The Rich Man and Lazarus

Of the wrong use of Riches. Dives and Lazarus.

(The Gospel History, Section 112)

Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day: and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table; yea, even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us. And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead.

Commentary by J. R. Dummelow

Lk 16:19–31. The rich man and Lazarus: peculiar to Lk, and full of that sympathy with the poor which characterises his Gospel. It does not, however, as Strauss maintains, assert that the mere possession of wealth is wrong, or that mere poverty justifies. On the contrary, the rich man is condemned, not because he was rich, but because he was callous, and Lazarus justified, not because he was poor, but because he was poor in spirit. The callousness of the rich man was due to his scepticism. He consumed his wealth in selfish luxury, sparing none of it for the poor, because he did not really believe in God or a future life. If he had so believed, he would have acted differently. The parable may perhaps be directed against the Pharisees, who were ‘lovers of money’ (v. 14); but inasmuch as their covetousness did not take the form of sumptuous living, it seems better to regard it as a warning addressed to Christians generally against luxury, worldliness, selfishness, and unbelief.

Lk 16:19. Rich man] conveniently called ‘Dives’ (Lat.). He represents all those who in the enjoyment of wealth forget God and the world to come, and neglect all acts of charity and love. Purple] i.e. a rich material dyed with the liquid obtained from the shellfish ‘murex,’ formed the rich man’s upper garment, and fine linen his under garment, or shirt; both were exceedingly costly. 20. Lazarus] = Eleazar, i.e. ‘He who has God for his help.’ His name expresses his character. From Lazarus is derived lazar = leper. Desiring] but not obtaining his desire. 21. The dogs] Since the dog was in the East an unclean animal, the licking was an aggravation of the poor man’s misery. 22. By the angels] The rabbis said: ‘None can enter Paradise but the just, whose souls are carried thither by angels.’ ‘When an Israelite departs to his eternal home, the angel in charge of the garden of Eden, who receives every circumcised son of Israel, introduces him into the garden of Eden.’ ‘When the just depart from the world three companies of angels go before them in peace. The first says, “Let him come in peace”; the second says, “Let them rest in their beds”; the third accompanies him.’ Abraham’s bosom] A Jewish name, not of heaven, but of the intermediate state of bliss, in which the souls of the just await the resurrection. E.g. ‘Ada bar Ahavah sits to-day in Abraham’s bosom’: cp. 4 Mac 13:17. ‘When we have thus suffered, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will receive us.’ Other equivalent names are ‘Paradise,’ ‘the garden of Eden,’ and ‘under the throne of glory.’ 23. In hell] RV ‘in Hades.’ Hades is here used in a wide sense for the intermediate state of all souls, just and unjust, between death and judgment. In this sense both Dives and Lazarus were in ‘Hades,’ though the one was comforted and the other tormented. This usage of the word is quite common. ‘Hades, in which the souls both of just and unjust are detained’ (Hippolytus). ‘In the lower world are both torment and refreshment. There a soul is either punished or tenderly cherished, as a foretaste or rehearsal of the final judgment’ (Tertullian). The rich man was not in ‘hell’ (Gehenna), because no one is sent there until after the Last Judgment.

In torments] Spiritual torment or punishment must be meant, for Dives was now a disembodied spirit. Seeth Abraham] The rabbis placed Paradise in sight of the place of torment, and were familiar with the idea of conversations among the dead: see on v. 26. There is a rabbinical story not unlike this parable: ‘There were two partners in crime in this world, one of whom repented before his death, but the other did not. After death the one was carried away and placed in the company of the just; the other in the company of the wicked. The latter saw the former, and said, “Woe is me, for there is respect of persons in this matter. He and I robbed together and murdered together, and now he stands in the congregation of the just, and I in the congregation of the wicked.” They answered him, “Thou fool, it was in thy power also to have repented, but thou didst not.” He said to them, “Let me go now, and become a penitent.” But they said, “Thou most foolish of men, dost thou not know that this world in which thou art is like the sabbath, and the world from which thou camest, like the eve of the sabbath? If thou providest nothing on the sabbath-eve, what wilt thou eat on the sabbath?” And he gnashed his teeth and gnawed his own flesh.’

In his bosom] The figure is not taken from reclining at a banquet (Jn 13:23), because the great banquet would not take place, according to Jewish ideas, till the coming of the Messiah (Mt 8:11), but from children quietly resting in their parents’ lap or bosom.

Lk 16:24. Father Abraham] He spoke as a Jew, thinking that Abraham had power over the fires of Hades, and would help his own descendants. The rabbis said, ‘The fire of Gehenna has no power over the sinners of Israel, for Abraham descends and rescues them from it.’ 25. Thy good things] i.e. thy wealth and pleasures. Dives was punished, not for his wealth, but for his abuse of it. Lazarus was justified, not for his poverty, but for his patience and humility. 26. Beside all this] better, ‘in all these regions of the dead.’ A great gulf fixed] Somewhat different from the representations of the rabbis, who said (see Eccl 7:14), ‘God hath set the one against the other, i.e. Hell and Paradise. How far are they distant? A hand’s breadth. Rabbi Jochanan saith, A wall is between. But the rabbis say, They are so even with one another, that you may see out of one into the other’: cp. Rev 14:10. 29. Moses and the prophets] These would give them sufficient light and guidance.

