Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

As we come to our text this morning, the context is once again important.

Specifically, Jesus has been dealing with wordlly wealth.

He has applied that to those who would claim to be in right relationship with God.

Through the parable He emphasized this through the parable of the shrewd manager, who knew very well how to use his resources in this world to prepare for a coming day where he knew that he would be in need.

Jesus urged his disciples through this parable to use all their worldly resources to prepare for a far more important time that was coming.

Christ emphasized that His disciples ought to be using their worldly possessions, abilities, gifts etc. for the purpose of glorifying God, so demonstrating a true relationship with Him through Christ, and therefore obtaining the inheritance to which He called them.

The important emphasis through that was that what we do with what God has given to us, and how we steward that, is a good indicator of our hearts, and where our affections lie.

When Jesus taught these things, the Pharisees sneered at him.

Literally, they stuck up their noses at him in disgust.

The reason?

They loved money.

They loved the things of the world.

They loved the praises of man.

They loved to receive now, rather than to wait for their reward.

And so he addressed them, and reall touched on the fact that they were relying on completely the wrong place for their hope and salvation.

They relied on their obedience to the Law, whereas they failed to recognise and appreciate that they fell dismally short of the standards of the law.

It’s that context that leads Jesus to tell this account of the rich man and Lazarus.

1. Two Different Journeys (vv.19-21)

In this account that Jesus relays to the religious leaders, he tells of very different men living in similar place, but on two different journeys.

The first man is outlined in verse 19.

1.1.

The Journey of a Rich Man

Here was a man who by all accounts had made it in this world.

Everything about this man indicated that he was a great success in life.

In fact, the descriptions that are given in this account seem to indicate that he lived like a king!

We see that this man was dressed in purple.

Note the NASB: “habitually dressed...” This was something ongoing, and that marked his life as a consistent pattern.

“Purple” in that day was an expensive colour to use in the dying process, and was thus reserved for the wealthy, and very often royalty.

He was also wearing “Fine linen” speaks about the quality of this man’s clothing - specifically referring to his undergarment.

Here was a man who in worldly terms had it made.

He had all that a man could want in the world.

As he was journeying through life in this world, he was comfortable and satisfied.

Furthermore, he would have been highly regarded by people around him as being…

Successful...

Business Savvy…

Probably many would have considered him to be blessed by God.

1.2.

The Journey of Poor Lazarus

Jesus now draws a stark contrast bewteen the man who has life going for him, the man who has it all, and a man on a very different life journey.

You could scarcely imagine a more pitiful picture.

This poor man was living on the streets.

He was laid at the gate of the rich man.

Take note that the Greek term that is used here for “gate” refers to the kind of ornamental gate that you would normally find at the entrance to a palace.

It’s another indicator of the extent of the wealth of the rich man.

Lazarus, we are told was a beggar.

He could not provide anything for himself.

From the way in which he’s described, he was probably unable to walk.

He had been laid down at the gate.

Here was a man who was extremely poor… and extremely unwell.

Apart from not being able to walk, he was covered with sores all of his body.

That may partly have been because he was not being washed and cared for properly.

He was mal-nourished.

He couldn’t move around because he was unable to walk.

Furthermore, he was very, very hungry.

We read in v.21 that he longed to eat the crumbs off of this rich man’s table.

Even the crumbs would have been sufficient for him.

He was starving!

We should not miss the fact that he obviously was not eating anything from the rich man’s table, not even the crumbs.

In other words, the rich man was providing no care whatsoever for this man Lazarus.

He didn’t send out any food to the man, not even the scraps from the table.

So sad was the situation of Lazarus that we find that even the dogs were coming to him in order to lick his sores.

Keep in mind that the dogs of the society of that day were not our idea of dogs.

They were not cute domesticated puppies.

They were filthy, pesky, animals.

They were unclean animals.

Lazaarus would have been scorned upon and frowned upon.

As society would behold him, what would their thoughts have been?

If we saw someone like this today, what would our thoughts be?

Probably along the lines of...

That man has wasted his life.

That man has been unwise in dealing with finances.

At least his family has.

That man has squandered opportunities.

That man is under the judgment of God.

These are typical thoughts that would mark even average Christians in the church today.

This man’s life journey was one of abject poverty and hardship, pain and suffering.

But notice this… the man is named.

No other parable in the Scripture contains the name of a character / person within the parable.

This is the only account.

The rich man is not named.

He’s simply identified as the rich man.

But Lazarus is named.

In other words, Lazarus is known....

He is known by God, and God calls him by name!

We’ll come back to his name in a little while.

In summary then, what we have here are two different people on two very different life journeys.

One is on a life journey of abject poverty and suffering; the other is on a journey of oppulent wealth and comfort.

While these two men picture extremes, they are so presented by Jesus to make an important point to his hearers.

Each one of us here today is on some kind of journey through this life.

Some may have plenty, some may have very little.

Some may go through tremendous struggles and hardship.

Some may go through life with very little trouble at all.

But we need to understand that the details of our journey through this life is not really the most important thing.

Rather, the question is one of the destination towards which we are headed...

2. Two Different Destinations (vv.22-23)

As Jesus continues with this account / parable / story… he speaks about the place that each of these men arrive at once they have passed on from this life.

2.1.

The Destination of Lazarus

Luke 16:22 (NIV84)

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side....

The life event that is common to every man arrived for both Lazarus and the rich man.