Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The parable today of the Rich Man and Lazarus, continues Jesus’ theme in this section of Luke’s Gospel which is this: You can’t serve two masters.
Like the Dishonest manager in the first part of Luke 16, the Rich man described here has been busily serving one master. He’s been serving money and the power and pleasure that comes with it. But meanwhile, he also claims to serve another. Notice that he calls out across the chasm to Father Abraham.
Father Abraham. I’m your child. I’m one of God’s people. I’m a child of the promise.
He thought of himself as a child of God, but he lived his life as a servant of money and power and pleasure. And, you can’t serve two masters.
Before this rich man’s death, what did he experience? Purple clothing, fine linen, and sumptuous feasts. The best that this world has to offer.
By the way, there’s a caution to offer here: Blessings in this life are no indication of a person’s spiritual well-being.
Oh we live in a day when health and wealth preachers are everywhere, tickling our ears and telling us what we want to hear.
Here’s the false message the proclaim: if you have enough faith, God will make your rich. Ask him for a new car, a new house, a million dollars. If you have enough faith he’ll give it to you. After all, you’re a child of the king. And the same thing with health….if you just believe enough, Jesus will take away that cancer. He’ll heal your heart disease. He’ll put an end to your diabetes. If you just believe enough.
This false teaching is what Luther would call the theology of glory. If you trust in God enough, you’ll get blessed.
What’s most infuriating is how blatantly unbiblical this is. First it emphasizes glory and blessing. And second it puts the responsibility for getting it…or the blame for not getting it…on you. But think about it: Your King died on the cross. He is your suffering servant. And while it’s true that He rose again defeating death, yet every one of the disciples also suffered for his name. Most of them were martyred, killed for their faith. How’s that for blessing and glory?
No we are not theologians of glory who expect to be everywhere blessed with health and wealth, if we just would believe enough. But instead we are theologians of the cross. We expect to suffer, as God’s people always have in this broken and sin-sick world. We don’t invite it or enjoy it, but we expect it. And we expect God to work through it.
This week the online notice of the death of a famous Christian teacher went like this: He has left the land of the dying to enter the land of the living one. Isn’t that the theology of the cross? Isn’t that the right way to appraise our life here in this broken world? This is the land of the dying…but we are on our way to the land of the living one. And until then, we pray, as Jesus did, thy will be done, O God. Not my will for glory, but thy will, which was and is the cross.
But alas, the rich man in this parable embraces his own will. He embraces a lavish life. He is all-in on the theology of Glory. He has so much in this life, and meanwhile his life and calling as a child of God has been entirely neglected. And so, he ignores Lazarus…the poor man at his gate, who is hungry and covered with sores. Right there at his gate is the call to repentance. Right there at his gate is the man who needs His love and mercy. And the rich man ignores him, and serves only himself.
But before you judge the rich mane, let this sink in a little deeper: Ask yourself, Who has God put at my gate? And are you serving them, or are you ignoring them? Parents and grandparents, God has put children at your gate, to serve them. Don’t ignore them. Don’t prioritize work or your cell phone or your own selfish desires over these dear ones at your gate. And how about the other people God has put into your life? Friends, neighbors, colleagues. They too are there at your gate. They are the people God has called you to love and to serve.
The rich man has also heard this Law. As Abraham points out, Moses and the Prophets have proclaimed this Word of God, calling him, and his brothers, to repentance. But they have not repented.
And then comes death – so it is in the land of the dying. Both the Rich Man and Lazarus died. Death is inescapable in this broken world. We are experts at hiding it, we pay tremendous sums of money to delay it, and we pretend that its not coming to get us. But it is. Until Christ returns, we can be assured that death will come and get us all.
And in this parable, Jesus sees death as the day of reckoning, when the patience of the Lord comes to an end, and we get what’s coming to us.
Now what’s coming to us? For the one who trusts God, serving Him by faith, like Lazarus did, comfort and peace are coming. Life and Salvation are coming. But for the one who serves another master, who follows after another god, like the Rich Man, condemnation is coming.
Because you can’t serve two masters.
Now, Let me remind you that is all Law. It shows you your sin. It shows you that you aren’t perfect. You, like the rich man, are tempted by fancy clothes and sumptuous feasts. Or fill in the blank…what is it that tempts you, takes you in, becomes a god and a master that you serve?
Likewise, you, in keeping with your sinful nature, are apt to ignore your neighbor, even when he or she sits at your gate, in desperate need of your love. And why? Because you enjoy serving yourself. Because serving others is messy and difficult and costly. It’s all such a big sacrifice.
