Tag Archives: Lazarus

Lazarus, and the Rich Man, part two continued

May 13, 2008 Paul 1 Comment

Read: Psalm 61:1-2, Ezekiel 18:10-17

The Lazarus’ in the world are caught up in the many conflicts of the nations, but they are also victims of Natural causes; floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and cyclones and the such. They are victims of plagues, famine and draughts. Jesus took those to the cross as well as our sins. Jesus became the Lazarus for them all.

In the story Jesus tell, the only ones who gave mercy to Lazarus were the dogs. They were the ones who licked the wounds of the victim of the plights of the world. To the Jews, all Gentiles were as dogs, so it is fitting that the Gentiles came to Jesus after the cross. In the Lazarus story, the dogs lick the wounds but they are not healed. We can try by our own efforts to give comfort and mercy to others, but with out the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are no better than the dogs. Right now when there is so much tragedy in the world, we give aid to just about every cause, but without the Grace of God behind our efforts, little is done.

We need to see Jesus as Lazarus, because clearly, he was making reference to himself with this story. He was rejected by the people that God had chosen to call His Own. He was left out of their homes and their hearts. Jesus took upon himself, the sores of rejection, abuse and neglect. He took to the cross the woulds caused by sin. He bore the grief of the loss of grace and He sat on the garbage heap of our wasted lives. He took the abuse that the people laid on others and He died.

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And Now He sits on the lap of the Father. In the story, Abraham, the father of the Jews, is the the representative of Heaven. Jesus is using that illustration to show that the Father in Heaven (who is God) listens and gives mercy to the Lazarus’ of the world. When the rich man complains about his loss of Paradise, what does he tell him? He says that the rich man would not listen to the prophets and would not even listen to Lazarus. His words are, “They would not even listen even if someone rose from the dead.” And so it is. Even when Jesus rose from the dead and there was testimony from those who saw him, they did not listen.

This is why I think Jesus is the Lazarus, and because he also says that whatever we do (or don’t do) for the poor, lame and rejected of the world we do the same for Him. We are commanded to care each one for another. As Abraham represented the parenthood of the Jews, God the Father is the True Parent of all who follow Jesus. As Lazarus is carried home to the Bosom of God. Jesus is carried Home and if Jesus lives in our heart if Fullness, the home is where the heart is. If we have the Heart of Jesus, then we have the heart of Lazarus. If our hearts are the Home of Jesus, then we have the Hearts of Heaven and we can offer the bosom of Abraham to others.

We can be the promise of Lazarus. As the world is in constant turmoil, the is no lack of Lazarus’s to care for. We don’t need to go to the far ends of the earth to find them. I can speak as one of the many who can be called Lazarus because of the hurt of my past, the sins that racked ruin on my life and because I was rejected and despised by many. Even after I came to Christ, I was rejected by others who claimed Christ. Because of this, because I am also a Lazarus, I can see Jesus more clearly in others. I can see Lazarus in the eyes of an eight year old girl who was abused and beaten, asking to come home to a safe place, I can see Lazarus in the face of a elderly man whose children put in a rest home and forgot about. I can see Lazarus in the streets of the city children and the homeless.

Because I can see Lazarus in their faces, I can see the face of Jesus. I cab remember the few and infrequent moments that my mother wanted to hold me and know the loneliness of Lazarus. I can see Jesus on the Cross crying out, “My God (Abba Father), Why have You forsaken me?” There on the Cross, Jesus felt the total rejection. There on the Cross He was separated from the Father for the first and only time EVER. This was total rejection. Because Jesus is God, when Jesus took upon Himself, our sins and our grief, He separated Himself From God and rejected himself.

When we are commanded by Jesus to do unto others. we are if fact told to do unto Christ. We are to lift up the Lazarus’ of the World as to do so is to lift up Christ. In today’s world when there are so many Lazarus’ to care for there is no limit to the good that we can do. And Remember that just as Jesus was rejected, He rejected himself. Also the many who can be called Lazarus today reject themselves and need to find the Bosom of Abraham in their lives so that they can find peace and comfort. That is the motivation that we can offer to all; Jesus lived so that He could die and lives again so that we can live.

