Luke 16:19-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, September 25, 2022
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The story of the rich man and Lazarus is one of two “rich man” stories that Jesus told in Luke 16. Last week’s story was the story of a rich man who had so much money he needed to hire a money manager to keep track of it. The money manager ended up squandering it and then giving most of it away through a loan forgiveness program. Our preacher last Sunday, Lynn Miller, helped us to see that this rich man story is a joke and that Jesus wants us to laugh at the rich man and his money manager and then to give our money away so that we don’t end up like them: enslaved to dishonest wealth. This Sunday, we are still in the same chapter of Luke, and we have another rich man story—but this time it is not a joke. In this story, the rich man ends up in hell.
HELL AND HADES
Now, I realize that the English translation of the text we just heard says the rich man ended up in Hades, which is, of course, the word used in the original Greek text. However, in more traditional English translations of the Bible, the word “hell” is used to translate both the Hebrew word “Sheol” in the Old Testament and the Greek word “Hades” in the New Testament. In the King James Version of the Bible, for example, here is how Luke 16 verses 22-24 reads:
“And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: and he cried and said, “Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.”
This hell to which the rich man went, in the conventional understanding, is a lake of fire where the wicked go when they die in order to burn for eternity. As Jesus said in Mark 9, again in the King James Version: “if thy hand offend thee cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, in the fire that never shall be quenched: ‘where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’”
This vision of eternal agony in a lake of fire captured my imagination as a child—fed as it was by revival preachers who meditated at great length on what it would be like to burn forever in hell for trillions of years without any hope of an end to the excruciating and unbearable pain. As a child, therefore, I found this story of the rich man in hell oddly comforting. He is depicted as carrying on a conversation with Lazarus, asking for water, advocating for his brothers, and so on. It seems unlikely that anyone burning in the eternal flames would be able to put a sentence together, much less carry on a theological discussion. And so, I thought, maybe hell is not so bad.
This misses the entire point of Jesus’ story, of course, but I was on the right track in figuring out that the rich man was not actually burning in the lake of fire. The rich man was in Hades—the place of the dead—which is why Lazarus and Abraham were also there, although the rich man is clearly miserable while Lazarus is with the angels and there is a chasm between them. In second-temple Judaism, the landscape of Hades became more fully developed to include Gehenna—a kind of permanently burning garbage dump that fills a valley or a gorge where the wicked are deposited and tormented and consumed. And so, it seems that the rich man, who refused the crumbs from his own garbage heap to the poor man outside his gate, ended up himself in the garbage dump of Hades, while the poor man rested in comfort with Abraham in a happier corner of Hades.
Of course, even though he is not writhing in excruciating pain, this is still no Sunday picnic. The rich man is being tormented and he is thirsty. He pleads for Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers who are still alive to warn them, so they don’t end up like him. We can take this as a warning for ourselves. The hell corner of Hades is not a place where we want to end up either.
But the question is, how do we escape it? How do we escape hell, or Gehenna, or the garbage dump of Hades, or whatever we want to call the bad place?
MOSES AND THE PROPHETS
One way to answer this question is to take seriously the response of Abraham to the rich man’s request for Lazarus to visit his brothers. Abraham says, they have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.
We too have Moses and the prophets. And we are still alive, like the rich man’s brothers were. Perhaps we should take some time to listen to Moses and the prophets before it is too late. And since we are here together, in church and with the Bible in front of us, we may as well see what the Bible has to say about wealth and health and hell.
Our Bible study begins with Moses. In Deuteronomy 15, we find Moses talking Economics 101—although it is not the kind of Economics 101 that is typically taught in American college classrooms. In the first two verses of Deuteronomy 15, we find Moses advocating for debt relief: “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor; not exacting it from a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the LORD’s remission has been proclaimed” (1-2). So, forgive what people owe you, at least every seven years.
In the next part of Deuteronomy 15, Moses is arguing for helping people in need more generally. In verses 7 and 8, here is what he says: “If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.” So, be generous with your wealth and help your neighbor with it.
And then, in verses 10-11, we get a clear and helpful statement of the basic economics principle of Moses: “Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”
This economics lesson from Moses fits within the larger theological framework articulated throughout Deuteronomy: If you obey the LORD your God by observing all his commandments, the LORD will bless you. If, on the other hand, you do not obey the LORD your God, your life will be cursed (see ch. 28-30). One of these commandments upon which blessings or curses depend is the commandment to give to the poor.
