No 17
(Lazarus and
the Rich Man.)
The text of this very familiar passage
is in Luke 16: 20 to 31 where Jesus tells a story of how a person who was
mistreated while on earth, received his reward after death and conversely, how
a rich man suffered in hell separated from Lazarus. “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass
to us, that would come from thence.” (v26).
Basically, Jesus was giving an object
lesson to those who were there with Him from a teaching He had given in Luke 6;
scholars call the passage The Sermon on the Plain to differentiate it from the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 but both texts speak of the same thing. In Luke 6 we read:
-
“Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be
filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.” (v21)
-
“Woe unto you that are full! for
ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye
shall mourn and weep.” (v25)
This is our consolation!! This is
our hope!! The word hope in this case is something that is
sure but not as yet
accomplished – our salvation. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus reiterates this
truth many times – Lazarus and
the Rich Man is one of them; The Prodigal Son is another.
The Apostle Paul also understood this truth when he spoke the following
words in the epistle to the Romans
“ For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. ” (Romans 8:18). One day we will be transformed
to the likeness of Jesus and we will be rid our orrupt
bodies (Romans 6:5). “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.”
(1 Cor