Parable on the Rich Man and Lazarus.

(Luke 16:19-31).

The fundamental thought of this parable, is that the incorrect application of wealth denies a person the Kingdom of Heaven, and leads him down into hell and eternal suffering. A certain wealthy man, used to dress in purple mantle and byssin attire. The purple mantle was an outer Syrian garment of a reddish hue, while the white byssin was an under garment, a soft material made of Egyptian fine linen. This rich individual lived lavishly, holding great feasts daily, and existed purely for his own pleasures. At the gates of his residence there lay a beggar named Lazarus. The word “Lazarus,” in a literal sense, means “God’s help” — i.e. a “beggar” who has been forsaken by everyone and who can only rely on God. His suffering further was increased through dogs licking his scabs, as apparently he was too weak to drive them away. It was indeed in this beggar that the rich man could have acquired a friend who, according to the preceding parable, would have accepted him, after his death, into the eternal dwellings. However, as can be seen, the rich man was a heartless person, pitiless toward the beggar — although not stingy, in as much as he feasted daily. He didn’t spare his money, only that he spent it on his own pleasures. After his death, the beggar’s soul was taken up into Abraham’s bosom. He was taken “into Heaven,” as it was not open till after the Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering and resurrection. What is expressed is that being a true son of Abraham, Lazarus shared his after-death fate in finding himself in a state, full of consolatory hopes in the future joy, which awaited all the righteous. Without a doubt, Lazarus earned his consolatory state through his great and uncomplaining sufferings. “The rich man also died and was buried.” Apparently, the burial is mentioned because they would have been on a grand scale. Whereas Lazarus’s cadaver was simply thrown out to be devoured by wild animals. But the rich man found himself in torment — in hell.

And so from afar, he sights Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. This type of sighting of the joy of the righteous by sinners, increases their suffering in hell, and perhaps gives them hope — in vain as it may be — for some relief. Just as previously Lazarus wished to satisfy his hunger with crumbs, now the impoverished rich man begs for a few drops of water to cool his burning tongue. But he is refused even this small relief: as Lazarus is comforted in proportion to his former sufferings, so is the rich man suffering in proportion to his indifferent and heartless gaiety. Apart from this, Abraham presents another basis for his refusal: God’s immutable judgment, through which between the place of joy for the righteous and the place of suffering for the sinners, there is an established impenetrable abyss that is in full accord with the moral abyss that separates one from the other. Abraham also refuses the rich man’s request to send Lazarus to his father’s house, so as to warn his brothers not to follow in the footsteps of his lifestyle. “They have Moses and the Prophets,” i.e. the written Old Testament, from which they can learn how to live, so as not to end up in that place of suffering.

The rich man concedes that like himself, his brothers are deaf to the teachings of the Old Testament, and that only an extraordinary appearance of the dead can bring them to their senses and thereby, force them to change their lifestyle for the better. Abraham replied that if they have reached such a moral collapse that they do not listen to the voice of God, expressed in the Holy Gospel, then all other persuasions will also be futile. Although they may be astounded by the extraordinary appearance of the dead, the unbeliever will begin to explain the appearance to him in a different light, and will again remain the same unbeliever and unreformed.

That this is so, can be seen from the stubborn resistance of the disbelieving Jews, unconvinced by the countless signs and miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ performed: they did not believe upon seeing the resurrection of Lazarus, and even had thoughts of killing Him. The whole thing is that the heart, corrupted by sin, stubbornly refuses to believe in the future suffering that awaits the sinner, and you cannot convince it otherwise with any miracles.