There is a baptism at the Saturday night Divine Service
=======================================================
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
The rich man wore rich clothing and ate rich food every day. Lazarus
begged for crumbs at the rich man’s gate and suffered the embarrassment
of dogs licking his sores every day. When both men die, Lazarus is in
Abraham’s bosom every day for eternity and the rich man suffers the
torments of hell every day for eternity.
On the surface there’s nothing wrong is Jesus’ parable. The rich man
and Lazarus both get their rewards. God loves poor people and hates the
rich. It’s that simple.
Not really.
The point of the parable is four verses before the beginning of today’s
Gospel: Jesus tells the Pharisees: For what is highly esteemed among men
is an abomination in the sight of God. Our Lord’s Words are the perfect
message for the perfect target audience. The Pharisees need to be
brought down a peg. They seek the best seats at a banquet. They seek
acclaim among men. They are rich in this world but will be poor in the
next.
And you are right there with them. When you esteem the things of this
world over the one thing needful, you are condemned with the rich man in
Christ’s parable. You could have everything you needed, and then some,
but it won’t bring you into the heavenly mansions. Even if you knew God
gave you fame and fortune as a gift, but you hoarded everything for your
own good, you are condemned.
Saint James confirms what Jesus says in Luke chapter 16 when he writes:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon
you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your
gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness
against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up
treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed
your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the
reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on
the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a
day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he
does not resist you.
It’s important to remember that James, and Jesus, condemns the wrong use
of riches. It is not a sin to be rich. It is a sin to love riches more
than God. Saint John writes in the Epistle: If someone says, "I love
God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And
this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his
brother also.
Your brother is not your bank statement. Your brother is not locked
away in a storage facility putting on age so you can pull it out in a
few more years, bring it to “Antiques Roadshow”, and see how much you
can get for it. Your brother is seated next to you. Your brother lives
next door to you. Your brother works alongside you at your job. Your
brother may not be covered in sores and dog spit but he or she is
suffering in ways you can’t begin to imagine. Every week you sing Lord,
have mercy in the Divine Service. He has mercy, but you would not.
Though you would not have mercy, God the Father in His mercy sends His
only-begotten Son to become as poor as poor can be for you. Jesus, our
priceless treasure, becomes the God-man Who is of no reputation in order
to make you both rich and a Lazarus!
Lazarus means “one who trusts in God”. Though Lazarus did not have
money, food, fine clothes, and prestige, he trusted in God above all
things. He trusted that God would make him richer than any man on
earth. He believed in God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
Sound familiar? It should. The same thing happened to Abram. Abram
had no heir to keep God’s promise of a Savior from sin alive. Abram was
ready to take matters into his own hands through Eliezer of Damascus.
We know that he did take matters into his own hands later, even after
God promised him a son through his wife Sarai. Though Abram did not
trust God’s Promise of an heir, He had mercy upon Abram and kept His
promise…and then some. Look now toward heaven, and count the starts if
you are able to number them…. So shall your descendants be. Abram
believed what God told him. God counted Abram’s trust in the Promise as
righteousness. Lazarus didn’t have all that Abraham, or the rich man,
had. But he did have a Promise made to him by God. That Promise
brought Lazarus and Abraham through death to life. His Promise will do
the same for you and me.
When Jesus gives up His spirit on the cross, His Blood signs, seals, and
delivers the Promise of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation first
made to Abraham. His Promise is ours because we are Abraham’s
descendants not by blood, but by trusting the Promise in the flesh.
Samuel John Busse is a child of the Promise tonight. His name is
written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We may as well call him “Lazarus”,
for the Lord has shown His mercy to Samuel through water and the Word of
God. It is our hope that John, Jenny, his sponsors, his grandparents,
and all of us who witnessed his baptism will keep him in mind of the
Promise God makes for him at the font. When we enter God’s House and
receive His Gifts through preaching, absolution, baptism, and the Lord’s
Supper, we receive the benefits of God’s Promise. He puts life into us;
the life that tramples down death forever. He puts forgiveness into us
and separates us from sin as far as east is from west. He saves us from
the bitter pains of death and hell and will take us to heaven to live
with Him there.
God grant it for the sake of Jesus Christ Who changes your name to
Lazarus, “one who trusts in God”, and makes you rich every day here in
time and every day there in eternity.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
--
Rev. David M. Juhl
Our Savior Evangelical-Lutheran Church
Momence, IL
http://oselcmomence.googlepages.com
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