WEBVTT 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.519 A reading from the Gospel according to Luke. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:23.600 Chapter sixteen, beginning at verse 19. 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:31.199 There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:39.759 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. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.359 Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:48.079 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:59.200 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. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:12.400 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. 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:22.879 But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things. 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:39.519 But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish, and besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:52.560 And he said, Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:58.400 But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:04.719 And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:13.039 He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:15.680 The Gospel of the Lord. 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:23.439 Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:24.400 Amen. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:39.199 In today's gospel, Jesus tells us a parable about two men who lived basically in the same house, but in radically different ways. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:45.439 The one man, the rich man in the parable, lived in the master suite. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:56.879 He enjoyed banquets in the great banquet hall, while the other one, Lazarus, lived out on the front entryway, out on the doorstep. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.599 The rich man was the stylish one, dressed well. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:08.000 He's the one who had the best parties, the kinds that everyone wanted an invitation to. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:16.240 He surely had the most lavish of homes, and even his public reputation was surely solid. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:31.280 He probably maintained a foundation that would give to all the most popular causes so that everyone around town would say that man is the one stylish, rich, and thoughtful about the world. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:39.120 The other man, Lazarus, is the kind of person that society would call a deadbeat. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:48.240 A person who looks terrible, smells even worse, and is the kind of person who has nothing to contribute. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:58.719 And is the kind of person that someone would describe as a drain on our resources, someone who can only receive things. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:08.719 Now we're told that both of them lived different lives, but that, you know, in the end, death is the great equalizer, right? 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:16.240 And so it seems like from this reading initially that in the end they both meet their demise in death. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:28.639 But in the parable that Jesus tells, death is not so much kind of a universal end for everyone regardless of their situation, but a crossroads. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:40.399 A place where these two men and their paths intersected, and yet from this point on there is still more road ahead. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:47.759 It's clear from what Jesus says that these men continue to exist even on the other side of death. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:53.040 And from the other side of death, they go on radically different paths. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:05:02.000 The rich man goes on a path to torment, while the poor man, Lazarus, proceeds to paradise. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:23.439 And it's in this moment of the parable that we find this rich man who surely was accustomed to giving orders, using his resources, his power, and his authority to take something he wanted to have happen and to see it happen in reality. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:26.399 And he now wants to make another change. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:40.000 And so this one accustomed to making things happen, he gives a command to the person he sees on the other side of the great chasm between condemnation and salvation. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:57.839 You see, Jesus tells us that Lazarus was seen at the side of Abraham, and so the rich man says to Abraham, 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. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:12.160 And instead of the usual, yes, sir, right away, sir, whatever you want, sir, Lazarus hears, excuse me, the rich man hears a word that he is perhaps not accustomed to hearing. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:13.759 Basically, this. 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:14.639 No. 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:25.040 Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:31.360 Now, this is a terribly sobering moment in the parable. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:39.839 This is a moment when this man realizes just how little he has on the other side of death. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:57.759 And it's a sobering moment because it throws into sharp contrast for you and me just how badly we can sometimes judge our strength or our standing based on what our eyes can see about what we have achieved in this world. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:11.360 You surely can remember a time in your life where you felt an increasing sense of power as you saw perhaps your income or your assets increase at the same time. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:23.839 Perhaps you felt a sense of accomplishment and worth and purpose as you achieved success or the admiration of your colleagues. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:32.959 Maybe there was a time you just felt happy because you were finally able to get that car or something else you had set your mind to. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:45.360 Or perhaps there's a sense of security you have because when you drive home at night, you drive to a particular neighborhood or a particular place in a particular house. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:51.680 Maybe you can remember a time when you felt immortal because of your youth. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:08:04.399 Or perhaps in some other way, some good that God gave you, you took to be some form of ultimate power or security or standing. 