificing love.
Mr Dives, for all his wealth and prosperity, for his apparent reputation and respect, was a liar. He hated the brother who was laid had his gate and so he hated God. His contempt for the sore ridden, impoverished outcast betrayed his selfish, idolatrous heart. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. And the rich man is not saved by his riches.
But we are told the name of this poor man: Lazarus. It is a confessional type of name. A plot device used by our Lord Jesus to indicate the true source of his strength and aid. Lazarus means “God is my help.” We know his name because it is written with the atoning blood of another. Covered over in the righteousness of He who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor that in Him we might receive the inheritance of eternal life. This poor man, Lazarus, commended all his troubles and care into the hands of his merciful and gracious God. He sought every good from God alone.
This did not prohibit him, though, from pleading to strangers for mercy or seeking sustenance from the table scraps of Mr Dives. Lazarus prayed to God for daily bread, but looked for it to come through means. Our Lord always works through means. In the wilderness He did not feed the Israelites by immediately putting food into their bellies or stimulating their brains to feel full. He gave them bread. Miraculous bread, but bread nonetheless. Means.
“The Christian is entirely free and servant of none. The Christian is entirely bound and slave of all,” said Luther paradoxically about the freedom and obligation of a Christian. The rich man was indeed blessed by God with great wealth and food and provision. But these earthly riches are bestowed with a heavenly intent. The rich man was to serve God by serving his neighbor. He was to love the Lord with all his heart and show compassion on the man laid at his gate. His stuff was to serve another. In this way Mr Dives was to become daily bread unto Lazarus, even as we are all called to do for one another. No one is fiercely independent. No one is a cowboy. What do you have that you did not receive?
But every time Mr Dives refused Lazarus a morsel, every time he averted his eyes from this beggar, every time he stepped over him when he left his home for synagogue and every time he hid his face when he returned from church the rich man further calloused his heart to the Lord’s mercy and love. His did not let God’s love have its way with him, so his love for others failed.
Thus it is not for his riches that he is condemned. But for his unbelief. Neither is it for his poverty that Lazarus is welcomed to the bosom of Father Abraham, but for his trust. Mr Dives was consumed with his mammon. Lazarus was content with the kindness of the Lord.
Upon death they are judged. The rich man died and was buried. Condemned to the enteral fires of hell, his body awaiting not the resurrection to eternal life, but the punishment and anguish of eternal mortality. He who refused the love of the Lord in life received his desire in death. The goodness and loving kindness of the Lord God of Abraham was not present for him in hell. He is denied heaven by the only thing that can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus: unbelief.
By contrast Lazarus receives a blessed end. His soul is carried by the angels of the Lord to repose in the bosom of Abraham awaiting the joy of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. He who was refused compassion in life, receives the blessed comfort of a life that cannot end. God is indeed his helper. And he is not ashamed of the Lord’s promises. Lazarus knows Abraham as Father and learned well from him to trust in the promise of the Lord despite the sensible appearances to the contrary.
For Father Abraham leaned not on his own understanding. He trusted not in his extravagant riches nor considered the weakness of his own body. Rather he relied on the Word of the Lord that came to him: This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir. In his promised Seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed. And the Lord brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Once again, means. The Lord utilized an element of His creation to hold before the eyes of His children His Word and promise. He despises nothing He has made.
In fact, the Lord God of Abraham took up created flesh, not despising the creatureliness of man. It is written, 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 Cor 8:9). And elsewhere, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conveit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross (Phil 2:3-8).
In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and helper of Abraham and Lazarus, the One to whom Moses and the Prophets point and proclaim, left the riches of His Father’s house, set aside the luxurious divinity with which He is robed, and took on the humble form of a servant. A Man. He was infected and covered with the sores of our sin. He was thrown outside the Gate of Jerusalem. Rejected and ignored by rich men and rulers. Forsaken by His Father. He died in perfect love, without fear, loving His Father and you. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knew should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).
Dear people loved and helped by God, His Name has been joined to your name. He knows you and you are known by Him. He has not despised His means, but uses them for your eternal benefit. He has washed you in His cleansing blood and has clothed you with the fine linen of your Baptismal righteousness. And you do not come as dogs to like His sores, in which you find your forgiveness and peace, but as children, welcomed past the Gate of Eden, into Paradise once more, to sit at the Table of your Father with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Lazarus. You are given to eat not what falls from the Table, but what is bestowed from His hand: the morsel of Christ’s own Body and the sumptuous wine of His own Blood given and shed for you.
