The Rich man and the poor Lazarus
A certain man now was
rich and he used clothing himself in purple and fine linen, from day to day
enjoying a wonderful life. A certain poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with
sores, was usually laid down at his gate, and desired to be satisfied with the
things that fell from the rich man's table; but also the dogs came and licked
his ulcers regularly ( Luke 16:19-21).
In these terms the parable starts to be known as the Rich man and the
poor Lazarus. The immediate cause for Mashiach Yeshua to pronounce that parable
was the haughty attitude of the majority of the Pharisees. Directly before
Yeshua had let them know that they could not serve YHWH Elohim and at the same
time the Mammon. To those Pharisees that was a ridiculous idea. Rather, they
saw wealth as a blessing from heaven, a reward for a virtuous life. Could it
not be read in the Torah that YHWH Elohim favours people like them, especially
in the portion Dt 28:1-12?
And did not people just
look at them with respect, because they excelled in the strict observance of
the Law?
But Yeshua knew better;
they might then declare themselves righteous, God knew their innermost; their
religious pride and hypocrisy was an abomination to him. However, Yeshua, all
the things that were just previously discussed by him, he now illustrates in
the parable and therefore not too difficult to interpret: The Rich
man clearly represents the religious Jewish upper class. Lazarus, that poor wretch, the common
people.
In their (supposed)
privileged position with God, the Rich man did not at all hesitate to go richly
dressed, in royal style [purple], convinced of their own justice
[fine linen], living in abundance, yes, for themselves and their friends even
wasteful.
Everything that the Rich
possesses, he uses for selfish and present pleasure, a
hedonist therefore in heart and soul. The essence of God's
kingdom - in which he naturally assigns himself a place - in reality, means
nothing to him.
The Lazarus'
people, on the other hand, are dying of hunger - literally, but above all,
spiritually. They think that their spiritual need can only be satisfied in
the presence of their priests, Levites and lawyers. But
nothing is less true. As the am ha-arets, the common
people - literally the people of the land - they are
treated with contempt by those religious leaders ( Lev 20: 2 ; Jn 7:49 ).
They see them as
God-tormented, spiritually beaten people [covered with
sores]. Compare Dt 28 : 35 .
The dogs [Gentiles], who, while competing with Lazarus in getting hold of some leftover food, are still favorable to them. They at least still lick their ulcers.
It is striking that only
the poor is mentioned by his name: Lazarus,
the Greek form of the Hebrew Eleazar. The
first Eleazar mentioned in the Bible [God
helps] was one of the four sons of Aaron. He and his brothers
were installed in the priesthood shortly after the establishment
of the Tabernacle. He and Ithamar continued
to exercise that office even after YHWH Elohim killed their brothers Nadab and Abihu. When Aaron died by the end of the Exodus, Eleazar succeeded him as High Priest. He
was therefore the first on duty High Priest in the Promised Land.
The numerical value of Eleazar is
308. The same value also has the Hebrew verb to repent or repent ( שוב ). In the parable, therefore, Lazarus can very well represent that part of
The fact that the name
of the Rich is not mentioned at all clearly indicates that he is not worthy to
be kept in God's memory and must therefore be given up to
oblivion. Compare Ex 32 : 33 .
It happened now that
the Beggar died and that he was carried away by the angels to the bosom of
Abraham. De Rich man died as
well and he was buried (verse 22).
Jesus continues the
parable now entirely in accordance with the way the Pharisees thought about death
at that time. Thus they held the view that the spirit of a righteous one
was transferred to heaven by angels at his death. Here Jesus says that
Lazarus was carried away to the bosom of Abraham .This is reminiscent of the
practice of sitting at meals, where a person's head, when he leaned backwards,
came to rest almost on the bosom of the person next to him, something that
indicated an intimate bond of friendship. Compare Jn 13: 23-25.
Also of the Logos is
said to be in the bosom of the Father ( Jn 1:18 ).
The
Jews did not doubt that Abraham was in paradise. To
say that Lazarus was transferred to Abraham's bosom, therefore, for Jewish
listeners meant that he had been led into heaven by the angels.
