The Lot & Life to Come
3/21/25 Bible Thought (Luke 16)
Money is frequently a matter of great concern for people. Truly, we aren’t in a bartering society, and we need money for just about everything. Now, in Scripture, money itself is never considered much of a problem, but rather the love of it. As the apostle Paul once concluded, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Tim. 6:10a).
Paul is merely picking up what Jesus Himself taught concerning money in today’s passage. Jesus warns,
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Luke 16:13).
He says this within earshot of the Pharisees who are described as lovers of money (Lk. 16:14) and in the midst of other things that he shares Jesus tells a parable about a certain rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.
The rich man’s lot in life was very good. He had the best clothes. He enjoyed feasts regularly. It makes sense, because he was rich. Surely, he couldn’t complain.
Next, we’re introduced to a poor man named Lazarus. He desired to be fed like a dog with the scraps from the rich man’s table. Speaking of dogs, the man was covered with sores and stray dogs would lick his sores as he lay at the rich man’s gate.
His lot in life was awful. He didn’t enjoy good things down here. He didn’t feast. He wasn’t clothed nicely. He didn’t have riches. His life was rough, the exact antithesis of the rich man’s. Ironically though, Lazarus, who is the only one named in a parable of Jesus, has a name which effectively means “God helps.” [1] Surely, his name doesn’t seem fitting at all.
As the story progresses, both of them die. The rich man is carried to Hades and the poor man is carried to Abraham’s bosom (Lk. 16:22-23). It seems that these are probably interim places, as James Edwards writes,
“Following physical death, but prior to final judgment, souls of the departed were believed to inhabit an interim state in Hades that included a separation of the unjust from the blessed, along with their initial punishments and rewards.”[2]
Now, the rich man is in eternal torment receiving the reward for his life of loving money and rejecting the poor. In this, he pleaded that he could have Lazarus dip his finger in water to help cool his tongue (Lk. 16:24). To this, the response comes from Abraham,
“Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” (Lk. 16:25).
The rich man had no concern for Lazarus in the former life but was too consumed with his own selfish greed. Now, Lazarus wouldn’t be of any help to him.
Certainly, the rich man was the envy of all on the earthly side of eternity. But his love for money separated him from God and his life of pleasures ended with torment. Whereas the poor Lazarus, who had nothing good, is comforted. The story ends with Lazarus’ name becoming reality. Truly, God had helped Lazarus, it just didn’t come in life on earth.
Truly, God had helped Lazarus, it just didn’t come in life on earth.
This parable is a shocking reminder of the realities of the life to come. Our lot in this life might be good, it might be bad. We might be rich; we might be poor. We might have nice things; we might have bad things, or really next to nothing as it pertains to possessions. Yet, if we have an eternal, living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have everything.
If I know the living God through His Son Jesus Christ and have been redeemed from all of my sins, then truly I’m rich. No matter how poor I might be down here I am blessed.
The realities of the life to come are just as true and real as our present realities. We oftentimes lose sight of this though because the present stares us in the face and at times is overwhelming.
If we were in Lazarus’ shoes in this story, certainly it would be difficult to overlook all the present trials. Nevertheless, there’s an eternal inheritance for all those who have trusted in Christ and no matter what our lot in life is down here, we can rejoice in that! As Paul once concluded, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).
But for those who have rejected God and His gospel, no matter how good their life was down here, the story ends differently. The rich man, in torment, begs for one to be sent to his family to warn them. But Abraham responds and says that they have Moses and the prophets (Lk. 16:29).
Effectively, God’s Word is enough. The rich man says, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Lk. 16:30). To this, Abraham concludes that if they won’t believe Moses and the prophets then they likewise wouldn’t believe if one were raised from the dead (Lk. 16:31). The irony of all this, of course, is that even after Jesus the Christ was raised from the dead, many still didn’t believe.
We need to trust God’s Word. To trust God’s appointed means for salvation. To turn to the Savior from a life of sin before it’s too late. Finding eternal bliss and comfort in the life to come depends solely on how we respond to God’s gracious offer of salvation in Christ.
Will we be blessed in the life to come? If we will be, it is through Christ and Christ alone.
[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 452.
[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 469.
Thanks for sharing. Quite the contrast between Lazarus and the rich man. They traded status in the afterworld - Lazarus being far richer in heaven than is even possible on earth, and the rich man being far poorer, and in complete anguish, for eternity.