19th
PENTECOST Sunday
Rev. Norman F. Seeger
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich
man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named
Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and
longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and
licked his sores.
22 “The time came
when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man
also died and was buried. 23 In
hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with
Lazarus by his side. 24 So he
called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham
replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things,
while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in
agony. 26 And besides all
this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want
to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered,
‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him
warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied,
‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 ”‘No, father
Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will
repent.’
31 “He said to him,
‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 16:19-31
"A FIRE EXTINGUISHER FOR EVERYONE”
1. Two Eternal Options
2. One Source of (Success) Salvation
Dear disciples of Christ,
Roasting
marshmallows over a campfire, melting a little chocolate, compressing it
between two graham crackers… s’mores are undeniably delicious. Yes, I would love to eat some more, but
holding a marshmallow over the fire until it turns brown really hurts. My fingers get hot. My arm hair soon singes. I cannot tolerate my flesh burning just to
eat a sweet treat, so… we wisely use roasting sticks, allowing us to stand a
safe distance from the fire while a marshmallow held out over the flame roasts
perfectly.
It’s a simple
fact: when a fire begins to burn, I do
not want to be in the middle of it. If our
house catches fire, I will not sit inside watching t.v., telling myself it is
nice to be warm. No, we run outside to
stay alive. We loudly warn our family to
get out of the house, get away from the fire.
If our clothes catch fire, we quickly stop, drop & roll on the
ground trying to extinguish the flames because nobody wants to be burned…not on
earth…nor in hell.
Following last
Sunday’s lesson for disciples to single-heartedly serve the Lord with our worldly
wealth -- to faithfully manage money God places into our possession on earth – Jesus’
parable today pictures an unfaithful rich man, who apparently wasted his worldly
wealth, crying in agony & asking Abraham for help as he is burning in hell’s
flames. In eternity, as in time, fire
obviously is to be avoided or extinguished.
Picturing two eternal options – hell’s torment or heaven’s comfort –
Jesus never asks which we prefer.
Everyone wants a cool home in heaven with beggar Lazarus rather than to
burn forever with the rich man in hell.
Jesus emphasizes not our desired destination but stresses our one &
only source of ‘success’ or salvation, pointing us to the Scriptures which reveal
Jesus as a heavenly fire extinguisher for everyone.
“A
rich man, dressed in purple & fine linen, living in luxury,” ignores
“the
beggar named lazarus, lying at his gate covered with sores, longing to eat
scraps falling from this rich man’s table.” A man’s misplaced priorities offer the wrong
answer to Jesus’ question, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet
forfeit his soul?”[MK 8] Putting his body ahead of his soul, putting
himself ahead of God, putting time ahead of eternity, an unnamed rich man shows
no love for Lazarus. No fruits of faith
appear in his life – Judge Jesus will say, “I was hungry & you gave me nothing to
eat”[MT 25] – because there is no faith in his heart.
When he dies, this
unfaithful, wealth-wasting rich man finds himself in hell because, “Whoever
does not believe in the Lord Jesus – the one & only Son God lovingly sent
into this world to atone for our sins by sacrificing himself once for all – whoever
does not believe in the Lord Jesus will be condemned.”[JN 3] Dying physically, this man also dies “the
second death, thrown out of God’s presence into a lake of burning sulfur where
there will be weeping & gnashing of teeth.”[REV 20/LK 13] Unfortunately
for this rich man & for every other unbeliever, by the time they discover their
mistake, it is too late. Hell’s fires
are not only agonizing, but unquenchable & inescapable. Asking Abraham to send Lazarus with a drop of
cool water for the tip of his tongue, this tormented rich man sadly hears how
no individual can go from heaven to hell, nor can anyone ever move from hell up
to heaven.
Beggar Lazarus
happily hears his place at Abraham’s side is set forever for – of our two
eternal options -- heaven is even more desirable than hell is undesirable. On earth, Lazarus has less than nothing. Apparently too weak to chase away dogs
licking his body’s sores, he would love to chew on a couple crumbs falling from
this rich man’s table, but – unlike a Canaanite woman who begs Jesus for a few
crumbs of mercy, a woman willing to be labelled a dog eating crumbs falling
from her master’s table, a woman whose demon-possessed daughter Jesus lovingly
heals – Lazarus is left to starve.
Please notice, no
more fruits of faith are evident in this beggar’s life than in the rich man’s
life, but Lazarus obviously believes in our Savior Jesus, for, “when
he dies, angels carry Lazarus to Abraham’s side.” Please understand, poverty in this world does
not lift a beggar into heaven any more than worldly wealth drops a rich man
into hell. The only escalator lifting
anyone ‘up’ into heaven is faith in Jesus Christ, who explains, “I am
the Way, the Truth; the Life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.”[JN 14]. As if standing on
the steps of an escalator doing nothing, yet rising effortlessly, souls who rely
upon Jesus’ perfectly obedient life to provide our righteousness, souls who trust
Jesus’ innocent death to fully pay our sin’s penalty, souls who believe in
Jesus our Savior will be lifted into heaven with Lazarus when we die.
