A Homily – The Gospel of Luke 16:19 - 31 ©
The Gospel of the Day – 2016.09.25
The Vision of Abraham and Lazarus, A Lack
of Charity
Jesus
said to the Pharisees, ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and
fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor
man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the
scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his
sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of
Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw
Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father
Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and
cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied
“remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things
came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.
But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop
anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any
crossing from your side to ours.”
‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you
then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give
them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” “They have
Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them..” “Ah no,
father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead,
they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to
Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should
rise from the dead.”’
False
Narratives in the Gospel
There
are readings in the Gospel that contradict everything Jesus himself taught.
This
is one of those readings.
This
is not a parable, it is not meant to teach anything but fear. It is given as a
means of justifying the first Christians, especially in those communities
outside of Palestine, in their desire to see some others excluded from their
charity.
There
are clues given; by which we can see that this is a false interpretation of Jesus’
teaching.
The
first clue is the heavily mythologized imagery, imagery of the afterlife the
presence of Lazarus in the Bosom of Abraham (imagined here as an analogy of Elysium),
the abode of the blessed dead.
Another
clue is in the reference to Hades, the description of the gulf between it and
the blessed realm. Jesus did not speak in concrete terms regarding the
afterlife.
Another
clue is in the way that the author riffs on the name of Lazarus, which is the
name of a man who we know Jesus loved. The author builds up the narrative in a
way that draws a clear connection between Lazarus and the tales of the Syro-Phoenician
woman, who also, like a dog, asks for scraps at the table of Christ.
In
this way the author connects everyone who is viewed as an outsider in the
believing community, on the basis of nationalism, and ethnicity, to Lazarus,
who was beloved by Jesus; the man for whom Jesus wept.
The
final clue we are given so that we can see this reading as false, is the central
message of the reading itself. The message that is given is that Jesus is
content to let people die in their sins, suffer in eternity, and never have
recourse to salvation. This message is in stark contrast to his teaching on
love, forgiveness, and mercy.
We
should always be mindful of the way the prejudices of human beings, in the era
when the gospels were first being written, creep into the narrative to rob us
of the truth.
26th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
