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The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is the most used piece of scripture to back up the teaching of what happens to you when you die. Many have said it is not a parable, but is a literal account of something that has already happened. Let us proceed on the basis of sound interpretation by the rules set down in interpreting any literary document. The first rule is upon which so many stumble,ie "Context".
The first parable at the beginning of Luke 16 starts with the story of a rich man, whose servant squandered his wealth. The rich man calls the wicked servant in to give an account of his actions. At that meeting we read that the steward was to have his stewardship taken away from him. So the steward started to think about what he'd do as he couldn't do anything else. He even thought of becoming a labourer and even begging. Both these ideas were dismissed from his mind and instead he came up with a plan to make friends of his masters debtors. The way he went about it was to tell his masters debtors, that if they settled their bill, he would cut massive amounts off of their debt. The masters response to the steward for his shrewd actions was to commend him.. Jesus applies this to his disciples in vs9, Jesus tells them to be wise and shrewd in their dealings in a way that makes them friends. By doing this they will be looking after themselves when their business dealings fail. He qualifies vs 9 by what he says in vs 10 when he says those who are faithful in a little will also be faithful in much. Jesus is referring to being faithful in their dealings of their masters goods. Again the next vs 11 interprets what is meant here, when Jesus says if you have not been faithful in unrighteous money dealings, who do you think will put you over true riches.He then elaborates on this in the next verse when he says that you must first show yourself faithful over another mans goods before you can be trusted with your own. Then the point and meaning of the whole parable comes out in vs13. Here Jesus says you cannot serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. "You cannot serve God and money!! So then clearly the interpretation of the first parable is about serving true riches. The disciples are to be shrewd and wholeheartedly and singlemindedly looking after the interests of their master, who is God himself. They can't show this same devotion if they are going to serve other interests as it will lessen their effectiveness and devotion to the true God and King. Jesus is saying that serving money and the pursuit of riches isn't compatable with serving Jesus and the pursuit of Gods Kingdom.
The Pharisees had the exact opposite view to Jesus and believed in serving money wholeheartedly and at the same time claimed to serve God wholeheartedly. Jesus says no, sorry, it doesn't work that way. This was the point of falling out with the Pharisees who heard this, because when they heard it they derided Jesus, because they loved money.
Now we must pay close attention to the point of the last parable and the Pharisees response to the point of the parable of the unjust steward. So we ask what is the context that we read the account of the rich man and Lazarus in? If we go from the beginning of chapter 16 and the parable of the dishonest steward. We see at its end in verse 13 that Jesus says we cannot serve God and money. Verse 14 carries on to tell us that the Pharisees who were lovers of money, when they heard these thing, ie the parable of the unjust steward and its meaning, they derided him. in vs 16 we see Jesus then answers the Pharisees reaction of derision. He tells them that God knows their wicked hearts and that while they may be held in high esteem by men, God knows their hearts and that they are abominable in the sight of God. Jesus then focuses their attention on what is happening in Israel,now!! Jesus tells the Pharisees that the law and the prophets were up until John The Baptist. However since John the Baptist the Kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. So Jesus is saying to the Pharisees wake up, its the time to listen to Gods messenger and believe the message of the Kingdom of God.Jesus is saying to them that the time of the Old testament is over, everything the law and prophets has been pointing to is happening before your very eyes, now in Jesus ministry. They need to wake up to the fact, that the time of the Kingdom of God has come and press into it just as other Israelites are. He farther makes the point that Heaven and earth will pass away before Gods word will be changed. Jesus makes this point because the Pharisees made Gods law suit themselves and then Jesus adds an example of how they change Gods law. The way they change Gods law is by the way they practiced divorce. So the reason the bit about divorce is added is just to reinforce that Gods word isn't going to change just to suit them, the way they change divorce so that it is not adultry. For the Pharisees would divorce for very bad reasons and made marriage an insignificant thing. So the whole gist up to now is about riches and money can get in the way of serving and obeying God and that the Pharisees are hypocrytes and need to agree with Gods word and lay hold of Gods Kingdom. I would call this a very diplomatic way of telling them to repent and to believe the good news of Gods Kingdom being proclaimed to them.. So this is the context so far. It is a response to