H - E - Double Toothpicks
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H - E - Double Toothpicks
H - E - Double Toothpicks
What is this place of Hell that seems to creep up in scripture.
Some like the thought of Hell, where offenders get what’s coming to them.
Some are very disturbed by the notion of Hell.
What the heck do we do about Hell?
It is a topic of great debate among some Christian circles.
Annihilationism
Eternal Torment
Some will use the story we are going to read as a way to make some arguments about Hell.
I think the story is trying to convey something deeper.
Preliminary Definitions:
O.T. - Sheol: The underworld where the dead (good and bad) go to die
O.T. - Mavet: Death, can be a synonym for Sheol
O.T. - Abaddon: Destruction, place of the destroyed underworld, instability, chaos
O.T. - Bor: Pit, like a physical pit, but is the poetic underworld
O.T. - Shachat: Hole, like a physical hole, but also the underworld
O.T. - Rephaim: Ghosts, shades, demons of the underworld
O.T. - Hoshek: Darkness, chaos, hiding place of darkness
O.T. - Tehom: The deep dark waters of chaos
O.T. - Tsalmavet: Shadow Death, thick darkness, utter darkness
N.T. - Hades: The Underworld, where you go when you die, sometimes this is personified like a god
N.T. - Gehenna: Valley of Hinnom, Hell, fiery punishment for the wicked dead
N.T. - Abyss: Bottomless pit, the Underworld where even demons dread to go
N.T. - Tartarus: Prison in the Underworld, place where fallen angels are punished
N.T. - Skotos: Darkness, can be literal, but can be darkness of death
N.T. - Zophos: Darkness or gloom, the deepest, blackest darkness
N.T. - Paradeisos: Paradise, where the blessed or righteous dead go after death
I’ve shown you all these because I want you to get a sense of what the ancient person had in their mind.
When you hear Hell, or others hear Hell, we have a single image in our mind that is likely informed by Dante’s inferno, or Michaelangelo’s art.
That is not necessarily correct...
Ancient people have a sophisticated view of what happened after death, and you can see they thought about it.
They considered different beings (unseen and seen) when thinking about death.
They use darkness because this is the world they live. They don’t have street lights like we do.
Half of their life would be spent in darkness. It was dangerous, unknown, shady, so to speak.
And for the Hebrew, the dark waters (tehom) is what God’s wind or spirit was hovering, it stands in opposition to God’s good creation. Is is this deep that God converts to good.
Second thing to keep in mind...
Parable: A made up story to teach a truth
Jesus is using a parable to teach something. Immediately, we need to keep that in mind so as to not draw unnecessary conclusions or take the text too far.
‘There was once a rich man,’ said Jesus, ‘who was dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted in splendour every day. A poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores, lay outside his gate. He longed to feed himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
‘In due course the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. As he was being tormented in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
‘ “Father Abraham!” he called out. “Have pity on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! I’m in agony in this fire!”
‘ “My child,” replied Abraham, “remember that in your life you received good things, and in the same way Lazarus received evil. Now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. Besides that, there is a great chasm standing between us. People who want to cross over from here to you can’t do so, nor can anyone get across from the far side to us.”
READ ALL, then return to There was once a rich man...
Rich man: Remember last week, the rich man and the dishonest steward. These are paired together to tell us the Rich Man is not God.
He is dressed in purple and fine linen (Royalty, like a king of this world)
He has enough food that scraps fall from the table.
He has a compound for a home, large enough to have a gate
The rich man does not let anyone past his gate
He is NOT NAMED, Jesus affords this man no honor
He knows the poor man is at his gate and does nothing
Poor Man: Last week was the steward, and he was too proud to beg and did not want to do laborious work.
He is lame, crippled, thus the sores where he likely lay in his own filth
He digs through the garbage (scraps) for food to survive
He has no home or way to work
He is NAMED, Jesus gives the poor man honor (Lazarus)
He is seen by the rich man
Jesus wants us to notice how rich man is treating the poor man.
That is key.
Is the rich man storing up treasure in heaven? No. He is consuming his treasure now.
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They both die, notice this tiny detail and the mode of transport:
Poor man: He is not buried. Rather, he is carried by the angels, messengers are sent to retrieve him. He ends up in Abraham’s bosom, or in his lap like one of his children. (Important!)
Rich man: He is buried. And ends up where? Under the earth. And he ends up in Hades (God of the underworld). He is tormented in Hades.
Now, Hades is a Greek and Roman God.
Hades (/ˈheɪdiːz/; Greek: ᾍδης, translit. Háidēs; Ἅιδης, Háidēs), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous.[1] Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father.[2] He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the underworld, standing to his side.
Is Jesus saying that Hades is a real place?
Let’s read on first...
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Whoa!
The Rich man is Jewish! He identifies Abraham as his father!
