August 10, 2007

DEATH PLUS ONE DAY

Luke 16:19-31

Did you ever play the game, “What’s wrong with this picture”? I remember as a boy in children’s magazines or even in workbooks in school, we would occasionally do an activity in which a picture was presented with different errors in it: a fish up in a tree, or a man with one boot and one shoe, or various other kinds of mistakes.

In the last half of Luke 16, Jesus paints a word picture. Actually he paints two pictures. The first one was a picture his audience would have been very familiar with. They would not have seen much wrong with this picture. It is a picture of life on earth. But then Jesus paints a second picture. We might title this second picture as “Death Plus One Day”.  Jesus’ audience would have found a great deal wrong with this second picture. By the way, I think Jesus’ principle audience for this parable was the Pharisees. I say that because of Luke 16:14-15: The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.

The first picture Jesus paints is, as I said, a picture of life on earth. It is a picture of contrasts. There is a very rich man, living in luxury. There is a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, lying at the rich man’s gate, starving, with dogs licking his sours. That’s the first picture. Frankly, the Pharisees did not see much wrong with that picture. Being people who loved money, they would no doubt have identified with the rich man in the story. Whether or not they experienced any discomfort at the description of Lazarus, we do not know. Probably all of them passed such beggars in the streets. Some of them may have even had such beggars lying outside their own doors. But such was life.

But then Jesus pushes the fast forward button. He runs the story forward through the death and burial of both men and continues into the after life. It is a story of “Death Plus One Day.” It is here that the Pharisees were in for a shock. It is here that there is much wrong with this picture. The fundamental thing wrong with the picture is that the wrong man is in torment. The character in the story with whom the Pharisees would have identified ends up in hell, suffering and begging for a drop of water to soothe his tongue. This is not how they expected the story to end up. This was not the ending they were planning on. It shattered their illusions, their expectations, their presuppositions.

In reading the Pharisees’ theology and world-view back into this story, why did they expect the rich man to end up in heaven? I think we can identify three reasons.

1. He was rich. The Pharisees tended to view riches as an evidence of God’s blessing and pleasure. So the richer you were on earth, the more evidence that God was pleased, the greater your assurance of reward in the after-life. Riches were an expression of God’s approval.

2. He was a Jew. Did you notice all the references to Abraham in the story? Lazarus was taken “to Abraham’s side”, or, as the KJV puts it, “Abraham’s bosom.” This is an obvious reference to paradise, a place of reward. All “good Jews” expected to join Abraham in the after life. To be a “son of Abraham” carried an expectation of eternal reward. In the story, the rich man even addresses him as “Father Abraham.” Surely as a respected and socially accepted child of Abraham, he would join Abraham in the place of blessing.

3. He had the Scriptures. In the story, there is reference to “Moses and the Prophets,” which was the common way of referring to the whole Old Testament. To the Jews, the Pharisees in particular, the possession of the Scriptures, the revelation from God, was the ultimate sign of God’s favor and blessing on the them as a people. “We have the Law and the Prophets,” they would announce, something no other nation or people could claim.

Yet, in Jesus’ story, here was a man who was rich, a man who was a Jew, a son of Abraham, and a man who had the Law and the Prophets, yet he is suffering torment in hell. What has gone wrong?

Let me point out three conclusions or principle derived from the parables which strike at the heart of the Pharisees’ wrong presuppositions and their wrong sense of confidence.

Earthly riches or poverty are not accurate indicators of a person’s spiritual condition nor do they give clear evidence of God’s approval or disapproval.

This was one of the fundamental errors the Pharisees made. They looked at person’s status in this life, and thought it was an indicator of God’s approval or disapproval. With this story, Jesus shattered their false reasoning. Here a man who lived his earthly life in absolute misery and destitution is taken to heaven, while the rich man is sent to hell.

