Have you ever stopped to consider this pattern in your life? The pattern of using resources. You might call this pattern “consumption.” From “consumption” we derive the verb “to consume.” To live we must consume. If we don’t eat, we will eventually die. If we stop drinking water, we will die. If we do not wear any clothes, we will not look appropriate for this society. Or, if we do not put on proper clothing for the winter, the Chicago snow-mageddon might hurt us. We have to use basic resources to survive: bread, a tipi, and a pair of Levi’s. No wonder no one teaches babies how to feed. Day one, they naturally swallow whatever slips in between their gums—whether yogurt or shampoo. And when babies start sprouting teeth, you’d better watch your fingers. You don’t want to cry: “Charlie bit me!”
Consumption is the clean call of nature, and it’s good.
However, consumption can drive you to excess. It may demand you seek luxury, and live a life of extravagance. Consumption may insist you drive a Cadillac, or a mustang… Consumption may dictate you live in a glass condo in the Trump tower, or wear furry coats that transform you into a man in lion’s clothing or a woman in snow leopard attire. Consumption may whet your appetite for lobster, oyster, and caviar… By the way, did you know that Beluga Caviar ranks as the most expensive food item in the world? Caviar is fish eggs and this brand comes from the Beluga Sturgeon fish, found mostly in the Caspian Sea. Beluga caviar costs up to $5,000 per kilogram. That’s about 2.5 grand per pound!!! If you can afford caviar, you must be rich.
Unfortunately, for some of us even the “normal” can be a luxury. Living in the projects of the South side of Chicago can be a luxury for a father. Even a trip to MacDonald’s can be a luxury for a mother. Some don’t usually know where the next piece of pizza is coming from. We call them poor. And others who fall somewhere between the poor-rich spectrum, we might call them middle class.
On this earth’s economy, you are what you consume. You are what you wear. You are what you eat. You are what’s in YOUR wallet. Society gauges you on the scale of consumption. Your resources define your name, your fame, or your shame. Therefore, we hunger for the American dream. That’s man’s economy.
But, is that the end of the story? Is my life about burgers, coke, laughter, and that’s it? Is the good life good enough for you? Is consuming the goal of our lives? Perhaps we need to ask what matters at the end of the day? In other words, does man’s economy sell the right diamond? If not, then what’s the deal in a different economy? What’s the deal in God’s economy?
We find the answer to these questions in the form of a story, a parable the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to the Pharisees, religious leaders at the time, who loved money. As in all other stories Jesus tells, whether true stories or parables, this one speaks eternal truth. The story is in the book of Luke, chapter 16, and verses 19 to 31. Please open your Bible with me in the book of Luke, chapter 16, verses 19 through 31. Luke 16:19-31.
I. Verse 19 reads: “there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”
A) If we could have the rich man stand in your presence, we’d quickly notice a couple of things about him.
First, he is wearing a purple coat and fine linen underneath. Purple clothing, in ancient time, rests on the back of kings and nobles. Have you ever seen a man in a Versace coat ready to face the -20 degree in Chicago’s biting wind? This is the rich man right here. And fine linen. Even the underwear of the rich man is designer’s brand. Secondly, the rich man can afford caviar not just on his birthday or when he visits the White House, but every day. Everyday is better than Thanksgiving for the rich man. His table is so garnished you cannot notice the maroon that polishes the wood. But whole grain bread, wheat bread, brown turkey, white turkey, gravy, stuffing, white wine, red wine; and all kinds of delicacy throng every square inch of his table.
B) Now, let’s go outside. At the rich man’s gate lies a poor man whose name alone, in Jesus’ eyes, is worth mentioning—Lazarus, a name that means He whom God helps. Lazarus! If we could have Lazarus stand in our presence…actually, if we take a look at him as he lies down. His clothes look like rags you place under the coffeemaker to absorb the spills, and then you throw it away in the dusty streets of Palestine. This filthy hand-me-down Lazarus wears serves him both as dressing material as well as medical dressing for the wet boils that cover arms that beg and legs that cannot walk. To add grief to poverty, there is no Salvation Army, no welfare, no Medicare in Lazarus’ town.
And to add abuse to misery, dogs…dogs…not your modern-day man’s best friends, nor your warm fuzzy poodles. I am talking about street dogs in ancient Israel. They don’t take a bath. They never get brushed. They eat scraps from the table. These scavengers would come and lick Lazarus’ sores, while he lies there, helpless like dead meat.
Day after day, Lazarus lies there at the gate that can answer the grunts and whirlwind of his stomach. Day after day, he peeks through the metal bars that let in only people of higher status. He is longing for not the turkey breast, nor the roast beef, nor a piece of caviar, but some of the crumbs that make his mouth water. Such are the two men: the rich man’s life is day. Lazarus’ life is night.
II. But one thing, one thing they had in common. Death. Death is no respecter of persons. Death sees no difference between the rich and the poor, the handsome and the plain, the elegant and the gauche… One-day each has to hit the grave. Let’s look at verse 22: “the poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried,” Notice these two economies, the poor man dies and is carried by angels somewhere (we’ll talk about that place later). But rich man dies, and the only thing worth mentioning is his burial…While the rich man enjoyed a limousine procession in his funeral, Lazarus could not afford a hearse. But Angels carried Lazarus. Angels carried him. I don’t know about you, but when I die, I do not want to be just buried, but carried by angels. Carried, not just buried. What do you want to happen to you when you die?