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Christian thought

Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Bossom of Abraham (part 2)

April 22, 2008 Paul Leave a comment

In part one I dwelt on the plight of the rich man. Now I want to spend some time on Lazarus and the Jesus connection.

Scripture: Psalm 146, Luke 16:19-31, Isaiah 53:3-5

I will concentrate my story on Lazarus because I am concerned with the Lazarus’s of our lives., the lazarus of the World. We have over the last few decades seem to placed our “Religion” on the “Jesus Loves ME (first)” mode and have as did the rich man rejected or ignored the plights of the poor, sick and rejected of the World. But we don’t have to go to the far reached of the Third World countries to find the rejected and sick, they are in our home towns, or byways and under the overpasses of our highways. They are in the streets of our cities; the homeless, the runaways and the underpaid single mothers of our affluent societies. Just how many Lazarus are there? I haven’t a clue but I know that they number in the Millions. The evidence of all the people that could be a Lazarus is all around us. In fact, maybe there is a bit of Lazarus in you.

We have tried to help many of these rejected and ignored people in the World, we send workers into the refugee camps, protest civil right abuses, pass laws to protect and contribute to the needs of Missionaries. But is this enough? What we need to see is that there is a connection between Jesus and these Lazarus’s. We can go back in History and see how the Nations created the Lazarus’s, Starting with the U.S.A. with the oppression of the Native American, and the slavery of the Blacks to the practice of shunning and child labor. But America was not alone in this and we have made great strides to change. What is great about America is that we confess our sins to the World and try to make amends. Throughout the World, there is over mounting evidence that Evil is done to the people and that whole peoples are turned into Lazarus. People of all walks of life find themselves rejected and dispised through no fault of their own.

This is the Jesus connection. I believe that when Jesus told the parable about Lazarus, He was speaking of Himself. Just as the event of the death of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was to illustrate His three days in the tomb, the Parable was to relate to how the Son of Man was rejected by the very Chosen of Israel. As Lazarus suffered the sores of the flesh, Jesus suffered the sores of the sins of man. As Lazarus was locked out of the home of the rich man (whom you notice is unnamed), Jesus was locked out of the Hearts of Man. As Lazarus was rejected so was Jesus rejected. That is why I wanted you to read the passage from Isaiah with this Parable from Luke. And as Lazarus is carried to the Bosom of Abraham, Jesus was Lifted up to the Heavens and sits with the Father.

(to be continued)

Christian thought

Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Bosom of Abraham (part 1)

February 13, 2008 Paul Leave a comment

Read Luke 16:19-31

I found three lessons in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The first is the lesson of the greed of the rich man and the failure to be concerned with the beggar at his door. the second is the fate of the poor, sick Lazarus and the reward of God. The third is the relationship of God (AKA Abraham) with both men.

In this lesson (part 1) I want to relate to the rich man and His greed and selfishness. It is because so many people of faith have fallen for the “prosperity gospel” that I feel that it is important that we be made aware that prosperity is not that God rewards us with material wealth as some teach today but that we prosper in the Word of God. It is not with money or property that we are to be rich, because those are things of the world and the flesh, but the things of the Spirit and the Glory of God.

Amos 6:1,5-9 reads: “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, the distinguished men of the foremost nations…Who improvise to the sound of the harp, and like David have composed for themselves, Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with finest oils, yet have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.”A clear call to those who are “comfortable’ in their walk and think that they are justified in acquiring vast wealth while at the same time, ignoring the plights of the world and thanking God they are not like the poor man in the back of the church. When John Wesley started to preach to the poor and the working masses, these self-righteous men of the church cast him out. They falsely believed that because they where rich, they were special to God and that the poor were sinners and deserved their fate. Jesus talked to the pharisees about the same thing, saying that their gift from their plenty was less to God than the meager offerings of the poor woman.