But that's how it goes
in the parable. In such narrations, the facts are sometimes presented in a
completely fictitious way. Reality is obviously completely different, as
Solomon expressed in Pr 9: 5, 10:
Those who are still
alive, at least know that they must die, but the dead know nothing ... Do what your hand
finds to do. Do it with full dedication, for there are no actions
and thoughts, no knowledge and no wisdom in the realm of the dead [Sheol (Heb); Hades (Gr)].
Of
course, Yeshua himself knew with certainty that this is the exact
situation in which every person ends up at his death. Abraham, too, was
still dead at the time he spoke this parable, waiting for the resurrection:
But that the dead are
raised up, Moses also disclosed at the thornbush
when he called [the] Lord the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and
God of Jacob. He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for they are all living
to him (Lk 20:37-38)
While those patriarchs
are still dead in their grave [Sheol / Hades],
God sees them, looking to the future, already as living. See
also the commentary at Lk 13:28-30.
And having lifted up
his eyes in the Hades, while being in torments, he saw Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom (verse 23).
Here too Jesus speaks
entirely according to the Pharisees' thinking. From the commentary on the
previous verse it may be clear to everyone that Hades, the Greek equivalent for
the Hebrew Sheol, is a place of death: The grave,
where the deceased - whom God keeps in
his memory - are waiting for a resurrection; the place
where Job wanted to be kept hidden until that time ( Job 14:13 ).
Compare Ps 16:10
with Hn 2 : 27, and
see Nm 16:33; Ps 6: 6 ; Is 38:18 .
Especially Psalm 6: 6 is
revealing: For in
death there is no remembrance of you; who would praise you in the realm of the dead [sjeool]?
Hezekiah is also
clear (in Isa 38:18) about the condition of the
dead. In Sheol (Hades) the deceased is in an
absolutely dead situation. He does not lead a conscious existence
somewhere else:
Because the realm of the
dead [Sheol] will not praise you, death does not praise you; those who descend in the pit will not hope for your
truth.
But the Jewish,
religious elite who had been able to know these truths very well, held a
different, non-Scriptural view.
Josephus wrote in
his Jewish Antiquities, Book XVIII , chapter 1, §3, the
following:
Now, as far as the Pharisees are concerned ... They also believe that
souls have an immortal power in them and that there will be punishments or
rewards under the earth, according to whether they have lived virtuously or
maliciously in this life; and
the latter are locked up in prison forever, but that the former will
have the power to revive and live again.
Another absurdity: When
the Rich man in the grave, under the ground, lifts up his eyes, he can see -
albeit from afar - Abraham, who is in heaven, and Lazarus in close relationship
with him, as it were resting on his bosom [or: breasts, because κολπος is in the plural].
However, also that image
Yeshua borrowed from the views of his contemporaries, infected as they were by
Babylonian ideas: Those who were in paradise could see those who stayed in the Gehenna.
The question remains,
therefore, which truths Jesus really wanted to convey to his audience with
these images. Well, when someone dies, that represents the greatest
possible change in his life. So when both Lazarus and the Rich
man died, a completely new situation started for both, especially in a
religious sense.
Those of the common
people who acknowledged Yeshua in faith as their Messiah, responding to his
call to repentance, therefore showed that they had the same faith as that of
Abraham. Consequently, they were henceforth considered by God to be
Abraham's true children, his seed, and therefore heirs of the promise contained
in God's covenant with that patriarch: In your seed all Gentiles will be
blessed.
The fact that they are
transferred to Abraham's bosom by the angels, apparently symbolically indicates
that the angels also play an important role in drawing people
to Yeshua through the gospel proclamation.
Compare Jh 6: 44-45, 65; Hb 1:14; Rev
14:6-7.
The situation of the
Rich man is also becoming radically different. The Pharisees who always
took it for granted that they, the hasidim [pious],
were Abraham's real children, discover - at the latest in the 70th Year Week for
Israel - that they are ultimately excluded from that privilege. And
that is obviously a very painful experience for them. In the period that
started with the outpouring of the holy spirit on the Lazarus' people, they
experienced that exclusion with gnashing teeth ( Lk 13: 25-28 ; Acts 4: 1-2; 7: 51-54 ).