So that’s what Moses said about what to do with your money: give it to the poor. And when we turn to the prophets, we find that they echo what Moses said. Here is Isaiah chapter 58, verses 6-8: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly” (6-8). In other words, if you want to be well, share your wealth.
The prophet Ezekiel agrees with Isaiah. From Ezekiel 18: “If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right—if he…does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not take advance or accrued interest…, follows my statutes, and is careful to observe my ordnances, acting faithfully—such a one is righteous; he shall surely live, says the LORD God” (5-9).
The poetry and wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible repeat this same teaching about giving to the poor and being blessed by God. Psalm 41:1: “Happy are those who consider the poor; the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.” Proverbs 22:9: “Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.” Proverbs 28:27: “Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but one who turns a blind eye will get many a curse.”
JESUS AND JUDAISM
The second temple Judaism into which Jesus was born stressed and even intensified this teaching about giving to the poor. By now, because of the influence of Persian and Greek theories of human immortality, some Jewish piety included increasingly detailed expectations about life after death, including the punishments and rewards that will be given out, depending on choices made before death. We can get a glimpse of this piety as it is expressed eloquently in the book of Tobit, which was part of the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures in use during the time of Jesus and apostles. Tobit is also included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and was regarded as scripture by most of our Anabaptist faith ancestors.
Tobit appears to have been composed around two centuries before the time of Christ and tells the story of an elderly Jewish couple Tobit and Anna, along with their only son Tobias, who goes on a long journey with a stealth angel named Raphael, and ends up risking his life to marry his cousin Sarah, saved only by a bonfire of fish guts. Before Tobias goes on his journey, his father Tobit makes a farewell speech to him, which includes some advice about finances, in Tobit 4:8-10: “Do not be afraid, my son, to give alms. You will be laying up a good treasure for yourself against a day of need. For almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from going into darkness.” And toward the end of the story, in chapter 12, just before Raphael reveals that he is an angel, he makes a speech to Tobias and his wife Sarah, in which he confirms what Tobit had said earlier: “It is better to give alms than to lay up gold, for almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin” (9-10).
These references suggest that almsgiving does more than bring God’s blessings on your life; they add the idea that giving to the poor is a way to atone for sins and thus to escape punishment for sins, to keep from going into darkness. This emphasis is confirmed in the wisdom literature of the Apocrypha such as in the book of Sirach. For example, in Sirach 29:12 we read: “Lay up your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will profit you more than gold. Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will rescue from every disaster; better than a stout shield and a sturdy spear, it will fight for you against the enemy.”
If this text from Sirach sounds vaguely familiar, that shouldn’t be surprising, at least for those of us who know the sermon on the mount. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus also talks about laying up treasures: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Although Jesus does not explicitly explain here that “laying up treasures in heaven” means giving away your treasure on earth, this teaching was so deeply embedded in Jewish piety by that time that everyone must have known what Jesus meant.
As we know, throughout the gospels, Jesus returns to this principle again and again in his teachings. When the rich young ruler asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life in Matthew 19:21, Jesus tells him: “if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; then come, follow me.” In Luke 12, Jesus tells another rich man story—the story of a rich farmer who didn’t have enough room to store all the crops he managed to harvest from the land he owned, and so he tore down his barns to build bigger ones and enlarge his retirement account. But then, just as he was having a glass of wine and thinking, now I’m all set, he was struck by a heart attack and he died. And Jesus says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” And then Jesus continues, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about what your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than life.” What follows is the well-known speech about seeking first the kingdom of God and everything else being added. And just in case it’s not clear by now, Jesus wraps up his speech with the key action step: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, and unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:32-34). Commenting on this text in his book Money and Possessions, Walter Brueggemann notes that Jesus’ call to sell possessions is the implementation of his invitation to stop worrying. How do we withdraw from the world of fear and the mantra of scarcity that tells us we do not yet have enough, that we have not yet done enough, that we are not yet enough? Sell your possessions! Receive the gifts of God’s creation! Share with everyone!
Coming back now to the story Jesus told of the rich man who ended up in hell, it should be clear by now how he got there. He did not listen to the teachings of Moses and the prophets about giving to the poor. He did not share his bread with the hungry; he did not bring the homeless poor into his house; he did not cover the naked. He did not open his hand to the poor and needy neighbor just outside his gate.
