Sermon "A Legacy to Live By"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, September 27, 1998
A Legacy to Live By
In this parable we have the only occasion when our Lord drew aside the veil between this world and the next and allowed us to see what is beyond, and to see the intimate relationship between the here and the hereafter. You have heard of the epitaph that was written on one tombstone:
Remember, friend, as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, soon you shall be
Prepare for death, and follow me.
Some wag had added the words:
To follow you, I'm not content
Until I know which way you went!
This parable of our Lord, which follows the gospel reading last Sunday, grows out of the reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus' story of the dishonest steward which underscored the link between affluence and spirituality. He indicated that we can love God and use money, and warned of using God and loving money.
The only thing Jesus has to say about this rich man is that he was characterized by the externals of life. He lived a hollow life concerned only with the love of display and the desire for self-indulgence.
In direct contrast to this, the Lord portrays Lazarus. He is the only character in any of the parables who is given a name. The name is significant; it means, God is my helper. Surely this is deliberately intended by our Lord to suggest that Lazarus was a godly person. Even though poor and a beggar, God was his helper.
In those days they did not use knives or forks or napkins; they would eat with their hands, wiping them on crusts of bread which were thrown out afterward. This was what the poor man, Lazarus, was waiting for -- crusts of bread that had been thrown out after the feast. The only help that our Lord indicates came to this man was from the dogs who would lick his sores. That was the only physical comfort he had in the midst of his painful life.
The final scene of this story records the further conversation of Abraham and this former rich man. Here in Hades, this person feels something akin to love and concern for his brothers, possibly for the first time. Yet it only adds to his torment for he can do nothing about it.
I was struck by one sentence in a commentary on this parable. It said, "The torment of the dead is that they cannot warn the living, just as it is the torment of the mature that the erring young will not listen to them." If you have felt that torment then you know something of what the torment of the dead is -- a desire to warn but an inability to do so.
How accurately this parable portrays our human desire for the spectacular, the dramatic, the shocking to occur! We have all felt this way at times. We ask, "Why is it so hard to believe? Why doesn't God do more? Why doesn't he open the heavens and speak to us? Why doesn't he perform miracles again, as in the days of our Lord, or send an angel to speak to us?" Many feel that if they could only see a miracle, or be touched by an angel, then they would believe. But we need to ask ourselves: how many who saw the miracles in our Lord's day still believed in him at the end of his life? How many stayed with him who believed because of the miracles? We know there were very few. Only a handful of people stood around the cross. And what did men do when, shortly after this, another man named Lazarus was actually raised from the dead? Did they believe? According to the record, they simply took counsel together to put him to death again! Even when Jesus himself had resurrected.
The rich man's hell was because he refused to personally appropriate significance to the message of Moses and the prophets, not because of his wealth. His activities grew out of his refusal to pay attention to the larger issues of living. His self-centered, self-indulgent life is a reflection of that refusal which led to his hell.
Lazarus, on the other hand, is enjoying the smile of God because he embraced the voices of his tradition, made God the business manager of his life and trusted him. He is not experiencing heaven as compensation for what he went through on earth like some kind of workers compensation. He is there simply because he believed and allowed that faith drive his life.
The point of this story is that you and I are the five brothers that are left behind. What will be the legacy we live by and leave? You may be young, plowing your way through life with life all ahead of you, thinking, as these five brothers undoubtedly thought, "I'll take one world at a time and when the next life comes along I'll handle it then." But the point of this whole story is that then is determined by now. We are put here now to learn reality, to distinguish good and evil, and to appropriate God's method of deliverance an live by that legacy.
Jesus answered the question of life's pursuit from a lawyer of his day. The question: "... What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus responded, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" The young man answered, "`Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Jesus replied, "You have answered correctly, do this and you will live." (Luke 10:25-28) a legacy to live by. And just as Lazarus was named, "God is my helper." God is also your helper to live the legacy.
God invites but does not compel belief. (We did not choose the
circumstances of our birth but we choose how we respond to it.)
Everything necessary for connecting with God has already been
given. Moses the prophets and the one who was raised to new life
on Easter morning. But none of these can compel belief or
faithful living. It is still just as easy for us to shut our eyes
to the misery around us. We miss the point of the parable if we
simply sit and turn a blind eye to the needs of our neighbor. You
can be a part of God's solution!
