The Supper and Sharing

Series on Luke

IV The Imperatives of the Kingdom

B Instruction in Rejection18 Scripture and Warning

Text: 16:19-31

Introduction

This entire chapter has been about money. It is either a source of blessing or a source of greed and selfishness. The religious leaders of Israel thought Jesus was crazy for suggesting that they give their money away. In fact they thought their money was a gauge of how much God had blessed them. After all, charity begins at home they would have said. And if we give away our money we’ll be no better than the poor miserable beggar. They had the wrong measuring stick for life. They thought the beggar wasn’t blessed. This story says they were wrong, so let’s look at it.

I The Problem

First we see the problem which was an almost unbelievable insensitivity to the suffering around them. A complete lack of concern for the needy. we have here in verses 19-21 a contrast of the greatest extremes, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The rich man lives sumptuously every single day. The poor beggar Lazarus has to be laid at the rich man’s gate in the vain hope that the man might have mercy and the dogs have more pity than the stingy, tightfisted, money-grubber, and this continues to the very end of their lives. The rich man is buried with a big expensive funeral. Lazarus is probably discarded on the city crematorium, a burning dump outside the city called Gehenna or Tophet. A millisecond later their positions were reversed. But i want you to think about how many times the rich man passed this beggar. The man was at his front door. How many times had his need been ignored? We live in a time when mercy is in short supply. Entitlements are the language of our day. The poor are entitled to handouts. The rich are entitled to tax breaks. Chrysler is entitled to a bail-out and special interests are entitled to a hearing. All the attention is focused on ourselves and what we want and not on the needs of others. This was the problem. The Pharisees thought they were entitled.

II The Penalty

The penalty for this kind of selfishness was permanent and pervasive as the parable points out in verses 22-26, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ There are no pockets in a shroud. There is a total reversal of roles and it is an unbridgeable gulf a separation eternally fixed, but you have got to wonder if the rich man has got the point yet. We need to take the use of our money seriously. Mercy is not an option. This rich man cries out of the arid torment of hell for a drink of water and guess who he designates as the messenger, the very same person whom he passed by so many times at his gate and ignored. And his failure to understand is further glimpsed in the way he expresses concern for his family. He makes a proposal.

III The Proposal

The proposal is in verses 27-31, “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” He wishes to have a messenger sent to his five brothers to warn them. The answer is they are already warned. They have Moses and the prophets. God has already told them. How many people ignore the plain teaching of the Bible regarding stewardship and mercy? Essentially he is saying if only God had told him. but God had told him and he ignored it. He is feeling sorry for himself and his family. Francis of Assisi left millions to become a wandering monk for Jesus. Does anyone feel sorry for Saint Francis? Mother Theresa could be drinking tea and playing checkers in a nice apartment in Yugoslavia. Does anyone feel sorry that she’s stuck in Calcutta? David Livingstone trekked through a thousand villages on the continent of Africa and when a missionary came to one of those places years later and started to tell the people about Jesus, an old woman interrupted him and said wait a minute, that man was here, he visited our village many years ago. Does anyone feel sorry for David Livingstone? If we’re sorry for ourselves now we will be sorry for ourselves in eternity. But if we care for others now and give and share then we will be happy in heaven forever. And so, what is the purpose of this story?

IV The Purpose

The purpose is to make us realize that the grace of God and selfishness cannot co-exist. To love God is to love those who are needy around us. That is why we traditionally take a Deacon’s offering at the time of communion. In the Old Testament God said to Israel that their sacrifices were an abomination in His sight. He literally hated their offerings. In Isaiah 58 God declares, Is not this the fast i have chosen,to loose the bonds of wickedness,to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free? is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? In other words the sacrifice of the atonement cannot be accepted by God in our behalf unless our attitude is one of sacrifice to others. So the New Testament says in Hebrews 13, Do not forget to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. We have no altar of sacrifice except the cross of Christ. In order to truly appreciate His sacrifice which we commemorate in every communion and in order to truly benefit from His grace we must preside over the daily sacrifice of our own selfishness and give the fruits of such self-sacrifice to God. We must be merciful as He is merciful. We must give as He has given. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. It is not that God withholds His grace and forgiveness even from stingy sinners, but we cannot appreciate that mercy unless we understand that to receive it means to show it.