the Pharisees. What has been said in the last verses then gives context to and ties in to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus So now we come to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a parable spoken against the Pharisees. It is a parable used to reinforce Jesus response to the Pharisees about money and riches and heeding Gods word. It is also in the context of Jesus bringing in the Kingdom of God and the Pharisees urgent need to respond. This is clearly the context and the grammar used makes this context irrefutable. So let us go on to the parable itself. Many have objected to this not being a parable on the basis, that Jesus always says" The Kingdom of God is like...." when using parables. Let me right at the start dispel this notion that a parable must start with " The Kingdom of God is like" and variations of it. There are many examples but I will point out only two. Luke 17:9-14 Jesus tells a parable that also starts by what some people could call an actual event. He says 2 men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee the other a tax collector......... Again in Luke 19:11-27 the parable starts by saying a nobleman went to another country to receive for himself a Kingdom............... The point is clearly made a parable doesn't have to start with " The Kingdom of God is like........." The next thing we notice about parables is that the people who are mentioned aren't literal people. Rather they are people used to represent people in Israel. For example the rich and poor or Pharisees and tax collectors etc. Jesus uses these people to make his point he wants to get across. If we accept the context of what leads up to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. We can quickly grasp that the parable is about a rich Pharisee and a poor man . The rich man doesn't and hasn't taken hold of Gods word, and is contrasted with the poor man who has believed Gods message of salvation in Moses and the prophets. This is the actual point of the parable!!! This parable is demonstrating the question of who will be in the Kingdom and what kind of people will be in the Kingdom. There was a way of thinking in Israel that said if a man was rich, then he was blessed of God!! It also followed that if a man was poor it was because God was not pleased with him. We have a variation of this teaching, with the prosperity teachers of our day. But how wrong they were!! Instead we find that the rich man is outside of Gods salvation because he never believed Gods word, in Moses and the prophets. That totally squashes any understanding that if a man is rich, it is because God is pleased with him. It also squashes the thinking that if a man is poor, it is because God is displeased with him. So Jesus is replying to the Pharisees and saying, wealth isn't a sign of Gods favour. Rather the sign of Gods favour is that for the sake of the Kingdom a man is prepared to believe in God and His word and even though he suffers and is poor. The parable is the answer to the Pharisees about serving God and money and neglecting Gods word of salvation. Now that we have the real meaning of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we can go on to deal with how many others understand the parable. Probably the majority of churches in the western world understand it to be teaching about what happens when we die. Besides what I have just shown it to mean, people refer to the rich man in Hades. The rich man in Hades is suffering torment and appears to be embodied because he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to quench the burning of his tongue with some water. Also Lazarus is with Abraham and is comforted. The reason we cannot accept that it is speaking about what happens when we die, is simply this not what Jews believed. Pharisees of all people toward whom the parable is directed have a resurrection hope. The have no understanding of an embodied intermediate state as salvation or before the resurrection. To be embodied in salvation for the Jew, is to be resurrected. Resurrection is the means by which death is overcome. Also the bible only teaches the punishment of the wicked takes place on judgement day. The wicked aren't punished when they die nd then again on judgement day. Nor are the righteous or unrighteous embodied before the great day of resurrection. The bible is very clear that this only happens on the last day. Jesus teaching is clear that the fires of hell are a last day event, when the wicked are punished and not before. Therefore we need to see the bibles own framework of salvation and when these events come to pass in history. These events aren't ahistorical. This clearly demonstrates that the account is firstly a parable responding to the Pharisees love of money and disobedience to Gods word. Secondly it is not about what happens when you die, but about who will and won't be in the Kingdom. To hold it is about what happens when we die , flies in the face of clear eschatalogical teaching, that has a plain and clear meaning. Also to hold to this means that the resurrection is a non event. It is to get the clear teaching of scripture mumbo jumbod and will cause endless paradoxes and ammunition for the enemies of the gospel. Of course we believe that the wicked will suffer the fire of hell, but only on the last day. Of course we believe the righteous will be comforted, again it will only happen on the last day when they are resurrected to immortality and eternal life. |
