Luke 16
The Rich Man and Lazarus
What does one do with what appears to be the definitive passage
of the afterlife? It has been taught within the church that the Luke
16 passage is the place to turn too when proving that the Lord did
indeed teach the truth of the afterlife, i.e. the immortality of the soul
and what happens to a man upon his death.
Luke
16:19-31 "There was a certain rich man who
was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day." But
there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid
at his gate, "desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from
the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
"So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to
Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. "And
being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom." Then
he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for
I am tormented in this flame.'
"But
Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted
and you are tormented.
'And
besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so
that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those
from there pass to us.' "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore,
father, that you would send him to my father's house, 'for I have five
brothers that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this
place of torment.' "Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them.' "And he said, 'No, father Abraham;
but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' "But he
said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "
Is it Jesus intent to teach
what is to happen after one dies? If this is Jesus intent, to teach
the Pharisees what happens to man after he dies, then it could be the
definitive evidence for the immortally
of the soul showing that the essence of the man does indeed
continue to live on and exist after death. Simply put, the sleep of
the dead in the dust; the turning of man to destruction (Psa.90:3),
does not make any sense if Luke 16:19-31 is to be understood with a
literal physical hermeneutic. The two systems of thought, traditional
and conditional stand or fall on how the passage is interpreted.
In Brief:
The Traditional system of thought has been in place for
several centuries and its basic tenet states that the soul
is immortal which lives on in a spiritual realm where it goes
to one of three places, i.e., heaven, hell or purgatory.
The Conditional system of thought states that the soul
is mortal and upon death returns to corruption as it resides
in the grave where it sleeps, i.e. in death, waiting for the
resurrection and the final judgment and purging.
First things first:
Is Luke 16:19-31 a parable or not? There are only two ways to
interpret Luke 16:19-31. It can be taken as a literal true story based
upon a physical hermeneutic from which Jesus purposely taught the
state of the dead upon leaving our current reality, or it is a parable
teaching a Kingdom lesson. All parables were a lesson in the aspects
of the Kingdom
of
God
and the Rich man & Lazarus was the ninth in a series directed to
the Pharisees. If this is to be taken as a literal story about life
beyond, then it would be the only account in which he faced the
Pharisees were he did not speak to them in parables or condemned them
before the people. Jesus always taught and spoke to the Pharisees in
parables or in condemnation, and never (unless Luke 16 is the
exception) did he teach them in literal form the definitive truth of
God. “Jesus told the crowds all
these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing” (Matt.
13:34).
The objection is
raised and must be addressed wither Luke 16:19-31 is a parable or not
because it is not so stated specifically in the text, and because
Jesus uses Lazarus, a proper name. But many of the parables where
introduced without Jesus saying they were parables, and a prime
example is found in the context of our passage in Luke 16:1 where few
doubt that Jesus speaks in parable with the story of the rich man and his unjust steward. In the Old Testament
there is the account where parabolic names (i.e. proper names) where
given to
Samaria
and
Jerusalem
in Ezekiel chapter 23. But more importantly is too understand the
pretext behind Jesus speaking the parables. The
reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not
perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' (Matt.
13:13). The parables were not for the Christ rejecters to understand
as were the Pharisees. Finding oneself outside of the
Kingdom
of
God
, the parables become meaningless stories.
This would be strange indeed if this were the only
place where Jesus decides to teach about the most crucial of topics,
the fate of man, and then lays this "truth" at the feet of
the Pharisees for
them to understand. So what is the meaning of the Parable?
When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in Parables, he used common everyday
examples and illustrations shrouded in Kingdom truth. The Story of the
Rich man and Lazarus was based on a popular and familiar story that
had been circulating for generations. Greek culture and theology had
played its impact on Jewess culture and theology.
In Greek literature there were similar stories being told for
centuries. Josephus the famous Jewess historian tells the same story
with variations. This is undeniably a fact in history. What Jesus did
in the parable was to use a story that was popular and excepted to the
current belief system. By no means did Jesus collaborate the story as
definitive truth; He was using it to illustrate Kingdom truth in the
very same way he illustrated the wisdom of the unjust steward
in the first half of Luke 16.
