The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

Jesus Christ used the parable of the rich man and Lazarus during a confrontation with the Pharisees who did not believe the Word of God.

"A parable is a figure of speech, which is a repeated or continued Simile – an illustration by which one set of circumstances is likened to another. The likeness is generally only in some special point. The resemblance is to be sought for in the scope of the context, and in the one great truth which is presented, and the one important lesson which is taught; and not in all the minute details with which these happen to be associated. The thing, or history, or story may be true or imaginary; but the events must be believed to be possible by those who hear it, though it is not necessary that the speaker should believe them." Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, Dr. Bullinger

Those who say that when you die you go to heaven, which they mistakenly call paradise, often refer to this parable for the basis of their argument. Is that what Jesus Christ was saying in this parable? To find the answer, let's begin in the context.

“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.” Luke16:13,14

Jesus Christ was speaking to the Pharisees. These religious leaders were covetous and when they heard what Christ said, they derided him. This gives us the reason for what he is about to say.

“And he said unto them, Ye [the Pharasees] are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16: 15

This vividly exposes the character of the Pharisees to whom he was speaking. Many of the things that they believed and taught were opposed to the Word of God.

In chapter 11, these men said that Jesus Christ cast out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Later, in Luke 11, the Lord Jesus called them “fools and hypocrites”.

“Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” Luke 11:52

Jesus said that they hindered those who wanted to learn God’s Word. They prevented God’s people from knowing the truth that God revealed in His Word.

These men made the Word of God of none effect by replacing it with their traditions. They held their traditions in high regard, but their traditions were an abomination in the sight of God. Their deceitful handling of the Word of God brought about the Lord’s scathing reproof in 11:37-54. He condemned them for their traditions saying some six times, “Woe unto you”.

“The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. “ Luke 16:16 and 17

Jesus Christ told them that it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for any detail of the law or the prophets to fail.

The Lord then turns to their traditions concerning death and “the afterlife”. This is yet another instance in which they made the Word of God of none effect by their tradition. Before we read the parable, read what Jesus said to his disciples immediately following it.

“Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences [stumbling blocks] will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:1 and 2

This is similar to what he told the Pharisees in chapter 11, concerning their teachings. He calls their teachings offenses or stumbling blocks and pronounces their condemnation for the damage they did to God’s People.

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the Lord is speaking to the Pharisees. The Lord used their own teachings, which he put in the mouths of the characters in the parable, to rebuke them.

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Luke 16:19-28

The parable expressed the Pharisees' teaching, not what God said. They embraced the teachings of Plato concerning death and the immortal soul.

They believed that the dead were not dead, but that they were alive in an afterlife and that they could communicate with the living. In the parable, the rich man wanted to send a dead one to the living to testify to those of his father’s house to testify to his five brethren which were alive. This is what spiritualists believe and do in a séance, not what the Word of God teaches.

The Word of God does not teach any of the ideas used in the parable, but the Pharisees did, even though their beliefs all came from pagan origins.

The Pharisees boasted that Abraham was their “Father”, so in the parable, the Lord Jesus put his words in Abraham’s mouth. His purpose was to condemn the Pharisees for their devilish traditions, not condone them.

Every detail of this story can be traced back to the traditions that the Pharisees taught and believed – not to anything that the Word of God declares as truth.

The Pharisees’ traditions can be found in the Talmud. Their traditions were passed down in many of the early Christian writings and Greek Apocryphal books of the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. contain them.

At the end of the parable, the Lord delivers the punch line by putting his words in Abraham’s mouth:

“Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Luke 16: 29-31

The Lord said that they had the Word of God that Moses and the prophets wrote. What do “Moses and the prophets” say about resurrection? These are a few examples:

• Exodus 3:6 and following
• Job 14:1-13; 19:25 and 26
• Psalm 16:9-11; 17:15; 21:1-7; 23; 49:15 (this whole Psalm contrasts Israel’s hope with the death of the ungodly); 73:24 and 25
• Isaiah 25:8; 26:19 (compare the end of the wicked in 14 and 19b)
• Ezekiel 37:11-14 (Israel’s restoration clearly includes resurrection)
• Daniel 12:2
• Hosea 6:2 and 3; 13:14

He further told them that if they would not hear Moses and the prophets, meaning what God said, they would not believe even if one rose out from among the dead . . . and he was right!

The Lord placed the witness of the Scriptures and the witness of the resurrection side by side. Time and again he asserted the absolute authority of God’s Word concerning spiritual matters.

We must always weigh what men may say about spiritual matters against the teaching of the Word of God. The Scriptures are the benchmark of truth.

This parable does not reinforce the teaching of the Pharisees – it does just the opposite – it condemns it. The point of the parable was to believe what God revealed to Moses and the prophets concerning the resurrection from the dead.

Romans 10:9 reveals that one must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead if he is to be saved. They believed neither, cursed children that they were. There is no other release from death and corruption than through the Lord Jesus Christ; he is the resurrection and the life.

Thank God for His great grace in providing us the release from death through the the Lord Jesus the Christ and his accomplishments. You will be saved from death and corruption when he comes on the day of redemption, dearly beloved!