If you don’t know who Abraham is, then start reading at Genesis 12.
What is a Jewish child of Abraham doing in the GREEK, ROMAN place of the dead?
Could this be why Jesus uses the term Hades instead of the more common Sheol?
I might be making too much of this, but I do believe it is important.
The thought of a Jewish person being imprisoned by a Roman God would be unbearable for the Pharisee’s and religious leaders, but he is slighting them by saying...
YOU SERVE THE KINGDOM AND GODS OF ROME SO YOU WILL BE WITH THEM WHEN YOU DIE.
And that should be a big warning to all Americans who call themselves Christian.
Notice what the Rich Man requests:
Refreshment for his tongue. James will say our tongues are lit on fire by Hell (Gehenna) (READ James 2 and you will see what I mean)
He is in agony, just like Lazarus who sat in his filth and sores
HE DOES NOT REQUEST RELOCATION…(Important)
He wants his place of existence to be made better, make my hell tolerable.
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My Child…apparently Abraham recognizes him as a genealogical member of his family.
And this chasm…it is too late. Just like the Cherubim that guard the way to the tree of life, there is a chasm that STANDS between us.
The decision is final, and there is nothing that Abraham can do to resolve it.
So, the rich man takes another angle, now that he is in this place, he suddenly thinks of others...
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‘ “Please, then, father,” he said, “send him to my father’s house. I’ve got five brothers. Let him tell them about it, so that they don’t come into this torture-chamber.”
Who does he think about?
NO REMORSE!
NO Recognition that he did anything wrong.
His own brothers, his five brothers.
He want’s to warn five people about this place.
‘ “They’ve got Moses and the prophets,” replied Abraham. “Let them listen to them.”
His family is from Israel, they should know Moses and the Prophets. (The Tanak)
Oh, how wonderful that Jesus put this in here.
You want to avoid this place, read the Hebrew Bible.
Remember how many words they had to describe a place you don’t want to go?
Somehow, Jesus reads his bible in a way that says, “Moses and the Prophets taught you to care for the poor, and you knew the consequences if you did not do it.”
But that is not how we read the Hebrew Bible, well, not us, but most.
The rich man continues his plea with a new tactic!
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‘ “No, father Abraham,” he replied, “but if someone went to them from the dead, they would repent!”
Really…would they?
But that is an interesting argument.
If someone showed up from the dead, would it cause you to change?
Jesus responds...
‘ “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets,” came the reply, “neither would they be convinced, even if someone rose from the dead.” ’
Look, if they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets....
Then they won’t listen to me (but they don’t know that yet)
WHAT IS THIS STORY (PARABLE) about?
Is it meant to scare you out of Hell?
Is it meant to teach you the importance of using your riches to care for the poor?
IS THIS THE KIND OF PERSON YOU ENVISION IN HELL?
Hitler, Pholphot, Murderers of Children, Rapists, the worst of the worst are the ones that are supposed to be in HELL.
Not a rich man that ignored a poor man, is that deserving of Hell?
We have some options when we talk about Jesus, Christianity, Faith, and all it entails, when we talk to others.
Jesus came to get the Hell out of you.
He will come again to get the Hell out of our world.
God will put Hell outside the new city.
And that is good news.
When Hell is removed from us, we are moved to Heaven.
This is not a works based theology. But our theology should be reflected in our works. (James)
The key to this parable is this:
Decisions and behaviors you make today regarding the treatment of the lame and poor have consequences beyond this lifetime.
These are binary moments:
You live as a child of Hell (Babylon)
You live as a child of the Kingdom of God (Heaven)
How you live now reflects your loyalty to each ruler.
WHEN WE ELEVATE the VALUES OF BABYLON to be our god, we are inviting Hell to live in us.
Jesus wants to get the hell out of us, in this case GREED.
He wants to carve the greed from our lives so we are able to embrace the values of Moses and the Prophets when they talked about what God wants.
Jesus wants to get the Hell OUT OF his GOOD WORLD.
And we are the ones that create the hell around us.
War - Trafficking - Theft - Murder - Rape
Jesus is not saying you do more good than bad and you are okay.
This story is about loyalty to a deity. Yahweh or other.
Loyalty to Yahweh will always expose itself as care of the poor, relief for the oppressed, freedom for the captive.
THAT IS THE MISSION OF JESUS, NO?
The spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me
to tell the poor the good news.
He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners
and sight to the blind,
to set the wounded victims free,
to announce the year of God’s special favour.
This is his mission, Period.
And whoever stands opposed to this mission is an enemy to God’s plan.
This is not a verse to be philosophied and metaphoralized.
This is a verse that Jesus is dead serious about accomplishing.
But know this, at some point, Hell will be cast out of God’s good world.
With the followers of Hades right along with it.