The
Kingdom
of
God
is the essence of where we live: The
story of the Rich man and Lazarus is about what is going on right here
and now. In chapter 17 of Luke the Pharisees approached Jesus with the
question “when
the
Kingdom
of
God
would come” (17:20-21). Jesus answered them, “The
Kingdom
of
God
does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘see here!’ or
‘See there!’ For indeed, the
Kingdom
of
God
is within you”. Taken outside of the context of the
Kingdom
of
God
, one will not
be able to understand the purpose and intent of Jesus telling
the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. If it be insisted that the
story be taken outside of the framework of the
Kingdom
of
God
, then there is little one can do but to understand the story in a
literal physical fashion? Sandwiched between Jesus statements that
the Kingdom
of
God
is being preached since John and men are pressing into it; and
the statement, “that the Kingdom does not come with observation, ‘for it is within
you”; is our parable. Jesus is telling the Pharisees in
parable fashion as He often did, where they were in relation to God in the ‘here and now’. The
Kingdom
of
God
had broken into the sphere of men with the coming of the King and
there would be no turning it back. The
Kingdom
of
God
in its essence defines where
men are in there relation to Gods rule and government upon
this earth. Will you be a willing participant, a volunteer (Psalm
100:4), or will you be one of those who would seek to enter in by some
other door and found not wearing the proper garment (Matt.22:1-14).
The here and now of God’s Kingdom and
where you stand right now is what the Parable of the Richman
and Lazarus is all about.
The
Parable is to the Pharisees:
What Jesus has to say in the following 17 verses was
specifically for the Pharisees, “and
He said to them…” (vs.15). Jesus was always direct with
those who were religiously pretentious. The Pharisees hated Jesus and
for good reason, He saw right through them. In fact, Jesus hated the
religious pretensions of men, and on occasion He was known to drive
out those in the temple who were buying and selling and turning over
the tables and chasing the animals out with a whip to the point that
those in charge who were religious wanted him dead. Jesus was bad for
business (Mark 11:15-18). The Pharisees were lovers of money but
worse, they were those who went out of there way in pretense to show
that they were the favored of God and made sure that all those outside
of their circle knew it. “And
He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before
men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men
is an abomination in the sight of God” (vs.15).
Jesus is telling us what is to be valued in the here and now of Gods
government. What men “esteem” to be of value is an abomination to
God. The Pharisees love for money had super ceded that of the law and
the prophets and Jesus reminds them of John the Baptist who they knew
quite well. John had called them a ‘brood
of vipers’ when he preached in the wilderness that the
Kingdom
of
God
was at hand. Their curiosity got the better of them and they had to
come out to see who this was that threatened there way of life with
his preaching of the
Kingdom
of
God
(Matt.3:1-12). The
Kingdom
of God
was a threat to the Pharisees and their money and Jesus reminds
them... "The law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time the
kingdom
of
God
has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it” (vs16).
The law and the prophets pointed to the time when
Gods
Kingdom
would be established on the earth. The Pharisees knew this and they
knew that it meant that the King himself would come and reign. They
hated it and feared it and they were willing to kill over it (see the
parable of the vineyard, Luke 20:9-19).
Jesus simply reminds them, “…the
kingdom
of
God
has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it”. The
Kingdom
of
God
was here and the Pharisees were not going to stop it and neither could
they stop the “volunteers” from pressing “into it”.
Shiloh
had come; and to him would be the obedience of the people (Gen.
49:10b).
The Pharisees in their religious pretense before men and God
had failed to keep the very law that they pretended to love and obey.
Jesus again reminds them of their failure. "And
it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of
the law to fail” (vs.17). The Pharisees and all like them,
had commented adultery by there love for “mammon”. They had in
essence been divorced from God and “married to another”, "Whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever
marries her who is divorced from her
husband commits adultery (vs.18) they were an
adulterous generation (Matt.12:38, 39).
The Parable:
Luke 16:19: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine
linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
There very well may have been a
Rich man who all there listening to Jesus had in mind as He opened the
story. The connection with the beggar Lazarus could have been meant to
prick the hearts of those listeners who perhaps a short time later
Jesus literally raised his friend Lazarus from the dead who lived in
Bethany
in John 11. The connections of these two people could have been real
life illustrations and the possibility is that they were known to the
community. It is what they represented that needs our attention.
The Rich Man: What does the rich man represent? If this is a
parable to teach kingdom truth, then the rich man is to represent more
then those who have been endowed with earthly wealth. Jesus told the
Pharisees in (Mat 21:43 KJV)
"... The
kingdom
of
God
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof. The rich man in our story represented
the religious elite. Jesus tells the Pharisees who were the self
representatives of the nation that the kingdom was going to be taken
from them. They were rich in the sense that they were (Rom 9:4 KJV) "...
Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the
covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the
promises;” , but
the Pharisees and the nation as a whole had missed the mark, the
apostle Paul sums it up... “Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel
is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of
God” (Rom 10:1-3 KJV). This is exemplified in the Parable
(Luke 18:10-14) of the two men who went up to the
Temple
to pray. The one was the self righteous Pharisee; the other was the
humble tax collector.
Luke 16:20: “And
there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate,
full of sores,..." Lazarus represents that
which is despised by the Pharisees, “But
this people who knows not the law are cursed” (John 7:49).
Lazarus was outside of any hope in their minds. They hated Lazarus
and all like him. It has been shown through the chronology of the
gospel accounts that Jesus was on his way to Bethany
when he gave us the parable. With our Parable fresh in the minds of
the Pharisees, many of the same would witness Jesus, in a few days;
raise his good friend Lazarus from the grave (John 11). The first
thing the leaders wanted was to see him dead again, "But
the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death
;"(John 12:10). In the Kingdom
of
God, everything is backwards. “But
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things
which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his
presence” (1Cor. 1:27).
Luke 16:22a
“And
it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom:” This is the only place
where the term Abraham's bosom appears. There is no actual or literal
place called Abraham's bosom but was a figure of speech which
represents the place of promise and comfort. It is wrapped up in
Abraham the father of the nation where the promises of God where first
established. If one thinks about it Abrahams' bosom was an elitist
concept restricted to the Jews. The Jews by Christ's time had
separated themselves from the rest of the world to the point of
exclusion by all outsiders. Even the Samaritan's who were half breeds
were considered worse then dogs. Abraham's Bosom in this sense was a
negative thing, because it was so exclusive to so few, and so Jesus
uses this to make His point. The point being that the parable as a
whole is showing us two diverse people. Lazarus the beggar had
no business being in Abraham's Bosom in the minds of those
Pharisees, this was a total shock to them and a complete reversal to
there way of thinking. But this was Kingdom language speaking, because
Jesus is teaching us something about the
Kingdom
of
God
in the here and now.
Luke 16:22b: “the
rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his
eyes.". The Greek word in our story for Hell is Hades.
A Greek Lexicon search for the word Hades reveals the result
below. The three Greek words often translated "hell" are hades, gehenna, and tartaroo. Hades was the name of the Greek god of the
underworld and the name of the underworld itself. The Septuagint—the
earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament—used hades to translate the Hebrew word Sheol.
The word Greek word Hades comes up in the New Testament only
eleven times. It is openly admitted that Hades was the name of the
Greek god of the underworld. It is pointed out to show the Greek
influence that was upon Jewess culture at the time of the writing of
the New Testament Scriptures. When the Greek version of the Old
Testament was written sometime before Christ, the Hebrew Word Sheol (the grave, pit,
death, i.e. the place of the dead) was then translated to Hades
without exception. All this is too simply show the effect that Greek
culture, mythology and religion had at that time. Psalm 90 (Moses)
reflects the understanding and underlying view of death and the fate
of the individual as it was some three thousand years ago in ancient
Israel
. “Lord, you have been our
dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed
the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn us back to dust, and say, "Turn back, you mortals."
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it
is past, or like a watch in the night. You sweep them away; they are
like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the
morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and
withers. For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are
overwhelmed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins
in the light of your countenance. For all our days pass away under
your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh” (Psalm
90NRV).
