Luke 16:13-20 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. And he said unto them, Ye 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. 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. Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery. 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, ...
Is the story of the rich man and Lazarus teaching us about the reality of heaven and the reality of Hell?
No.
Yes, Heaven and Hell are indeed real places and they do exist! But that is not the point of Jesus story. Luke 16:15 has Jesus saying that we must not justify ourselves before men. God sees the heart and it is the heart which must be justified – not the flesh. The things of the flesh are highly esteemed among common men. And Jesus said it is abomination to God. That is, flesh putting on an appearance by works and efforts is abomination. The things of the flesh are contray to the things of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.The Pharisees were indeed self-justifying men. They were self righteous. Self-righteousness is very much esteemed highly by people, and these folks were rich with it!Galatians 5:24-26 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Jesus taught a very important and enlightening truth when He said, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”
In other words, “Pharisees, it is not only an abomination in the way that you distort Moses’ law into an ego-feeding ministry, but Moses and the law are fulfilled, and have ended with John’s ministry of the Kingdom.”
The law was until John.
Next, Jesus said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, then one tittle of the law to fail.” Why would Jesus say that while speaking about the end of the Law. It sounds as though there is a contradiction: -– Moses law ended with John the Baptist’s ministry, but yet heaven and earth will end before Law passes away. But it is no contradiction. What Jesus said was similar to the words, “It was a great event when John preached the Kingdom. Heaven and earth could not change what John’s ministry changed!”
Then Jesus said another seemingly strange and off-the-issue statement. He spoke of marriage and divorce! It looks as though he completely changed subjects in the middle of a conversation. But he did not. Jesus spoke of divorce and remarriage as an illustration to prove the same point that He just made. Just as heaven would pass away before Law ever could pass away, but yet Law ended with John’s ministry, one cannot be divorced and remarried while one’s first spouse was still alive. The issue is concerning the possibility of the ending of a thing.
Let me explain. If one puts away his wife and marries another woman, he is said to commit adultery. And for another to marry the woman who was put away, is to commit adultery also. That’s what it is like to see the law pass away. Law simply will not die nor pass away. It must be fulfilled. And it was fulfilled when John’s ministry came on the scene. John’s ministry prepared the world for Jesus Christ, by baptizing people into death. Baptism is a burial of the person’s old lifestyle. DEATH is the issue. And Paul the apostle caught the very same illustration and used it in Romans 7. Let us go there to truly understand what Jesus had said.
Paul noted that before a person could remarry another person, one’s spouse must first die. DEATH is the key. That is what Romans 7 uses to illustrate the picture of our need to die in order to be loosed from the law of Moses -– the very issue Jesus dealt with in our text! It is very important to see that Paul used marriage and divorce as an illustration in order to explain to us how the gospel works.
Jesus explained that the law of Moses was finished at the time of John’s ministry. John baptized people towards repentance. Repentance causes self to die so that one's past is forgotten and erased. It was the death of a person that is involved in the picture of water baptism. So in just the same manner that Paul said DEATH frees a person from a spouse to be married to a second spouse, one is freed from law by death to serve Christ in faith. Without that death, one could not serve Christ in faith. One is bound to serve beneath Law. Similarly, Jesus said that law was in effect until John the Baptist, although law would outlast the expiration of heaven and earth, because John’s ministry involved death. John buriedpeople in baptism, indicating death. And through death alone, could one depart from the law and enter into the life of the New Covenant.
Pharisees who were self-righteous and covetous would simply not desire to die to themselves and their vain ways and be baptized by John towards repentance. their whole lives' goals contradicted the essence of the New Covenant.
Recall that Jesus taught about the error of serving two Masters. Those Pharisees who listened to Jesus then began to mock him.
Luke 16:13-14 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.The Pharisees were covetous. They were serving two Masters, and that was the same thing as committing adultery. They were not only holding on to the Law of Moses, but at the same time were using Moses to gather coveted esteem from people. They served mammon, and self-gain.
So Jesus first explained that the Law of Moses was fulfilled and no longer in force. To understand God’s reasoning in enforcing Mosaic Law, and then setting it aside and bringing in the covenant of grace, we must appreciate the fact that God leads us in grades. Law was necessary for a time, though it was not God’s ultimate goal for mankind. It was a means to His ultimate goal. It was a necessary hindrance.