Thus,
while the "Lazarus" members of the Israel of God are
"dying" with regard to their previously mentally inferior condition
and being transferred into a situation of extraordinary favour - where they are
openly recognized by God as the true relatives of Abraham with all the promises
associated with them - the Rich man class, on the other hand, ‘dies’ precisely
with regard to his former privileged position when attributing primarily that divine
favour to himself ( Mt 3: 7-10 ; Jh 8: 33-40 ).
Instead, he finds
himself in a situation of divine rejection. Because of their stubborn disbelief
and enmity towards the Messiah, those prominent religious leaders
deny that they are Abraham's true children. Not Abraham is their father
but the Devil ( Jn 8: 40-44, Mt 23: 29-33 ).
And he, raising up the
voice, said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he might
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I suffer pain in
this flame (verse
24).
It is striking that YHWH
Elohim, Israel's Holy One, remains in the background in the scene of the
parable. It turns out in particular that the person of 'Abraham'
highlights the issues related to the ‘case’ of the true
However, in the
conversation that now arises between the Rich man and 'Abraham', we hear YHWH
speaking, of course through the latter. And 'Abraham' judges severely
about the Rich man. Why?
In the introduction to
this parable, Yeshua told the Pharisees that it is not possible to serve two
Lords at the same time: God and the Mammon. And also
that only fornication is a valid reason to dissolve a marriage and remarry (Lk 16:13, 18).
Having made the Mammon
their god, they commit spiritual adultery to their God YHWH, with whom Israel
entered into a marriage covenant at Sinai( Eze 16: 8-14; Hs 1: 2).
On the basis of
spiritual fornication he is therefore entitled to divorce her and to break his
covenant with his wife's nation. After all, She was the first to violate
the marriage covenant (Jr 31: 31-32, Ez 16:59).
Not just because YHWH
sees something unpalatable with them [Dt 24: 1], but on the basis of
committed sexual fornication.
Unfairly, then, the Rich
man addresses Abraham confidently as Father, as if the relationship
is still good and rights can be derived from it; as if he still represents
the true Israel. He asks for compassion for his painful situation: If
'Lazarus' could be sent with a drop of water on the tip of his finger to cool
his tongue.
Incidentally, the Rich man still sees Lazarus as a subordinate, a
servant who must help him; not as an equal. And further: whether a drop of water on his fingertip can also
offer some relief for the pains of the Rich man! But this is also parable language.
Without imagery: The
Pharisees wish that they themselves be spared! They like to see the divine
message - in which they are denounced - is being watered
down. How does 'Abraham' think about that issue?
But Abraham said,
Child, remember that you have received in full your good things in your
lifetime, and Lazarus likewise the bad ones. Now, however, he is being
comforted here, but you are being pained. And besides all these things,
there is a great chasm between us and you people, so that those who want to
move from here to you cannot. Neither can they cross over from there to us (vv 25-26).
It is clear that
'Abraham' does not want to respond to the pleading of the Rich man, since
a. It is not
spiritually safe for 'Lazarus' outside of Abraham's bosom.
b. The decision that God
has taken with regard to both is entirely justified.
c. The gap between
the two is unbridgeable.
By addressing him
with child, "Abraham" recognizes that the Rich
man is a natural descendant of him. From that point of view
he would naturally be willing to offer help, but he can not change God's
righteous counsel, namely that not all who belong to
Nor are they
automatically Abraham's true children, merely because they are
his natural seed, offspring according to the flesh. Not the children
according to the flesh are counted as God's children, but those who are counted
as belonging to the promise; those who, on the basis of
his merciful election, are counted as Abraham's seed (Rom 9:6-12).
The Rich man has been given sufficient opportunity by God to lead his own
'happy' life. He can only blame himself that his interest only went to the
pleasures the Mammon offered him. Thus he made himself unfit for the
exercise of any divine task during the Messianic age. His management of
the unjust Mammon was exclusively hedonistic; for the poor spiritual situation
of 'Lazarus' he had no eye at all. Consequently,
he also did not make friends in the heavenly spheres.
