He knows Lazarus had the truth in life. He does not want his brothers to be punished like himself. The rich man knows his brothers will eventually die. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table.“The rich man asks that Lazarus be sent back from the dead to teach his five brothers. In the parable (Luke 16:1931), Jesus tells his audience his disciples and some Pharisees of the relationship, during life and after death, between an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus.Millions of people turn to Luke 16, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, to substantiate their belief that we have an immortal soul and that Lazarus is in.“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called the parable of Dives and Lazarus or Lazarus and Dives) is a parable of Jesus appearing in the Gospel of Luke.
Then why is he in hell? It is not because he is rich. The gap between the rich man and Lazarus, a gap of indifference and superiority, is one that the rich man cultivated before either of them died, and it persisted into life after death.This is a pathetic man, to be sure, but he is not an unbeliever. Both he and the rich man are not just single characters in this story, but are apt representatives of the “haves” and the “have nots.” Though Lazarus is laid at his gate, the rich man pays no attention to him until he himself is in torment and thinks that Lazarus may be of some use to him in relieving his pain and being a messenger to his brothers. He suffers from disease, disability, and hunger. Abraham’s chilling reply: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” Not even Jesus? It’s a serious question.Lazarus is in great need. He wants Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers so they might repent of their indifference.
Neither of these emotions meaningfully addresses this central Kingdom concern. We also can’t simply say that this is somebody else’s problem.Are you starting to feel like I’m on a rant here? I do not intend or want to be just a trigger for either shame or anger. A significant number of those encompassed by these statistics are already Christians, so we can’t plead that if they would just give their lives to Jesus things would be different. I also mentioned that the gap between the upper 20% and this lower 80% is growing.It is symptomatic of how deeply seated our indifference is that these facts startle most of us — as if a profoundly impoverished world isn’t obvious to anyone with eyes to see.
He graduated from the US Air Force Academy and served as a rescue helicopter pilot in the US, Vietnam, and Greenland. The story of Lazarus and the rich man isn’t about who’s going to heaven or hell it is about missing the point of “God so loved the world”—or not.Marty Martin is soon to retire as chief operating officer for Food for the Hungry (FH). We need to move past shame and past anger to a clear resolve to face such issues directly and biblically.What’s in the balance? Isaiah 58:10 puts it succinctly: “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” If we don’t, it won’t. Pastors can search the Scriptures, search their hearts, and prepare their congregations the way physicians are prepared for their vocations. Physicians spend years preparing to treat patients with messy and complicated diseases. The issues of world poverty are messy and complicated.
Marty joined FH’s staff in 2011 as chief operating officer and is based in FH’s Phoenix Global Service Center. He was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Colorado Christian University for his work in Congo. In late 2004, on loan from CCPC, Marty left on a two-year assignment as country director for FH in the Democratic Republic of Congo, returning to CCPC in 2007 and to serving as an FH board member in 2008. He joined the FH Board in 2003. He continued in this role until called as executive pastor at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church (CCPC) in Denver.
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