It’s interesting because last week we were in the first part of this chapter 16 of Luke, and we had a parable that seemed difficult to understand – if you remember, it was the story of the “dishonest manager”. Today, we continue in this chapter 16, the second half of the chapter, and Jesus remains on the topic of our use of money but this time it looks like we have a parable that is much more obvious. It’s the story of two men, one very rich, one very poor. The rich man spends his life living indulgently while ignoring the poor man begging at his gate. After they die though, the rich man ends up in a place of torment while the poor man is comforted. Actually, when we look at the details, it looks like a complete reversal of situations takes place, which fits very well with the rest of Jesus’s teaching, Jesus who used to say that, and we find that several times in Luke’s Gospel: “The first will be last, and the last will be first”.
So let’s have a closer look at this parable:
Jesus tells us that during his life on earth, the rich man was feasting everyday (which probably means that he also had a lot of friends) and he wore the finest clothes: Purple was the most expensive fabric at the time, and fine linen came close. To give you an idea, priests would wear them only once a year in the Temple, when it was that man’s daily attire. In the meantime, the poor man, Lazarus, was starving, wishing he could reach the scraps under the rich man’s table. One detail lost for us in translation is that Lazarus was”tossed” at the gate of the man, which probably means that he was crippled and could hardly move. That’s maybe the reason why he was also covered in sores, and the text does not mention he had any clothe at all. At any rate, we understand that while the rich man looked magnificent, Lazarus looked disgusting: He was ignored by all and only dogs would approach him.
After the two men die though, Jesus say that the rich man is buried – it could be another sign of his wealth, burial were expensive at the time as it can still be in ours, I learned this week that the burial of Queen Elizabeth has been estimated to 10 millions dollars. As for Lazarus, he was probably (again) “tossed”, this time into a pauper’s grave. Yet Jesus tells us that Lazarus was “carried away by the angels” and a complete reversal of situation takes place. Our text reads that Lazarus was taken “to be with Abraham” which is again a translation that leaves something out. The word is actually that Lazarus was taken into “Abraham’s bosom“, which means that he was reclining close to Abraham, feasting at the eternal banquet, at the place of honor. In the meantime, in the same way that Lazarus used to sit at the gate, the rich man ended up on the other side of a chasm where nobody could reach him, and he endured many torments. The story mentions that he was dying of thirst and he beg for one single drop of water, which reminds us that Lazarus wished he would receive a few crumbs during his lifetime, what was left for the dogs.
And so at this point, the story seems very straightforward, doesn‘t it? This story is actually based on a folktale that was going around in antiquity, and although it’s dreadful, it’s also kind of an enjoyable story, I am sure the crowds loved it, with the poor rewarded in the end and the bad guy punished: “No mercy for those who had no mercy!”. A good story yes. And yet, when I think about it I wonder: What does it have to say to us, spiritually? The story is so “black and white” with the very poor on one side, and the very rich on the other, how can we relate to them as “average people”, living a “normal life”, poor compared to some, rich compared to many, and yet struggling with monthly bills and mortgage? And it’s not just a problem for us, it was probably also a problem for Jesus’s audience. Yes, there were poor people listening to Jesus, but they weren’t all miserable, most had jobs and houses and families even if they lived a very simple life. And the religious leaders to which the parable seems to be addressed would never have identified with the rich man. They had some wealth but far from feasting every day, they would fast sometimes several times a week. As we have said, the priests would wear fine linens but only to serve in the Temple, and all of them would give alms to the poor as a religious duty. Everybody listening to Jesus would have been on Lazarus’ side, probably not able to identify with him, but probably even more unable to identify with the rich man. So I wonder: What is Jesus’ point, why does he make such a gross exaggeration and what could we learn from it?
Well, I was there in my reflections this week when I received a letter I almost ignored, “trash mail” as we call it, from one of those charities, the kind we receive everyday. I was actually on my way to the dumpster when I started reading it. It was a letter from an organization informing me on a the severe global human rights crisis. And it went on mentioning a certain political prisoner and this is what I read:
“For years, Constantino was held in a tiny cell; his only human contact was with his torturers. He said: ‘I did not experience a human face or see a green leaf, and my only companion was cockroaches and mice. The only daylight that entered my cell was through a small opening at the top of one wall. For eight months I had my hands and feet tied.‘”
I was quite shaken reading this, because having been just reading this Gospel and thinking about it, it sounded so much like Lazarus. Alone and ignored by all, unable to move, with pest for only company. And that man probably was held a little far from home, but he was also at my gate, by the mailbox, asking for help. I was quite shaken, because this letter, it was like a reality check. Like Jesus was saying: This is true, believe it, I am not exaggerating. And this is what I understood. This maybe not our daily, average reality but this is the reality of the world we live in, the reality God contemplates everyday from his Heavenly throne. To use the example I had before my eyes this week, we live in a world where we hold millions of dollars worth of royal funerals while others are left to die alone surrounded by pest. That’s the great chasm of our society. And so maybe this is where we are as average people: We may be not on either side of the chasm, but we are in the middle of it, and we have to pick the direction we want to be headed, being fascinated by wealth or helping the poor.
And this reminded me about the end of Jesus’s story, because the parable wouldn’t be complete without the last verses, which are probably the ones Jesus added to the original folktale, when the rich man starts to wonder what his brothers will do, and Abraham replies that they have the Scriptures and they should know what to do. The brothers, that’s the people Jesus was talking to, crowds, disciples, pharisees and those who want to follow him today: we are the brothers and sisters of the rich man yet if we open the Bible, we will realize that there are about 3000 verses about helping the poor. For me, I realized that I don’t feast everyday, but I could choose to be on the side of people like Constantino, just by sending the amount of money I normally spend on a single day to feed my family (pet included). Jesus does not tell to each one of us what to do, we certainly cannot fix the whole world and feel responsible for everything bad that’s going on in this world, but sometimes something (or rather someone) shows up at our door and we cannot just ignore them, those Jesus calls “our neighbors”, those we cannot ignore. It does not fix the whole world to open our eyes and act upon what we see, but maybe it can help save ourselves from drowning into indifference like the rich man did. This may be his worst sin after all. It was not so much that he was rich, but by his overindulgence and selfishness, he lost his humanity, his ability for compassion, his willingness to help out. Even in Hades he still does not get it, he doe s not apologize and acts like Lazarus is his personal servant. How can there be salvation when there is no repentance, when one does not want to change?
But it’s still time for us, and there is hope, even if there is so little we seem to be able to do. As I went on with my reading, this is what Constantino said: “On Christmas Eve, the door to my cell opened and the guard tossed in a crumpled piece of paper. I moved as best I could to pick it up. It said simply ‘Constantino, do not be discouraged; we know you are alive‘ It was signed “Monica” (…) Those words saved my life and my sanity. Eight months later, I was set free“. It does not seem like a lot, but maybe having someone say by word and action: “Do not be discouraged, I know that you are alive“, that was all Lazarus needed.