https://app.dropwave.io/episode/84ae4197-ae2d-4bd1-b8f6-2fbbf8c6b844/trinity-1-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Love for God and love for neighbor belong together. St. John tells us in our Epistle, “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” One who does not love his brother also does not love God. One who does not love his brother is unable to love God. Lack of love for the brother indicates that love for God is absent.

In the story that Jesus tells in our Gospel, we meet two men: a rich man and a poor man. It’s clear that the rich man does not love his neighbor Lazarus. So we therefore conclude that he does not love God. That’s ultimately why he goes to hell. The rich man has failed to fear, to love, and to trust in God above all things. His faith is dead.

On the other hand, Lazarus goes to heaven for the only reason that anyone ever goes to heaven. Lazarus has faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. Though he is poor in an earthly sense, in Christ, he is rich beyond measure.

In the conversation that ensues in the afterlife, even though it seems that the rich man makes a claim for himself as a descendent of Abraham, he has denied the faith that Abraham had. His bloodline does not save him; his riches cannot pay the debt he owes to God. But Lazarus shares the faith of Abraham. Lazarus is comforted, but the rich man is in anguish.

That’s the end of the story, and if we want to understand Jesus’ point, it’s critical that we keep the end in mind.

There are two men. One is excessively rich. The other is overwhelmingly poor. The rich man is not just wealthy. He is over-the-top wealthy. He’s at the top of society. We also read that the rich man has a gate — and this word is helpful because it’s not the typical word for gate. It’s the word used for the entrance to a city or a temple. In context, we should think of it as the gate to a palace.

Every day, he feasted sumptuously. Every day was an expensive party. Sumptuous feasting is not inherently a problem. Occasional feasting is appropriate and good. But constant feasting indicates disorder.

No matter how much love the rich man showed toward his family and neighbors, there was a neighbor he deliberately despised. Lazarus lies at the rich man’s gate. He is hungry. His is clothed with open sores. The only creatures who take pity on him are wild roaming dogs.

These two men are also contrasted in their deaths. The rich man is buried. His death was noticed. His demise was mourned. His life was celebrated. But the angels pay him no attention; heaven regards him nameless. Lazarus dies alone. Quite possibly, because of his incredibly low station in life, his body was tossed into a mass grave for the poor. No one cares. No one pays attention — no one, that is, except the angels.

All this emphasizes the contrast: in this life, the rich man couldn’t be any richer. The poor man couldn’t be any poorer. So this isn’t just a story of a rich man and a poor man. It’s the story of the richest man and the poorest man. By using these two extremes, Jesus thereby includes every person in this parable. To whatever degree you are rich in this life, the situation of the rich man applies to you. To whatever degree you are sick and poor in this life, the situation of Lazarus applies to you.

Before I get too far, I want to make a little aside. Jesus doesn’t give us a backstory. He doesn’t tell us where the rich man made his millions. We don’t know if he inherited his wealth, or if he earned every penny with backbreaking labor. Nor does Jesus tell us what brought Lazarus to be poor. Was it an illness that left him unable to work? Did he previously have wealth and he wasted it in reckless living? Was he simply born sick and disabled? We don’t know their history. We know one is rich; the other is poor.

We also know from the Scriptures that all that one is and has comes as a gift from God. So even if the rich man worked for his millions, his wealth still comes from God’s hand. And even if Lazarus is destitute because he gambled everything away, his poverty is not apart from God’s giving.

Whatever the history here, it’s evident that God has given to these men unequally. This is often especially hard for us Americans to believe. Enshrined in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, we hear these words: “all men are created equal.” Certainly in terms of worth before God and in being redeemed by Christ the crucified, all people are equal. They are also all equal inheritors of original sin. But they are not, in every way and according to every measurement, equal. Men are not equal to women. Nor are they interchangeable. They are unequal.

Not only in terms of wealth as in this parable, but we can also readily see that God gives unequally in other areas: strength; intelligence; height. There’s even a kind of inequality in that you were, at one time, the youngest person in your family. The amount of time you stay the youngest is different for each person. And some of us will at one point be the eldest person in our family. Some of us won’t. People differ in experience, responsibility, and authority. They differ in the effects their decisions have.

There are also differences within the Body of Christ. St. Paul writes: For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 1 Corinthians 12:14-20

Inequality as such is not necessarily on account of evil. The wealth inequality between these two men in our Gospel is not inherently evil. Being rich is not inherently sinful. Nor is being poor.

Certainly this inequality may be related to sin. Had there been no sin in the world, Lazarus would not be starving. Nor would he have untreated open wounds. Yet it is quite possible that the rich man could have been just as rich — and it not be sinful.