Speaking from this morning’s Gospel lesson in Luke 16:19-31 this morning, Rama walked us through the Parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus.
Rama has very kindly shared the details of his sermon this morning in his blog, which you can read here.
The parable doesn’t commend poor Lazarus for not organizing against the rich
The parable doesn’t teach that the poor automatically go to heaven. We know this because of other teachings of the Messiah, e.g. his command to love our neighbours; his teaching that we should observe all the Ten Commandments, etc.
The parable doesn’t teach us details of the next life, e.g. those in heaven and hell can see and can communicate with each other, the temperature in heaven is high, etc.
The lessons are many:
- The once-rich man continued thinking of Lazarus as a man to be ordered around.
- Being wealthy doesn’t always mean “blessed by God.”
- Being poor and sick doesn’t mean “not blessed by God.”
- What we do on earth with our wealth determines how we spend eternity.
- Some will always find reasons not to hear: but others will hear and will change.
Earlier Luke told us that when a prominent man asked “who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:25-37), the Messiah responded by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. The answer was “everyone in need is your neighbour.”
The video that he wanted to share this morning is available for viewing here:
