Luke 16:19-31
American showman P. T. Barnum pointed out a life principle when he said, “More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing, than by believing too much.” Historian Philip Lee Ralph, in his book “The Story of our Civilization, put it this way: “When civilizations fail, it is almost always man who has failed – not in his body, not in his fundamental equipment and capacities, but in his will, spirit and mental habits……Men – and civilizations – live by their beliefs and die when their beliefs pass over into doubt.” John Wesley put it this way in a 1761 letter to Miss March “Keep close to your rule, the Word of God, and to your guide, the Spirit of God, and never be afraid of expecting too much.”
Time brings change. In the 1980’s Vida Blue was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. A few years later he was trying to make a come-back, just trying to make the team. When Vida was traded from Oakland to the Giants, he did not report for Spring Training. Vida was at the point in his life when he thought he could miss Spring Training! The Giants fined Vida $500.00 a day for each day he missed training camp. Vida’s attitude was “Don’t trouble me now with small stuff like $500 a day!” But time changes life a great deal and Vida Blue found out that he had to work hard just to make the team! To hold out on his contract cost Vida a large amount of money. The time comes when we can’t get back to where we once were.
In the best times of life, we say: “God don’t trouble me now about our relationship.” It seems so strange for us who are made in the likeness of our Father, to hold out against the offer He has made to us on life and the living of life. I want us to hear three questions today:
- Where will our concerns take us?
- What is of real value to us?
- Will our choices affect the outcome of our relationship with God?
Jesus tells a parable of two men’s lives that point out that the law is better understood by the religiously disenfranchised than by the self-righteous Pharisees: the extremes of two people’s lives is what Jesus focused on in this story from the scriptures.
WHERE WILL OUR CONCERNS TAKE US IN 2020?
The concerns of the rich man in this parable are centered in his own life. He is concerned with his outward appearances. He visited and shopped at the best men’s stores in Jerusalem. He wanted only the best clothes for himself. To him his clothes said to the world that he was somebody important. He bought the right name brands with the right labels, and that would mean he got invited to all the right parties in Jerusalem! In his thinking this difference could change him a somebody. Jesus said that this rich man only dined at the best restaurants in the city. He did not stop at places like Hardees, Wendy’s or McDonalds. His concern was that he should have all good things that life offers – no matter the cost. He wanted all his needs met, no matter how people around him were living!
Now Lazarus was a poor man and was very sick. He had used all his resources to pay his medical expenses. His clothing was rags and when he got clothes, they were from the Goodwill Stores. He did not know where his next meal might come from – every day of his life. He was so sick that the dogs would come to lick the sores on his body. His only bed was a place on the street, right at the gate of the rich man’s house. Lazarus’s concern was so different from the rich man’s concerns who he saw going in and out of the gate.
John Quincy Adams wrote about the real concerns of the rich man: “Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that very long; Tis not with me exactly so, But tis so in this song. My wants are many, and, if told, would muster many a score: And were each wish a mint of gold, I still would long for more!”
The rich man was concerned only with the appearance of a good life. The poor man’s story is one of faith that allowed him to live and trust that God was with him in those days of suffering and pain. The rich man could travel in style: he could send his children to the best schools and he was a popular man for he belonged to clubs that gave him great prestige. His relationship with God was: “Don’t trouble me now, God, about our relationship!”
The poor man was a ‘nobody’: he was lucky to lay in the streets near the rich man’s gate and eat crumbs from the rich man’s table. People passed this worthless bum and said, “How kind of the rich man to allow this poor man to eat the crumbs from his table!” This appearance of goodness gave the rich man ‘community prestige’ and privileges.
WHAT IS OF REAL VALUE TO US IN 2020?
Jesus said that the rich man’s real value was bound up in his need of having it all, now! He was willing to live anyway, just to have the good life. We also know he gave very little time to worship. He did go to the Temple for the Feast days, but he did not live in a day-to-day relationship with God. The earthly things were the things of real value to him. His relationship with God had very little value to him. He had little time for worship, prayer, Bible study, or service to his fellow man. Let everyone do like he did – get the good life for himself.
Lazarus, the poor man, was a ‘nobody’ of this earth. He knew the hardships of life. He had very little of the earthly possessions or pleasures. But he became rich in faith, in spite of his pain and suffering. He had discovered that his relationship with God gave him the PEACE and JOY of life. The Father’s love for him was his prize possession. The Kingdom of God was the thing of real value to Lazarus. The rich man passed up his opportunity to minister when he drove past the poor man each day. VALUES are reflected in how we use our TIME and our MONEY. The rich man said ‘No” to God.
A little second grade boy that was in Melissa’s class at school wrote a letter to his mother: Dear Mother, Are you having a good time in heaven? I am making good grades. How are you doing? {A little boy knew that heaven is another place.}
We who are good, middle-classed church members are spending most of all we have on the earthly things. We give a little of ourselves to the ministry of the Good News and the rest, we spend on our earthly life. God’s church is in need of your work, support and ministry to a hurting world. That’s why we need time with God in worship.
WILL OUR CHOICES EFFECT THE OUTCOME OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IN 2020?
Jesus said, “Yes”. That was His answer to this question. Jesus said that God will allow you to ignore Him and do as you please with your time on earth, but one day you will come face-to-face with the cost of your earthly choices. The cost could be your ETERNAL relationship with God. The price could be the loss of God’s Eternal Gift of love and hope. The rich man found it so in this parable. Jesus said:
“The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus, in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame!’ But Abraham said: ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things and Lazarus, in like manner, evil things: but now, you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’”
The choices we make in this earthly life effects the Eternal. The rich man had nerve – he would not lift a finger to help Lazarus in his pain and suffering on earth, but in his pain and suffering, he wanted God to give him help. The rich man had a big funeral and the world said, ‘goodbye’, to him and in death, we all come to the God that gives us life, as equals, before judgment.
Jesus said that the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. God’s love was given to comfort the suffering of this poor man. A man, that in spite of all his trouble, had lived for God! His choice had allowed him to live by faith. To live by faith gives us the assurance that God will never let us go from Him.
The choices that we make effect our lives and other’s also. Years ago an Eastern Airlines Flight No. L-1011, flying from Miami to the Bahamas lost power in its engines and dropped like a stone for 12,000 feet. The pilot, you may recall, was able to restart some of the engines and just moments above the ocean, returned the plane and its 172 passengers safely to Miami. Why did the jetliner lose its power and take such a precipitous plunge? The Eastern Airlines officials explained, in public hearing in Miami, that it was because maintenance workers failed to replace three small o rings when servicing the engines. For want of three small air seals, a jumbo jet and 172 people almost ditched into the ocean. The decisions of the earthly do affect the Eternal! This near tragedy brings to mind Benjamin Franklin’s Poem: “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; For want of a horse, the rider was lost; For want of a rider, the battle was lost: for want of a battle, the Kingdom was lost: And all for want of a horse-shoe nail.”
When we forget small things like love, caring, and serving we can lose the Kingdom. We can say, “Don’t trouble me now, God”, but someday the broken relationship with God will cost you a place in his lasting Kingdom, as it did the rich man! We can join, in faith, with Lazarus and have the experience of the eternal joy of God’s kingdom in our own life!
