Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

We know the name of Lazarus, the nobody who sits at the rich man’s gate. But we are never told the name of the rich man himself. As the story unfolds, he becomes the nobody. He was probably not a bad man, but he was trapped in a bad system, which ensured that the rich related only to the rich, never to the poor.

So, Lazarus at the gate would’ve been invisible. The rich man may not have deliberately ignored him, or if he had seen him, he may not have thought of relating to him in any way. He may simply have looked the other way. He is not conscious of the fact that this is how he is setting himself up to be treated in the afterlife.

The story imagines the afterlife as an overturning of the world as we know it. In this world, the rich go from strength to strength and the poor are barely seen. That’s not the world as God wants it to be. To live in the world as God wants it to be we need to listen to the one who rises from the dead. In listening to him we finally understand Moses and the prophets; and we become, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green” (Jeremiah 17:8). We don’t have to ask Abraham for a drop of water to cool our tongue, because we have not forgotten the poor amongst us.