Luke 16:19-31 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:… I. THE ALLOTMENTS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE ON EARTH ARE NOT ALWAYS EVENLY BASED UPON A REGISTER OF HUMAN DESERT. 1. The rich man is not offered as a luminous exhibition of personal worth (see vers. 19-21). 2. On the other hand, Lazarus was a beggar, and frightfully diseased. His condition was pitiable. But it does not follow that he had been immoral, nor that he was under judgment for crime. Neither of these men represented in the parable took his moral state, or received his everlasting reward, from his earthly lot. II. THE QUESTION AS TO A MAN'S ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD TURNS ON PERMANENT CHARACTER. 1. The name which this poverty-stricken invalid bears is all that is given us at this stage in the story to indicate that he was a religious man. It is simply the ancient Eleazar put into the New Testament Lazarus — the Hebrew translated to Greek — and means "God is my help." It is plain that our Lord Jesus designed this as a sufficient description of him. As Alford shrewdly remarks, he purposed "to fill in the character of the poor man." He doubtless gave the appellation, as Bunyan bestowed the name of his hero in Pilgrim's Progress: he called his name "Christian" because he was a Christian. And this beggar here is called "God is my help," because he was a good man, living according to his light by the help of God. 2. But the other man's character is under a full exhibition. He was luxuriously self-seeking. He lavished his wealth upon himself, and fed his appetites unrestrainedly. He was inhumane. The very brutes in Perea were less brutal than Dives. The rich man was not only in his conduct heartless, but in his custom irreligious; for the Jewish law demanded consideration of the poor with a hundred reiterated precepts; these he habitually disobeyed. And in the end of the tale we have the intimation that, above everything else, Dives never paid any attention to what Moses and the prophets were thundering in his ears from the Scriptures about making preparation for another world which was lying out beyond this. We reach the conclusion that in this parable the rich man represents a worldly sinner. III. Again: WE LEARN HERE THAT DEATH IS THE INEVITABLE EVENT WHICH USHERS IN THE CERTAIN IMMORTALITY OF EACH HUMAN SOUL. 1. Both of these men died. 2. Both of these men found themselves living after they had died. IV. WHAT COMES AFTER DEATH IS TO US OF FAR MORE IMPORTANCE THAN WHAT COMES BEFORE. 1. For, first, it gathers up now into itself whatever went before, and includes all its consequences. 2. And then what comes after death introduces fresh and heavy experiences of its own. The contrast is offered of highest felicity with most extreme suffering. That other life will be quite as sensitive as this, and possibly more so. Power of suffering may be augmented. There will be recognition of friends and relatives and neighbours in that new existence. These souls all appear to know each other in those moments of terrible candour. And they understand each other, too, at last; there is great plainness of speech among them. V. THE GOSPEL INVITATION REACHES ITS LIMIT IN THIS STATE OF OUR EXISTENCE. 1. There will be no increase in the ordinary means of grace. 2. No novel form of address will be possible (vers. 30, 31). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: |
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