About 25 years ago Alvin Toffler wrote the best-seller Future Shock, a book that looked at tomorrow's world. It spawned a whole industry in predicting trends in economics and the social sciences.
The title 'Future Shock', I suggest, is even more apt for a 'tale of the unexpected' in Luke 16, concerning a rich man and a beggar. It is a shocking tale in which we hear a voice from beyond this present world.
Let's approach this parable through a series of questions.
True-to-life story?
Though not its major theme, this parable would make an interesting study of injustice and poverty.
Is it a true-to-life story? It speaks of a wealthy man, clothed in finery. He feasted and gorged himself every day in a large house with an impressive portico (v. 19,20). It's a picture of the rich man in his castle and poor man at his gate', a scene all too familiar when we look at our world.
Jesus tells us that the rich man died and went to Hades (v. 23), a place of torment. To his request for help Abraham replies: 'Son, remember that in your life you received your good things...' (v. 25). Jesus' parables often speak about our wealth, but his emphasis and warnings concern not wealth itself, but how we acquired it and what we do with it when we have it. The key is verse 25: 'You received your good things.' This rich man made the capital mistake of thinking that what was in his possession was his own, instead of a sacred trust from God. His life was full of 'mys' and 'me's' - aggressive pronouns a little boy once called them - 'hands off, that's mine!' Abraham reminds this man of how he had used his 'mine' in his earthly life. That is an attitude very much true-to-life and a key as to why he is in torment.
What about the poor man? Lazarus was a cripple laid at the rich man's gate, a beggar covered with sores, starving and desperately longing for some crumbs from the rich man's table. What a picture of desperate need.
One positive contribution that suffering in the world makes (it seems to me) is that it can draw out of our hearts a compassion that would otherwise remain buried. Pathetic sights may change us for the better. Yet every day that poor man was at the rich man's door. Every day he had the opportunity to show compassion, and the love of God to his neighbour. But that is the very thing he failed to do.
It would be easy to read this parable as if heaven were simply about reversing the things of this life. The poor man had it bad, in heaven he had it good. But that would be a total misunderstanding of the gospel. The clue lies in the beggar's name, Lazarus. It means 'God is my helper'. People's sufferings don't always drive them to God. Sometimes they do drive them to God. That's how it appears with this poor beggar. He has faith in the Lord and found himself in heaven.
Is there a beggar at your gate today? Perhaps it's someone in emotional and spiritual poverty? How about in your family? Or in some old folks' home near you? Is there a beggar you could help this week?
True after-life story?
Did Jesus tell this story to satisfy our curiosity on the post-mortem state? Is it intended to give details of the topography of the after-life?
We can be over-literal. But without stretching the details there are two principles the story clearly illustrates.
The dark side of hope
What we have portrayed here in this parable is not the final state. The rich man is in Hades, not Gehenna the place of final judgment. For that we await the general resurrection of the dead. Rather the parable pictures the intermediate state, since the man's brothers are still living on earth (v. 28).
However, what the parable clearly asserts is that not everyone will be saved. Nowhere does the Bible teach universalism, i.e. t hat all will be saved.
Secondly, on this dark side, the parable teaches us that our destinies are fixed at death. The great chasm is fixed (v.26).
As a tree falls so it must lie
As a man lives so he must die
As a man dies so he shall be
Throughout the ages of eternity.
Many of us find that difficult. We would like to believe in some second chance after death. But destinies, according to the Bible, are fixed at death.
You may think it rough justice that people are judged for eternity on the basis of just a short time here on earth. However, the parable illustrates the truth that death changes nothing essentially about our characters. The rich man took his character with him into eternity. Notice how he still thinks of Lazarus as an errand boy: 'Send Lazarus to my father's house, Abraham' (v. 27). His world still revolved around his own small circle. God's salvation moves us from our self-centredness to God-centredness. This man, when he died, was still as self-centred as when he lived. Death had changed nothing. Not all will be saved. Our destinies are fixed at death.
The bright side of darkness
At death Lazarus goes to 'Abraham's side' (v. 22). This parable was told before the pivotal events of Easter and so Jesus is necessarily speaking in Old Testament terms. But it raises the question: what happens to a believer at death? The New Testament is unequivocal. 2 Corinthians 5.8 tells us that for the believer to die is to be absent from the body but present with the Lord. That is why in Philippians 1 Paul expresses his eagerness to depart and be with Christ which is 'better by far'. When a Christian dies he or she goes consciously into the presence of Christ. They are at rest, at peace. They are satisfied, and await the time of Christ's return to earth, the general resurrection of the dead and the final state of a new heaven and a new earth will be theirs. There's a final question this parable poses.
Your life story?
The story should make us think about our own life story. Are we prepared for death? It can come any time, whether we are 90 or 19.
The rich man made the greatest mistake. His position in life was no guide to where he would spend eternity. Though part of the chosen race of Abraham and rich, he was lost. After his death it was too late for him to help himself, his brothers or anyone else. He tries. 'Let Lazarus go and warn my five brothers,' he begs (v. 27,28). Abraham tells him they already have the Scriptures (v. 30). 'No,' he insists, 'if someone goes from the dead - a ghost - or apparition, perhaps - they will repent!' We have that kind of idea around today in some circles. Let people see miracles and then they will be saved. Not according to Jesus: 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead' (v. 31). The unrepentant heart is so hard that when it sees a miracle it finds ways to explain it away. People stood by the empty tomb of Jesus (and one cannot read verse 31 without thinking of Christ's resurrection) yet are still determined to explain it away. (see, for example, Matthew 28. 11-15). Miracles alone convince no one. The heart must first be changed.
Here the rich man is exposed. He is lost because of a faithless heart that refuses to believe what God has said in the Scriptures. But it is Scripture which shows us the way from this world to the next, from death to life.
Are you are a wealthy man or a self-made woman? Fine. But do you take time to read the Scriptures to discover the way to salvation, something money cannot buy? If not, be careful lest the rich man's story becomes yours. I have spoken to many folk who have assured me they do not believe the Bible, though they have never read it. That is not intellect, that is ignorance. That is not cleverness, that is stupidity. The Bible presents a Saviour who can change us and give us eternal life.
'This talk of hell is just scare tactics,' some say. Sin is so serious and hell so real that God himself had to come in the person of Jesus and pay the price of forgiveness so that we may not go there. Forgiveness and eternal life can be yours if we will humble ourselves and believe what the Bible says about Jesus and his salvation.
Forget Alvin Toffler; if we die without Christ, we are heading for the biggest future shock of our lives. So, don't leave life without him.
Dr. Steve Brady is pastor of Lansdowne Baptist Church, Bournemouth.
