Reflections on Luke 16:19–31

With no transition statement, Luke introduced the parable of the poor man Lazarus. William Barclay asserted that this is a parable constructed with such masterly skill that not one phrase is wasted, therefore, as faithful followers of Jesus, it is vital to take note of what the parable says.

The parable highlights the contrast between the short-sightedness of a wealthy man living in luxury, and the pure vision of a beggar living with ulcerated sores and having to satisfy his hunger from the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.

First, there is the rich man, who is usually called Dives, which is Latin for rich. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. That is the description of the robes of the high priests and such robes are costly.

He feasted in luxury every day, in a country where common people were fortunate if they ate meat once a week and where they toiled for six days of the week. Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence, while Lazarus was waiting for the crumbs from his table.

Second, there is Lazarus. According to Barclay, the name is the Latinized form or Eleazar, and means ‘God is my help.’ As a beggar covered with ulcerated sores - so helpless, that he could not even ward off the street dogs, unclean animals, who pestered him - Lazarus is the picture of abject poverty.

Such is the scene in this world, and then abruptly it changes to the next, and there Lazarus is in glory and Dives is in torment. What was the sin of Dives?

He has not ordered Lazarus to be removed from his gate, nor had any objections to Lazarus receiving the bread that was flung away from his table. He was not deliberately cruel to him.

The sin of Dives was that he never noticed Lazarus. He accepted Lazarus as part of the landscape, and he thought it perfectly natural and inevitable that Lazarus should lie in pain and hunger while he wallowed in luxury.

As someone said, “It was not what Dives did that got him into gaol; it was what he did not do that got him into hell.” The sin of Dives was that he could look on the world’s suffering and need and feel no grief or pity in his heart. He looked at the fellow man, hungry and in pain, and did nothing about it.

Dives’ request seems hard that his brothers should be warned. He thought they would surely believe if a messenger who had been raised from the dead was sent to them.

Notice the irony here: Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die, and he was fully aware that even when he had risen from the dead, most of the religious leaders would not accept him.

Therefore, it is the plain fact that if people possess the truth of God’s word which is Jesus the word made flesh, and if wherever they look, there is sorrow to be comforted, need to be supplied, pain to be relieved, and if it moves them to no feeling and to no action, nothing will change them.