Text: Luke 16: 19-31
I keep reading it in magazines and papers. The question for people my age. Do you have enough for your retirement? Then the ominous warning. Will you run out of money? How far will it take you?
But you don’t have to be my age to wonder about that? If you’re about to go to college, if you’re just starting a new job, you need to think about it. How far will your savings or your salary take you? It only makes sense to think about that and make good plans.
But the problem comes when we count those things up and give them an inflated value. The problem comes when we give them a place in our hearts and lives far bigger than they’re worth.
Here Jesus tells us about a man who did just that. He thought he had it all. Then another man who seemed to have nothing. Jesus uses their example to get us to look at our own lives, to look in our own heart and ask:
How Far will Your Riches take you?
A very rich man who became a beggar.
A desperately poor man richer by far.
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. Meet these two men. The rich man seems to want for nothing. You had to be wealthy to dress in purple. Purple dye came from a very expensive process. And fine linen was only worn by the elite. So his lifestyle was anything but modest. He used his riches to indulge himself and not just on occasion, but every day.
But there’s more to be learned about this man. We learn it when a desperately poor man is placed at his gate. The word means to be thrown, not carefully situated. He’s there in plain sight of the rich man. Every time he comes or goes. Perhaps when the rich man would sit in his courtyard and enjoy a nice meal. There he would be in plain sight. A man desperately poor, his body covered with sores that any one of which would make us miserable. A man so desperately poor that he yearned just to have the scraps that would fall from the rich man’s table.
The Lord knows him as Lazarus. Just like he knows your name. But the rich man pays no attention. He ignores this man so weak that the mangy dogs come and lick his sores.
I want you to realize something about this very rich man. Jesus here makes no mention of his faith or his unbelief. He doesn’t have to. This man has no compassion. He only cares about himself. And that is telling. For love and compassion are the fruit of faith in our Lord. When it’s not there, something is very wrong. For God is love. And read the psalms. Read it again and again. Our God has a special regard for the poor and the broken. And so those that know him. Those that know his love in Christ, will care, will love, will do what they can to help those in need.
But not this very rich man. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to help Lazarus. But he didn’t have it in his heart. For his heart did not fear God or love him.
And here think of poor Lazarus. I pray that you never find yourself in such desperation. Yet there are no guarantees that very hard times don’t come to us. Some of us have known such times and some of us will. In fact, Jesus says to us, in this world you will have trouble.
Well the world looks at a Lazarus and can only see a desperately poor man or woman. And maybe that’s what we are tempted to see when we suffer. That’s why we need each other. That’s why we need our Lord’s Word and Sacrament. For Jesus shows us different.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side… The rich man had no doubt planned his funeral much like his life. He spared no expense on himself. Lot of mourners. A beautiful gravesite. An eloquent speaker to say nice things about him. All paid for in advance.
But that’s as far as his riches took him. They could not help him now. They could not save him from the wages of his sin. They could not keep him from the hell it deserves. And nothing can. Only the one who spoke these words. Only the one who would be crushed for our iniquities, whose wounds can heal our festering sores of guilt.
Lazarus had nothing in this world except this faith in his heart. A faith that God would send such a one just as he promised, the Messiah, the Christ, his Savior and ours. How far did Lazarus’ riches take him? Listen to these precious words. The beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.
How many times have I come to a room where a Christian has just closed his/her eyes in death? I look around and I see eyes full of tears. I see people hugging one another and holding one another’s hands. I see a body once so full of life but now strangely still and silent. But there’s something none of us saw. The angels. God’s angels who tenderly, lovingly took a blessed soul to heaven just like Lazarus.
But the rich man has become a beggar. He looks up from his misery to see Abraham, the father of his people and Lazarus in heaven. His life of luxury is no more. He’s in hell. He begs for the smallest relief. That Abraham send Lazarus to wet his finger and touch his tongue.
But here we learn something so tragically true. Once a person is in hell, nothing can change. Their time of grace is over and done. The invitation to believe has expired.
The rich man realizes that. But then another terrible thought comes to mind. What about my five brothers? They were following in his footsteps. Who do you know that is doing the same?
So the rich man again becomes a beggar. Send Lazarus back to warn my brothers so that they will not come to this place of torment. Now listen to what Abraham tells him. It’s important. They have Moses and the prophets. That’s what we call the Old Testament. They have Moses and the prophets. In other words, they have God’s Word. Let them listen to what God says.
But once more we see the rich man’s unbelief. No Abraham. In other words, that Bible stuff will not do. It didn’t do anything for me. What my brothers need is something that will really bring them around. A miracle, someone back from the dead.
Maybe there have been times when you have wished the same. If only God would give us something more. But what does Jesus teach us here? This is where his true riches are to be found. In his Word spoken and read. In his Word, connected to the water of our baptism. In his Word, connected to the bread and wine, where he comes to us with his true body and blood. This is where true riches are to be found. So Abraham said to rich man now a beggar, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
For these are the Scriptures that tell us of our Savior from sin and death. In hundreds of prophecies and promises of God that pointed a steady, sure finger to his coming. In Gospel and epistle, where we learn of our God’s amazing grace. How he sent us his one and only Son and did not spare him, but gave him up for us all. So that now we who once were beggars without hope and without God, we are rich. We are rich because God’s own Son became poor for us. He took our debt of guilt and sentence of death on himself. And now we are forgiven. Debt free. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ and a rich hope beyond all measure.
So how far will your riches take you? No matter what is in your 401k, no matter what success you have achieved in this life, not very far. In fact, if we let them, they will drag us down like a weight belt in the ocean.
Instead look at a desperately poor beggar, cast off and despised by the world, yet richer by far. Richer by far. Like you. Like you, who trust in Christ. Amen.