The Rich Man and Lazarus

Jesus tells a story about a rich man and a poor man in Luke 16:19-31. As the story goes, a rich man enjoyed life immensely and a poor man, Lazarus, was in poor health and could only beg for help, as he was apparently unable to work. They both eventually die and Lazarus ends up in heaven and the rich man ends up in hell. At face value, it appears that Jesus is telling a story about the ills of money. However, like anything else I look into in the bible, it is apparent that there is more here than meets the eye. I will tell the story in my own words.


Once upon a time there was this really super rich guy who dressed in the finest threads and had a chauffeured limo to boot. Now there was this homeless dude named Lazarus who was plopped down by the rich guy’s main gate. Lazarus was there everyday begging for some morsels that the rich guy might drop, by accident of course, as he was getting out of the limo. Sometimes Lazarus got a crumb, sometimes he didn’t.

Before long, Lazarus dies and gets carried away by the angels. He gets a first class escort to Abraham’s house and sits beside old Abe at the dinner table with servants and everything. Eventually, the super rich guy kicked the bucket and was buried.

In hell, the rich guy looks over a great chasm and sees Lazarus over at Abraham’s place and they are porking out. The rich guy says, “Yo, Abe, I could use a little help over here why don’t you send Lazarus over and dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am getting fried in this place.”

Lazarus says to Abraham, “I’ll be happy to go over and give him some water after all I know what its like to be in need of sustenance.” “Why is he only asking for a drop of water from my finger to his tongue? That won’t do anything for his thirst.” Abraham says, “No my son its not his thirst that is tormenting him it is all the disparaging remarks he made about you when you were at his front gate. You see he had important dignitaries coming over for dinner and other social gatherings and you were the first thing they saw when they got out of their limos. It wasn’t an appealing sight and it devalued his status in the eyes of his important guests. That’s why he cursed you whenever he would walk by you. Now his tongue is burning as a reminder of the things he said to you. That is why he specifically asked that you be the one to touch his tongue. Because he knows when that happens he will be forgiven and his torment will ease.”

Then Abe says to the guy who used to be rich, “Child, you seem to be forgetting something.” The used to be rich guy says, “What, what, what am I forgetting?” Abe says, “Back in the day, you had all the fixings and trimmings and Lazzo here didn’t have squat. Now you’re the beggar and he’s got food coming out the yahoo. Are you beginning to smell the coffee?” The guy who used to be rich says, “Hey man you gotta send somebody over to my brothers and warn them about this place because I don’t want them coming here.” Abraham says to the used to be rich guy, “I know you don’t, and we both know why.” The used to be rich guy hangs his head in shame and apprehension.

Lazarus says to Abe, “Why is he so afraid of his brothers coming to be with him?” Wouldn’t that help ease his pain?” Abraham says, “No my child, he knows that his brothers will hold him accountable for their demise. You see the rich guy was the oldest of the family sons and it was his Judaic responsibility as the oldest son to be an example for the other family members to follow. The other sons will blame him for their being sent to Hades and that will only make matters worse for him.



Jesus told this story to the religious leaders of that day (Luke 16:14) because they believed that God loved rich people, that’s why they were rich. Jesus was trying to get them to understand that they had a responsibility to the poor and infirmed, as Lazarus was both, because the poor were children of God as well. The religious leaders believed only those who are rich and powerful would end up in heaven and the poor and sick were cursed by God and deserved hell.
This story was Jesus’ way of setting the record straight.

The story does not suggest that all rich people go to hell and all poor people go to heaven it is just the Lord’s way of removing class distinction as a means of determining God’s judgment. The story of Job clearly stresses the point that even those who do right in the sight of the Lord may see evil at an unimaginable scale.

As believers we must get away from the notion that when someone suffers its because they did something to deserve their demise. The saying “I must be doing something right because good things are happening to me” is a false understanding of our relationship with God. Things that occur on this planet can be complex and confusing and may not have anything to do with whether or not we are following closely to God’s instructions. The first century Christian leaders were following God’s instruction and they all suffered terribly and most faced execution as a result of their commitment to God.

Indeed, the same needs to be said of our Lord who chose to live as a homeless vagrant rather than a king. What did He do to deserve that?