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Starting a series on the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). It has many connections with surrounding passages. First one to note is that 16:1 and 16:19 begin almost identically (one word different in Greek): ‘There was a certain rich man’.
So we have a story of a waster 15:11-32, followed by a story of a rich man + a waster 16:1-9, followed by a story of a rich man 16:19-31.
He wore purple and fine linen and feasted every day. That makes a close echo of Ahasuerus’s excessive 180 day feast in Esther 1 which climaxes with the purple and fine linen of 1:6. Rich Man treats himself like royalty, but this parable, like Esther, is a great story of reversal.
However, unlike Rich Man, Ahasuerus invited every man right into his house. Ahasuerus/Xerxes wasn’t exactly a nice guy, but already Rich Man appears less favourably than he. However, there’s an even closer reference to feasting every day: Job’s children. Relevance seen soon.
Rich Man ‘feasted’, literally ‘celebrated’—same word as 15:24, 29. Celebrating is good, but it’s hard to shake impression that he’s really excessive.
The Rich Man is unnamed while Lazarus (meaning ‘God helps’) is named. Presumably more people in society at large knew the Rich Man’s name, but in this great reversal only Lazarus is named, as he’s the one God chooses to honour.
Using an extreme economy of words, Jesus tells us that Lazarus ‘was laid’ at the Rich Man’s gate. Clearly, in addition to being poor, Lazarus had a severe mobility disability. Others had brought him there thinking the Rich Man’s gate might be a strategic spot to obtain alms.
We know little about the Rich Man, but the one story element that his house had a gate allows us to imagine a superior abode. The other thing is that the Rich Man can’t come in or out without noticing Lazarus. It makes the fact that he never even once helped him more inexcusable.
Jesus still has Bible experts listening (15:2). In addition to alluding to Ahasuerus, Jesus evokes other questions with just one Greek word: ‘covered with sores’. Who’s the other person in the Bible covered with sores? Was he rich or poor? What did his children do every day?
Job was covered in sores, rich, and his children feasted every day, but Job could affirm that he had always helped the poor (Job 31:16-22).
Luke shows reversal of rich & poor: 1:53 ‘he has filled the hungry with good things + the rich he has sent away empty’; 6:20 ‘blessed are you poor’; 6:24 ‘woe to you rich’, but also more nuanced: Abraham in this story was rich. So was Job. Rich Man’s problem was not mere wealth.
Lazarus ‘longed to be filled from the things that fell from the rich man’s table, but the dogs’ — ‘longed to be filled + unclean animal had already occurred for the Prodigal Son in 15:16. But it’s not the only time in the gospels we get dogs + food falling from tables.
16:22 ‘It happened that the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man died and was buried.’ Poor Man died first (of course) as poor typically do. NB he’s called ‘the poor man’, not ‘Lazarus’ to help us connect his poverty with his dying first.
The Rich Man is explicitly said to have been buried. By implication Lazarus wasn’t, which was exceedingly troubling in that context. But though cared for less by humans he gets VIP treatment from God: angels carry him to Abraham’s bosom. One VIP with humans, the other with God.
What was Abraham’s bosom? Not a name for heaven. Clue is that Abraham is real character of normal size. The ‘bosom’ in Jn 13:23 is where beloved disciple lay at table. What is Abraham doing? Feasting (Matt 8:11). How many can recline in Abraham bosom? Only 1: Lazarus!
Though Abraham doesn’t take up as much of the OT text as Moses or David, we can make a good case that he’s most significant figure in OT (apart from Christ, of course!). In this story for Lazarus to be in the one slot next to him after being so despised on earth is amazing.
‘In Hades’ may be surprising. Is Jesus buying into Greek views of the afterlife? Greek ‘Hades’ sometimes translates Hebrew ‘Sheol’ but when it does so it leaves behind some key Greek ideas about Hades, especially the idea of internal differentiated geography of Hades.
Classical Hades has compartments. Sheol is undifferentiated. However Jesus can use this word because Classical Hades got one thing really right: punishment was to fit the crime.
Jesus spoke of fire in Gehenna. Here we have flame in Hades, but also poetic justice. The flame the Rich Man experiences parallels the burning of Lazarus’s sores. The Rich Man is concerned for his burning tongue. Tongues are implied by licking dogs. Punishment fits crime.
‘He lifted up his eyes and saw afar off...’ Mental concordance tests for listening scribes: 1. Of whom in the Bible does it most say ‘he lifted up his eyes and saw’? 2. When is the only other time in the Bible we get ‘lifted up eyes’ + ‘saw’ + ‘far off’?
Gen 22:4 ‘On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.’ Luke 16:23 ‘And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments and sees Abraham from afar.’ Jesus echoes the one OT text with lifting eyes, seeing and from afar. Abraham is also in both texts.
A knowledgeable scribe should spot the echo which helps reinforce the important role of Abraham in the story. Gen 22 was about Abraham’s son. Being a child of Abraham is important in Luke. See 19:9. The Rich Man also calls him ‘father’.
The Rich Man calls Abraham father 3x (16:24, 27, 30). The Prodigal Son used the same word of his father 3x (15:12, 18, 21). The Rich Man seeks to stress his close connection with the patriarch. Like him he was rich. Like Abraham in the kingdom, the Rich Man feasted now.
The Rich Man asks Abraham for mercy, though he had shown none to Lazarus. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus. Interesting. He knew Lazarus’s name! He ignored him in life, but could not avoid knowing his name. Now he finds him potentially useful.
The Rich Man’s level of pain is so high, that even the slightest temporary relief to a small part of his body seems worth a difficult journey. The one who wouldn’t even make a slight turn at his own gate to help Lazarus now wants Lazarus to leave paradise for Hades to help him.
When Abraham tells the Rich Man that there’s no relief for his pain, the Rich Man surprises us with his concern for his family. Of course he didn’t feast on his own each day. He had close friends and family who had enjoyed his generous provision of food. He’s not totally selfish.
He was generous, but selectively so because his view of the world allowed him to be. He called Abraham ‘father’, but thought he had just 5 brothers, when the 5 books of the Torah told him of Abraham’s uncountable offspring. If Abraham was his father, Lazarus must be his brother.
Abraham replies, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’ It’s odd to hear Abraham talking of Moses, but the Scriptures are enough.
Jesus, with his parable full of Scripture allusions points the Bible experts of his day to the abundant testimony of Scripture against their comfortable view that the toll collectors and sinners (15:1) could be regarded as outsiders, with the unclean dogs (16:21).
If they were at all like Lazarus, they were insiders. You don’t get higher up than Abraham’s bosom. Choose friends wisely. Better 2 give away your money 2 make eternal friends (16:9) + get angel reception (16:22) + be a friend of Abraham, the only guy to be called ‘God’s friend’.
‘If they don’t hear Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ Hence Jesus constantly point the scribes & Pharisees to the Scriptures they professed to follow. We obviously think of the Resurrection of Jesus here. But there’s another.
‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found’ (15:24). See also 15:32. The return of the Prodigal Son is a resurrection, as is the coming of toll collectors and sinners to hear Jesus (15:1). The Scriptures, not resurrection, convince.
Would Lazarus rising from the dead convince? The resurrection of Lazarus’s namesake in John’s gospel makes some ‘believe’ (a word John’s Gospel qualifies) and others plot (John 11:45-48).