Lk 16:30, 31. Our Lord disbelieved the power of signs and wonders to produce repentance, and here declares that even the sign of His own Resurrection will leave many hard hearts unmoved.

The pains of Dives being those of Hades, not of Gehenna, many recent commentators regard his release from them as possible, and see in his new-born anxiety for the welfare of others (v. 27) an indication that his punishment is producing its intended purifying effect: > Mt 12:32: This passage has frequently been regarded as containing a hint of the possibility of pardon beyond the grave. St. Augustine says, ‘For it would not be truly affirmed of certain persons that they are not pardoned in this world or the next, unless there were some who though not pardoned in this, yet are pardoned in the world to come.’ Plumptre says, ‘If one sin only is thus excluded from forgiveness in that “coming age,” other sins cannot stand on the same level, and the darkness behind the veil is lit up with at least a gleam of hope.’ Stier speaks of ‘the demonstrable inference that other sins are forgiven also in the world to come.’ Olshausen infers ‘that all other sins can be forgiven in the world to come, of course under the general presuppositions of repentance and faith.’

The view that pardon beyond the grave is impossible, is learnedly maintained by J. Lightfoot, who is followed by A. B. Bruce. Many commentators leave the question open, but there is a tendency in modern times to admit the possibility. With this question is closely connected that of prayer for the dead. Both the belief in the terminable nature of future punishment and the practice of prayer for the dead were familiar to our Lord’s contemporaries.

Additional Note

The chief interest of this parable to modern readers is the light that it throws, or seems to throw, upon the state of departed souls between death and judgment. As to its significance in this respect, expositors are not entirely at one. Some regard all its statements on the subject as teaching definite doctrines binding on Christians, others regard them as only the poetic framework of the parable, embodying conventional Jewish ideas, and therefore as having no significance for Christians. Both extremes are to be avoided. On the one hand, the parable is plainly intended to inculcate, as against the unbelief of worldly and sensual men, the doctrine of future rewards and punishments beginning immediately after death, and to be so far a serious doctrinal statement. On the other hand, the thoroughly Jewish cast of the phraseology warns us against taking its details too literally. The essence of the teaching is thus expressed by Luckock: ‘The souls of the departed in the intermediate state are possessed of consciousness, memory, and sensibility to pain and pleasure; the life of all men, whether good or bad, is continued without interruption after the separation of soul and body; and retribution commences between death and judgment. These conclusions are in direct antagonism to the theory that the soul falls asleep when the body dies, and will not wake again till the resurrection of the dead.’

Untitled

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VII Book I Poem IV)

The Lord perceiving they did not discern
That home-work lesson every man must learn
Who thinks to win the Kingdom, with Poets’ craze
And God’s long patience now, proceeds to graze

On barren stock one bud of life divine:
A tale he tells which in their dark should shine
And lights their groping thoughts as Christ a lamp
Flashed sudden into dungeon murk and damp.

We know the tale subversive; the rich man
Of whom we learn nothing until the span
Of his days is ended; then he lies in state,
Is buried as befits the rich and great:

But not on him our thoughts instead rest:
Another there, his uninvited guest;
The beggar at his gates, too scantly fed,
On morsels left at table, broken bread,

Lazarus, the beggar is let ope that door
Men fain would pray within: see him, no more
Dependent on the rich man’s heedless dole,
Leaning on Abraham’s bosom! See the whole

Amazing transformation sudden strike
The poor rich man in torment with his like
“The beggar whom I fed! Perchance he may
Relieve my infirmity in this evil day!”

No claim hath he on Lazarus, so calls
On him, the fringe of whose wide mantle falls
O’er all sons of Israel: “Abraham, hear!
Father, send Lazarus with cool water here

Where I tormented lie!” “But think thee, son,
Of food thou hadst in life, whilst he had none;
Nor hope for help from Lazarus, the friend
Thou didst neglect to make while thou could’st lend

Medicaments for his sores, ease to his pain
In all those days when wretched he had lain
A suffering mendicant before thy gate;
Seek not his friendly offices too late!

Knowest not the Law, how all men shall receive
Good for ill meekly borne for they believe
God deals with them: ill, for that wealth they spent
In sumptuous living, knowing not ’twas lent

In the case of poor man who life’s good things lacked:
His day the same to enjoy whilst thou are racked
By pains of penitence!” “Thy word is true;
Send Lazarus to my brethren, lest they too

Come to this place of torment.” “They know the Law;
The prophets’ words sure should avail to draw
The men from final day spent, in Mammon’s rites.”
“But, sure, one from the dead all flesh affrights,

And they’d give heed to him!” “Not so my son;
Who hears not Moses, he would not be won
Though one rose from the Dead!” But many days
Since, Christ a long dead man, was seen to raise:

And did the people heed? Not they; their eyes
Refused due witness that the dead did rise
At Christ, His bidding! “This, a man must do,—
Fulfill the Law, discern its precepts true;

Wealth hath he! Not for him the boon is lent,
Let him no good give ere wealth be spent:
Succumbs a foolish man by ills oppress’d?
Let him trust God; his wrongs shall be redress’d.

Bless’d be the neighbour’s poor man; he shall share
His father’s tenderness, his father’s care!
Woe to the rich who found in life their good,
Nor how to use their riches, understood.

St. Luke xvi. 19-31

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