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Ecclesiastes says: “There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.” (Eccl. 5:13) Proverbs 11:4 reads; “Riches do not profit in the days of wrath, But the falseness of the treacherous will destroy them.” So what benefit is there in acquiring wealth? The only reason that I find as a lover of the Salvation of Jesus, is to continue His Good Work, to share with those who are without, to uplift the broken hearted and ruined by the greed of others, to heal the sick and to provide clothing and shelter to the many who are ravaged by war and famine.

But it isn’t just his wealth that condemns this man, it is his indifference to the fate of others. He lives his live as if others are of no consequence, only what is pleasing to him is important. The will of God is the last thing that is on his mind. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income.” Eccl. 5:10. He is like the farmer who would build more barns to hold his grain and dies the next day. Possession is the god of choice for him.

No wonder he does not see Lazarus by his door. Even If the poor lame man stood right in his path, he would not notice him except for the stench of the sores. When judgement comes to him, he would say, “What poor wretched man? When did I ignore Christ? I never saw anyone.” And yet this same man would say, “I am blessed by God because He has given me much wealth and importance.”

In the parable, he cries to Abraham to let Lazarus give him a drink across to divide and is denied. He asks that Lazarus be sent to his brothers to warn them of the fate that waits them, and is denied. He is told that even if Abraham’s son was sent, they would not listen, so why bother? Even as Christ was sent, they would not listen, they have never listened before. Even today, the self righteous, vane and corrupt “saints” among us do not listen. They continue to line their pockets with ill-gotten gains, underpay their help, over-charge the customer’s, cheat on taxes and cheat on services, all the while saying that they love the Lord and are assured a place in heaven.

They are among those who say that “once saved, always saved” but still live in the world of the flesh and serve no god but money. It will be a hard day for them when they go before judgement and Jesus says “I never knew you!” Why do these people feel that just because they say the words it is so? Can’t they understand that to be saved is a call to change? That sin is still sin and that to be among the redeemed is to become a new creation under God’s Grace? To know God is to Love God, and to love God is to obey His commandments, all of them!

I am a rich man, not because I have a lot of money, (I have very little) nor because I live in a palace, (fat chance of that) but because I have the wealth of Salvation, the Grace of Forgiveness and the Fear of the Lord. Because I revere the call to serve, love and care for my brethren regardless of whom they are; rich, poor, east, west, “Greek, Jew”, it make no difference to me, they are the same to God and therefor the same to me. I would never be a rich man because I could not give it away as fast as I think ‘god would want me to. This is why my wife has to keep the books in my house, I would always put myself last because God’s children need so much more than I could give.

Listen to what Christ tells us in this story, don’t be as the rich man. Think of others before yourselves and praise God for the opportunities to serve Him by your graciousness. Do it for God’s sake and think nothing of what it will gain you. Motive is the most important aspect of giving, not the amount but the heart in which it is given. What good is there in life if the life is without the willingness to see the plight of our neighbors in Christ. But the greater sin is not in the unwillingness to give to the needy, but the audacity to think that we can deceive God by denying others. Cheating and demeaning people and still proclaim that because we are saved we do not have consequences for our actions.

Isaiah 47:10 reads; “You were bold in your wickedness and said. ‘There is no one to see me’. That wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, ‘I, and none beside me’.” That wickedness that led you to think that God has forgiven you in spite of a continuing sinful nature persisting in your lives, will not be rewarded by Salvation because you reject Christ by your wicked ways. The man in the story of Jesus, ignored the commandment to love his neighbor, in fact he does not even acknowledge his existence at his door. And he is told by “Abraham” you would even reject my Son. When we reject the call of Jesus to care for the many tormented people of the world and refuse to provide comfort even to one of the lost, are we not renouncing Jesus?

The story of Lazarus and the rich man is another tale of why we are to do works for Jesus. Faith is the means of Salvation but works are the expression of the Love that God has given us to share His Love with others. listen to what Jesus is telling us and see the plights of others as the plight of Jesus. Do not think of what the future on earth will provide you for that is vanity upon vanity. Think only of what you can do for your God, in that are the only riches that you need rely on.

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Tag Archives: Lazarus

Lazarus, and the Rich Man, part two continued

Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Bossom of Abraham (part 2)

Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Bosom of Abraham (part 1)

R.E.S.T. in the Lord