Patrick Comerford
Lent began over two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and this week began with the Second Sunday in Lent (Lent II). Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers the life and work of Saint Cuthbert (687), Bishop of Lindisfarne and Missionary.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Bonifacio Veronese, Dives and Lazarus, 1540-50. Oil on canvas, Gallerie dell’Accademia, VeniceLuke 16: 19-31 (NRSVA):
[Jesus told this parable:] 19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25 But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27 He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house – 28 for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29 Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30 He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31 He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”.’
The Rich Man and Lazarus … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Banbury, OxfordToday’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading today (Luke 16: 19-31) is a popular Bible story. We usually know this as the story of Dives and Lazarus, and it is almost as well-known a story as the parables of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son.
But there are some unique and distinctive aspects to this story.
For example, this story is found only in Saint Luke’s Gospel.
Surprisingly, God is not named in this story. But, of course, as in the Book of Esther, God is seldom named in the Gospel parables either. Instead, the parables challenge us to think who is God for us by asking us to see who is most God-like, who acts like God would act.
The poor man at the gate is named, but the name Lazarus could be confusing, because this is also the name of the brother of Mary and Martha, the dead friend Jesus raised to life in Bethany.
The name Lazarus, or in Hebrew Eleazar, which means ‘the Lord is my help,’ is an interesting name for those who first heard Jesus tell this story, for the rich man in his castle certainly is of no help to the poor man at his gate.
Abraham is named. And Moses is named. Both are key figures in this story, for all the descendants of Abraham are promised that they are going to be children of the covenant with God. And it is Moses who receives that covenant in the wilderness on Mount Sinai. The man at the gate, who is being ignored by a leading religious figure of the day, must have been made to feel hopeless, outside the scope of the covenant, abandoned, in a wilderness, impoverished, exiled outside the community.
But there are six other characters in the story – and not one of them is named.
The Rich Man, who is at the centre of the story, is sometimes called ‘Dives.; But the name Dives is one he does not have in the Gospel story, in the parable as Jesus tells it. Tradition has given him the name Dives, but the rich man is anonymous and he has no name. The name Dives derives simply from a misreading of an early Latin translation of the Bible.
The rich man has five brothers, but not one of these is named either.
I like to think this man is anyone who claims to be religious but who falls in love with riches. It is not his wealth that is his downfall, but his love of wealth and how he uses it.
The Apostle Paul is often misquoted as saying money is the root of all evil. But what he actually tells Timothy is that ‘the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,’ and that, ‘in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.’
It is possible be religious and rich at one and the same time. But if I appear to be religious, I need to be careful that my religious practices are not a contradiction of, a denial of, the way I live my life in the world, and respond to the needs of others.
God’s covenant is only meaningful when it is lived as a covenant of love. The rich man loves himself first, and, perhaps, his family, his own inner circle second. But that is as far as his religion goes. It does not go beyond his own front door.
I like to think Jesus is playing a little game with those who are religious and listening. The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) is told that she is wed to five husbands but has no true marriage at all.
The five husbands could represent the first five books of the Bible – the Torah. The Samaritans would not accept any other writings as Holy Scripture, and there was a joke among Jews at the time that the Samaritans were so insistent on these five books alone that it was like being wedded to them. They were the Biblical fundamentalists of their day. She is being told that you cannot be wed to Holy Scripture and have a covenantal relationship with God without love. She realises that just as being wed but without love is no marriage, so being religious without love is no religion at all.
Love is the active ingredient of true religion. And when that dawns on her, she becomes one of the greatest missionaries in the Gospels.
Similarly, Jesus may be playing a game with those who are listening to today’s parable. If the rich man, as it appears, is a priest of the Temple, then he too is a religious figure. But the priestly caste of the day were Sadducees, not Pharisees. And so the Pharisees who were listening to this story (verse 14) would have known that the Sadducees too refused to accept as part of the Bible any books other than the first five – when it came to Holy Scripture they only admitted those five into the family of faith.
