You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
What a story: Jesus introduces his main characters, a rich man who feasted sumptuously; and a poor man covered with sores, who begged at the rich man’s gate. Then he promptly whisks them offstage: “The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.” No angels for the rich man – and no burial for the poor one, just a one-way ticket to paradise.
The rich man goes south to warmer climes. Way warmer: “In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on 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.'”
Why is Jesus talking about hell? Doesn’t he know we don’t believe in that anymore? Well, if we’re going to take Jesus at his Word, we need to wrestle with the way he spoke about the afterlife. In stories and teachings, he spoke of eternal punishment – a place of torment and fire, of “outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Sure, he might have been employing folk superstitions of his day in his story-telling… or was he saying there are eternal consequences to our choices, just as there is grace to meet our short-comings?
I am more troubled by the idea that these consequences might be eternally fixed: “But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’”
My hope in God’s mercy is that we can choose after death if we haven’t managed it before. (For a great allegorical tale about that, I recommend C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce.) I will continue in that hope – AND attend to the invitation to make adjustments in this life.
It might also trouble us that Jesus tells a story in which God allows someone to suffer so in this lifetime only to make them comfortable in the next. Many would ask, "Why didn’t God take care of him in this world?" To which God might respond, “I put you there. There were people with resources and hearts and free will all around him - and around all who suffer. They had choices...as do you.”
As we pray today, let’s offer thanks for the rewards we enjoy in this life and our hope for the next. Let’s invite the Spirit to give us a holy intolerance for the hell in which many of God’s children live in this world. Let’s pray our way into seeing the choices before us, and ask God to empower us into action.
Yesterday it was U2. Today I’ll give the last word to the aptly named Eddie Money: “I’ve got two tickets to paradise… pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight…”
God has made available unlimited tickets to paradise, and a few instructions on how to pick them up with our Travel Agent, Jesus. We can take them or leave them…
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label wealth disparity; healing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wealth disparity; healing. Show all posts
9-20-22 - Coming Close
You can listen to this reflection here.
Usually when I consider Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus, I focus on the wealth disparity, Lazarus’ hunger, the crumbs from the rich man’s table. But here's another angle: twice in a very short tale Jesus refers to the man’s sores, and the fact that the dogs would come and lick them. Despite the “ick” factor, let’s look at this aspect of the story:
"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.”
Was it comforting to Lazarus to have the dogs lick his sores, or disgusting and frightening, intensifying his sense of helplessness? Did the sores become even more infected, or were they cleansed? Did the dogs exacerbate his isolation from human company, or make him feel more connected to life? Does Jesus mention the sores to indicate just how wretched this poor man was, so close to wealth and yet completely deprived of life’s necessities?
It’s just a story, Kate! A parable Jesus told to make a point. Well, yes. But every element in a parable is fair game as we try to get inside Jesus’ stories. And this detail makes Lazarus so real for us. We can see him outside a gate in Calcutta or Port-au-Prince or New York. The rich man who came and went by that gate did not see him, or chose to ignore him. The dogs came close, close enough to lick his sores.
I don’t know why Jesus included this detail about the dogs; likely it wasn’t meant as a positive, dogs not being regarded as precious in his day as they are in ours. But it conveys coming close – close to a hurting person and his wounds, as Jesus came close to those who were overlooked or rejected. He touched lepers whom others were afraid to come near. He sat with party girls and extortioners cast out of polite society. He even had tete-a-tetes with the rich and powerful. Jesus did not hold himself away. And when Jesus died and rose from the dead, he invited his followers to come so close as to put their hands inside his wounds.
This God whom we worship in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the God who does not hold himself away. Wherever pain and loss and illness and despair are, there is Jesus, the gentle hound of heaven, saying, “You can ignore me, as though I were a dog, but I am here, and I will be here. I am not going away. My closeness might make you uncomfortable, but I am here to heal your wounds and restore you to wholeness.”
Maybe as we let Jesus come close to us, we might more often choose to draw near to those who suffer, and then there will fewer people like Lazarus dying of hunger and preventable diseases. Oh wait, I forgot again.. it’s only a story... or is it?
Usually when I consider Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus, I focus on the wealth disparity, Lazarus’ hunger, the crumbs from the rich man’s table. But here's another angle: twice in a very short tale Jesus refers to the man’s sores, and the fact that the dogs would come and lick them. Despite the “ick” factor, let’s look at this aspect of the story:
"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.”
Was it comforting to Lazarus to have the dogs lick his sores, or disgusting and frightening, intensifying his sense of helplessness? Did the sores become even more infected, or were they cleansed? Did the dogs exacerbate his isolation from human company, or make him feel more connected to life? Does Jesus mention the sores to indicate just how wretched this poor man was, so close to wealth and yet completely deprived of life’s necessities?
It’s just a story, Kate! A parable Jesus told to make a point. Well, yes. But every element in a parable is fair game as we try to get inside Jesus’ stories. And this detail makes Lazarus so real for us. We can see him outside a gate in Calcutta or Port-au-Prince or New York. The rich man who came and went by that gate did not see him, or chose to ignore him. The dogs came close, close enough to lick his sores.
I don’t know why Jesus included this detail about the dogs; likely it wasn’t meant as a positive, dogs not being regarded as precious in his day as they are in ours. But it conveys coming close – close to a hurting person and his wounds, as Jesus came close to those who were overlooked or rejected. He touched lepers whom others were afraid to come near. He sat with party girls and extortioners cast out of polite society. He even had tete-a-tetes with the rich and powerful. Jesus did not hold himself away. And when Jesus died and rose from the dead, he invited his followers to come so close as to put their hands inside his wounds.
This God whom we worship in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the God who does not hold himself away. Wherever pain and loss and illness and despair are, there is Jesus, the gentle hound of heaven, saying, “You can ignore me, as though I were a dog, but I am here, and I will be here. I am not going away. My closeness might make you uncomfortable, but I am here to heal your wounds and restore you to wholeness.”
Maybe as we let Jesus come close to us, we might more often choose to draw near to those who suffer, and then there will fewer people like Lazarus dying of hunger and preventable diseases. Oh wait, I forgot again.. it’s only a story... or is it?
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