Proper 21C

September 30, 2001

Jesus responded to the ridicule the Pharisees, the religious leaders, piled on him when they heard his teaching his disciples, "You cannot serve God and money." Religious leaders, including the Pharisees, generally have pretty good opinions of ourselves. But Jesus says, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts."

God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows our very mixed motives, our confusion about whether we act for the good of others or for our own benefit. And God loves us anyway. God knows our doubts, and God knows our confused certainties, and God loves us anyway. God knows how hard it is for us to hear his word of love, and how easy we find it to think ill of others and to think good of ourselves, and God loves us anyway.

The Jewish religious community in Jesus time included Saducees, who couldn’t find resurrection in the Law, and the Pharisees who taught resurrection, divine judgment, and eternal life, either with Abraham and the righteous in heaven or with Satan and the unrighteous in hell. The Pharisees opinion is shared widely today. We hear it at funerals, "He was such a good person; surely he is in heaven."

Jesus told a troubling story. He started out in the usual way:

rich man, poor man. Riches were a sign of God’s favor, favor earned by good works. Poverty was a sign of God’s disapproval of the poor person’s behavior. That attitude is not unusual in our own time.

Jesus describes the situation in ways that invite us to assign, and question, our moral values. The rich man dressed in (expensive) purple and fine linen feasted sumptuously every day. The rich man did what the society expected by having a servant bring him leftover food to the poor beggar at his gate.

Then Jesus slips the needle in. The poor man was named Lazarus, "without help, helpless.". Names have power; they individualize us. Names show us to be people for whom Christ died and in whom he lives.

Jesus went on. "The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried." The story was still familiar; we all will die, and wasn’t it nice that the poor man was blessed beyond his deserving. Isn’t God good.

Then comes the turn of the knife. "In Hades, where the rich man was being tormented. . ." That’s not supposed to happen. Riches are a sign of God’s favor; rich folks don’t get tormented.

The rich man asked Lazarus’s help. We don’t know the rich man’s name, but we know Lazarus, and the rich man did too. But he had not in his life treated Lazarus as a person, but as a category, and he ended up in Hades being tormented.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is a story. It is not a geography of heaven and hell. The point of the story is in the end, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

Jesus did rise from the dead. God knows us better than we know ourselves. And God loves us anyway. Jesus calls us to repentance, faith, and trust in him.