Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is what your fathers used to do to the false prophets.’
LUKE’s Sermon on the Plain and Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5–7) closely correspond. Both start with a series of beatitudes. There are differences between the versions of Matthew and Luke, but this one thing is clear – they are a series of bombshells. It may well be that we have read them so often that we have forgotten how revolutionary they are. They are quite unlike the laws which a philosopher or a typical wise man might lay down. Each one is a challenge.
As the scholar Adolf Deissmann said, ‘They are spoken in an electric atmosphere. They are not quiet stars but flashes of lightning followed by a thunder of surprise and amazement.’ They take the accepted standards and turn them upside down. The people whom Jesus called happy the world would call wretched; and the people Jesus called wretched the world would call happy. Just imagine anyone saying, ‘Happy are the poor, and, Woe to the rich!’ To talk like that is to put an end to the world’s values altogether.
Where then is the key to this? It comes in verse 24. There Jesus says, ‘Woe to you who are rich because you have all the comfort you are going to get.’ The word Jesus uses for have is the word used for receiving payment in full of an account. What Jesus is saying is this, ‘If you set your heart and bend your whole energies to obtain the things which the world values, you will get them – but that is all you will ever get.’ In the expressive phrase, literally, you have had it! But if on the other hand you set your heart and bend all your energies to be utterly loyal to God and true to Christ, you will run into all kinds of trouble; you may by the world’s standards look unhappy, but much of your payment is still to come; and it will be joy eternal.
We are here face to face with an eternal choice which begins in childhood and never ends till life ends. Will you take the easy way which yields immediate pleasure and profit? or, Will you take the hard way which yields immediate toil and sometimes suffering? Will you seize on the pleasure and the profit of the moment? or, Are you willing to look ahead and sacrifice them for the greater good? Will you concentrate on the world’s rewards? or, Will you concentrate on Christ? If you take the world’s way, you must abandon the values of Christ. If you take Christ’s way, you must abandon the values of the world.
Jesus had no doubt which way in the end brought happiness. It has been said that Jesus promised his disciples three things – that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble. G. K. Chesterton, whose principles constantly got him into trouble, once said, ‘I like getting into hot water. It keeps you clean!’ It is Jesus’ teaching that the joy of heaven will amply compensate for the trouble of earth. As Paul said, ‘This slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure’ (2 Corinthians 4:17). The challenge of the beatitudes is, ‘Will you be happy in the world’s way, or in Christ’s way?’
The punishment of the man who never noticed
Luke 16:19–31
There was a rich man who dressed habitually in purple and fine linen, and who feasted in luxury every day. A poor man, called Lazarus, was laid at his gate. He was full of ulcerated sores, and he desired to satisfy his hunger from the things which fell from the rich man’s table; more, the dogs used to come and lick his sores. The poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man died and was buried. And in hell, being in torture, he lifted up his eyes, and from far away he saw Abraham, and Lazarus in his bosom. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to me that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’ Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received in full your good things in your lifetime, just as Lazarus received evil things. Now he is comforted, and you are in anguish; and, besides all this, between you and us a great gulf is fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot do so, nor can any cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Well then, I ask you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may warn them, so that they may not also come to this place of torture.’ Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
THIS is a parable constructed with such consummate skill that not one phrase is wasted. Let us look at the two characters in it.
(1) First, there is the rich man, usually called Dives, which is the Latin for rich. Every phrase adds something to the luxury in which he lived. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. That is the description of the robes of the high priests, and such robes were hugely expensive, costing many times the value of a working man’s daily wage. He feasted in luxury every day. The word used for feasting is the word that is used for a gourmet feeding on exotic and costly dishes. He did this every day. In so doing he definitely and positively broke the fourth commandment. That commandment not only forbids work on the Sabbath; it also says six days you shall labour (Exodus 20:9).
In a country where the people were fortunate if they ate meat once in the week and where they toiled for six days of the week, Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence. Lazarus was waiting for the crumbs that fell from Dives’ table. In that time there were no knives, forks or napkins. Food was eaten with the hands and, in very wealthy houses, the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.
(2) Second, there is Lazarus. Strangely enough Lazarus is the only character in any of the parables who is given a name. The name is the Latinized form of Eleazar and means God is my help. He was a beggar; he was covered with ulcerated sores; and so helpless that he could not even ward off the street dogs, which pestered him.
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