There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

Luke 16: 19-25



19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’





Today’s title is “The Tales of Two Rich Men”



The gospel of Jesus Christ is very easy to understand. It doesn’t require higher education to understand what Jesus preached and taught. Any ordinary people, young and old, rich and poor, could understand what Jesus has taught. The level of intelligence of the listeners was never an issue. Many times children with less intelligence but with a more open heart could understand the truth of gospel better than highly intelligent people with a narrow mind. That is probably why Jesus said, “Unless you become like children, you will never enter into the kingdom of God”. At the same time, we should be very careful not to oversimplify gospel messages. Oversimplification is a distortion of the gospel message as much as overcomplication does. Today’s passage is one of the gospel messages that can be oversimplified. In fact, I have found such oversimplification of this message frequently among believers. In this story, we encounter a rich man and a beggar who are high in contrast. The rich man indulged himself in earthly luxury while the beggar was completely destitute. And we see that the welfare of those two is completely reversed in heaven. Everybody can see the apparent spiritual lesson from the story. Selfish indulging in earthly luxury without any concern for neighbors could lead to eternal torment. But frequent oversimplification goes a little further. It demonizes the rich man. Some even used this episode to justify hatred toward the rich class. I believe that Jesus never meant that with this parable. Although Jesus had great compassion for the poor, he never advocated the economic or social classification. In fact, Jesus depicted God as a rich owner who is good and compassionate to his laborers in many of is parables. There are good and bad rich men as there are good and bad poor men. I can see the stark contrast between the two rich men in chapter 16 of the gospel of Luke. Jesus gave another parable about a rich man at the beginning of Luke chapter 16. The rich man is a complete opposite of the rich man we see in today’s passage. He is such a gracious owner. He wants His servant to use all of His own possessions to save the lost souls. Gospel is the good news for both the poor and the rich. God has equal compassion for both. What matters to Him is not who has more or less but who cares for the souls more. I wish all of my beloved people to become rich. We just need to make sure which rich men’s class you belong to. What kind of rich man do you want to be, a selfish earthly rich man or the caring heavenly rich man? The choice should be obvious.