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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. 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 Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”~ Luke 16:19-31
The Jewish religious leaders taught that if someone was poor he was cursed by God and if someone was rich they were blessed by God. But, their theology had no basis in the word of God.
In response, the Lord Jesus tells a story of a rich man who ends up in hell and a poor man who ended up in heaven.
According to v.14, the Lord Jesus is addressing the religious leaders who loved money. Their theology accommodated their wealth prosperity view. They rationalized having more money by teaching they were blessed by God.
In v.19 we read, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day." This man dressed in luxurious purple and fine linen clothes. The Tyrian purple came from a shellfish which was the most expensive at that time. This fine linen robe was made of the finest Egyptian cotton which was also the most expensive and the best. He also lived a luxurious life.
In contrast, in v.20-21 we read, "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."
The beggar, Lazarus, did not just have a little, he had nothing. He was destitute. And, he laid at the opulent gate of this rich man, covered with sores. He was probably paralyzed, and couldn't move. The sores may well have come from his inability to move. Even the dogs licked his sores.
This man had a longing in him due to his condition. The only attention he got was from the dogs! And, these dogs were scavengers, and not domesticated. They roamed the cities, eating whatever they could to stay alive. And, the poor man was more desperate than the dogs. Yet, he had a longing within.
This is where our search for God begins, with these internal longings. And, if we get desperate enough, we will turn to Him. That is my story! My mom died when I was five and my dad when I was one month away from turning eighteen. And, my loss was the impetus to my search for God.
In v.22-23 we read, "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 Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side."
The poor man in the story had no dignity in this life, becomes dignified in death. And, the rich man who had dignity in this life becomes undignified in death. The rich man goes to hell, and the poor man goes to heaven.
For the religious leaders who were listening to the Lord Jesus, this story was a complete stunner. This is the absolute opposite result of what they taught and believed. The rich man was illustrative of the religious leaders and the poor man was illustrative of those who cried out to God.
The rich man was in “torment.” This is the same word that is used for the doom feared by the evil spirits in Mark 5:7 and the judgments God will send on an unrepentant world. If hell is the permanent prison of the damned, then hades is the temporary jail, and the suffering in both is very real.
The Lord Jesus described this torment as darkness and fire and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The believer who dies is immediately in the conscious fellowship and joys of the heavenly experience. The damned are immediately in the conscious experience of torture.
People ask, “How can a loving God even permit such a place as hell to exist, let alone send people there?” But in asking that question, they reveal that they do not understand either the love of God or the wickedness of sin. God’s love is a holy love, not a shallow sentiment, and sin is rebellion against a holy and loving God. God does not “send people to hell.” They send themselves there by refusing to believe on His Son.
The tormented rich man is, in the story, allowed to look out of hell into heaven, across that impassable gulf for the sake of the point. Though in reality, souls in hell have no access to heaven; souls in heaven have no intrusion from the eyes of those in hell.
For the sake of illustration, to help us understand that he understands what he’s going through, and he’s allowed in the story to understand what Lazarus is experiencing, and he cried out in v.24 and said, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
In his mind, this rich man is so superior to Lazarus that even though he’s in hell and Lazarus is in heaven, he thinks Lazarus is still his servant. He requests mercy to be brought to him by the very one to whom he refused to show mercy. He still thinks lowlifes like Lazarus are supposed to serve him, even in hell.
He pleads for a drop of water in hell, giving us a picture of how bad hell is. It is so bad, those there beg for one tiny drop of water for relief. But it never comes. The water of this world can’t soothe an eternally tortured soul. But this is the terrifying image of hell. No relief and the sinner forever and ever and ever, never pleading for one tiny drop of relief, wants no crumbs for the poor man and now no drops for the rich man.
In v.25-26 we read, "But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us."
The contrast could not be made clearer. Instead of going from abundance to faith in God, the rich man went from abundance to self-indulgence. On the other hand, as the Lord Jesus pointed out in the Beatitudes, the beginning of our story with God is that of poverty of spirit. The poor man is assumed to have turned to God, placed his faith in Him for help and that is why he is in heaven.
In v.27-28 we read, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. The rich man desires that his brothers not end up in hell, so he requests for more information to be delivered to them.
In v.29-31 we read, “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
The rich man essentially states the Scripture is not enough for salvation. But, if we do not hear the Scripture with our hearts, we will not be saved. Faith in the God of the Bible comes by hearing the spoken word of God (Romans 10:17). We can’t avoid hell just because we do not want to go there. We avoid hell by following the path of salvation revealed by Moses and the Prophets. And that path is the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets and overcame sin and death by rising from the dead.