Because Love is a sacrifice. Yet love is exactly what God expects…from you and from me and from all people. Now, hearing this Law, and seeing the situation of this rich man in hell…we should be terrified.
So where’s the relief? Where’s the Gospel?
Well first let me say that in these passages Jesus is relentless preaching the Law to the unrepentant. Their hearts are hard. We saw this in the Gospel last week. In Luke 16:14, we read that “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money heard these things and they ridiculed Jesus.”
There’s no sorrow for their sins. No terror to relieve. They are dug in against Him and unwilling to hear or believe that they day of reckoning is coming. And so Jesus keeps preaching the Law.
But the Gospel is here too. In Luke 15, we see it in the homecoming of the Prodigal Son, who has squandered his father’s wealth on prostitutes. Last week we saw it in the mercy that the dishonest manager hoped for from His master. And later in Luke 20, we see it in Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, who is a dishonest manager, but who repents, turning to Jesus in joyful faith.
Today we see it in the promise of the Resurrection and in the situation of Lazarus, who moves from the gate of the selfish rich man, to the richer gates of God Himself.
First, notice verse 31. Speaking to the rich man concerning his brothers, Abraham says:
‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31)
If someone should rise from the dead, he says. And someone, Jesus, has risen from the dead. We see Jesus’ sorrow even as he relays this parable to the Pharisees…I will rise from the dead, having taking the guilt and shame of your sins, and the sins of the whole world…and yet still you Pharisees will not believe. For the unrepentant heart ignores and ridicules not only the Law, but also the Gospel.
But for those who do repent, for those who hear the Law and are sorry for their sin; and who turn in faith to Christ; there is good news. Jesus died. And Jesus rose again. And all who trust in His mercy, will pass from death to life. So on the day of reckoning, we will stand before God, not on the basis of our own righteousness, but covered in the righteousness of Christ.
That righteousness of Christ is His fulfillment of God’s Law. He had no other master but the Father. He served Him alone.
And when he came down from heaven, He did not dine with the rich and famous and self-righteous, but with sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors. And he meets all those who lay at His gate, broken by sin, and He feeds them. What the rich man did not do at all, Christ does perfectly, and He does it for us. He does it for you, today.
Luther’s last words make the same case. These words were found on his person when he had died… he wrote, simply, “We are beggars, this is true.”
It is true, in fact, that we are all poor miserable Lazarus. We have no hope, no strength, no righteousness of our own. We can hope only in the mercy of the one who possesses all riches, and who uses them rightly, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ. And today we come to His gate, and kneel down at his table, to receive that mercy. We beg it of him today, as we sing the Agnus Dei, addressing Christ who comes to us with His body and blood, saying: Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us, and grant us your peace.
And what we beg of Him, we know He is faithful to give. He gives far more than scraps from His table. No today we receive the feast. Here he grants us Forgiveness, Life and Salvation. And through these gifts, Christ promises us a future in His Kingdom which has no end. For the riches we receive today are just a foretaste of the feast that is to come.
Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to follow the first commandment today and always, not because you have to do it and boy its such a sacrifice to do so….No, I want you to follow the first commandment because the life it calls you to is truly life. So don’t run after something less than that. Rather, see the life of God in Christ for what it is: the very best.
And don’t serve two masters, don’t have any other gods, because every other master, every false god, is totally and thoroughly inferior to our Lord Jesus Christ.
No one else gives you the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. No one else welcomes you into Paradise. No one else gives you hope and a future.
You can’t serve two masters. And you shouldn’t want to serve to masters, because our master is THE master, and He is good. And so as Paul says to Timothy, I say also to you this day:
Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. (1 Timothy 6:11-12)
Take hold of this life. Serve the master. Lay here at his gate and receive His gifts. And invite others to do the same.
Another pastor and theologian, D.T. Niles, wasn’t a Lutheran, but he did add to Luther’s statement about being beggars. He wrote, Christianity is one beggar telling another where to find bread.
We are beggars. This is true. All of us are. And as we are connected to Jesus here in Word and Sacrament, so we also seek to connect others to Him by inviting them here to receive the bread of life. Each beggar telling another where the food of forgiveness, life, and salvation is to be found. And each beggar trusting and telling this great good news, that here in His church, here where Christ is present, we are far more than beggars. We are the dear children of God, today and forevermore. Amen.
Now the Peace of God, which surpasses understanding, guard your hearts and minds in this one true faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.