Today’s (9/29/07) Gospel reading is from Luke 16:19-31 and is Jesus’ story of the rich man and poor man who both die at the same time and the rich man goes to hell while the poor man goes to heaven. This parable reveals a great spiritual truth, however, because it’s usually interpreted superficially, it is terribly misunderstood and a source of great confusion.
In summary, the story is about a rich man who has a poor man named Lazarus living just outside his house but never gives him any food or help. They both die and Lazarus goes to heaven and sits besides Abraham and the rich man goes to the netherworld or hell. The rich man is able to see Lazarus and Abraham in heaven and asks for a drop of water but Abraham denies and tells him that during their lifetime he received what was good while Lazarus received what was bad. He then says that Lazarus is now comforted while the rich man is now tormented and that there is a great gap between them that can’t be crossed. The rich man then asks to send Lazarus to warn his family but this request is also denied.
The following are three incorrect assumptions that are often drawn from this parable and which lead to a lot misunderstanding:
- God hates the rich. Of course this is incorrect and the idea of God hating anybody is ridiculous. The lesson here is that when you are emotionally and mentally “attached” to your possessions, you don’t understand what’s important. You’re suppose to be detached from all things of the material world, not only physical possessions but also base emotional and mental possessions such as superiority, depression, bigotry, anger, immaturity, pessimism, close-mindedness, lustfulness and fear. Ideally you align yourself with the “things” of spirit and when you do you can have all the material possessions you want but you won’t be attached to them and if you lost them you would be centered in your connection with spirit.
- God loves the poor. Again the idea of God loving or hating a person and their financial status is ridiculous. There is no virtue in being poor. The issue is not what you have or don’t have but how you’re aligned with spirit. A poor man who is attached to a sense of self-rightousness or self-importance because he thinks it’s “spiritual” to be poor is as separate from spirit and will be as tormented as the rich man in Jesus’ parable. Further, to the extent that a person is poor due to being slothful, indifferent and lazy, he will also be separate and in torment because we’re intended to be productive and contribute to the growth of God’s humanity even if in a small way.
- God won’t grant your requests if you get on His “bad side”. God doesn’t give Lazarus the two things he asks because, figuratively, Lazarus is distant from the divine due to his attachment to the material world and his lack of compassion toward Lazarus during their lifetimes. The gap is not closed by simply a direct giving of the requests rather Lazarus must make an effort to understand how to be generous, compassionate and aligned with spirit and thereby close the gap on his own. In this way the divine find a stronger vehicle with which to work with and express itself. This is a true act of love by God, Who does not have a “bad side”, and is in no way a punishment.
Cheers,
Brendan
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2 comments ↓
The parable can be taken literally or it can be taken with a great deal of added imagination that is not supported by any other Biblical text. You have mostly done the latter. It is consistent with the instructions of Christ to give and expect nothing in return that the rich man should not be giving purely in the expectation of reward. (You and I agree on that). Also a poor man is not virtuous for being poor as such (he should not be slothful and wasteful - as we agree again). However the rich man has a position where he has more wealth than he needs for his basic survival, and thus he must be greedy by definition. There is no doubt that the poor and the greedy would like to ask him for his belongings. Whether they have the right to have those things or are just robbers achieving easy wealth for themselves, the Christian action is to give away wealth and live a life dedicated to the poor. Mother Theresa is the most well recognised example of this.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also tells us to be like the lillies of the field, and not to worry how we shall feed or clothe ourselves, for God will provide. We are not to build up wealth for ourselves or make financial plans.
Knowing this context, we can see that God wished the rich man to give his richness away and dedicate his life to helping others. And that is a very literal and straightforward interpretation of the parable.
The difficulty is that people find this too hard to accept and want excuses to simply buy off their guilty consciences with a donation to charity.
@ThinkPositive…two quick thoughts: (1) you say that a rich man has more wealth than he needs and by definition is greedy…I think this is a illogical fallacy and it makes me think you need to outline for all of us just how much money we should have and any excess should be sent to “the have nots”…it’s called Socialism/Communism. (2) the whole point of the article is that a literal interpretation is wrong and the rich man is NOT suppose to “give his riches away and dedicate his life to helping others”. He is simply not suppose to be attached to his wealth which, by the way, was most likely gained by providing a useful service or product to others and in the proces helping them and probably employing - and therefore helping - others.
Brendan
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