Luke 16:19-31 Commentary

We jump right into Jesus telling a story without knowing what has prompted it. Verses 14-17 indicate that this story comes about as Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about keeping the law. An important detail that connects this passage with the others we’ve been working through this summer is that the Pharisees were “lovers of money.” As they try to ridicule Jesus, Jesus brings their failures even more to the forefront: God knows their hearts and what they are elevating has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. If they want to talk about keeping the law, then there’s quite a bit to address!

Jesus tells this story to get to the heart of it. Their love of money (and all that entails) makes them unable to serve God and keep God’s laws and the message of the prophets—what, as Pharisees, is meant to be their purpose in life!

The rich man has it better than good. The big house, the food, the clothing, the respect and prestige in his community. He lived high on the hog everyday even while someone in great need lay at his literal doorstep. Whereas the rich man is more than satisfied by these pleasures, the poor man only has his longings; he is jealous of the dogs and how they get the scraps from this rich man’s table.

How easy it would have been for the rich man to send down a plate to the hungry Lazarus. Listening to Jesus tell this story in all its ugly detail can’t help but make us wonder if the rich man enjoyed knowing that Lazarus was down there begging; like it made him feel even more superior and rich and justified—like he had earned it somehow and deserved to be treated better than others. He loved his money and his stuff so much that it calloused him to others.

But then they both die and instead of becoming the great equalizer we all talk about, death becomes their great reversal. The rich man is brought low at death and suffers a torment similar to what the poor man experienced on earth. The poor man, though, is brought to the most honourable position in Jewish religion, the bosom of Abraham. Only Enoch and Elisha are given the same honour in Scripture! (Quick reminder about parables: this parable is about the law and message of the prophets providing us guidance on how to live; it is not a story to teach us about how the afterlife will unfold.)

This is the only time in any of Jesus’s parables that a character has a name. The poor man is called Lazarus, meaning “God helps.” It is both a promise and an indictment. Truly, God does help as the poor man is brought to the bosom of Abraham, but God meant to help this man throughout his life through the rich man who refused to understand and live as a servant of God. The themes from throughout our summer all come to a head here. This rich man refused his calling to share with others, refused to recognize that his riches didn’t belong to him but were meant to be a source of loving righteousness like caring for those in need and living humbly with God.

Instead, he has become steeped in this lifestyle and his character (his heart) reflects it—like the dishonest/shrewd manager. This cannot be any clearer than by the way he tries to address his fate in the afterlife. Instead of coming to repentance, he demands mercy from God—mercy that comes in the form of Lazarus’s service! The rich man still thinks that Lazarus is below him, meant to be used for the benefit of the rich man and his family.

Just as it did not lead to transformation for himself, seeing someone rise from the dead will not work for those who are like the rich man. What will work is opening themselves to what God has already given all of us: his will encompassed in the law and the prophets, but also now shown to us in Jesus Christ and empowered in us by his Holy Spirit. This is yet another way that our good God has given us everything we need as he loves to give us every good thing.

Textual Point

This is yet another example in the gospel of Luke of the God’s kingdom ushering in great reversals (just as Mary sings about in the book’s opening). The poor man ends up in the place of great honour while the man who had it all while on earth is brought as low as he could go by his own actions.

In my previous commentary on this passage, I emphasise the implicit message of the community’s role advocating for justice as they very likely carried Lazarus up to the rich man’s gate each day. Not everyone is fooled into thinking the rich man must be doing it right since he is wealthy; some of them know God’s ways through the teachings of the law and prophets much better than the rich man.

Illustration Ideas

Ebenezer Scrooge benefited from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future in A Christmas Carol. Through the experience he learns compassion and empathy and is warned about his own fate. Through his story, Jesus says that none of this is necessary—that we already have our guides for compassion and empathy from the law and the prophets and summarized by loving God with our whole selves and loving our neighbours as we love ourselves. For a rich person, that impact should be obvious: get to sharing those riches!

A few years ago, there was a meme making the rounds. Usually on the backdrop of an outdoor party scene with a table reaching out of the frame, the words said, “When you have more than enough, build longer tables not higher fences.” I thought of that saying as I pictured Lazarus at the rich man’s gate. Did the rich man build up the fence and gate so that he couldn’t see Lazarus on the other side?