By Jeffrey A. Beer Jr. –
Have you watched the news recently? You would be hard pressed to watch CNN for an hour and not see a report about destitute, oppressed, impoverished or persecuted people in a third world country or other faraway place. We hear wonderful and inspiration stories of missionaries bringing food to war-torn Africa or depressed South America. But the parable in this week’s reading from the Gospel of Luke reminds us that there are people in need much, much closer than foreign worlds.
The parable that ends the 16th chapter of Luke this week is the only one in the Gospels where Jesus actually gives a name to one of the characters, Lazarus, not to be confused with Jesus’ friend Lazarus who he raises from the dead. The story is about a very rich man who had everything- nice clothes, a big home, and plenty of gourmet food. Outside of this rich man’s house was a poor man named Lazarus, which means “He who God helps.” Lazarus lay outside the rich man’s door so hungry that he would have eaten the scraps that fell from the table. He died and went to heaven.
Later, the rich man died as well and went to “the netherworld”. From hell, the rich man tried to get Lazarus to come and comfort him from his torment. But he is informed that just as he didn’t comfort Lazarus as he was suffering on earth, now he will not be comforted either. Fearing that his family would repeat his mistakes, the rich man asks that Lazarus would go back and warn them about the consequences of their behavior. But he is told, “They have Moses and the prophets…If they will not listen to [them], neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”
The rich man’s fate seems appropriate for his lack of compassion for Lazarus. Certainly the rich man had every opportunity to give Lazarus some comfort from his poverty, and it is easy to judge him for his selfishness. But in some ways, all of us have neglected the Lazarus’ in our lives. We may not be rich, but we all have gifts, talents and blessings that are not bestowed on everyone. Perhaps we are athletic, but our sibling isn’t. Or maybe we are popular, and our cousin isn’t. Or maybe school work comes easier to us than it does to our friends. Whatever it is, we have all been given certain blessings and this week’s Gospel reminds us that we have to be charitable- not just with our money- but with our time, our gifts, our opportunities, our friendships and everything else that we have. Service work is important, but our charity has to start with the Lazarus that exists in everyone.
Being a Christian is often all about sharing who we are with the people around us. And if we ever feel like we’re giving enough, serving enough, or loving enough, we should be challenged by the first reading from Amos this Sunday when it says “Woe to the complacent….they shall be the first to go into exile.” If we ever feel like we’ve done enough, then we are really no better than the rich man because we are failing to see the needs of the people right outside our door. Who is the Lazarus you’ve neglected to help in your life?
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