The Parable of the Governors and Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Once there was a man named Lazarus.  He was a teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching in Venezuela.  Yet, even with this position, his monthly salary only paid for two days worth of food for his family.  Leaving everything he knew behind and willing to do almost anything so that his family could simply eat, Lazarus found himself with his family and many others at a gate.  On the other side of this gate sat a rich and powerful man who dressed in the very best suits and ate sumptuous food every single day in his mansion.

One day this rich man conspired with another rich man and gathered up Lazarus and his family and others like them and loaded them all on a bus and drove them to the Navel Observatory in Washington DC… to the home of Vice President Harris.  With deceit and lies they loaded others onto chartered planes and flew them to Martha’s Vineyard, demanding that all these refugees go and fetch their political water for them.  

Between these rich men and these refugees a great chasm has been fixed.  Some might imagine that this great chasm was one created by God in judgement.  But the One who created all things and called them, not simply good, but very good, does not divide… does not separate… does not condemn… does not fix chasms.  In this parable, ripped directly from our headlines, we see very clearly the ones who have fixed this chasm are the rich men themselves. 

It was not, however, their wealth or their positions of power that put that chasm into place.  It was their insistence that they were in no way Lazarus’ brother… they were in no respect a fellow Child of God to Lazarus, they were not Lazarus’ neighbor, but instead they insisted on the demonic notion that they were somehow Lazarus’ superior… Lazarus’ better.  So they ate richly while Lazarus and millions of refugees went hungry.  They sat comfortably inside their governors’ mansions while Lazarus and those like him sat with their starving children outside their border’s gates.  They were at ease while Lazarus literally scrambled for the life of his family.    

Chasms are not dug by wealth but with evil arrogance, a sense of entitlement, and an air of superiority.  When will these men and their ilk see what they have done?  When will they change?  If this parable is any indication, change seems unlikely for men like this.  It doesn’t seem like there is anything that would convince them they are wrong.  Even being dead, tormented in Hades, and looking straight into that chasm, the rich man in the parable continued to believe and act like he was better than Lazarus.  He still expected to be able to order Lazarus around.  He thought that he was still better than Lazarus and even his own DEATH did not change his mind!  

Pulling sermon illustrations from our headlines for this parable is terrifyingly simple.  Using DeSantis and Abbott in this role of the out of touch rich man is the epitome of type casting but if the typecasting fits...  What they are doing is what we are warned against in this lesson.  They are treating fellow human beings as less than human and in doing so, digging a chasm that separates them from their brothers and sisters and from abundant life.  What they have done is horrible, and historically, stunts like these have at times, and under the right conditions grown into evils beyond our imaginations like slavery and segregation, even like the holocaust and the killing fields.

Now, not every situation ends up at that level of horror.  But all of them start in exactly the same way as this parable starts… with one human being becoming convinced, for whatever reason, that another human being is NOT, in fact, their neighbor.  Is NOT their sister or brother in Christ… is NOT made as they were, in the image of God.  They all begin with a growing arrogant superiority, believing that this other human being is somehow “illegal” a “foreigner” a “libtard” or a “Branden” and when one human being can convince themselves that the other less than human… that brings them to the precipice where the unimaginable becomes possible. 

THAT is the critical lesson from this parable.  It is easy to see that the rich man was wrong once he was tormented in Hades.  It’s easy to see the evils of the the countless genocides that have happened in our world and the limitless injustices that make the news and the callousness of political hacks.  But it is a challenge for folks like you and me to recognize we too have within us the ability and the means to begin digging a chasm of our own making between us and our neighbors, even in our little town, and even in our little lives.  

This parable is a warning to us that the actions of our lives are either digging chasms wider or pulling them closer.  None of us have the luxury of just staying out of it.  This parable puts each of us very intentionally and very uncomfortably in that rich man’s shoes and asks us what will we do about that person down there at the gate?  Will we look away or will we remember that whoever they are, wherever they might be from, whatever they may believe, whatever hardships they might bring with them, they are our brothers and sisters and together with them we are children of God.  Amen.