A) The rich man dies. He leaves behind a life of luxury and pleasure at its best, and is buried. As soon as he closes his eyes here on earth, he opens them in a strange place: v. 23a: In Hades… (that is “Hell”)…
The rich man now is not glancing at poverty at his gate anymore. Nor does he wear the warm fuzzy purple coat. But he is in a surrounding where blazing fire licks his soul. In the agony of the moment, Poor Richie thirsts for relief and he lifts up his eyes. What does he see? Figuratively speaking, a window of heaven opens, and who is in the horizon far off? Who is hanging out with Abraham, just like a guest would lay his head on his friend’s chest at the table?
B) It’s Lazarus. Can that be true? The Rich man realizes Lazarus goes to the same place as Abraham. The same place as the father of those who trust in God. Lazarus is at Abraham’s bosom, that is paradise. And there, Lazarus is not eating just your Giordano’s pizza or even caviar for that matter. Better than that! Lazarus is feasting with fruit from the tree of life that never ends, in the presence and splendor of God himself. But not so with the rich man. Heaven reversed the rich man’s economy.
C) After noticing such an anomaly, with a dehydrated throat, Poor Richie cries out something along the lines, “Father Abraham, I need a time out. I need a respite. Please have mercy. Send Lazarus to dip his finger tip in water and cool my tongue, because I can’t take it anymore in this flame.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I was so thirsty that a drop of water made any difference. But in Hades the rich man longs for just that.
III. Then, with the voice of a relative, Abraham responds to the rich man:
A) Child, remember that in your time before death you received your money, your Cadillac, your hummer, your caviar and lobster, your wine, and you looked sharp everyday. While Lazarus, like Cinderella, he received: rags. Now, glory replaces his rags. And misery replaces your luxury.
And to seal the reversal, Abraham adds: Let’s look at v. 26: And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm [that is an unreachable distance] has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
At this point in the conversation, the rich man knows there is no grace after physical death, no relief, and no end in second death.
B) 1. But what about his family on earth? So, the rich man pleads with Abraham, vv.27-28: Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
–“They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” In other terms, Abraham is saying, “your family on earth has the word of God as Moses and the other Servants of God wrote. They have the scriptures. They have the Bible; let them obey it!”
The rich man’s first plea fails. There is no welfare in Hades. His second appeal flunk as well. There is no man-made method to save one’s family. Do you think he will stop nagging Abraham, then?
2. No, he is witty and persistent, he argues in v. 30 and watch his KEYWORD: “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
“Repent.” Neither the rich man nor any of his five brothers nor his dad has repented, as his answer indicates. By the way, do you know what the rich man means when he uses the word “repent”? “I repent” means, “I make a u-turn on the highway of life. I am switching to the left lane, come to a screeching stop from the natural voice that screams: “This is my life, this is my body, this is my money, this is my this…my that, so I have the right to do whatever I want with it. It’s none of God’s business.” Then I do a one-eighty, take the road where my heart knows, “My life is a gift from God, my body is a gift, my money is a gift, and nothing I am, nothing I have is mine, but His.”
Again, the rich man insists with Abraham, “if someone comes back to life and tell my family, they will turn from self-service to God’s service.”
Then, as you might assume, Abraham replies, “The costumer is always right. Let me see what I can do. Lazarus, go ahead finish your meal, go see the same angels who picked you up after you died, then tell them, ‘Clothe me back with my body of sores, lame legs, and send me back to earth.’”
IV. No!!! Instead, this is the clincher that Abraham drops into the ears of the rich man. V. 31: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
At this point as we can imagine: silence…an infernal silence reigns on the rich man. His countenance falls, and he reverts his attention back to the flame that never fades. In Hades he is bound for eternity—humanity’s greatest tragedy.
If one can learn one lesson when it’s too late, the rich man heard this: In God’s economy, His word is gold.
In God’s scheme of things, your life on earth is the biggest waste ever, if you do not obey Jesus’ words. But if you listen in repentance, then when you die, angels will carry you to heaven.
That is the difference between man’s economy and God’s economy. Man’s economy leads to the rich man’s fate. God’s economy leads to Lazarus’ fate. God’s economy says, “you are not what you consume. You are not what you wear. You are not what you eat. You are not what’s in YOUR wallet.” In God’s economy you are what you do with His truth: either eternal loss, or eternal success.
Let me submit to you, that no one has the natural power to obey God’s truth. Like babies born with natural inclination to consume, all of us are born with a heart bent on sin, which is rebellion against God. The symptoms of sins appear in each of us somehow. When we depend on drugs to cope with life, or jump from one relationship to another like a monkey hangs from one branch to the other, for we can’t handle being single, we are showing the symptoms of sin. We all can relate. The good news is the power to obey God has to come from Him, and He provides just that in His Son Jesus Christ.
So, a little closer to home, this parable teaches:
A) If you are born with a golden spoon in your mouth, you are not going to hell because you have a fat bank account. Trouble starts not when you have money, but when money has you.
If you are a doctor, or a lawyer, you are not going to end up like Poor Richie, because you are wealthy. The deal is to buy into God’s economy.
If you are retired, and accumulates millions of dollars over the years, and even this recession cannot hurt you, your best bet (actually the only spiritual bet) is to place your trust in God’s economy.
B) Now, if you grew up in a home where bread was a luxury that eludes you better than your own shadow, you need to know that heaven is not open to you because you are in Lazarus’ physical or economic condition. The key was Lazarus’ spiritual condition—faith in God.
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Welson
