Grace and peace in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The two great themes of the Holy Scriptures are the justice and mercy of God. God is just and His will for us to live as His children is just. God is merciful, slo to anger and He does not want anyone's damnation.
God's will for how we should live is the Law of God. Because none of us have perfectly fulfilled that Law, God offers us the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel, the good news of God's mercy.
We find the justice and mercy of God, the Law and the Gospel, in both testaments. The Old Testament does not deal only with the Law that God gave to Moses, also with the prophecies of a Savior who would reconcile humanity with God. Also, in the New Testament is the full revelation of this plan of salvation, but with the warning that the grace of God will last for a while and then will come the judgment.
Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, stories as illustrations of His teachings. The parables of Jesus were like portraits of the daily life of the people. In most parables, there are figures without names: the sower, the ten virgins, the good Samaritan, etc. In our text for today, the parable of the rich man and the beggar, the beggar has a name, Lazarus. Therefore, some students of the Bible think that this story is not only an illustration, but it is based on real events. Nobody knows for sure. It is clear that Lazarus and the rich man represent two extremes.
"There was a rich man, who dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted every day with splendor." He had enough money to have a party every day, which was rare in those days. However, there is no evidence that this man acquired his riches in a dishonest manner, nor broke any of the civil laws of his time.
On the other side, Lazaro had no luck. "There was also a beggar named Lazarus, who was lying at his door, full of sores, and wanted to be satisfied with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and even the dogs came and licked his sores." Every day Lazarus looked for food in the garbage of the rich man's parties. He had no family, no wife or children, and his only friends were the dogs on the street. He did not even have good health, because his body was full of sores.
Look at another difference between this parable and the others. In other parables, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, that is, the reign of grace, the dominion of forgiveness and reconciliation. In this parable, it seems that there is no forgiveness or reconciliation, only the judgment of God.
"And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham: and the rich man also died, and was buried: and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus within his bosom."
Many times there seems to be no justice in this world. The wicked are successful and the innocent suffer. Those who suffer a lot but trust in God will receive their reward in the life that is to come. Those who trust only in the things of this world, power and riches, will receive their reward before the throne of God also.
The judgment against the rich man was not because of the amount of his wealth. First, he was guilty of the misuse of his wealth, because he feasted every day and did not take into account the needs of the beggar outside his door. But, below this was a deeper error.
In our reading of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6: 4-13), Moses told the people of Israel, "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." Why? "And it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you; in great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good, that you did not fill, and cisterns dug, that you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; after you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. "
The Israelites did not deserve the blessings that God gave them. Only by the grace of God does anyone receive good things in this world. By His common grace, God causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust. Also, as believers, we recognize that we have received the promise of eternal life only by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, not by our own merits.
But, the rich man thought that he had received his riches by his own merits and not by the grace of God. And he loved riches more than he loved God. Therefore, he did not love his neighbor as himself.
You know this is the second part. When the Pharisees asked Jesus what is the most important commandment (Matthew 22: 34-40), Jesus quoted this passage from Deuteronomy. But, also, Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
S, we confess every Sunday we confess that we have not loved our neighbor as we love ourselves, because we have not loved God as He deserves.
St. John says in our epistle (1 John 4: 16-21), "If anyone says: I love God, and he 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? " The Small Catechism explains the fifth commandment in this way:" We must fear and love God so that we do no harm or evil material to our neighbor in his body, but to help him and make him prosper in all the necessities of life. "
We can not love our neighbor because we do not love God. But, says St. John, "In this the love of God was shown to us, in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live by Him. This is what love consists of; not in that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son in propitiation for our sins. " Furthermore, “In this the love in us is perfected, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for as He is, so are we in this world. "
Because God first loved us, in the sacrifice of Christ, and because in this sacrifice we have confidence in the final day, we can show that love to others. Not by our own strength, but by the action of the Holy Spirit that we receive in baptism.
The rich man who did not trust in the grace of God received the condemnation in the final judgment. But, when Father Abraham told him that there is no possibility of forgiveness or even relief from suffering in hell, the rich man said to him, "I beg you, father, to send him (Lazarus) to my father's house, because I have five brethren, that I may testify to you, lest they also come to this place of torment. "
In truth, he was not worried for his brothers, but wanted to protest God's judgment, because he supposedly received no warning of the consequences of his lifestyle. Then, Abraham said, "Moses and to the prophets they have; let them hear them.” Before Christ, the believers were saved by their faith in the writings of Moses and the prophets, but some do not listen to the Word of God at that time. So we also have the full revelation of the Word of God in Jesus Christ, but some reject it.
Therefore, when the rich man said to Abraham, "No, father Abraham; But if anyone goes to them from the dead, they will repent, "Abraham said," If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rises from the dead. "
This is the gospel hidden in this parable, because someone has risen from the dead, Jesus Christ. In Him we have what Moses and the prophets prophesied. Those who reject the grace of God in Christ will receive condemnation; but those who receive and remain in Him will receive salvation. In this, we have the peace that surpasses all understanding. Amen.
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