The rich man realises that being wed to the Torah without love is no covenant. But unlike, the Samaritan woman, it is too late for him when this truth dawns on him.
There is no covenant without love, and this is true for marriage and for religion.
There is no true religion without love … not self-interest, but love for God and love for others.
Of course, there is one other character in this story who is not named. This is not a human character, but an animal – the dog.
There is a 1996 movie produced at the Sullivan Bluth studios in Dublin, All Dogs go to Heaven, with a voice over by Burt Reynolds. But, while we think of dogs today as faithful pets, there was a religious tradition in the time of Jesus that dogs did not get into heaven.
Lazarus is hungry and covered with sores, and sits outside the gate of what must have looked like a Heavenly City inside. He is in such a condition and in a place that even the dogs come and lick his sores (verse 21). For its time, this is a description of abject living, so abhorrent that this man is totally outside normal, good clean company. He is in the wilderness, in exile, and at a point where only God can redeem him.
Dives is not a single identifiable rich man. He is each and every one of us. Who among us, on first hearing this story, as it opened, as the first part of it began to be told, would not have delighted in the lifestyle of the rich man. After all, how often do I find myself saying, quite rightly, all I want is for me and those I love to have somewhere decent to live, decent clothes and decent food?
But that decency turns to indecency when these things soon become all we want in life … and want nothing for others, have no place for meeting the needs of others.
I heard a comedian once complaining about the size of a pizza slice he was served in a café – if you had a pie chart for what you would do if you a won a million in the lotto, this was the size of the slice for what I would give to charity, he said.
Having lost his compassion for others, especially the needy on his doorstep, Dives loses his religion, for without love there can be no true religion; and Dives loses his humanity, for I am only human in so far as I am like God and love others.
The loss of Dives’ humanity is symbolised by his loss of a personal name. I am baptised with a personal name, and so incorporated into the Body of Christ; that name is how I am known to God and to others – God calls me and you recognise me by my name. Without a name, can Dives remain in the image of God? Can he be called on by others as a fellow human being?
On the other hand, the coming of Christ turns all our skewed values upside down: those we think are most outside God’s compassion and outside the Kingdom of Heaven may well be those most likely to be signs of what the Kingdom of God is, and to be reminders of kingdom values.
Lazarus who is an outsider becomes the true insider; Lazarus who is totally poor becomes rich in the one way that really matters; Lazarus who is at death’s door finds eternal life.
The dogs too play an important role – like the woman who mops the brow of Jesus on his way to Calvary, and the women who weep with him above the city … they do not take away his suffering, but they tell him that his suffering is shared in creation.
So, who is most like God, most like Christ, in this Gospel story?
Those who first heard this story, would initially have expected the person to be most like God to be the religious leader, the one who can cite the Bible, call out to Abraham and Moses. And those who first heard this story would initially have expected the person to be least like God to be the beggar at the gates, the man outside among the dogs.
But is that not what Christ is like? He gives up everything to identify with our humanity in his incarnation, life and death; he is rejected, suffers and dies outside the city walls.
You may not want to be like Lazarus, but Christ wants us to be like him. And we are most like him not when we hope for riches and pleasures beyond our reach, but when we love God and when we love one another. God calls each and every one of us to be like him, to love like him, and when he calls us he calls us by name.
We may marginalise others, we may exclude others, we may push others outside the gates. But God never counts me out, God never excludes you, God never closes the gates on others. We too, despite what others may think of us, are invited to the Heavenly Banquet. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast.
The story of Dives and Lazarus has inspired great artists, and composers like Vaughan Williams
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 20 March 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Truth: The Path to Reconciliation’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 20 March 2025) invites us to pray:
Loving God, we pray for the healing of our divided communities. Teach us to listen deeply and respond with empathy, following the path of truth that leads to reconciliation.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who called your servant Cuthbert from following the flock
to follow your Son and to be a shepherd of your people:
in your mercy, grant that we, following his example,
may bring those who are lost home to your fold;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Cuthbert and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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