Our Gospel for this Sunday (Luke 16:19-31) opens with a contrasting story of a rich man and poor man named Lazarus. The Hebrew name Lazar is a shorten form of Eleazar, which means “God helps” and is very apt for the poor man who is completely dependent on God and others.[i]
If this story is a parable, it is the only parable of Jesus, which specifically names the character in it. Because of this, some interpreters have seen this as a story, rather than parable. The truth is it is difficult to be certain either way. Some have feared understanding this passage as a parable, thinking this might weaken the truths it reveals about the afterlife.
This is not at all obvious! Why would Jesus tell even a parable, which gives a misleading picture of the truths of the afterlife?
Jesus contrasts two characters with very graphic language. Later tradition named the rich man Dives, but this is a clear misreading of the later Latin translation. Dives means rich in Latin.[ii] The rich man is unnamed in Scripture.
Jesus describes the man as extremely rich. "There was a rich man” Jesus says, “who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day” (Luke 16:19).
Jesus describes his outer garment as ‘purple’ the most expensive type of garment made from an exclusive purple dye extracted from a sea snail (Acts 16:14). This color was associated with kings and gods in Roman culture and represented the highest luxury. It was a royal color.
The fabric of his undergarments was “byssus," a fine linen from Egypt. The stock phrase ‘purple and fine linen’ indicated the most expensive attire. The phrase “he was dressed” indicates in Greek, that he wore these clothes customarily, likely daily.
The man dined sumptuously each day. The word dined is not the ordinary word for dining, but instead for feasting and the adverb sumptuously implies, “magnificently,” “luxuriously,” or “lavishly.” Everything about this description implies extraordinary riches, and conspicuous consumption.
The description of poor Lazarus is perhaps even more graphic in contrast. Jesus notes, “And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores” (Luke 16:120-21).
The word used for ‘poor’ implies that he was in a continuous state of being destitute. He was not just in need of some material help, but in an ongoing state of abject misery and poverty. The phrase “lying at his door” likely implies that Lazarus was at least ill or crippled, but possible even too ill to move. We are left with the impression that Lazarus was brought to the gate by others, and left there to beg. He is covered in sores or ulcers. These sores are not likely leprosy, or he would not be able to beg publicly.
He is so weak that he could not prevent dogs from licking his sores. In the Jewish mind, this would make him unclean. Lazarus is completely out of control, and dependent on others. The expression being left lying there may even imply something stronger, that he was dumped there and discarded by others, and that he had no support.
Yet in this sorry state, he waits begging at the door or more correctly a luxurious gate to the rich man’s mansion. Lazarus longs to eat even the scraps that fell from the rich man's table (Matthew 15:27). Yet he is unnoticed and forgotten and receives nothing. He is so ill that he dies shortly after this, perhaps even from hunger.
Jesus continues, “When the poor man
died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also
died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment…” (Luke
16:22-23).
Our lectionary translation begins “When the poor man died…” In English seems this to imply “sometime later,” but the original Greek means simply “it came to be” or “it happened that.”[iii]
What do we make of this reversal of fortunes?
First in the Ancient Near East it was common to assume that prosperity in this life was sign of God’s blessing, and adversity a sign of God’s displeasure (Psalm 73). Jesus has already contradicted this notion earlier in Luke’s Gospel. In his Sermon on the Plain Jesus notes, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours” (Luke 6:20). Being rich in the selfish manner of the rich man which Jesus describes, is not a sign of God’s blessing. In stark contrast, Lazarus carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.
At the very moment of death, our eternal fate is finally determined. We call this the Particular Judgment. This takes place immediately after death and before the Final Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). The Catechism warns us, “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.”
The Catechism reminds us there are only two possibilities at the time of death,
“Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation” (CCC 1022).
The rich man now sees Lazarus who he ignored in earthly life. Reversing his earthly fortunes, the rich man is in torment in the place of the dead. He pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus “to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool” his tongue, because now he is “suffering torment” in flames. (Lk 16:24). His entitlement in his earthly life still prompts him to think of Lazarus as someone he can command to do his bidding. The rich man’s power and privilege in earthly life have no standing in the life to come.
Abraham chides him in response,
…remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours (Luke 16:25-26).
We cannot change our eternal destiny after our death. There are no do overs or second chances. Purgatory is not a second chance for the unrighteous, but a place of purification for the blessed. The possibility of accepting or rejecting divine grace has ended. A “great chasm is established” to prevent anyone from crossing from Hades to Heaven. Clearly, this is a sobering thought for each of us!
Realizing the finality of his fate (Matthew 25:46), the rich man then pleads for his brothers who are still living but who have not responded to God’s call. However, Abraham replies that if his brothers will “…not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’ (Luke 16:30). ‘Someone’ here is an allusion to Christ rising from the dead.
Jesus rose from the dead to offer us God’s mercy and love and the forgiveness of our sins. Yet we must repent, accept his forgiveness, and experience conversion to receive it. We cannot presume upon God’s mercy, thinking we can have his forgiveness without the conversion of our hearts. We need to cooperate with this grace to receive it.
The rich man is not in torment for being rich, however, but because he did not cooperate with God’s grace and allow his heart to be fully submitted to God. As Jesus said in our previous Sunday reading, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). Linking this story to the previous Gospel, the rich man was called to “make friends on earth” with his unjust wealth (Luke 16: 9), so that he would instead have treasure in heaven.
As we see in the life of Lazarus, the gateway to conversion is humility, complete and utter dependence on God, and submission to his will. It is precisely by being poor that Lazarus came to depend on God completely. As Jesus reminds us, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours” (Luke 6:20).
Each one of us can also be poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). We can humbly come before God and depend on him to give us true happiness. We can lovingly accept the sufferings of this present life, knowing that our eternal soul has far greater value than chasing the selfish dream of riches in this life.
[i] The Hebrew לַעְזָר (Lazar) is a contraction of אֶלְעָזָר (Eleazar).
[ii] “Homo quidam erat dives,” incorrectly read as “There was a certain man, Dives.” Instead of “There was a certain rich man.” Other early traditions name him Nineuēs likely a corruption of Phinehas, so later read as Finees, or Finaeus.
[iii] Fitzmyer notes, Lit. “and it happened that the poor man died.” Luke uses egeneto de + infin. (with subject acc.) this Greek construction is taken as a Septuagintism cf. Joseph A. Fitzmyer S.J., The Gospel according to Luke X–XXIV: Introduction, Translation, and Notes, vol. 28A, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 1132.
[iv]
ᾅδης , ‘Hades.’ the
nether world, the place of the dead.
The Catechism notes,
Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead
Christ went down, “hell”—Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek—because those who
are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead,
whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer: which does not mean
that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man
Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: “It is precisely these holy
souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord
delivered when he descended into hell.” (CCC 633).
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