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Not all fat people are jolly. Not all bald people are brainy. Not all poor people are good. Not all rich people are bad.

We love this parable of our Lord's because we love to feel superior to the rich man. Would you have helped poor Lazarus? The world is filled with millions every bit as bad off as Lazarus was described. The world is also filled with many rich people who are strong and faithful disciples of the Lord. The world also has its share of poor diseased heathen. The parable isn't so much about contrasts as it is about comfort. If you're "under the cross" you need to be comforted. This text isn't even so much about the obvious: people with faith go to heaven at earthly death while people who have rejected the truth of The Savior go to hell. That's true of course. But Jesus tells this story to comfort people who need to be comforted. People like Lazarus. People like you.

The rich man isn't even named. He is referred to with a dismissive "certain rich man." The other man is correctly identified as a beggar, but is also given a name, Lazarus. God is the God of creation, fruition, order and family. God names His own, even as He had Adam name all the creatures. Of course the beggar has a name, it was written in the very "book of life" [Rev. 21.27] before the world was created. The Lord knows Lazarus' name for it is inscribed in His very own palms, [Isaiah 49.16]

Jesus was rich beyond description. This Son of the King of the Universe, gave up His "wealth" and took on human flesh and blood. Jesus left his big beautiful house of heaven and came to a disease-ridden "gutter" world. He was surrounded not by dogs but by fishermen, tax-collectors and whores. Ironic. In the eyes of the angels, Jesus became a "kind" of Lazarus Himself in order to save all Lazarus's --- even in order to save all deluded and erring "rich men." The rich man broke both "tables" of the Law. He didn't love his neighbor as himself. He didn't love God, he didn't even believe in God. Jesus took those sins upon Himself; He took your sins as well. Not once was Jesus called by His "given Name" by His enemies. They referred to Him as "this man." He became sin for us.

In the story, the rich man clothed himself and fed himself. He didn't think he needed the grace of His creator. He didn't need a redeemer. He did it himself. "Fine clothes" and sumptuous food. God of God and Light of Light clothed Himself in flesh and blood from the Virgin's womb. Messiah clothed Himself in 33 years' worth of perfect obedience, just to get to the point where He would allow Himself to be clothed in a fine purple robe by Pilate's torturers. The dark hue of the purple becoming darker still by His shredded back streaming out the precious blood of God. All this your Lord did for you so that you might be clothed by Him. He covers you in His blood, first poured out for you in the waters of baptism. The rich man thought he was feeding himself. You like Lazarus know where your real food comes from. Jesus feeds you the bread of heaven which is His very flesh; the Life of the World.

Lazarus points to Jesus. The Prince of Peace becomes a "beggar" for you. Born in a barn, exiled to a foreign land, speaking the truth of His wandering last few months: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." [Mt 8.20]

Lazarus full of puss-oozing sores laying outside the big house; Jesus, "for you" full of blood-oozing open wounds laying high on a cross outside of the city itself. Both despised.

It is felicitous that the character in the parable does in fact have a real-life bearer of the same name, Jesus' dear friend of Bethany, Lazarus the brother of Martha and Mary. That real-life Lazarus also points to Christ's person and work. Only the Christ of God could raise someone from the dead. Only the Son of God, God in Flesh, could die for the sins of the world and then raise Himself on the First Day of the Week.

He raises you on the first day of the week --- over and over again; a picture of what He will do for you at the Final Advent; the resurrection of all flesh.

Jesus' famous parable has many fine homiletical points. The glimpse of hell is quite horrific. It's nice to know that because of the great "chasm" there can be no ghosts walking about, notwithstanding Charles Dickens.

But "the" point is Jesus the Word. Jesus speaks through the voice of Father Abraham: "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." The Lord is not speaking of the Law, the Commandments, He is testifying to His own revelation in the Hebrew Scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi. The Word has been given to the Jews, and now to all people. The Word is God's revelation of His Son, His Grace, and His Love. Jesus once told some Pharisees who searched the Scriptures, that those writings testified of Him. [Jn. 6.39] "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word." [Rom. 10.17] "God, Who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son..." [Heb. 1.1-2] He still speaks by the Word.

The "speaking" won't be by miracles, glory, flash, dazzle and spectacle: "if only one goes to them from the dead..." No. The enemies of God didn't believe on Jesus after He raised the widow of Nain's son, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus, or Himself. Only the Word produces faith. Jesus speaks the Truth: "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets [the Word of God --- both Law and Gospel] neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." Not sight....Word. Not sight....Faith

You are Lazarus. The Church is Lazarus. Though you are small, despised, neglected by the "world" (neglected when not being persecuted), an embarrassment, covered with sores (sores of heartache, disappointment, emotional and physical turmoil, temptation, guilt)...... like Lazarus you have an eternal dwelling where all tears will be wiped away and you will be comforted in the bosom of Abraham, (the Arms of God). Like Lazarus of Bethany you have already been resurrected from the only death with any sting + ... the death of unbelief. You have been Baptized.