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Beyond SundayFor groups, friends, families, couples, or individuals to reflect on the message you heard this Sunday.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

8.12.18

“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”

—Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Luke 16:14-15

“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

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2

Their Life:

1. Read Luke 16:13-15. How does this context add meaning and understanding to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?

2. Read Luke 16:19-31. In Bible times there was no government-run “safety net” for people who came on hard times. Some scholars suggest that laying Lazarus at the rich man’s gate was someone’s attempt to get Lazarus’ plight before someone with the means to help. The rich man literally would have to step over or walk by Lazarus every time he came and went from his home. How does this add to understanding this parable? What did the rich man value? What did he ignore?

3. “Lazarus” is the only character in all of Jesus parables who is given a name. “Lazarus” literally means “He whom God helps.” How does God’s compassion for Lazarus in particular and for the poor in general affect you?  Do you like it or does it make you uncomfortable? Do you ever feel the temptation to be self absorbed and uncaring like the rich man was? Explain.

4. At least part of Jesus’ audience was Pharisees, who as v.14 says, “loved money.” They also had theology similar to a “prosperity gospel”--where if you loved God He would bless you financially and if you were poor, you must have done something wrong to deserve it. Do you ever see this type of “prosperity Gospel” today? How does the prosperity Gospel seem to differ from how God sees wealth and poverty? How would you express what God’s take on these issues seems to be?

5. Read John 6:44. The rich man is convinced that if Lazarus were to rise from the dead and warn his brothers, they would repent.  But Abraham says that’s not true, implying that even a miracle won’t turn the heart of someone who’s dead set against God. John 6:44 teaches the opposite truth -- though even miracles may not turn a hard heart, when God is drawing someone, wonderful new faith becomes possible and even likely.  How can you recognized people whose hearts God is stirring to faith?

6. God’s concern for the poor -- and His expectation that His people will care for them is shot through the Bible from first to last. How does God’s call on us in this regard transcend politics? Is there any poor person that God seems to have “put outside the gate” of your home or heart?  How can you stop for them this week?

HEALING PRAYER - Sunday, Aug. 19, 5pm in Rm 20

“It takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis…of God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die.”

—Miroslav Volf, Yale Professor & Croatian Christian Theologian

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.” Luke 16:22

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment… Hebrews 9:27

Their Death:

In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 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.’“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. 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.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “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 16:23-31

Their Eternity:

“Lazarus is still at the gate. Parables like this one insist that Christians must not be like the rich man who only cares for his own kind and cannot see the poor until too late. We dare not have a gospel with an evangelistic emphasis and no concern for the poor. Any gospel that is not good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus.” —Klein Snodgrass, Stories with Intent