All About Mercy
Luke 16:14-31[1]
I’ve mentioned
recently that we live in a world divided. That may be an understatement. I
would say that our world is more divided today than perhaps at any time in most
of our lives. We’re divided by race, divided by class, divided by politics.
We’re divided by national allegiance, divided by language, divided by whole
outlooks on life. We’re divided by our sources for the news of what’s
happening in the world. We’re divided by what we believe constitutes “truth.”
Many have observed that what we once believed was a “social contract” that held
our world together has dissolved. In a world such as that, it’s no wonder that
people are going their separate ways, positively angry toward those who differ
with them on a whole list of issues.
When that division
spills over into our faith, it creates some problems. Perhaps the most serious
of them is that we presume to know what is in another person’s heart. Because
of that we think we have a right to criticize them for their actions. That kind
of backbiting is out of place in the Body of Christ! The Bible makes it clear that
it’s only God who knows our hearts (Lk 16:15)! Any effort on our part to stand
in judgment of another person is at best premature, and at worst we are
usurping a role that belongs only to God. As St. Paul said, God is the one who
“will show the real reasons why people do what they do” (1 Cor 4:5, NIrV).
It may seem like a
stretch to relate all of this to our Gospel lesson for today. But the reason
why Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was because the
Pharisees’ hard-hearted attitude toward those they judged to be “sinners.”
Jesus had “proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom” to them and had spelled out
its implications for their lives. He told them that living for the kingdom of
God meant being faithful with their wealth, it meant showing mercy to
“sinners,” and it meant sharing generously with all people. He ignored their
petty rules about what should or shouldn’t be done on the sabbath and used the
day to extend God’s mercy to those who needed it most. And they ridiculed him
for it, and ultimately had him killed.
The reason for this response was that they saw
Jesus’ kindness and mercy toward “sinners” as breaking God’s commands and
therefore dishonoring God. Their whole outlook on what it meant to be faithful
to God was centered around who was “clean” and who was “unclean.” Of course, in
their own eyes they were not only “clean,” but they were also “righteous”
before God because of the way they rigidly kept their own rules. Anyone who
didn’t keep those rules just as strictly as they did was a “sinner” in their
eyes. And they believed those whom they labeled as “sinners” were unfit for
God’s grace, or mercy, or love.
In their eyes, Lazarus
would have been one of these “sinners.” He was not only “poor,” he was
destitute. Very likely, he was “laid at the gate” of a rich man because of some
physical disability. The contrast between the two men couldn’t have been more
striking. The rich man wore the finest of fine clothing, while Lazarus was
covered with sores. The rich man feasted extravagantly every day, while
Lazarus only longed for the scraps from his table. The rich man would have been
seen as a “pillar” of the community, while Lazarus would have been judged as a
“sinner” who must have done something to deserve his fate in life. And he
certainly would have been excluded from God’s mercy in the eyes of self-righteous
people.
But we have to
remember that Jesus had announced at the beginning of his ministry that he had
come to proclaim the “good news” of God’s kingdom precisely to the “poor” (Lk
4:18). It was about setting “the burdened and battered free” (Lk 4:18, MSG).
It was about calling sinners to turn to God, not so-called “respectable people”
(Lk 5:32, TEV). It was about being kind and merciful to others, all
others, just as God is kind and merciful to us (Lk 6:36). It was about seeking
and saving those who were “lost” (Lk 19:10). And, above all, it was about
hearing God’s word and obeying it (Lk 8:21, NLT).
You may be wondering
why I haven’t said anything about “heaven” or “hell” in connection with this
parable. I’ve done that because the point of this parable isn’t about the
afterlife. It’s about the way the “religious” people of that day, like the rich
man and his brothers, had ignored “Moses and the prophets” and their clear
teachings about showing kindness and mercy especially to the destitute. This
parable is about the fact that in the kingdom of God the lowly are lifted up
and the rich are sent away empty-handed (Lk 1:52-53). As Jesus said, “all who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted” (Lk 14:11).
Jesus told this story
to confront the religious people of his day for their hard-hearted, mean, and
stingy attitude toward those they had judged to be “sinners.” This attitude was
a direct result of the fact that they “justified themselves in sight of others”
(Lk 16:15). And because of that, they believed Jesus’ actions toward the poor,
the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected were an abomination in God’s
sight. But Jesus was “showing the real reasons” for their attitude: their own
hypocrisy. And he turned it all around on them: he said that it was their
self-righteous and stingy hoarding of God’s mercy for themselves that was the
true abomination! But when it comes to the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “everyone
is urged to enter it” (Lk 16:16). Everyone. The kingdom of God that Jesus
preached is all about mercy for the poor, the outcasts, the unwanted, and the
rejected. It’s for everyone!
[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/25/2022 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/r76nVDKjMmU
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