What Moses
expresses here in this Psalm and many others, (see the book of Job and
Solomon’s Ecclesiastes); is a complete negation of the Greek concept
of the afterlife. In the Parable, Jesus is using the excepted
popular concept of the afterlife which society had absorbed with there
Greek influence. In Greek mythology, long before Christianities
embracing the hell that has become the dogma of our day, there was the
place of the living dead after one departed from this life. All
cultures have had a form of the afterlife before and since, this is
the result of the lie of the serpent when he spoke to Eve in the
garden; “you
will not surely die” (Gen.3:4) Jesus did not corroborate the
Greek concept of the afterlife; He was simply using the idea to teach
the here
and now concerning the Kingdom of God.
Luke 16:23: "...
being in torments, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
Two
questions here that need to be asked. First,
why is the Rich man there in Hades (hell) being in torments? Taken at
its face value, the rich man is in hell simply
because he is rich. In the story line given by Jesus, what has
the Rich man done to deserve his fate? If
this is a Kingdom parable and if the rich man is
representative of something; i.e. considering the parable of the wheat
and the tares, whereas wheat and tares represent classes of people
(Matt. 13:24-30); then it is far more then an individual who happens
to have riches in view here. Remember, the parable was predicated
with… “Now
the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things,
and they derided Him” (vs.14). The parable is directed at
the Pharisees who were always standing around among the people waiting
to catch Jesus in His words. But it is the Pharisees who are caught by
Jesus’ words. If one is to be honest with the text then there is
only one conclusion why the Rich man is there in Hades; he there
because he is Rich. Anything else to is to read into the story that
Jesus is telling us. The Pharisees will not have understood the ‘here
and now’ of the Kingdom, but they did understand that the
Rich man pointed to them. They understood in the same way Jesus
parable of the vineyard in Matthew 21,”Now
when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they
perceived that He was speaking of them” (vs.45). The Pharisees in Luke 16 understood that it was they
that Jesus projected as the rich man; "... Being in torments, … for I
am tormented in this flame”.
The concept of fire and judgment had been introduced to the
Pharisees when they went to see John the Baptist. “Who
has warned you of the wrath to come” (Matt.3:7). "And even now the ax is laid
to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me
is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. "His winnowing fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing
floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt.3:10-12).
The here and now of God’s Kingdom is in
the concept that the ax is already laid upon the root of the trees.
The ax is figurative and so are the trees but the judgment they
represent are realities in Gods government. Everything literally takes
place found in the words of John the Baptist, but one does not see the
ax being welded from the throne of heaven or roots being severed and
trees toppling over, nor do they see literal fire consuming the
fruitless branches and chaff. Yet, they do take place on the spiritual
plane which always transcends the physical. The Rich man is in
torments because he is cut off from God though
the Kingdom has come. It is an intolerable dry and thirsty
place when one has discovered that “the
Kingdom has been taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof” (Matt.21:43).
The Kingdom
of
God
is that mystical realm that draws all of us because of its super natural ability to
change the world; because of its hope and promise men are drawn to it.
Everyone, believers and nonbelievers alike desires to see (John 3:3)
the Kingdom
of God. Many will seek to enter (by force) the
Kingdom
of
God
but they will not be able to enter. “And
from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven
suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt.11:12). Many will try by
some other way then the “straight
gate”, climbing up over the wall of the sheep fold (John
10:1). “Then
said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto
them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in,
and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23, 24). But even so,
‘tares’ are found to be in the kingdom, and there will be those
who do not have the proper wedding garment when the bridegroom comes
for his bride (Matt. 22:1-14), and there will be the most fearful
words which everyman dreads to hear, “depart
from me, I never knew you”, (Luke 20:24-28) when God comes
to purge the Kingdom of all things that offend (Matt. 13:40-42).
The second question has to do with,
“he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom” (vs.23b).
