Luk 16:19-25 | KingComments | STEP | In this history, the Lord reveals a glimpse of the veil that lies over the hereafter. It is not a parable. In no parable does He mention names of persons. He does so here. He mentions the name of Lazarus and also that of Abraham, who to Him is a living one ( ). He speaks in omniscience of a situation He knows. First He presents the situation on earth. There was a rich man. This man was doing very well and he enjoyed it very much. His clothing looked beautiful, like a prince. That’s how he behaved. To this man, life on earth was one great feast that he enjoyed every day to the fullest. He had everything that can be bought with money. The name of the man is not mentioned. He did not do well with his money, opposite to what the unrighteous steward did in the previous section, but used everything for himself. In doing so, he closed the access to “the eternal dwellings” for himself. Not that anyone can buy heaven, but he can show by his way of dealing with his earthly possessions what he lives for. It is not about a wicked, debauched life, but a question of the orientation of life. There is no indication whatsoever that he was focused on God, for he had no eye for his poor neighbor who was laid at his gate. He did not love his neighbor as himself. The contrast with the poor man who was laid at his gate, Lazarus, was great. This man looked hideous. He had nothing to eat and no medicine for his sores. He looked with longing at the wealth of the rich man’s table. If only he would have had what fell from the table to the ground, he could eat himself full. No, the dogs were better off than he was. They could saturate themselves with what fell from the rich man’s table ( ). The dogs did come to lick his sores and gave him some relief from the pain. The rich possessed everything except God. Poor Lazarus had nothing except God. This is evident from the meaning of his name. Lazarus – the Greek version of the Hebrew name ‘Eleazar’ – means ‘God is my help’. There is nothing else to show that he was in connection with God. His whole position on earth seems to contradict this. It seems rather the other way around. In Israel, the position on earth was proof of God’s favor or of God’s displeasure. The rich man must have been in God’s favor in a special way and Lazarus must have had displeased God in a special way. The Lord Jesus shows us that things are not like that, but that it is about the eternal dwellings.

‏ Luke 16:19-25

A Rich and a Poor Man on Earth

In this history, the Lord reveals a glimpse of the veil that lies over the hereafter. It is not a parable. In no parable does He mention names of persons. He does so here. He mentions the name of Lazarus and also that of Abraham, who to Him is a living one (Lk 20:37-38). He speaks in omniscience of a situation He knows.

First He presents the situation on earth. There was a rich man. This man was doing very well and he enjoyed it very much. His clothing looked beautiful, like a prince. That’s how he behaved. To this man, life on earth was one great feast that he enjoyed every day to the fullest. He had everything that can be bought with money.

The name of the man is not mentioned. He did not do well with his money, opposite to what the unrighteous steward did in the previous section, but used everything for himself. In doing so, he closed the access to “the eternal dwellings” for himself. Not that anyone can buy heaven, but he can show by his way of dealing with his earthly possessions what he lives for. It is not about a wicked, debauched life, but a question of the orientation of life. There is no indication whatsoever that he was focused on God, for he had no eye for his poor neighbor who was laid at his gate. He did not love his neighbor as himself.

The contrast with the poor man who was laid at his gate, Lazarus, was great. This man looked hideous. He had nothing to eat and no medicine for his sores. He looked with longing at the wealth of the rich man’s table. If only he would have had what fell from the table to the ground, he could eat himself full. No, the dogs were better off than he was. They could saturate themselves with what fell from the rich man’s table (Mt 15:27). The dogs did come to lick his sores and gave him some relief from the pain.

The rich possessed everything except God. Poor Lazarus had nothing except God. This is evident from the meaning of his name. Lazarus – the Greek version of the Hebrew name ‘Eleazar’ – means ‘God is my help’. There is nothing else to show that he was in connection with God. His whole position on earth seems to contradict this. It seems rather the other way around. In Israel, the position on earth was proof of God’s favor or of God’s displeasure. The rich man must have been in God’s favor in a special way and Lazarus must have had displeased God in a special way. The Lord Jesus shows us that things are not like that, but that it is about the eternal dwellings.

