In today’s Gospel (Luke 16:19–31), the Saviour places two contrasting figures before us.
On one side is a rich man who feasts lavishly throughout his life, wears the most expensive clothes and consumes the costliest foods. He seems to be one of those who work very hard to ensure that when people look at them, what they see above all is how rich they are—so rich that they can spend enormous sums on things whose only function is to be very expensive. So rich that there appears to be no need to think about the needs of others or show empathy. Thus he remains nameless: the whole centre of his identity is simply that he was rich.
Beside the unknown rich man lives another man: Lazarus. They share the same world and even live on the same street. We are told that he was forced to try to feed himself with the pieces of bread falling from the rich reveller’s table. These were not crumbs left over from slicing bread, but pieces that, according to the custom of the time, were used to wipe the hands and then thrown away. In modern terms, he had to find his food in a rubbish bin because he had nothing else.
Jesus knows this man by name.
Perhaps the reason one is known to us by name while the other remains unknown is not their financial situation, but their attitude towards life, other people and God. “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers,” the Lord Jesus says on the day of judgement to the unjust who cared for no one but themselves (Matthew 7:23). How terrible it is to be a stranger to one’s Creator!
How can a person be a stranger to God? Only by deciding to close their heart to God’s love. There is no other way, for God has truly gone to great lengths so that every being he created might become his beloved child.
“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” the Lord emphasises in the Gospel (John 12:25). This means that whoever makes their own welfare and happiness the goal of their existence inevitably loses and is not truly alive in the deepest sense. For what kind of life would it be if it benefited no one but the person living it? But whoever gives themselves back to their Creator, to serve his will for the blessing of the world, receives life in all its abundance (John 10:10).
Welcome to meet the Lord at St Elizabeth’s Church today at 10:00 and 18:00. After both services, the coffee table is set for everyone, rich and poor alike.
