Wednesday, September 24, 2013

Luke 16:14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

THE BLESSED LIFE

The true nature of the two men in this parable is seen even more clearly when we take the time to read the context. Just a few verses before Luke gives us this comment as the background for the parable. We can see clearly here that the Rich Man of the parable is meant to represent the Pharisees. Furthermore we see that the real point of comparison is not that he was wealthy, but that he was a "lover of money." You will notice in the parable, he wears fine clothing and feasts every day. This isn't simply a wealthy man but one who like the Pharisees finds his comfort and trust in his money. He is unconcerned with life. He is unconcerned with the beggar at his door. He, like the man who stored up much grain in his barn, is taking life easy -- for he has money and therefore no need to worry.

Most Jewish people of Jesus' day had the same attitude. Those who have money must be blessed by God, therefore God must be happy with them and everything is good. Remember the shock of the apostles when Jesus told them it was, "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God"? (Matthew 19:24). Or remember their reaction to the man born blind, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). Even the apostles thought as the Pharisees did: surely the rich are the blessed of God and surely the poor and sick are the cursed and sinful.

Thus Jesus gives them in this parable their two stereotypes, and then turns the tables. It isn't as the Jews would have assumed. It isn't the rich man who goes to heaven. The first part of this parable smashes man's preconceived notions about how God deals with us. The truth is not as we often assume -- that God has forgotten us in our misery, in our poverty, in our sickness. The truth is that God named Lazarus, God remembered that name, God had mercy on Lazarus. Why? Because God has mercy on sinners. And you heard it here from Jesus, the Son of God who came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).