If one insists that the story must be literal and is not a
parable, then how does one deal with the fact that the Rich man had
eyes to see with? And how does one deal with the fact that Lazarus is
laying in Abraham’s bosom? Surely these are physical bodily
entities, (his tongue, and finger vs.24) and yet they have made it
beyond the corruption of the grave. And if the
grave has corrupted them, i.e. the physical entities described
within our story, then what kind of eyes are they that the Rich man
lifted up, and what kind of Bosom is Lazarus laying in? What kind of
tongue is it that the Rich man desires to be cooled with the drop from
Lazarus finger? Since the grave has corrupted the mortal bodies of all
involved, do they now possess some sort of immortal body so our story
can take place? And if so, when and where did our participants take on
immortality? Can you see the problem if the story is not a parable?
But this is a parable and so the Lord can and does use
the physical to describe the spiritual nature of the
Kingdom
of
God.
Luke 16:24a: “Then
he cried…Father Abraham, have mercy on me.” Having the
Kingdom taken from them there is only the crying; i.e. the
wailing and the gnashing of teeth that is left. The weeping
and the gnashing of teeth are mentioned seven times, always by the
Lord and always in reference to the Kingdom
of God. “And
I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the
kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth” (Matt.8:11,12). “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and you yourselves thrust
out” (Luke 13:23-28).
The Pharisees missed the Kingdom along with the King; all that
the Richman has left is to cry out to Abraham for mercy. But Abraham
is not the one to turn to for mercy. Abraham cannot show mercy nor was
there anything during his life that would lead a man to think that the
great father of the nation was the one to turn to for mercy! Abraham
is not an example of someone showing mercy, but he did live by faith.
It was in the promise of God that the father of the nation believed
that the Holy Spirit would credit him (Heb.11:8-12, 17-18).
As the Richman will
not cry out to God for mercy, one can hear (to those who have
been given ears to hear) the cry of the true believer nearly some two
dozen times with the psalmist, e.g. “I
cried unto the LORD
with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah” (Psalm
3:4).
Luke 16:24b: “… send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and
cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (vs.24)
The Richman does not request that he can
join Lazarus; he remains unrepentant in his feelings for lowly Lazarus
who he has despised all his life. Now, even in torments, he commands
that Lazarus would come to him.
Why would the Richman ask that Lazarus
come to the place where he is at? His request for Lazarus to come to
him reveals his heart condition. It reveals that the rich man does not
want or desires to be in Abraham’s bosom. Jesus understood this when
He pronounced, "But
woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up
the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering
to go in. (Matt. 23:13). The Pharisees; ‘who
were lovers of money’ (vs.14) and who deemed themselves
rich; were nothing less then hypocrites while holding up Abraham as
there father as though that made them special; had no desire to see
others benefit such as Lazarus. The
Kingdom
of
God
was
for all peoples as the prophets indicated and the Rich man
would have no part of it being the hypocrite that he was, he would
rather stay in a dry and thirsty place. From where the Rich man was in
the Kingdom equation, (the here and now) there is no water, not even
the drop that he requested. There
is only utter famine for all those found outside of the Kingdom who
has been cast out. It is in the Kingdom of God where the water that
satisfies can be found, “Jesus stood and cried out, saying,
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. "He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water." (John 7:37b, 38).
Luke 16:25: "But Abraham said, 'Son,
remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are
tormented. The reality of the “Here and Now” of the
Kingdom is found in the metaphorical statement of Abraham. Is it
metaphorical or does Abraham actually speak from the dead? Abraham
does speak from the dead just as much as Able speaks to us today. How
does Able who lived thousands of years ago speak to us? “By
faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God
testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Heb.11:4).
Able, Abraham, David, all those of faith (Heb.11) are dead and there
graves are with us (Acts 2:29); they lay asleep in the dust of the
earth waiting for the resurrection (John 11:24).Yet they still speak
to us as a witness to the righteous God in whom they had there hope.
There hope is in the God of all comfort (2Cor.1:3) as they were
witnesses to
the promise of God that the
sent one would come and fill the gap between “a great gulf
fixed”.
Luke
16:26a: 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed,..' There is
a great gulf fixed between God and man. Jacob in his dream saw the
ladder that ascended into heaven which bridged the gap between heaven
and earth (Gen.28:12). Moses had stood in the “breech” as the
chosen one of God (Psalm 106:23), a ‘picture’ of
the coming one who would once and for all turn away God’s
wrath and satisfy His justice. By the time of the prophet Ezekiel at
the height of
Israel
’s and Jerusalem’s degeneration, we hear God speak through the prophet “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge,
and stand in the gap before
me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezek.22:30).