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:12.959 And you can remember, perhaps even right now, you can look around in your life and see many good things that God has given you. 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:20.879 And that's what makes this particular moment in the parable some of the most terrifying words in Scripture. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:38.639 Because this rich man who had all these things, who was the kind of person that if someone on the outside looked at the situation, would say, This rich man is surely blessed by God, and the poor man is surely cursed by God, it's in this moment that he receives this terrifying answer. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:41.120 Basically, some version of this. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:43.840 What are you now complaining about? 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:49.200 You got all the things that you ever wanted to have. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.159 If it was on your wish list, you got it. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:56.000 If it was in your dreams and desires, it was yours. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.200 You had all your goods. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:15.279 But the problem here is that this man had turned his goods into his gods, and now he's finding out in a great moment of terror that his gods have let him down. 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:18.799 Now he's the one who's doing the begging. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:23.200 There's a lot of stunning irony and turnaround in this parable, and this is one of them. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:25.600 Now he is begging. 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:32.159 He says this send Lazarus to my five brothers. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:35.039 Warn them about this torment. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:46.399 Let them know, give them the perspective that I lacked, this perspective that I have only now that I am dead, and let them be saved. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:50.000 And again, another sobering answer from Abraham. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:56.000 He says, They have Moses and the prophets, the scriptures, let them hear them. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:11.360 And so the rich man presses, he says, Surely, no, Abraham, if they saw Lazarus raised from the dead, if they saw this, then of course they would surely set aside their goods and follow the true God instead, to which Abraham disagrees. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:20.720 If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:28.080 You see, death had unmasked the reality of this man's life. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:32.799 But this had happened at a moment when it was too late. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:41.200 It took death for him to finally see that the beggar at his door was the man who was, turns out, rich in God's grace. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:51.200 It took death for this man to realize that while that poor man was in rags, he was wearing all the robes of righteousness that God could give. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:11:04.879 And it took death for the rich man to see that the man who was hungry out on the doorstep was all the while living on every word that would come from the mouth of the Lord, feasting on that bread from heaven. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:25.279 And yet, of course, we know, and the terror of the parable is that it is now too late for him that this rich man who saw a beggar on his doorstep who had no friends but the dogs to lick his wounds, now realizes that all along he was the friend of God. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:33.120 You see, this is one of the key lessons that a parable like this can teach us. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:40.480 That you and I are fallen, the scriptures say, that we have inherited a sinful nature that corrupts our heart. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:52.320 In fact, you could kind of think of it this way: it's like our heart is installed backwards, to where everything that processes through it somehow gets turned around or flipped around and go comes out the wrong way. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:58.480 And because of this, then, we tend to trust our eyes more than anything else. 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:03.919 And when we trust our eyes, those eyes can then deceive us. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:10.000 We let our eyes tell us what is true and false and what is good and what is bad. 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:17.279 And then when that gets filtered through a backwards heart, we draw the wrong conclusions. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:28.399 Just as in this parable, there would be people who had concluded that the rich man was the blessed one and the poor man was the cursed one, so also we fall into the same trap. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:34.399 But this is where this reading also shows us a path of rescue from this. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:43.840 See, one of the great truths of the Reformation that was reclaimed was this idea of sola scriptura or by scripture alone. 00:12:44.080 --> 00:13:01.440 And it carries with it many ideas, but one of them is that God alone has the perspective, the kind of high-level view, the beyond death view that we need to then see our life and discern it properly. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:06.159 And God actually gives us that perspective in his word. 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:15.759 And the best part is you can have this perspective, the same perspective the rich man had when it was too late. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:24.399 You can have this perspective already now, while you still live and before it becomes too late. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:33.679 In fact, that's part of what is going on in the mystery of the way the scriptures talk about coming into faith in Jesus. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.320 It's described as a kind of death. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:42.559 We talk about it with baptism that in baptism we die, that we die with Christ. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:49.840 And we talk about dying to self or that an old self would die and a new self would rise. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.240 That language means something. 