The Law and the Prophets
Luke 16:19-31
The Rich Man and Lazarus.
Have you heard that story before? I’m pretty sure you have, but in case you haven’t, here are the basics:
A rich man who dressed well and lived in luxury died and ended up in Hades.
A poor beggar, named Lazarus, who laid at the rich man’s gate (at his gate!) and was totally devoid of any care except for the dogs who licked his sores (if you can call that care!) also died and ended up at Abraham’s side – a place of honour.
The rich man begs for a bit of relief - just a drop of water from Lazarus.
Abraham replies that it’s impossible.
The rich man then begs for Lazarus to be sent back to warn his brothers so they don’t end up where he is.
But Abraham again says no. “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” (v. 29)
The rich man argues that surely if a man comes back from the dead, his brothers will repent.
But Abraham holds firm. They have Moses and the Prophets. That’s enough. If they won’t believe that, then, they won’t believe a man who rises from the dead.
Oh, my! This story had me connecting other passages to it in a flurry of writing. I have a full half page of verses. So where do I begin? What do I share from all the things that came to mind?
Well, let’s see where this goes.
Before this story, under a section heading of “Additional Teachings,” as if the verses there are tossed in for no particular purpose by an author who has told us he is making an orderly account (yes, that is sarcasm you hear there ;) ), we read, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.” (v 16a)
In Jesus, the Law has been fulfilled, although it hadn’t been completely fulfilled at this moment in Jesus’ life. But it would be once he died and rose again.
He was the “someone who rises from the dead” in verse 31 that the religious rulers, who were so set against him, would not believe.
They were so full of themselves and their self-righteousness that they couldn’t see the fulfillment of the law. In their minds, they were the top. They were blessed beyond measure. They were the richest - spiritually and physically. But as Jesus says to them in verse 15, God knew their hearts. And their hearts were lacking a love for God and others. They knew the Law and Prophets. But they were ignoring the heart of it.
The first verse that came to mind when I finished reading this story was Micah 6:8 – a verse from a prophetic book. That verse says that what God requires is that we do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
And that made me think of anavah. My word for the year.
It means, if you remember, to fill your God-given space completely, without thinking too lowly of yourself or too highly. It’s holding to that place where God has put you and confidently filling it. Not stepping out of it to put yourself as something greater than you are. And not hiding from doing what is asked.
Had the Pharisees filled their place properly? Or had they stepped out of it? Did they do what was right in God’s eyes - not their own? Did they love mercy?
Or were they like the rich man who had a beggar lying at his gate, longing to just eat a few crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table? Were they like the rich man, filling themselves and taking their ease with no thought to extend mercy to those who needed it?
Did you know that they had a belief back then that if you were wealthy it meant you were blessed by God, and if you were poor, you were cursed by God. (I heard that in a Skip Heitzig teaching on this passage via YouTube.)
Have you ever heard of such a belief? Yeah, it’s not one that has died over time. Nor is it new to this age of living.
Jesus’ listeners would have automatically associated the rich man with being blessed and the beggar as being cursed. So, where each ended up must have shocked them.
But the outward appearance of a person does not always reflect what the heart looks like.
Remember the older brother in the prodigal son story? He looked good. He did what he was supposed to do. But his heart was not in the right place.
He did not love mercy. He was more eager to celebrate himself than he was to welcome his wayward brother home with a feast.
The second verse that came to mind was the one where Jesus says the second most important commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself.
Do you know where that command is first found in the Bible? In Leviticus, which is part of the Law.
…but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18b NIV)
So we have the Prophets - Micah 6:8
do what is right, love mercy
and we have the Law – Leviticus 19:18
love your neighbour as yourself
It seems the rich man and the Pharisees both also had these teachings, and yet, Lazarus was never cared for. Nor was the lady who had been crippled by an evil spirit for eighteen years in Luke 13.
The Pharisees condemned Jesus for eating with and welcoming sinners. Would they have welcomed Lazarus at their table? Or did they only invite to their banquets those who could repay them? (see Luke 14:12-14)
Did they accept Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom of God, or were they making excuses and going to miss the banquet, while all the Lazarus’s would be in attendance? (see Luke 14:21)
Were they helping to spread the good news of the kingdom or were they using their position to keep others out? (see Luke 11:52)
How many poor and needy were lying at their gate and being ignored?
Way back in Luke 5, the religious rulers had asked why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.
His reply was
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32 NIV)
With all the teaching that falls between there and this passage, and knowing what will come as the Gospel of Luke draws to an end in about ten chapters, it kind of makes you wonder who the sick were in Jesus’ mind as He made His reply.
It feels a bit shocking to think that the ones who were most desperately in need of healing and repentance were the very ones God had appointed to lead His people in doing what was right, showing mercy, walking humbly, and loving God and their neighbour.
Do you know what the first note is that I have written at the top of the page for Luke 1? It’s a note from an article I read at the Ancient Hebrew Research Center website, called “Righteousness” by Jeff A Brenner.
In this note, I have written this quote from the article:
“A righteous person is not one who lives a religiously pious life, the common interpretation of this word, he is one who follows the correct path, the path (way) of God.” (Jeff A. Brenner)
The Pharisees were religiously pious, but they had departed from the right path.
The rich man, finding himself in Hades, realized that he had left the correct path, and he knew that his brothers had as well. He wanted Lazarus to go back and warn them so that they could repent, aka return to the correct path.
But his pleas met no success, because his brothers, Abraham said, already knew the correct path. They had the Law and the Prophets to show it to them. It was all in there, and if they didn’t believe that, then, even when the Annointed One, the Messiah, was raised from the dead, they still wouldn’t believe.
And many still didn’t believe, even after Jesus rose from the dead and the message was preached by his followers.
Oh, what a tragic tale! To have the truth and ignore or reject it!