No Chasms
Proper 21
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31
The parable of
the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus
tells this parable only Luke’s Gospel.
It’s based on a folk tale that exists in many cultures—the story of one
who is rich and one who is poor and how their fortunes are reversed in
death. This parable follows only a
few verses after the Gospel passage from last week. Jesus is still talking about money. Last week’s parable and this week’s
begin with exactly the same words:
“There was a rich man.”
Last week’s parable
was very complex and difficult to interpret. At first glance, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus
seems pretty straightforward. But
have you really thought it through?
Does it really sat that if you want to get to heaven you have to be like
Lazarus? Really? Really like Lazarus? Poor to the point of starvation and
disease?
Throughout the
Gospels again and again Jesus does show a preference for the poor. And he warns against the perils of
wealth for those who seek righteousness.
We heard those warnings, too, in today’s Epistle from First
Timothy. Beware an overweening
love of money.
But this parable
is not about poverty or wealth as the determining factor for where you go after
death. The primary message of this parable is not to say that the
rich will always be tormented in death and the poor will receive comfort.
Thinking about
that reminded me of competitive wrestlers who are always trying to shave just
enough ounces off their body weight so that they can retain their strength but
compete in a less competitive weight class. If I can just get my net worth down another $2,451.63, hopefully
it won’t affect my lifestyle, but then I will be poor enough achieve rest in
the bosom of Abraham after I die.
That’s not the point of the parable.
If we are meant
to identify with anyone in this parable, it is not Lazarus, nor the rich
man. Neither of them is presented
as a model for us to follow. If we
are anyone in this parable, we are the rich man’s siblings. They, after all, like us, are still
living.
The message to
them of this parable is: Don’t
build chasms between yourselves and others. Do not spend your life building chasms between yourselves
and other people.
The chasm is an
important part of the parable. Abraham says to the rich man: “between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that
those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can
cross from there to us.” The chasm
has already been fixed. Now it
cannot be crossed.
The rich man
built that chasm in life. The rich
man spent his life building the chasms between himself and Lazarus. That’s what he did wrong. That’s the message of this parable… the message the rich man’s living
siblings need to hear.
In life, the
rich man built the chasm between himself and Lazarus. Every time he walked passed Lazarus at
his door without really seeing him.
And that would have been often.
Every time the rich man didn’t really see Lazarus, his neighbor, he
built the chasm. Every time the
rich man failed to show compassion for Lazarus’ needs, he built the chasm. Even in death, the rich man is
dismissive of Lazarus, treating him like a slave… a water boy or messenger. The rich man built and fixed the chasm.
Don’t build
chasms, Jesus says.
This parable is
mostly about money, about a chasm defined by what today we would probably call income
disparity, or economic injustice.
As Abraham says, on Jesus’ behalf, Moses and prophets are pretty clear
in their teaching about economic injustice.
The Law of Moses
as it is written in the book of Leviticus says: share the harvest with the poor and the transient.
The Law of Moses
as it is written Deuteronomy says:
Open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and poor in the land.
Or listen to the
Prophets. Isaiah says: “Share your bread with the hungry,
bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked cover him… “
As we consider
the meaning of this parable for us in our lives today we might interpret it even
more broadly. Every time we fail
to see someone else as fully a child of God… we build a chasm between ourselves
and them. Whenever we are
indifferent, or overlook, someone else, or treat them (even passively) as
somehow less… we build a
chasm. Whatever the reason…
race, age, intellectual ability, economic status. Whenever we fail to see or fail to
treat someone else as being fully a child of God, we build a chasm.
No chasms, Jesus
says. No chasms, in this life or
the next. No chasms between the
children of God.