Two possible
destinations, our only two eternal options – heaven or hell – revolve around
faith or a lack of faith in Jesus Christ.
Commanding disciples to preach “to all creation the good news” of
Jesus’ death winning forgiveness for all sins, Jesus promises, “Whoever believes…will be
saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”[MK 16]…as
he announced to Nicodemus, “Whoever believes in the
one & only Son God lovingly sent to redeem our sins by dying as our
Substitute has eternal life, but whoever
rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”[JN 3]
Realizing it is too late for him to believe in
Jesus & be saved – rejecting Jesus has sentenced him to unbearably burn
forever – this rich man remembers his five brothers who are still living on
earth. Misery is said to love company,
but this condemned man does not want his brothers to join him in hell’s flames,
knowing he would not suffer any less & they would experience absolute
agony. If Lazarus cannot come to hell to
cool his tongue, the rich man begs Abraham to send him to earth to warn his
brothers to believe in Jesus before it is too late.
“They have Moses & the Prophets,” Abraham simply answers – they have God’s
written Word, the law condemning us for our sins & the gospel showing us
our Savior’s forgiveness – “Let them listen to them.” What more could anyone ask than being able to
hear the Bible? Citing Timothy’s
example, Paul points out, “The holy Scriptures – which Timothy heard from his mother &
grandmother – the holy Scriptures are
able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”[2 TM
3] Similarly referring to Moses
& the Prophets, Jesus also assures religious leaders of his day, “You
diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them
you possess eternal life. These
Scriptures testify about me … yet you refuse to come to me to have life,”[JN 5] Jesus sadly says to Pharisees
& Sadduccees who reject God’s truth, refusing to see Jesus as our Savior, which
is what this rich man fears from his brothers.
“No,
Father Abraham,” my brothers will not believe Moses & the Prophets
– I did not believe the Scriptures either – “but if someone from the dead
goes to them, they will repent,” the rich man promises. Subtly blaming God for the fact he is burning
in hell because God did not send a sign strong enough to force faith into his
heart, he promises his five brothers will repent if Lazarus rises from the dead
to sound an alarm warning them to run away from hell’s fires.
The rich man’s
reasoning almost sounds plausible. Signs
might logically seem more powerful or effective than simple words. Is not seeing believing? Not when we work with God’s Word. “If they do not listen to Moses & the
Prophets,” Abraham announces, “your brothers will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.” Scripture
– God’s healing gospel truth applied where God’s law exposes our sins – is the
only source of saving faith.
Could people
rising from the dead be more powerful than the Scriptures? Later, Jesus will raise a different Lazarus from
his four-day grave. Do people who refuse
to believe Jesus’ claim to be their Savior repent? No.
While “many put their faith in him…the chief priests & Pharisees ask, ‘What are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many miraculous
signs. If we let him go on like this,
everyone will believe in him…From that day on they plot to take Jesus’ life.”[JN
11] Easter Sunday, Jesus personally rises from
death to life – Jesus produces the “sign of the prophet Jonah” he
promised people who asked him to prove he is our promised Savior. Do people repent? No. Religious
leaders who remembered his promise to rise the third day still stubbornly
refuse to believe Jesus is their Savior, refuse to repent & even pay
soldiers guarding the grave to say his dead body has been stolen. “If people do not listen to Moses & the
Prophets – if people will not listen to the Scriptures -- they will not be
convinced…” but will burn with this unbelieving rich man in hell’s
insufferable, unquenchable flames.
Friends, I do not want
to burn in hell’s fire forever. What can
I do? Jesus’ parable of this rich man
& the beggar Lazarus – Jesus’ parable stressing the Scriptures as the one
source of eternal “success,” the sole source of faith in Jesus our Savior who
extinguishes hell’s flames for us as he removes our sin’s guilt through his
atoning death & triumphant resurrection – tells me to “Listen – listen to Moses &
the Prophets” – listen to God’s law condemning my sins – listen to
God’s gospel leading me to truth Jesus redemption & righteousness.
Do I want you to
burn in hell forever? No, I want you to
be comforted by Abraham. Do you want
your friends or your acquaintances to hopelessly suffer in hell’s flaming
sulfur? No. What can we do? Confront your friends with God’s sin-exposing
law; comfort acquaintances with God’s sin-forgiving gospel. Share God’s law & gospel with your
friends today. Share God’s law &
gospel with them again tomorrow, pointing people to our Savior by telling them
the good news about Jesus…day after day after day… until angels finally carry
us to Abraham’s side far, far away from the fires of hell forever.
Amen.