The Samarian Ministry at Various Cities (9.51-18.34), 16.19-31

We’ve all heard stories of people dying and coming back to life with stories of a darkness and a single point of light. Some of the stories we’ve heard of the afterlife have been confessed as just that, stories. Others have had experiences that have turned their life around. One friend of mine had just such an experience, and his seconds in what he firmly identifies as Hell was enough to drive him into the arms of our loving savior. Whatever you think of these accounts they are always of interest, for we all want to know what is on the other side.

The story we come to next is about a man named Lazarus and a rich man, which tells us quite a lot already. As we learned a few days ago, parables are stories with a moral teaching that use fictitious (and unnamed) characters. This is not a parable, therefore, but likely a real account Jesus is retelling. As such, it is one of the few glimpses we have of the afterlife, at least as it was before the resurrection of Jesus.

The account once again rubs the hearers the wrong way. In their culture a wealthy man was considered blessed by God and guaranteed a place in heaven. The poor were largely shunned by society as they were believed to have been shunned by God. Yet in this story it is the rich man who ends up in hell, and the poor man (who had to depend upon God for survival) inherits the Kingdom of God. This would be provocative enough, but there is so much more to our story.

Being “carried by angels to Abraham’s side” is a euphemism for being gathered to the fathers, or heaven. In this place, also called “paradise” both by Jesus and in tradition, the righteous await judgment day. This place apparently has a view of hades, or hell, the place the unrighteous await the same. While in torment, the rich man converses with Abraham and asks for the slightest of relief – a drop of water. Abraham explains that while they may see each other and converse, there is no way for anything or anyone to traverse from one place to the other.

The rich man then requests that Lazarus be sent back to the living to warn his family away from such a fate. This is a reasonable request. While there may be no journey between Paradise and Hades, there are several ways to move between heaven and earth, as is shown in a diagram we’ve published some time ago a human spirit may pass into the heavenly realm and return to earth either through a summoning, by raising the dead, or through resurrection (not to mention the return of all during the Millennial Reign of Jesus. So while the rich man’s request was possible, Abraham denied it just the same. The father of the nation of Israel reasoned, if one is unwilling to listen to the Word of God, then one would not be willing to listen to the testimony of a dead beggar.

This last part of the story would be particularly applicable to the Pharisees. The Scriptures talk about the coming Messiah and the signs he would perform. Yet they refused to believe either God’s Word or the Messiah when he arrived performing those very signs. For this reason, despite public perception, the Pharisees would never see the Kingdom of God. Such is the fate for all who ignore God’s own testimony regarding our eternal state.