With the Lord God not finding a man to bridge
the gap he proceeds to give the metaphorical account of the
‘two women’ in Chapter 23 of Ezekiel. A must read if it need be
shown that God does indeed use proper names in the metaphorical to
represent real entities.
The Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus
reveals the great gulf fixed. The
great gulf does not go away with the coming of the
Kingdom
of
God
and the King. Pilate had it right when he had it written and placed
above the head of Jesus, “the
King of the Jews”. The King had come when Jesus stood up in
the synagogue at Capernaum
and announced that the “acceptable
year of the Lord had come”…”Today this scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing” (Luke 4:17-19, Isa.61:2). The entirety of
Isaiah chapters 40 and following are in the context of the coming one who
would fill the gap, the mediator between God and man. It
begins, “Comfort,
yes, comfort My people! Says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem
and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is
pardoned; (Isa.40:1,2). There is peace with God, there is
reconciliation and it would be found in, “…my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he
not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring
forth judgment to truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he
have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
(Isa.42:1-4) The one who would bridge the great gulf fixed, the gap
filler between God and Man did not come to change the world
“A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench:”, but came to change the hearts of men.
This becomes clear in Chapter 59 of
Isaiah when God, “…saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there
was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto
him; and his righteousness, it sustained him” (Isa.59:16), and
with the promise, “And
the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from
transgression in Jacob, says the LORD” (Isa.59:20). With the
promise fulfilled in the man Christ Jesus, the redeemer has come to
Zion
. Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon
thee” (Isa.60:1).
He is the highway of holiness which God had promised through
the prophet in Chapter 35. Jesus is the light and the way to God (John
8:12, 14:6); He is the gap filler between God and His people. With the
coming of the Kingdom the people of God are those who are found on the
Highway of Holiness which leads them to the mountain of God, the true
Zion;
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, (Abrahams bosom, i.e. the place of
promise and comfort)
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the
spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things
than that of Abel.
(Heb.12:22-24).
What the Hebrew writer is telling us is
in fulfillment of… “Behold, the LORD hath
proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy salvation comes; behold, his reward is
with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them,
The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called,
Sought out, A city not forsaken” (Isa.62:11, 12).
The fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision is the reality of the Kingdom
of
God
upon this earth and it is two sided. As a coin has two sides and a
pole has a positive and a negative, so does the Kingdom
of God
upon this earth and it is clearly seen in the context of Isaiah with
the coming of the Redeemer. With His coming is the promise of the
light, “for
thy light is come” (Isa.60:1a),
and on the flipside, so does the darkness,
“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross
darkness the people: (Isa.60:2a) The Kingdom of God is both
found in the, “Acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of Vengeance of our God”.
Ironically
the
Premillenial Dispensational Theology that much of the church holds up
does teach the gap found in Isaiah. But the theology places the gap in
time and not in the relation between
God and man. The gap is the great gulf fixed between God and man,
heaven and earth; it is the story of the Richman and Lazarus and there
relationship in the ‘here and now’ of the Kingdom
of God.
Luke 16:26b: “…so
that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those
from there pass to us.” It is impossible that a man can
traverse between the ‘
Great
Gulf
fixed’. Every man stands on one side or the other of ‘the
great gulf fixed’, there are no exceptions, there is no in between.
