Jesus Talks Money: Generosity
God desires us to be generous and compassionate to others who are in need. Being generous has eternal rewards, but being stingy has eternal consequences too. (Luke 16:19-31)
Transcript
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
WHAT THE PASSAGE DOESN’T TEACH
Before I get to the content of the passage, I want to talk about one principle for interpreting Scripture properly and looking for what God intended with the passage.
What’s that principle? Don’t make a passage answer questions it’s not intended to answer.
What does that mean? Let me give you an example. Let’s say I’m telling you a story.
“I got this adorable picture of a curious cardinal the other day. In my backyard, by the pool, I have this bird feeder with a built-in camera, and it takes the most amazing pictures.”
And you say, “Wow! The pool must be open for swimming?”
Whaaaa? Do you see how you can make a conclusion that the story never intended to make? Well, that can happen with Bible stories as well.
You don’t look in Genesis 1 for answers about fossil records. Those are questions it was never intended to answer.
You don’t look in Proverbs for systematic theology. That’s not what it’s about.
You don’t look in Revelations for timelines. They’re not there because it was never meant for that.
Don’t make a passage answer questions it’s not intended to answer.
How can we prevent ourselves from doing this when we read this passage?
The first thing to remember is that this is a parable. It’s not a historical narrative or a theological teaching. Parables usually focus on one big application point about faith in action. That’s what this passage intends to do.
With this in mind, let me tell you three things this passage was not intended to answer.
1. The passage doesn’t teach about salvation.
We don’t know why the beggar ended up in paradise and the rich man in torture. The passage doesn’t say that one believed and the other didn’t. There’s no talk of faith or belief, just a great reversal.
2. The passage doesn’t teach about the topography of heaven and hell.
Just because this parable says that the rich man in torture could see the beggar in paradise doesn’t mean that’s what heaven and hell are like. This isn’t a theological discourse about the afterlife. It’s an illustration of one man’s use of wealth.
3. The passage doesn’t teach about communication between the living and the dead.
Just because the rich man asks Abraham to have Lazarus warn his family doesn’t mean that the dead can talk to the living. Again, that’s not the point.
So, if these are what the passage doesn’t teach, then what does it teach about?
WHAT THE PASSAGE DOES TEACH
Let’s start with some basics.
1. This story is principally about the rich man. He’s the one we see in all three scenes. The beggar is a secondary character; Father Abraham is tertiary. We’re meant to pay attention to the rich man—what he says and does.
2. Heaven and hell are just set pieces for the characters. They aren’t the primary message of the story. This is not a parable about eternal destinations. It’s about what the rich man does in his life and afterlife.
3. This story falls into a common genre called reversal of fortune. This was a common type of story back then. The Jewish rabbis had a version of it. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians all had similar stories. But, unlike the others, this one had a clear moral message.
3 SINS OF THE RICH MAN’S WEALTH
This parable can be broken down into three scenes: life, the afterlife, part 1, the afterlife, part 2
And each scene illustrates a sin that often accompanies wealth.
But lest you say to yourself, “I am not rich, so I don’t need to worry about these sins,” remember three things:
In comparison to the world economy, all of us are rich.
Even in this room, all but one of you has more money than at least one other person.
Most of you are wealthy compared to what your immigrant family grew up with.
So, I don’t think any of us are immune to these three sins of wealth.
1. Indifference
In the first scene, we see the two men contrasted. The rich man lived in a big house, and Lazarus, the beggar, sat on the streets just outside the rich man’s gates. One was covered in fine linen, the other in festering sores. One lived in luxury, the other in longing.
The rich man would have seen this man every day as he came and went. Every day, he would ignore this man’s plight, hungry and likely disabled.
This shows the first sin of wealth: Indifference. It is a sin to be indifferent to the needs of the poor.
During a Catholic mass on the World Day of the Poor in 2017, Pope Francis said,
“Not using our lives to help others is a great sin where the poor are concerned. Here, it has a specific name: indifference. It is when we say, ‘That doesn’t concern me. It’s not my business.’”
And the more money we accumulate, the easier it is to become like the rich man—indifferent to the needs right outside his door.
We all know what it feels like to grow indifferent to the needs of the poor. We drive by the people asking for money. We see the homeless encampments. And we go about our day.
But we must fight against callous indifference to the poor. That’s why our church has a food shelf, a new immigrant ministry, a crisis pregnancy partnership, and a community garden at the BP campus. These are all opportunities for you to give and serve and thus resist the pull of indifference.
2. Entitlement
The story continues. They both die, and the rich man goes to Hades, the realm of the dead, and the poor man goes to paradise, called Abraham’s side, the place of greatest honor.
Here is where we really see into the rich man’s heart. And here is where we also see another sin of wealth— [14] entitlement.
Entitlement is feeling that you deserve certain privileges, special treatment, or recognition over someone else. It can come with age, gender, race, education, job title, or… money.
The rich man was suffering, and he saw Lazarus far away, not suffering. He saw this poor man, whom he had ignored every day, and had the gall to ask that he still serve him.
“24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in agony in this fire.’” (Luke 16:24)
In his entitlement, he still saw Lazarus, as one beneath him, as someone who might be sent to give him relief.
He still felt entitled, even after death.
Many of you have grown up in a culture or a family that almost endorses entitlement:
Where certain people are treated as special over others.
You don’t have to care for the needs of others if they’re not family.
You regularly see people blame others when things go wrong.
Some classes of people are allowed to feel and act superior to others.
And if you fall into any privileged classes within your culture or family of origin, then chances are high that you’ve got some entitlement in you.
3. Arrogance
The third scene also occurs in the afterlife. Father Abraham rejects the rich man’s request, so the man begs for Lazarus to warn his family members who are still alive.
Again, he sees the former beggar as his servant to run his errands. Again, Abraham admonishes him with his reply.
29 “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them… If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:29, 31)
Mic drop! By the way, spoiler alert!
Abraham is saying that the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, is full of commands for the Israelites to care for the poor, widows, orphans, and immigrants. There are literally hundreds of commands. And if the rich man’s family ignored their own Holy Scriptures, nothing is going to convince them.
That is the third sin of wealth: arrogance.
Arrogance is only listening to yourself.
Arrogance is ignoring clear, obvious commands in Scripture.
Arrogance is demanding your way over and over again.
With money comes power, status, privilege, and even insecurity. All of that leads to arrogance.
APPLICATION
Indifference, entitlement, and arrogance. Our world, our society, is full of them. Our TV shows glorify them, our heroes in sports and music embody them, and our politicians have made them into common rhetoric.
Indifference, entitlement, and arrogance. They perpetuate racism, sexism, hatred, and inequality. They reinforce systemic inequalities against communities of color, limiting access to fair housing, affordable health care, and good education.
Indifference, entitlement, and arrogance. We see it when the police rally around their own after a young black man is shot by an officer. We see it when a man unloads an AR-15 in a mall or drives their car into a crowd of protesters. We see it when men in power—be it politicians or pastors—abuse women around them.
Indifference, entitlement, and arrogance. These are evils in our society. They are evils in the kingdom of God. And they are evils in our cultures.
And they live in our own hearts.
We must remember that we are called to a higher standard as Christians. We cannot be like the world in this.
The Bible calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to humbly consider others more important than ourselves, and to seek justice and mercy for all people.
We must resist the temptation to prioritize our own needs and desires over those of others. Instead, we must work toward building families, churches, and communities that are marked by kindness, compassion, and empathy, especially toward the poor, marginalized, and victimized.
That begins in one place—confessing indifference, entitlement, and arrogance in your own heart.