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:58.559 It means that you and I, because we have been brought into faith in Jesus, have already died. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:07.200 And if we've died to self and if we've died to this world, then we have the perspective that is communicated in this parable. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:12.080 That we actually can see now the way our life is meant to be. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:22.080 And then our heart is reinstalled, it's reconfigured and reoriented in a way that we can see the way things really are. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:33.840 And God reveals this work to us in his word to give us this perspective, to show us that what we think of the way the world works is not the way God makes his work happen. 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:44.000 On the contrary, he makes the poor rich, he makes the lame leap, he takes dry bones that have been crushed into powder and makes them to live again. 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:57.039 All of this, wrapped up in Christ, who is our Savior and salvation, the one who can turn all things around, bring us to life again, and this he does by the power of his word. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:01.120 We should listen, therefore, to his word. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.080 Now that can be hard. 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:10.960 Absolutely, it's hard because still in this life we like to judge things by our eyes. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:21.360 It's very tempting, sometimes easy, sometimes very reasonable to think that surely the way the world works would be the way things seem to our eyes. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:28.960 And so we might go to things like pop psychology or self-help, as practical as it is, and we think that must be the way the world is. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:38.720 That if I can put a few things together in my life, if I can kind of pull myself up out of the mess, then on the other side of it I will have all the blessings I wanted. 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:53.519 Or maybe we think in terms of what is popular or might hurry political favor and say, if there's a lot of people that it makes happy, or a movement standing behind it, that surely must be the good way or the good life. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:58.159 But in all these things, we're going to be making the same mistake. 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:18.559 You could think of it like this: if you see someone, or even yourself, driving that great car, or living in that great home, or achieving that great success, or having that great health, or whatever success or good it might be, we're going to be tempted to think that must be the good life. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:20.480 And maybe it is. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:29.840 It's not as if you and I should leave here today and say, boy, it sure is terrible that God has blessed me with so many things that He's using to try to trip me up. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:31.519 It's nothing like that. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:39.039 But instead, it's to say, let me realize at all times that these goods are not my God. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:47.759 And at the same time, that if I have all these goods but do not have Christ, that is not the good life. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:49.440 That is a non-life. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:17:00.000 And if I have all these goods but do not have them oriented towards God and my Savior, then that is not something to be proud of, but it is a prelude to destruction. 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:09.920 And it is one that God our Lord Jesus graciously reminds us of and warns us of here in this parable. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:15.440 I think it's also fair to say that sometimes it can be the same with churches. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:35.519 It can be easy to drive around town or search the internet and look around and say, surely that place over there with the sprawling campus and the famous pastor, or maybe that place over there with its great success and huge numbers, that must be where God's good life is at. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:55.440 But then you come to the place that is ordinary and regular and steady, maybe even one with a crumbling parking lot, and yet one full of the songs sung with rich law and gospel, where the sacraments are administered and the law and the word of God and his gospel are proclaimed. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:14.079 And we see there that there God is at work, bringing dead souls to life again, reconfiguring hearts, and sending us out, not trusting our eyes anymore, but listening with our ears to the way the world is in God's sight. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:21.119 And then living and ordering all of our days according to that gracious knowledge from God. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.680 That here you can trust your ears more than your eyes. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:41.599 And here you learn to live forever because you've died to this life and this world, but not in a way that makes you distant and attached from the days ahead, but lets you live into those days and those gifts of God fully to flourish in them. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:48.960 That you and I, by God's grace and by the power of this word, get to feast our ears on this truth. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:19:10.880 We get to listen to the glorious news that Jesus announces, that he has reoriented everything by taking away your sin, giving you a new life, and then on top of it, blessing you with good things to enjoy and to live within and to put to good use for him and his kingdom and for the good of your neighbor. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:19.519 That you are now not the one who's going to make the mistake this rich man did, that now your goods are not your God's. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:28.480 Instead, your goods are gifts received from a gracious God, and your perspective is one who is on the other side of death. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:36.160 And now your language is the language of God, the language of mercy and forgiveness and grace. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:39.920 And you are the beggar who was made rich. 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:47.200 You are the one who will dwell where Lazarus dwells in the house of the Lord for all your days. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:48.079 Amen.