In this parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus again turns the culturally accepted on its head. Unlike in our society, people would have assumed that the Rich Man was blessed by God and living right, also, Lazarus must have done something wrong to be living in such destitution and misery. But what happens? The unexpected. Lazarus goes to Abraham’s bosom and the Rich Man to Hades. Again Jesus is pointing out that external factors do not necessarily measure the heart. Another point in this parable is that once you’re dead, it’s too late to get right. Jesus warns us to not wait but to make things right while we still can and not assume that we will have time later to figure it out. Do it now, because you won’t have a later. Lastly, we see foreshadowing of things to come. Jesus is on His way to suffer the cross, die and rise again. In this parable though, even if someone rises from the dead, they still won’t believe the warnings to get right now. The same would sadly be true for many with Jesus.
One more thing must be said with regard to this parable. We must be very careful what we say about Heaven and Hell with regard to this story here. This isn’t the point of the story and we shouldn’t assume that Jesus is giving us facts about what Heaven and Hell look like. He could have been simply using some common notions that the culture of the day used to make His point. Jesus made his point and made it perfectly, but that doesn’t mean that He was teaching us about heaven and hell. One thing we know for sure, Jesus doesn’t get lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment