Rich and the Poor Man

The title is my playful way of referring to that wonderful parable in Luke’s Gospel commonly known as Lazarus and the Rich Man.  This parable is unique because Jesus gives the main character a proper name.  Usually he refers to the characters as “a Pharisee”, or a “Samaritan”, or a “tax collector”. 

But here is a case – the only case I know of – where the main character is given a proper name, and the name he gives him is Lazarus.

It’s even more interesting that one of Jesus’ closest friends was a man named Lazarus (John 11:5).  Was this just a curious coincidence?

The key to this might very well be found in the last words in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  The rich man laments that if only someone were to visit his brothers from the other side of the grave, surely they would repent!  But the parable ends with: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)

So I ask the question, who was it that rose from the dead, and yet the people still wouldn’t believe, but instead wanted to kill him all over again, and in fact did crucify the one who raised him?

Of course it was Lazarus (John 11:43-57).

This parable was Jesus' way of warning those who were lining up against him. They were getting awfully close to being hardened beyond redemption, where even one rising from the dead could not convince them.

Quite a warning about how hardened people can become.

Putting God in a Box

“This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) 

Jesus stood up in his home synagogue in Nazareth, and he read that beautiful passage from Isaiah 61:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

This passage, Jesus claimed, was being fulfilled before their very eyes! What an encouraging thing to say, and the people from his hometown responded with a marveling wonder at such gracious words coming from the mouth of a carpenter’s son.

But Jesus followed up this announcement of the Kingdom with a statement that infuriated his neighbors:

 ^“But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Odd, is it not, that these simple examples from their own Scriptures should so infuriate them that they drove him out of town and tried to throw him over a cliff.  Nice, God-fearing people we have here, wouldn’t you say?

The problem was, they had put God in a box. They saw their God as being just that: THEIR God. The examples Jesus cites were all of Gentiles doing more of God's work than were the Israelites!  But a picture of that kind of God and that kind of Gentile didn't fit their presuppositions. To them, no Gentiles need apply. So when Jesus followed up his announcing of the Kingdom with examples proving that God is the God of the Gentiles too, and strongly implying that the Kingdom of God is bigger than one nationality, this didn’t set too well with their parochial attitude.

They had put their God in a little box, as religious people are sometimes wont to do.  Thereafter, Jesus moved his base of operations to nearby Capernaum, where the climate was more open to his message.  He tends not to hang round where he's not wanted, you know.

That's another timely lesson from this passage.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)

If Jesus is right that the truth sets us free, then why do politicians insist on lying? One of the great political minds of the 20th Century had this to say about it:

"The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. If this principle be forgotten and if an attempt be made to be abstract and general, the propaganda will turn out ineffective; for the public will not be able to digest or retain what is offered to them in this way. Therefore, the greater the scope of the message that has to be presented, the more necessary it is for the propaganda to discover that plan of action which is psychologically the most efficient."

Put differently, complex discussions about important issues won’t win the election because the common folk just aren’t smart enough to understand the underlying arguments, let alone remember them beyond the 24 hour news cycle. He goes on:

"Propaganda must be limited to a few simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important condition of success."

Slogans and sound-bites are as deep as most people will go. "Four legs good and two legs bad" is good enough for most people. Employ no more substance than that.

"Its chief function is to convince the masses, whose slowness of understanding needs to be given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of the crowd." "The success of any advertisement, whether of a business or political nature, depends on the consistency and perseverance with which it is employed."

This elitist could have written the handbook for our own political campaigns. Come up with a catchy slogan that lacks substance, repeat it until it numbs, and if anyone disagrees, start the name-calling and demonization. Such campaign tactics betray a lack of respect for you and your intelligence. Through the height of elitism such campaigns hope to manipulate you with catch phrases. Succumbing to such manipulation can lead us down the road to serfdom.

If truth sets us free, then why would politicians lie? Is it to help you or to help themselves? Is it to set you free or to make you their servants? Jesus does not need to lie, and he doesn’t insult your intelligence with slogans in place of truth. He never was and never will be an elitist. He wants us to learn how to think clearly because of who we are now and what we shall be. More than once we’re called heirs of God. We’re called a royal priesthood. In Revelation we’re told that we shall be kings and priests, and elsewhere we’re told that we shall judge angels. All these honors require good, solid, level thinking.

None of us, regardless of our status in this life, is beneath the potential that God would expect of his children. Think of it this way. God took a rag-tag band of fisherman, carpenters, and tax collectors and turned them into a force that changed the world. The first king of Israel was a farmer, and the second a shepherd boy. Many of the prophets were ordinary people placed in an extraordinary calling. And the great thing about the God of the Bible is his insistence that we think. "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." (I Thess. 5:21) "Prove me now herewith." (Mal. 3:10)

God does not want you to be manipulated by political or religious leaders. If there is one thing that ticked Jesus off, it was that very thing as practiced by the Sadducees and Pharisees. Freedom is a precious thing that propaganda will jeopardize. Jesus knew what he meant when he said the truth will set you free.

By the way, the quote earlier in this article comes from chapter 6 of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Taking Up the Yoke

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. -- Matthew 11:29 NIV

I’m a boy from the city, so for many years I misunderstood these words of Jesus.  I once thought that Jesus was painting a picture of me with my neck in the yoke with Jesus walking behind me, reins and maybe whip in hand, “encouraging” me onward. 

That’s quite a picture of Jesus and how he supposedly operates.  I never focused on the implicit bad theology of me doing the heavy work and Jesus compelling me forward like a slave master in my life of toil and travail.

One afternoon I was strolling around the square in the city of Liberty, Missouri.  Many of the towns in this part of the world still have old city squares, with the courthouse in the middle, surrounded by old brick and mortar shops, usually with an antique shop or two.  In the display window of one of these establishments was an old wooden oxen’s yoke, the kind that farmers used before the days of diesel tractors. 

It was then that I understood what Jesus was saying.  This yoke had a place for two oxen, not one, and now I know that the verse and its context mean the opposite of what I had believed:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

Two places for oxen mean that I am not working alone.  Jesus makes my burden easy, not because he is behind me, shoving and compelling, but because he is right there in that yoke with me, encouraging me, and in fact doing most of the work. 

If the burden is heavy, he will make it light.  He may be our boss, but he is the kind of leader who leads from the front and is humble enough to work beside us when the soil needs work.  That’s a picture that’s easy to live with.

Please: God's People Deserve Better

During a particularly excruciating sermon the guest speaker revealed his method for sermon preparation. In effect he said, “I like to rely on the Holy Spirit to give me the words I need to say, so I don’t spend much time preparing my sermons beforehand.”

Without a doubt it showed.

I know he was making an allusion to the words of Jesus, who once said, “The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:12) Or maybe he was thinking of these words of Jesus: “Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.” (Luke 21:14-15)

But if you look at the context of those two proof texts, you’ll see that in both cases Jesus was referring to answering one’s enemies in the case of severe persecution. By extension, we can infer that the promise would apply to any situation where we are encountered by the unexpected. In my view that’s a valid extension of the principle, but one would think a sermon for which a man had literally months to prepare would not be covered under that promise.

I mentioned the unpleasant listening adventure to a more experienced and worldly-wise friend. He said I should have asked the man a simple question: If the Holy Spirit can inspire what you’ll say while you are standing in the pulpit, then why can’t the Holy Spirit inspire you while you are preparing for the pulpit?

And therein is another valid principle. God doesn’t do it all for us. He doesn’t want us to clothe ourselves in his promises as an excuse for our own laziness. That principle holds true in much of life, but it is seriously true when you are charged with sharing the Word of God. God expects more and your audience deserves more.