Receive these in faith, hearing and trusting the Word of Moses and the Prophets, the testimony of the Apostles, and the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives you this meal. For He has come back from the dead never to die again. By faith in Him, by trust in His Word, He gives you a share in His death defying eternal life!
Strengthened by this Sacred Meal, His Holy Supper, you grow in faith toward Him and in fervent love for our neighbor. The poor man laid at your gate, wherever that may be. You are given to love as you have been loved. Sacrificially. In trust and contentment that the Lord who has given you His material blessing, uses your stuff to bring blessing to another. Receiving the daily bread of Christ’s own Body you are to become daily bread unto one another. Not as a sacrament, as some falsely teach, but as a living sacrifice; abiding in the love of God in Christ Jesus.
By His Word and Spirit His love abides in you and you in Him. By faith you are reckoned righteous in His sight. Therefore you have confidence for the Day of Judgment and contentment in the provision He bestows or withholds now in this life. You need not fear hell nor death nor punishment, for it has been suffered for you by Christ Jesus your Lord. As He is, so also are you in this world. Hold fast to Him, to His Word and promises. He knows your name and you call upon His. And at the Last He will send His angels to bear you to your eternal home - your Father’s House - keeping your body safe until the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
We don’t know his name. He is simply called, a rich man. We don’t know his name because Jesus doesn’t know his name. His name is unknown to our Lord because it is not recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. His name is not inscribed with the Blood of the Lamb nor his name joined to the Name of the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - by water and Word in Holy Baptism in which he abided until death. He died an unbeliever. So we don’t know his name.
But everyone who knew him certainly knew his name. His friends and coworkers, his business associates and liaisons, powerful men in powerful positions. They knew his name. The invoked it when asserting their power. They dropped it when showcasing their prestige.
Everyone around the village knew his name, too. They exclaimed it with awe when speaking of the best men in town. They attached it to the list of those certainly blessed by God. They whispered it in their heads as the one they admired, aspired, coveted, and defamed.
The early Christians called him Dives. Its just the Latin translation of “rich man.” Mr Dives. Mr Money. It is not his riches, however, that are a problem. Nor his diet or attire. Jesus points out his purple clothing and fine linen, his sumptuous feasting, and wealth as symptoms of the rich man’s deeper problem. Mr Dives had a diseased heart. A heart filled with greed and complacency. A heart twisted by mammon and covetousness. A heart with no room for altruistic compassion, unconditional mercy, or self-sacrificing love.
Mr Dives, for all his wealth and prosperity, for his apparent reputation and respect, was a liar. He hated the brother who was laid had his gate and so he hated God. His contempt for the sore ridden, impoverished outcast betrayed his selfish, idolatrous heart. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. And the rich man is not saved by his riches.
But we are told the name of this poor man: Lazarus. It is a confessional type of name. A plot device used by our Lord Jesus to indicate the true source of his strength and aid. Lazarus means “God is my help.” We know his name because it is written with the atoning blood of another. Covered over in the righteousness of He who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor that in Him we might receive the inheritance of eternal life. This poor man, Lazarus, commended all his troubles and care into the hands of his merciful and gracious God. He sought every good from God alone.
This did not prohibit him, though, from pleading to strangers for mercy or seeking sustenance from the table scraps of Mr Dives. Lazarus prayed to God for daily bread, but looked for it to come through means. Our Lord always works through means. In the wilderness He did not feed the Israelites by immediately putting food into their bellies or stimulating their brains to feel full. He gave them bread. Miraculous bread, but bread nonetheless. Means.
“The Christian is entirely free and servant of none. The Christian is entirely bound and slave of all,” said Luther paradoxically about the freedom and obligation of a Christian. The rich man was indeed blessed by God with great wealth and food and provision. But these earthly riches are bestowed with a heavenly intent. The rich man was to serve God by serving his neighbor. He was to love the Lord with all his heart and show compassion on the man laid at his gate. His stuff was to serve another. In this way Mr Dives was to become daily bread unto Lazarus, even as we are all called to do for one another. No one is fiercely independent. No one is a cowboy. What do you have that you did not receive?