But there is another, closely related, teaching from the Hebrew Bible that the rich man’s predicament illustrates—a teaching summed up well in the epistle reading from First Timothy for today. This is the idea that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, the idea that there is something about money and riches that makes it difficult to do the right thing with it, that makes us foolish, that makes us serve it rather than it serving us—as Lynn Miller put it last Sunday.
We find this idea expressed throughout the wisdom literature of the Bible. Proverbs 11: 28: “Those who trust in their riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.” Proverbs 28.22: “The miser is in a hurry to get rich and does not know that loss is sure to come.” Ecclesiastes 6:2: “Those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them.” Sirach 27:2: “As a stake is driven firmly into a fissure between stones, so sin is wedged between selling and buying.” And Sirach 31:5: “One who loves gold will not be justified; one who pursues money will be led astray by it.”
The writer of our epistle text today from First Timothy seems to be familiar with these maxims about wealth when he writes: “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” And, of course, there is Jesus, who famously said: “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).
All of this suggests that the rich man in Jesus’ story was prevented by his wealth from sharing with his neighbor. The money he had accumulated led him astray: he trusted it and clung to it and did not think about the day of his death when he would lose it all. His wealth was hazardous to his long-term well-being, even if it kept him comfortable for the short term.
WORLDLY MONEY AND HEAVENLY TREASURE
By now, I hope it is quite clear to us what Jesus is teaching with the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the place of the dead. Saving our worldly money is not a reliable investment for the long haul, for eternity. The only investment that truly endures is what we share with those in need. Our heavenly treasure accumulates in proportion to the worldly money we unload. And the worldly money we keep, beyond the food and clothing and shelter that we require, jeopardizes our well-being both now and in the eternity that awaits us.
Most rich people do not figure this out. But every now and again it happens. Last week there was an article in the New York Times about the billionaire Yvon Chouinard who with his wife and two children gave their $3 billion company Patagonia—a manufacturer of outdoor clothing—to a non-profit organization that will receive all future profits and will work to combat climate change while protecting undeveloped land around the world. Mr. Chouinard and his family are laying up treasure in heaven and escaping the miseries of Gehenna.
But we don’t have to be billionaires to be jeopardized by our wealth or to be blessed by our generosity. According to data summarized in an article from the Statista database, if we own $10,000 or more in assets, we are in the top forty percent of the global wealth pyramid. Even if all we own is a car, sixty percent of the people in the world are poorer than us, and those sixty percent possess only 1.3% of the world’s wealth. That sixty percent of the world’s people who together share only 1.3% of the world’s wealth are the poor who are outside the gate, surviving on crumbs, and destined for Abraham’s bosom.
Exploring this a little farther, if we own more than $100,000 in assets, say a house, we are in the top 12 percent of the pyramid and 88% of the world is poorer than us. But also, this top 12% owns 85% of the world’s wealth. Those of us in this 12% are the rich, arguably at risk for the torments of hell, unless we are ready to share with those in need and to help redistribute the world’s resources in a more equitable way. If we are among those whose money and property puts our eternal destiny in question, and I include myself in this group, we do have many organizations that will be glad to receive our money and build our heavenly treasure: Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Disaster Service, Mennonite Mission Network, Community Peacemaker Teams, to name just a few.
But we don’t need to think about this only in terms of the global wealth pyramid. Poverty exists right here in Bluffton. Opportunities to share our wealth with those in need are just outside and sometimes inside our gates, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. And so, I’m glad to say that at First Mennonite Church we have a program for laying up treasure in heaven and escaping the torments of hell, for those of us who are plagued by too much money. It used to be called the Deacon’s Benevolent Fund. In our new constitution it is called the Mutual Aid Fund. Through this fund, First Mennonite Church shares bread with the hungry, houses the homeless, and helps those with temporary needs, both within and beyond the congregation. This fund builds a great deal of heavenly treasure and offers a happy escape from hell for anyone who is listening to Moses and the prophets and to Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sins and to show us the path of life. Thanks be to God.
BENEDICTION
Brothers and sisters, listen to the call of Jesus Christ: Do not be afraid! Stop worrying about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear! For life is more than food and the body more than clothes! Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out! Share your possessions! Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal! For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Amen.
Anabaptist Persuasion 