When the spirit was poured out on the humble Lazarus class at Pentecost, he,
the Rich man, stood gnashing at the sidelines. The spiritual gap between
the two is immense. Fundamentalism, legalism, sectarianism on the one hand
and the Israel of God on the other hand are irreconcilably far apart.
But he said: In that
event I ask you, Father, that you send him to my father's house, for I have
five brothers, in order that he may give them a thorough testimony, that they
too may not come into this place of torment (v. 27-28).
The Rich man makes another attempt to remove 'Lazarus' from
Abraham’s bossom. He has so-called compassion
for his fellow believers, his five brothers in his father's sectarian house.
The number five here
refers to a part of
See: 2Kn 7:13; Mt 25: 1-3, 10-12.
Incidentally, from the
book of Acts we learn that, from Pentecost, the thoroughly given testimony by Yeshua's disciples did not change the mood of the religious
elite. On the contrary, they kept showing themselves as opponents of the
Messiah and as the most hostile persecutors of his disciples (Acts 5:17-33, 1Thess 2:14-16).
However, Abraham said:
They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. But he said: No, father
Abraham, but if someone from the dead would go to them, they will come to
repentance. However, he said to him: If they do not listen to Moses and
the Prophets, neither they will let themselves be
persuaded if someone rises from the dead (vv 29-31).
After
his resurrection, Yeshua would declare to the two disciples at Emmaus that in
the Scriptures of Moses and all the Prophets so many things had
been written down beforehand about him, the Messiah, that there were plenty of
reasons for the Jewish readers to believe in him if they were only willing to
open their hearts to it (Lk 24:25-26). And that is also exactly what
the Rich man gets to hear from 'Abraham'.
This means that the
stubborn disbelief of the Jews over the centuries in relation to
Because of their
hardening, YHWH Elohim has rightly locked them
up in disobedience. As is the case with the older son in the
parable of The
Prodigal Son, the Rich man with his
five brothers stands outside the door of the fatherly house.
Compare Luke
15:28-32 and Rom
11:31-32.
No, Father Abraham ...
In his excluded
situation, the Rich man even dares to contradict! Incredible
Jewish hubris at the top!
He realizes then too
well that his five brothers are of the same kind as he is, not willing to see
Yeshua in the light of their holy
Scriptures. Moreover, they have increasingly taken away the divine power
from those inspired writings. Not only by adding their own fantastic
inventions, but also by showing more trust in their own human traditions than
in the inspired Word of God.
In the
rabbinic schools, the Yeshivas, the study of Scripture has more or
less been replaced by Talmud study.
According to the Rich man,
something big is needed, a miracle; someone who has risen from the dead
must go to them.
However, with his
foresight, 'Abraham' knows that that will not work either. And history has put him in the right: When Yeshua rose from the
dead on the third day, that great event did not change their unbelief. In
their deep hatred they even made attempts to erase the
evidence of his resurrection (Mt 28:11-15).
Something similar
happened before when a man with the same name, Lazarus, the brother
of Martha and Mary, was raised. Some Jews who witnessed that
scene then went to the Pharisees to inform them of the miracle. Their
reaction? The chief priests and Pharisees were deliberating not only to
kill Yeshua, but also Lazarus, because many Jews believed in Yeshua because of
him (John
11:45-53, 12:9-11).
And
also
at the beginning of Yeshua's presence, when his own
congregation, his Congregational Body, is raptured from the earthly stage,
largely by resurrection, but partly also by the change of the remaining members
to the spiritual nature, this will not affect the majority of the
Jews. They will identify themselves with the false Messiah, the
Antichrist, and hail him as their long-expected 'Messiah'.
Only a Remnant will
"return” (Isaiah
10:20-22).
These verses also draw
our attention to the fact that it is unrealistic to think that signs and
wonders will in themselves incite people to believe in the Messiah. The
Scriptures themselves indicate that hardened hearts will not respond to
him. In that sense, the Word of God as witness has much more persuasion
than any wondrous incident. That is why Scripture has been the main
instrument of the spirit throughout the entire Age of the Church to bring
people to repentance. Compare John 16:7-15.
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