Rich man and lazarus song12/11/2023 It’s not that the rich man didn’t care about Lazarus. Who anoint themselves with the finest oils,īut are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. Singing idle songs and drinking wine by the bowlful, The words of the prophet Amos could have been addressed to him:Īnd for those who are complacent on the mount of Samaria… It turns out that his blindness to suffering was not the same thing as innocence. So now he must gaze up at Lazarus, safe in the bosom of Abraham, tormented by the knowledge of things done and left undone. This not only plunges him into the fires of Hades but also-even more painful!-it opens his eyes to his lifelong indifference to the suffering of Lazarus, a suffering he could have alleviated, had he been more aware. In the story, the rich man remains inside, Lazarus remains outside, and the two worlds are completely sealed off from each other-until a catastrophe shakes the rich man out of his complacency, and opens his eyes to the suffering he has ignored for so long. He doesn’t callously pass him by, pretending not to see him. He doesn’t send his servants out to drive the poor man away. On the other is the rich man, behind locked doors, dressed in purple and fine linen, eating to his heart’s content – with a clear conscience as far as we know.Īnd the story seems to imply that he is unaware of Lazarus’ very existence. On one side there is Lazarus the beggar lying outside the rich man’s gate, covered with sores, dreaming of the scraps of food that fall from the rich man’s table. So where do we start? Does the parable itself provide any clues? It’s not really a story, but more of a snapshot. But we would still remain entwined in a system driven more by greed and consumption than by the nurture of human flourishing and the health of God’s creation. We could vote for candidates who put the needs of the poor ahead of the billionaires. We could empty our wallets for the homeless on a walk through downtown, but homelessness would remain. What’s hard is figuring out exactly how to implement our good will in complicated long-term situations. If you’re a friend of Jesus, you know what is right. In this case, what’s hard isn’t mustering the good will to do the right thing. But sometimes we’re slammed with a question that’s really hard to answer. We come to church to be illumined, fed, inspired, and renewed to praise our Maker and Redeemer in the company of God’s friends. In our world of extreme economic inequality, it’s not a hypothetical question. Would you leave him to die like a tramp on the street? Or would you turn him away with nothing to eat Would you let him come in and take from your store If Jesus should come and knock at your door To beg for some crumbs from the rich man to eatīut he left him to die like a tramp on the street… I learned to sing it 50 years ago from the legendary Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: There’s a 19 th century song based on this gospel. What would you do in the circumstances of the story? Where do we find ourselves in this gospel parable? At the gate, or at the rich man’s table? When Jesus tells this story, he doesn’t seem to allow us the option of remaining a spectator, detached and uninvolved. The poor man, suffering the torments of Hades, gets a distant glimpse of Lazarus enjoying the blessings of heaven “in the bosom of Abraham.” (Luke 16:19-31) When they both die about the same time, their situations are reversed. This Sunday’s gospel tells the parable of the nameless rich man, living the high life in his mansion, and Lazarus the poor man, who is starving just outside his gate. He spoke the poor man’s name, because he found it written there… You see, God who lives in heaven kept quiet about the rich man’s name, because he did not find it written in heaven. Medieval illumination, The Rich Man and Lazarusįor when we first believed in Christ we did not immediately acquire an exact understanding of what we should be doing, nor was it clear to us what we should stop doing and what we should continue doing.
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