But every time Mr Dives refused Lazarus a morsel, every time he averted his eyes from this beggar, every time he stepped over him when he left his home for synagogue and every time he hid his face when he returned from church the rich man further calloused his heart to the Lord’s mercy and love. His did not let God’s love have its way with him, so his love for others failed.
Thus it is not for his riches that he is condemned. But for his unbelief. Neither is it for his poverty that Lazarus is welcomed to the bosom of Father Abraham, but for his trust. Mr Dives was consumed with his mammon. Lazarus was content with the kindness of the Lord.
Upon death they are judged. The rich man died and was buried. Condemned to the enteral fires of hell, his body awaiting not the resurrection to eternal life, but the punishment and anguish of eternal mortality. He who refused the love of the Lord in life received his desire in death. The goodness and loving kindness of the Lord God of Abraham was not present for him in hell. He is denied heaven by the only thing that can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus: unbelief.
By contrast Lazarus receives a blessed end. His soul is carried by the angels of the Lord to repose in the bosom of Abraham awaiting the joy of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. He who was refused compassion in life, receives the blessed comfort of a life that cannot end. God is indeed his helper. And he is not ashamed of the Lord’s promises. Lazarus knows Abraham as Father and learned well from him to trust in the promise of the Lord despite the sensible appearances to the contrary.
For Father Abraham leaned not on his own understanding. He trusted not in his extravagant riches nor considered the weakness of his own body. Rather he relied on the Word of the Lord that came to him: This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir. In his promised Seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed. And the Lord brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Once again, means. The Lord utilized an element of His creation to hold before the eyes of His children His Word and promise. He despises nothing He has made.
In fact, the Lord God of Abraham took up created flesh, not despising the creatureliness of man. It is written, 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 Cor 8:9). And elsewhere, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conveit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross (Phil 2:3-8).
In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and helper of Abraham and Lazarus, the One to whom Moses and the Prophets point and proclaim, left the riches of His Father’s house, set aside the luxurious divinity with which He is robed, and took on the humble form of a servant. A Man. He was infected and covered with the sores of our sin. He was thrown outside the Gate of Jerusalem. Rejected and ignored by rich men and rulers. Forsaken by His Father. He died in perfect love, without fear, loving His Father and you. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knew should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).
Dear people loved and helped by God, His Name has been joined to your name. He knows you and you are known by Him. He has not despised His means, but uses them for your eternal benefit. He has washed you in His cleansing blood and has clothed you with the fine linen of your Baptismal righteousness. And you do not come as dogs to like His sores, in which you find your forgiveness and peace, but as children, welcomed past the Gate of Eden, into Paradise once more, to sit at the Table of your Father with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Lazarus. You are given to eat not what falls from the Table, but what is bestowed from His hand: the morsel of Christ’s own Body and the sumptuous wine of His own Blood given and shed for you.
Receive these in faith, hearing and trusting the Word of Moses and the Prophets, the testimony of the Apostles, and the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives you this meal. For He has come back from the dead never to die again. By faith in Him, by trust in His Word, He gives you a share in His death defying eternal life!
Strengthened by this Sacred Meal, His Holy Supper, you grow in faith toward Him and in fervent love for our neighbor. The poor man laid at your gate, wherever that may be. You are given to love as you have been loved. Sacrificially. In trust and contentment that the Lord who has given you His material blessing, uses your stuff to bring blessing to another. Receiving the daily bread of Christ’s own Body you are to become daily bread unto one another. Not as a sacrament, as some falsely teach, but as a living sacrifice; abiding in the love of God in Christ Jesus.
By His Word and Spirit His love abides in you and you in Him. By faith you are reckoned righteous in His sight. Therefore you have confidence for the Day of Judgment and contentment in the provision He bestows or withholds now in this life. You need not fear hell nor death nor punishment, for it has been suffered for you by Christ Jesus your Lord. As He is, so also are you in this world. Hold fast to Him, to His Word and promises. He knows your name and you call upon His. And at the Last He will send His angels to bear you to your eternal home - your Father’s House - keeping your body safe until the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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