The Reversed Roles After Death

Life on earth, however beautiful, is finite. The moment of death comes irrevocably. Then it turns out that the contrast between the rich and the poor is much greater than it was on earth. The poor dies. For him this means a transition from misery on earth to a wonderful place. The angels take him up and carry him into the bosom of Abraham (Heb 1:14), a place of pure blessing and joy and pleasure. This must have sounded very remarkable in the ears of the Pharisees.

The rich also dies. Then the enormous contrast is revealed. He dies and is buried. There are no angels, and even less there is the bosom of Abraham, the place that every Jew coveted. As soon as he has closed his eyes on earth, he opens them in Hades and immediately experiences the pains of that place. Except that, he sees “far away”, that is, seen from the place where he is, Abraham, and Lazarus in his bosom. It is one of the torments of hell to see the place of blessing from that place, which is far from the blessing, and to remember that one could have been there and also to be aware that one could never get there. That is the worm that does not die, the eternal remorse.

The rich is fully aware of his situation of pain. He does not think of his sins, but of his misery. He also does not ask to be freed from it. In hell, there is no change of mind. He who did not desire God on earth, and did not love Him, does not desire God in hell either, nor does he love Him there. There is no one in hell who begs God to be saved from it. The only thing the rich man is looking for is a little bit of cooling for his tongue, which could soften the pains a bit.

He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with some water at the top of his finger. On earth he did not look after Lazarus. He would not have thought of asking a favor from someone like Lazarus. The thought alone would have been disgusting. Now he begs for a favor from Lazarus! Egoism brings a person to deeds he would not have thought of in other circumstances. In the hereafter, earthly reality is seen in its true light.

Abraham answers the rich man that his request is not granted. Hell is the place of people’s lusts and desires for the least that they had on earth, but which will never be fulfilled. The answer shows that the roles, compared to the situation on earth, have been reversed completely. Abraham calls him “child”, reminding him of the privilege he had on earth to belong to the chosen people of God.

Abraham reminds him of his life, how he had received the good in it. The rich, who is now the poor, sees his richly filled tables and his life of celebrations before him again. Abraham also reminds him of Lazarus who received bad things there. The man also sees Lazarus lying at his gate with dogs around him licking his sores. He did not look after him. Everything the rich man has denied to Lazarus, Lazarus now receives. And everything the rich in his egoism had no eye or heart for, he receives now.

Moreover, we should not think that the rich receives the pains as punishment for his richness. He has not entered the place of pain because of his wealth, but because of his egoism, for living only for himself. He was a steward who consumed the possessions of his Lord and did not care about “the eternal dwellings”. He has never gone to God with his sins, he has never confessed his selfishness. He never acknowledged that all the riches he “received”, so Abraham says, in his life came from God. Everything was his own. All the others, like Lazarus, could watch, but they got nothing from it.

Just as the rich man does not receive the punishment only because he was rich, thus Lazarus also receives the comfort in the hereafter not only because he was poor and rejected on earth. As said, Lazarus means ‘God is my help’. In his life on earth he has shown the meaning of his name. Lazarus did not revolt against God because of his fate. It could easily have happened, but he continued to rely on God. He had nothing but God on earth, and He has nothing else in glory.

Abraham speaks of comfort for Lazarus, not of blessing, although it is all blessing there. Comfort is a provision for someone who has suffered a lot and who now receives relief and a way out. The suffering is over for Lazarus and he now enjoys the opposite. By the way, it is clear from what both the rich and Lazarus consciously experience that the doctrine of soul sleep is a false doctrine.

Abraham goes on to point out that it is impossible to change places in the hereafter. He speaks of a great chasm between the place of pain and the place of comfort and blessing. The doctrine of purgatory – an intermediate state of purification in the hereafter, after which someone still enters heaven – is a gross deception. Purgatory is a roman-catholic, devilish invention. It is impossible to make a change in the place one is in after death (Ecc 11:3).