Description

Here is the setting: the people are rejoicing over the newness of the message and the Kingdom of God. The barriers are being torn down and they are excited about being allowed in where they thought only special people could go. They are excited about healings and deliverance, a new life made available. The disciples are exploring these developments with the teachings of Jesus and are being overwhelmed with the newness and excitement of it all.  The Pharisees see their very existence threatened.  And Jesus is not condemning or unloving, he just continues to share the deep and cutting truth that hinders people from experiencing the love and healing power of God.  At stake is the basic understanding of who God is, and the result of wondering if all they have done in life is of any value at all. This conflicts with their views on power, authority, wealth, position, culture, even God’s decree of their special status in the world, whether the Romans knew it or not.  

Jesus is not being unkind, but his love for them all does not allow him to be dishonest in confronting the dominant sins in their lives. And his knowledge of God does not allow them to hide their sins behind their assumed religious façade, which permits them to secretly hide their sins: see 1 John 2:16

So what Jesus is helping them do, is to peel back the onion skins of their lives:

You know what happens when you do this? It eventually brings out the tears! (Peel onion 🧅)

This background is key to understanding this passage:

1. The Pharisees feel threatened so now their hostility reaches a new level of openly mocking Jesus
2. Seeing the heart is an allusion to 11:39-41 where greed and alms giving is exposed inside and outside does not fool God!
3. Law and Prophets till John, now we see the Kingdom of God which is the rule of God from the heart!  All are urged to enter in.  Entrance is not by the impossible work of trying to keep the law without the right heart attitude, it is by repentance and forgiveness, which opens it for all who would believe! This is what all people yearn for and are wanting to get to in life!
4. In this process God does not change! His Word and ways are set and he doesn’t change!
5. Mal 3:6
6. Example is with divorce:  God hates divorce: Mal 2:16
7. But God does forgive and accept sinners!
8. He redeems, heals and delivers! He sets free the oppressed
9. But the Pharisees have different schools of thought concerning this and a major debate amongst themselves to cover up their fornication. School of Shammai allows divorce based on fornication, and Hillel allows it if the man finds another woman more attractive. But Jesus is radical enough to see the emotional and social damage divorce brings, that he can forgive and heal when it happens under any circumstance.  But that comes with repentance! A change of mind to agree with God, not use forgiveness as a means to hide your impurities!
10. Now he focuses on the wealth of the Pharisees which covers all three areas of their pride, the love of power, lust, and money, three main idols that will destroy any person. Those who were destroyed by it, want healing, those who benefit from it, want to maintain it
11. So this story, whether a parable or real is debated, but it clearly peals the onion of the Pharisees, pride, culture and religious standing before God. 
12. Lazarus is Greek for Eliezer which means My God Helps
13. The rich man is unrepentant in his torment and sees Lazarus as a servant
14. The reply of Jesus is twofold, to show the hardness of heart and lack of understanding about both God and the Scriptures as well as to foretell about his own upcoming experience that these very people would still deny!

The horror of this story is the fact that God’s offer is so inclusive and so marvelous, but still rejected by those who only see the temporal as meaningful in this life.  They exclude the life to come.  We should not make the same mistake, nor ought we find ourselves caught up in the pride of life and destroyed by our own insensitive justifications for our sins and prejudices. The way of deliverance is in repentance and forgiveness.  Entrance into the Kingdom happens as we come humbly and not by maintaining our own innocence of God’s revelation of Jesus and his gift of eternal life. What silliness is it for us to gain the whole world and yet forfeit our own life.  

Where do you need to repent in your life? Where do you need forgiveness or to give forgiveness? What do you need to be freed from?