As for the will of man and his desire; “those
who want to pass”; they have no part in the outcome of which
side you may find yourself of the great gulf that is fixed. We can
understand this when Nicodemus came to Jesus by night to inquire of
him. Nicodemus understood that God had broken into the sphere of man
once again with this one Jesus considered to be a prophet by the
people who was going about doing the signs and miracles to the witness
of the nation. He knew God had departed the
Temple
with His Glory some four hundred years earlier in the days of Ezekiel
(Ex. 40:34,35, Ezek. 10:18,19, 11:22,23). God had shut up the heavens
and had not spoken since the prophets of the captivity. Now there was
Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God preaching the Kingdom
of
God; and speaking the things which the Father had given Him. God was now
speaking again and Nicodemus recognized this fact when he said, “for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him”
(John 3:2). It is in response to Nicodemus recognizing that God was
again speaking that Jesus responds the way He does, “Jesus answered and said to him,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."(John 3:3). Nicodemus
needed to get across the Great
Gulf
fixed (to be born again) and it would not happen simply because he “wanted
to pass from here to there”. Nicodemus needed to be born
again if he was to find himself in Abraham’s bosom, the place of
promise and comfort, i.e. the Kingdom
of God. "Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom
of
God” (John 3:5). But it would be a ‘power’ that would have
to be given to him if Nicodemus was to be born again. “He
came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God” (John 3:11-13). Just as a man has no part or will when he is birthed into this
world (by flesh and blood), so it is by the will of God that a man is
born again whereby he enters the Kingdom of God.
Luke 16:27-31:
"Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send
him to my father's house, 'for I have five brothers that he may
testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.''
"Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them
hear them.' "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to
them from the dead, they will repent.’ ‘But he said to him, 'If
they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "
The Richman’s plea seems honorable and
selfless enough on the surface,
“..Send him to my father's house 'for
I have five brothers that he may testify to them, lest they also come
to this place of torment.',' but deliverance is not found in
Lazarus “neither
will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' Abraham
tells him where the deliverance for his brothers can be found, 'They
have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' But the Rich
man reveals his true state and why he is in the place of torment, "And
he said, 'No, father Abraham;” he does not believe what
Abraham tells him, he does not believe Moses and the prophets! Lazarus
cannot help him even if he wanted to, what the Richman needs is the
gap filler, the one who can bridge the gulf between God and himself.
Moses and the prophets talked about the one who would come (Deut.
18:18, 19), but the Rich man does believe the scriptures, he does not
believe God; he never did.
Ultimately the story of the Rich man and Lazarus is about the five
brothers. The five brothers have (are) the witness of the scriptures
testifying to the one who would come and bridge the gap between God
and man, (the five brothers being themselves the five books of Moses,
the Pentateuch). The Pharisees in the hearing of Jesus that day may
have well understood this; they were the lawyers of the law.
Ironically, Jesus was to raise his good friend Lazarus from the dead
who lay in a tomb in
Bethany
perhaps just days after giving the Parable of the Rich man. The
question is asked, ‘will someone be persuaded though one rise from
the dead?’ Certainly not in the case of Jesus raising his friend
Lazarus from Bethany, it only angered the Pharisees as they sought to kill both Jesus and
Lazarus (John 12:10).
If there is one thing that the Parable teaches us it must be
this, simply believing that Jesus raised from the dead is not enough.
Abraham is telling us an absolute when he said, “neither
will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' Many
people consent mentally that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Believing that Jesus was raised from the dead cannot save you, it
never has. What many people fail to see, as the Rich man did,
is that Jesus Christ is the gap filler between God and man. He is the
way to God; the mediator, the great high priest, He is the
fullness that bridges the great gulf fixed between God and
Man. “For
it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell;” (Col. 1:19)
“For
in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”
(Col. 2:9). We have a living Hope, not simply because there is to be a
resurrection (many Jews in there theology, past and present, believe
this) but because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Our hope as believers is
in His resurrection whereby He sits at the right hand of God
ascended on high ruling and reigning in His Kingdom until he has made
His enemies His footstool (Psa.110:1-3).
Jesus Christ accomplishes this through His body the Church. “And
the God of peace shall bruise Satan under
your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20a).
The victory is ours in Him; the one who
would lead us back to God. It is all wrapped up in the very first
promise of God which tells us that there would be enmity (a great gulf
fixed) between God and man, but that the seed would come and crush the
serpents head. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death itself
(1Cor. 15:26). Death and Hades (the grave) will be cast into the lake
of fire (Rev.20:14) and ‘the great gulf fixed’ will be no more
in fulfullment,
“that God may be all in all”.
Back to Articles Page
This
page last updated 09/04/06
Your
comments are welcomed
mailto:jthomas1@maine.rr.com
mailto:jlr@exploremaine.com