Money, money, money ….

 As I looked at the readings for this Sunday I remembered the ABBA song, ‘Money, money, money, ain’t it funny in a rich man’s world’. The gospel reading (Luke 16:19-end) has in it the powerful parable spoken by Jesus of the rich man and Lazarus.

In the parable, there is a rich man, someone who, in worldly terms, had made it.  This is why the ABBA song came to mind. In the world of the rich man he can ask for whatever he wants, and he gains it. In the parable, he eats well and has everything he could ever want. In the parable we are told that he is so rich he doesn’t even notice the poor man at his gate. The rich man wouldn’t even give this poor man the leftovers of his wealthy meals. 

 

After death, the rich man in his suffering sees Lazarus with Abraham. The rich man with the help of Abraham realises that the roles have been reversed. The rich man, who ignored Lazarus actually shows the extent of his ignoring of the poor man by the fact that when he needed help, he suddenly knew Lazarus’ name. 

 

When Jesus told the parable he was repeating an already known parable. However, in the other version, the rich man gets what he wants when Lazarus goes to the brothers of the rich man and warns them what can happen when you ignore those in need. In the version Jesus told, this did not happen.

 

It sounds really mean perhaps.  It is like having ‘Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens without Scrooge having a chance to see what he had done and was doing wrong in his behaviour. 

 

Jesus is making the point that you can hear a story, but you need to let that story ask you questions. The rich man had been given all the good things. The people of Israel had heard all that God could do for them and continued to do. Moses had given the law and the prophets had taught them how to live. The answer given to the rich man in the parable, as to whether Lazarus could warn his brothers is that they had Moses and the prophets. 

 

Jesus was challenging people to realise that they couldn’t enjoy a relationship with God that was one-sided. They needed to reach out and help others. As Jesus taught, they needed to see both who he was and the need to follow Him.  Perhaps we could take this as a warning to not just enjoy a one-sided relationship with God.  The type of relationship where we do not follow the behaviour of God. 

 

I think that Jesus was pointing out that in the same way that the rich man missed what was right in front of him we can do the same. Also, whilst we would probably be shocked at the behaviour of this rich man who ignored Lazarus, what would we see about ourselves and the way we treat not only others but God Himself which would shock us? 

 

In the epistle reading (1 Tim. 6:6-19) there is an evaluation as to the correct way to live, as being one which doesn’t rely on and worship money to the extent that we can lose our focus on God. I was particularly struck by the last part of verse 19. In this verse, there is a description of what people living a righteous life do and then the end product of all this,  “… so that they may take hold of the life that really is life”. 

 

This explains what the rich man was missing, he was missing life in its best form. A real-life, one based on what comes after as well as what is here now. A real-life based on and rooted in a relationship with God.