You’re the Rich Man
St. Luke 16:19-31
June 23, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
You are the rich man. How do I know? Because the poorest person in the United States is richer than 80% of the world’s population. The Founders of the United States established a government that supported capitalism for one reason – they knew the nature of man, that he was self-serving. That doesn’t make capitalism sinful. It makes it a practical way to encourage sinners to work. How do I know you are the rich man? Because I am the rich man.
There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. The rich man couldn’t have had it any better, except he wore purple and even back then the Vikings weren’t winning. Every night the rich man slept on Egyptian cotton sheets. Every day he feasted on fine foods and drank the best wines. He could have had his own show on the Food Network or Home and Garden TV. He paraded his wealth for everyone to see. His last name could have been Kardashian or Onasis or Rockefeller, but Jesus doesn’t tell us His name, perhaps because his name could be your name or mine.
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. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. Lazarus was not rich and he was not greedy either. He didn’t ask to sit at the rich man’s table for Sunday brunch. He would have been happy with scraps, with dog food, the bones and the gristle left over from the prime rib au jus.
The problem with the rich man was not riches. Riches are good. Riches are a gift from God. There is nothing evil about being wealthy. If there was you and I would be in the top 20% of the most evil people in the world. The rich man had no heart, no eyes, or hands for his neighbor and he had no excuse. He had much. Lazarus had nothing. Unless his Cadillac had tinted windows he had to see Lazarus every time he drove in the driveway. Even the dogs, simple creatures with no conscience, treated Lazarus better than the rich man. They at least tried to relieve his suffering by licking his wounds and being his company.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”
The rich man who could drink a different craft beer at every meal now finds himself so thirsty that he’d be happy with a Miller Lite, a drop of water. He who had every comfort is now in torment. And it gets worse. He looks up and sees Lazarus in peace, in comfort, served by the angels, and held by father Abraham.
Is that what hell will be like? You will look in envy on those Christians whom you neglected, despised, or hurt. Whatever your sin of choice is in this life, feasting and drinking, will be your torment in hell – starving while watching the feast of heaven, thirsting while the river of life flows through the middle of heaven. Jesus didn’t tell this story for us to speculate how bad hell will be. He told it to shock us into repentance.
He wants you to be Lazarus and not the rich man. That doesn’t mean Jesus wants you to be poor physically. He doesn’t care if you’re the richest man in Stearns County or the poorest person in Popple Creek. What Jesus wants is your heart by faith. He doesn’t want you to suffer eternally because your heart is not set where true joys are to be found.
We’re all born like that rich man. We are born full of ourselves. We want the spotlight on us. Listen to a toddler’s words. That’s mine. I want. Give it to me. It doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, rich or poor, your sinfulness leaves you naturally inclined to your own well-being. Do you rejoice when your neighbor gets a new car? Or does a $15,000 remodel of their house? When your heart is cluttered with yourself and your stuff and your pursuit of money, there is no room for Jesus or your neighbor. You might be rich with love for yourself, but that is poverty toward God.
The real shocker is not that the rich man ends up in Hades or the poor man is wrapped in the arms of Father Abraham. The shocker is that the One who told this story, Jesus of Nazareth, came to save both of these poor, miserable sinners. Jesus once commented that it is more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. A camel can’t go through the eye of a needle, which also means there is no possible way for a rich man to get into heaven on his own. We are the richest people in the world. We have more than most, but don’t trust any of it. Your children, the government, or your neighbor is going to get everything that is yours. And God couldn’t care less how much you made or lost, because it is all His anyways. Jesus concluded his words about camels, needles, rich men and heaven by saying, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
God bought what you cannot buy! Your forgiveness. Your life. Your salvation. Jesus, who was rich beyond measure (for all things are His), became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. He became poor, a poor baby born to poor Mary, a poor man who owned no house, a poor man who died naked, and so poor in death He was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb. His greatest poverty was that He became a poor sinner. He became you. He took on your sin, your debt, the prison house of death, hell, and eternal torment. At the cross, Jesus is the rich man in hell, in eternal torment, separated from his Father, thirsting for even a drop of water. All so you could be rich.
You are God’s riches. God heart isn’t set on jewels and power and prestige. God isn’t interested in the spotlight. His heart is set on you. He gives up all He has so He can have you and you can have everything that goes with being His child. Your sins are forgiven in Christ. With forgiveness comes freedom from your old greedy self. By the blood of the Lamb your name has been written into God’s will. Your heavenly inheritance is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Your earthly wealth or poverty is only for a moment. God’s riches in Christ are for an eternity. In Christ you’re the truly rich man you’re the rich Lazarus.
Sadly the story ends with the rich man begging for his brothers to be warned about hell. Lazarus needs to go back and tell them. But Jesus says, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” Someone did rise from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth rose. That historic truth is documented and proclaimed in one place. God’s Word. Since you are rich men and women, rich in Christ and rich in wealth you should care about your neighbors hearing God’s Word. That’s why almost 75 years ago Pastor Stein and some faithful members of Holy Cross put a church out here in the boonies of West Saint Cloud. Now we’re surrounded by neighbors and we’ve got plans not only to update this unique house of God, but also to reach out to our neighborhood. In the coming months you’re going to be asked to give more than you are giving now and to make a pledge above and beyond that to pay for our new mortgage. If each of us tithed our monthly income we’d pay off that mortgage in a couple years and we’d pay our second pastor better than you pay me – and you pay me well. That may sound like a shocking suggestion, but it shouldn’t be. You’re rich, and those riches (forgiveness, life, and salvation) have been given to you right here, at Redeemer, in the middle of the Seeberger – Roosevelt neighborhood. You’re rich and your neighbors are in need of the name of Jesus. Amen.