Trinity 1
Lk
16:19-21
6/7/15
In 1989 the movie “Back to the
Future 2” appeared in theaters. It
continued the story of the immensely successful 1985 movie by the same name
that had starred Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly.
In the first movie, McFly had travelled back in time thirty years to
1955 using a time machine built by his friend Doc Brown. There after accidentally interfering with the
event in which his parents fell in love, he had to make sure that they did
become a couple in spite of interference by his father’s antagonist Biff, so
that Marty could one day be born.
At the end of the movie, Marty
returns to his present day of 1985 and finds that his actions in 1955 have
altered his present for the better.
However in the very last scene Doc Brown appears in the time machine to
tell Marty that they most go to the future to address a problem that has
developed in Marty’s family.
In “Back to the Future 2” Marty and
Doc Brown travel thirty years into the future – to the year 2015. Now in 1989, 2015 sounded a long ways
away. Now that we are here, this date in
the movie just makes me feel old. And of
course the future depicted in the movie isn’t exactly the way things have
turned out – we are still waiting for those hoverboards.
The rest of the movie’s plot is
highly convoluted – and with apologies to my children, not very good - but it
revolves around a basic fact. Marty’s
family has fallen into financial ruin while Biff’s family is now incredibly
rich. Marty buys a sports almanac that
has the outcomes of sporting events from 1950 to 2000 intending to use it to
make money when he goes back in time. However,
Doc Brown catches him and makes Marty throw it away. Instead Biff finds the almanac and then uses
the time machine to go back to 1955 and give it to himself. The sports almanac turns out to be the way
Biff makes his fortune by betting on sporting events whose outcome he already
knows.
Think of the wealth you could
acquire and the lifestyle you could lead if you could go back in time with the
knowledge you possess today. What if you
could go back to 1976 and be there to provide venture capital to two guys named
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who were starting a little computer company called
Apple. There is almost no limit to how
much money you could make. And there
would be no limit to the lifestyle you could lead.
That last statement describes the
rich man in our Lord’s parable today. There was no limit to his lifestyle and
he chose to enjoy that fact to the full.
Jesus says, “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine
linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”
This was the picture of absurdity – he was using hundred dollar bills to
light his Cuban cigars. Here was the use
of wealth unhinged from reality.
The contrast of Lazarus with the
rich man could not be more stark. We are
told, “And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even
the dogs came and licked his sores.”
Destitute and sick, Lazarus was a pathetic figure.
Luke’s Gospel often develops the
theme of the great reversal. In the very
first chapter, Mary said in the Magnificat, “he has brought down the mighty
from their thrones
and exalted those of
humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has
sent away empty.” And here in our text we
see a prime example of this in death.
Lazarus dies and is carried by the
angels to Abraham’s side, while the rich man finds himself in torment in Hades. This fact is a shock … and it would have been
a tremendous shock to some of the people who were listening. Jesus has just said, “No servant can serve
two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And
then Luke tells us, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these
things, and they ridiculed him.”
The Pharisees reflected the
prevailing view of the day. They came
from the Joel Osteen school of theology and believed that wealth was a sure
sign of a right standing with God because God wants to bless you if you are
just faithful. On the other hand,
poverty was a sure sign of God’s disfavor, and clearly you the person had
deserved that as well. And so when Jesus spoke about wealth as a spiritual
hindrance, the Pharisees mocked Jesus.
In the parable the rich man learns
that there is nothing that can help him.
And so he asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers. Yet Abraham refuses and says, “They have
Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” The rich man pleads, “No, father
Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” And with
finality Abraham answers, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither
will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Now if you have been in the Church
for any amount of time, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is no doubt
familiar to you. But the reality is that
when we think about this parable we usually go looking for meaning in the wrong
places. We are fascinated with questions
about what things are like between death and the return of Christ. And so we are drawn to the description in
this parable. Yet it is a parable – a
story. It draws upon stock images and
ideas that were present in first century Judaism in describing the dead. And besides that is not Jesus’ focus. Instead he is always talking about his return
to raise the dead and judge.
The last statement in the text - “If
they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone
should rise from the dead.” – has provided the basis for many sermons. A
message about the power and adequacy of God’s Word is certainly true to this
text – I’ve preached it that way from this pulpit in years past.
But the main point here – the thing
that is the true focus of the parable – is something we often miss. And to be
honest, we want to miss it. It
involves a difficult spiritual truth we don’t want to confront.
The clue about this is found in the
rich man’s hope that his five brothers will repent. He wants his brothers to do something that he
himself did not do. Up to this
point, the only thing we have been told is that the rich man lived an absurdly
rich lifestyle and went to Hades, while Lazarus lived an absurdly destitute
life and received salvation.
The language of repentance tells us
that this is about more than just a reversal of fortune. It becomes clear that in the way the rich man
used his wealth, he sinned. He is an
illustration of what Jesus has just said: “No servant can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” While Lazarus lies at the gate of his house,
the rich man serves himself with his money. And at the same time, Lazarus is an
illustration of faithful trust in God.
The use of wealth and the way this
interacts with faith is an important theme in Luke and Acts. It’s a theme you and I really don’t want to
hear. Because you see, we want to be
the rich man in the parable. We want
to have wealth and we want to use it to give ourselves pleasure and
enjoyment. And we don’t want to use it
to help others if this in any way impinges on our ability to have the full
enjoyment we think we deserve. Oh sure,
we’ll help some – we’ll give our offering at church; we’ll give a little to
some other ministries and charities – but we aren’t going to do anything that
fundamentally changes our own comfort level.
And when you deal with wealth that way … well, there is your god.
I’ll bet my last dollar that this is
true of every single person here this morning – well maybe not yet the babies
Aubrey and Elliot. But it won’t be long for them either. Living in the western world of affluence, it
is part of the air we breath.
This morning, Jesus calls us on it.
He confronts us with the fact that we serve wealth as our god. He shows us that spiritually we are Lazarus –
destitute and covered with oozing sores.
On our own we are helpless and cut off from God.
But the good news is the Good
News – the Gospel. Jesus said, “I
have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” He told the disciples after his resurrection
that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Jesus Christ died on the cross because you make wealth your God. He died for you because you break the First
Commandment in this way. And by his
resurrection from the dead he defeated the death that sin produces.
He has freed you from sin through
this forgiveness. He has lifted you up,
so that now as a baptized child of God you already know that salvation is
yours. You live as someone who doesn’t belong lying at the gate, but instead
dining in the big house. In fact you
will receive a foretaste of that feast in a few minutes.
This is what Christ has done for
you. The apostle Paul put it this way when talking about the topic if money, “For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
But it doesn’t stop there – it can’t
stop there. Instead the Gospel of Jesus
Christ prompts us to do things through the work of the Spirit. We begin to see money and wealth in a new
way. We recognize it as an asset that
can be used for service rather than something we cling to so that it can serve
us. And we also begin to deal with it in
a new way. We begin to return more of it
to God for the work of Gospel in this place and around the world. We begin to use more of it to assist other
Christians in need. We begin to use more
of it to help our neighbor who is in need.
We are fallen people who still must
struggle against the old Adam within us.
And so as the new man within us is nourished by the Means of Grace, this
is probably not a change that we make in one giant leap. Realistically, it is probably something best
accomplished in a continuing series of small steps – one grace filled step
after another by which we live more and more as what Christ has made us to be.
