One Helluva Story

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke 16: 19-21).

Preachers and evangelists have used this parable of Lazarus and Dives (rich man) as a story about heaven and hell. Allusions to the story are often intended to frighten people into avoiding hell at all costs and preferring heaven instead. 

But is this really what Jesus meant by telling this story? Is it a story warning us against hell and encouraging us to seek heaven? Actually I don’t think it is so allow me to explain.

It’s a parable. Jesus used parables as a means to convey deeper truths in less than obvious ways. In other words, one is wise not to read parables in a strict literal way. As a Rabbi Jesus often used hyperbole (an exaggeration not meant to be taken literally) as a means to convey how serious he was about any given issue or topic.

For Jesus it appears economic justice was a serious issue for him. Now please notice that I did not say economic equality. I think it would be rather naive to think that economic equality (everyone has the same income or accumulated wealth) is attainable in this life. I don’t believe it is. Remember Jesus once told us that we would always have poor people with us in this life.

So the story begins with Jesus describing the Rich Man, traditionally named Dives, who lived in the lap of luxury. His affluent lifestyle is contrasted with Lazarus, a beggar lying at his doorstep. 

Dives lived as if Lazarus did not exist (hint).

The economic disparity is pronounced as a means to point out how dead serious Jesus was concerning economic injustice. The gap between Dives and Lazarus is incredibly wide, just as the gap will be in the next life between the two men. This is the point of the parable and if we miss this we miss the real meaning of the story.

As a Jew Jesus believed that life was divided into two realms, one present (“this Age’) and the other future (“the Age to Come”).  

In other words, Jesus did not think of the afterlife in the same way that modern folks think about it: Heaven is up above and hell is down below. Such a view was foreign to Jesus and the rest of the New Testament authors, especially Paul (Check out Ephesians 1:9-10).

As I have pointed out in previous posts, the idea of heaven existing for departed disembodied spirits originates more with the Greek philosopher Plato than it does Jesus.

Also, Jesus tells us that Dives went to Hades not hell. Hades in the New Testament and Sheol in the Old Testament represented very similar concepts: A shadowy existence, the grave or where the dead exist prior to resurrection. 

So the featured point of this parable is not about folks dying and going to either heaven or hell (especially hell). This is not what the story teaches. In fact it teaches that when economic justice is not practiced in this Age there will be consequences in the Age to come, such as a radical role reversal described in the parable between Dives and Lazarus.

This parable is not intended to warn folks of an eternal hell in which one would be in eternal torment. This is the way it is often read and taught but quite frankly it is reading too much into the story.

Yes Jesus indeed warned of retribution in the Age to Come. All things will be “put right” as New Testament scholar Tom Wright reminds us. God is going to renew the creation and resurrection life will be the mode of existence in this New Age, this New Order as it were. Life itself will be reordered to favor all of creation (Isaiah 11).

In the meantime, the parable was intended to warn against stark economic injustice in the present Age in which we live. 

But we can strive towards economic justice for everyone to have enough to live on and be sustained in life. For there to be such a wide gap in wealth between the haves and the have nots is not the way God intended life to be ordered in this Age. 

Some years ago I was travelling on a bus from Santiago to the coastal town of Vina del Mar, Chile. For miles outside of Santiago I witnessed people, entire families living in houses made of cardboard  lined along the roadside and cooking on open fires. They were the poorest of the poor. This was not a parable but real people in real time. It was shocking to see.

As I looked out that bus window and saw cardboard box after cardboard box lined along the road I could not help but wonder if anyone of means in this country even cared about these people or that they even existed? I will never forget those heart-breaking images of what real poverty looked like up close. This was the parable of Dives and Lazarus in real life.

I thought to myself: “What in the world can be done?” 

I still struggle with this question when I witness the widening gap between the rich and the poor in our own country. What can we do? What should we do?

I believe the real point of Jesus’ parable is this: 

For those of real means who ignore the plight of the poor, as if they don’t exist, there will be an accounting, a reckoning, in the Age to Come. 

It's a harsh warning, but a warning nonetheless. 

To read this parable as if it was al about eternal hell in the afterlife relieves us of the responsibility to deal with the economic injustice in this life.