Now I think we must be careful not to swing this around and teach the other extreme: that only the poor are pleasing to God, and that poverty in and of itself is a way of gaining spiritual merit. In fact, in this story we are not told why Lazarus was taken to heaven. This was not the point of Jesus’ story. He is simply trying to break that link that was so strong in the Pharisees’ minds that earthly riches were an indicator of God’s favor. They are not.

While such theological reasoning may not be so blatant today, I think there are still remnants of it in many people’s minds, at least subtly. Is there not a sense on the part of those who are rich or comfortably well off that somehow that state of affairs will continue; that earthly resources must somehow transfer into eternal influence, that we’ve always been able to turn things to our advantage when we needed to, and we will somehow be able to continue to do that, even on the other side of the grave? Somehow, we’ll be able to wave our passports, or our credit cards, or cash in our frequent flier coupons and get an upgrade.

But the bottom line is that none of this counts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. God is measuring by a completely different standard. Privileges we have enjoyed on earth will not translate into heavenly reward. God is looking at hearts, not bank accounts. How do we measure up?

Physical relationship and religious affiliation do not guarantee eternal destiny.

The irony in this story is overwhelming as this Jew cries out, “Father Abraham!” Yet he is crying out from hell and Father Abraham makes it very clear that he can do nothing to help him. This man was physically related to Abraham and he was affiliated religiously with Abraham, but he had no spiritual relationship with Abraham.

Turn to Galatians 3:6-7: Consider Abraham; “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then that those who believe are children of Abraham. And look at verse 9: So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Without personal faith, physical relationship and religious affiliation mean nothing. I remember years ago doing door to door evangelism in our little town in Alaska. At door after door, we would express our desire to engage in a conversation on spiritual things. And at door after door, we met the same response: “I am a Baptist, I am a Methodist, I am a Presbyterian, I am a Catholic.” Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t know enough to make any assessment on the actual spiritual condition of the people we met that day. I only know that wearing a religious label is not enough unless it is accompanied by personal faith in Christ as Savior.

Possessing God’s Word is no substitute for listening to it and responding to it.

As I have already pointed out, the Jews, the Pharisees in particular, put a great deal of stock in the Old Testament, and their great privilege in possessing God’s revelation. And this was right and proper. But having the Old Testament and responding to its message were two very different things.

In verse 27-28, the rich man expresses concern for his family: ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” But look at Abraham’s reply in verse 29: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”

They have God’s revelation, but they have to listen to it and respond to its message. If they had been doing that, what would have happened? Turn to John 5:39-40: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” In other words, if the Pharisees were truly listening to Moses and the Prophets, they would have recognized Jesus. But they weren’t listening, at least not with their hearts. And so they missed the Messiah when he came.

Sitting in church, going to Bible studies, listening to sermons, all these things are good. But unless our hearing brings a response from our hearts, it will all come to nothing.

There was one other tendency on the part of the Jews which Jesus exposed in the closing words of this parable. This was their constant request for more evidence. “Give us more signs,” the Jews said over and over. “Give us a sign from heaven. Demonstrate your power in such an incredible way that we will have no choice but to believe in you.” This is what this man asks in verse 30: “No, father Abraham…but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”

But Jesus shatters this illusion as well. He said to them, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

In a powerful real life proof of this saying, Jesus did raise someone from the dead. With what I can only believe is divinely intended irony, this man was also named Lazarus, just like the man in Jesus’ story. “If someone from the dead goes to them they will believe.” Yet how did the Jews respond to the evidence of Lazarus’ resurrection? According to John 12:10-11: So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him. So for some, the miracle of resurrection did bring faith. But for others, it only hardened them in their unbelief.

So, death plus one day. What will your experience be? What are you hoping it will be? What are you basing your hope on? Don’t make the same mistakes the Pharisees made, basing their hope on their earthly riches and influence, or on their religious affiliation, or even on their possession of God’s revelation. Salvation comes only by faith in Jesus. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) And that faith in Jesus’ name must be exercised on this side of the grave.