For example, people must work in this world. Going to school and counting apples and oranges is not society’s desire for a child. Yet such is necessary in order for the child to one day benefit society and indeed work in this world. Schooling uses object lessons that form the basis and fundamentals of the greater forms of mathematics, for example, that a person will require and use in the work force in various places of employment. This is similar to the role of the Old Testament and Moses’ Law. It was a sort of grade school, with rituals that were preparatory object lessons concerning the realities in the new Testament spiritual kingdom. However, this grade school involved impossible-to-fully-keep laws.
Galatians 3:24-25 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.Lack of true desire for God’s will had caused the Pharisees to enjoy the elementary Law, as they managed to twist its purpose and use it to build their egos. They were missing its entire purpose and not experiencing its intednded effects. They were covetous, the Bible tells us. They were serving two masters and did not appreciate the remark by Jesus that serving two masters is evil. So law did not speak to them as they should have had it speak to them.
And while the law was being discussed by Jesus, he used divorce as an illustration to emphasize how powerful the Kingdom ministry is. And it was then that He discussed Lazarus and the rich man.
You must keep this transition in the discussion in mind. There was a reason that Jesus began speaking about the story of the rich man and Lazarus at that point of their conversation.
After telling the commonly-known scenario of who went to Paradise and who went to Hell, Jesus said that the rich man had five brothers. And he requested that Lazarus arise and inform his brothers of hell, and how they must correct their lifestyles. But Abraham told the rich man that his brothers would not change their lifestyles if they did not learn from Moses.
Luke 16:19-30 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. 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.Obviously the law of Moses is the topic of Jesus’ whole discourse here. It was his issue in speaking about John’s ministry ending it. It was the issue in speaking of divorce and remarriage being impossible with out death.
The rich man represents a Pharisee, and his brothers represent the Pharisees in general. Lazarus speaks of a true follower of Christ.
Law could not change the rich man’s brothers' lives, so neither would resurrection change their lives. Law had not change their hearts yet, and so neither would grace. We know that Law did nothing for the Pharisees because they only used it and manipulated it to their own gain by performing its rituals so that people would highly esteem them above all others. These men were covetous of people’s attention. They were filled with pride! Moses and the prophets should have been able to dissuade the rich man’s brothers from a life of lavish living and spiritual slackness. But they misused the law and made it of none effect. Hence, Moses did them no good.
Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were like the rich man who was covetous. They should have sought God’s help had they truly heard Moses’ message. Law was engineered by God to be extremely hard and utterly impossible to obey in entirety.
Peter described law as such:
Acts 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?And Paul explained what purpose Law served.
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.Law simply came in order to show man how terrible sin was within man. It urged man to work and man was left to try to fulfill such works, while at the same time sin that was in the flesh simply made it impossible for man to obey fully.
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.Law was designed to drive one to Christ. And when Christ came, those who had adequately learned the lesson from Law that man simply cannot make himself holy through good works, would have accepted Christ. Their hearts were ready for Christ. Note what lesson Moses and the prophets tried to tell the people. We must understand this in order to understand the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
The Pharisees missed Moses’ entire point. They used Moses as a way of drawing attention to themselves. That which is highly esteemed of man is nothing more than good performance. And the Pharisees were covetous of high esteem. So they performed using Law as a means to gain pre-eminence! Had they truly followed Moses’ law, they would have realized that nobody could keep it nor fulfill it. They would have sought God in a cry similar to Paul’s cry after he tried and failed to fulfill law. It would have humbled them to the degree that they would have accepted Christ!
Romans 7:22-24 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?Of course, Paul’s answer to the question of who would deliver Him was:God. God would deliver him from his own body by death, through the vicarious death of Jesus on the cross.
Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.Back to Jesus’ conversation in Luke:
Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye 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.The sumptuous feasts that the rich man enjoyed represent the Pharisees’ feasts of enjoying self-righteousness and the envy of people. Self-righteousness was esteemed by man very highly. Those feasts of the rich man were illustrations of the amount of high esteem Pharisees were receiving.
But the beggar received no such feasts. He is as those who seek not their own glory. They seek it not, and therefore they are not recipients of it.
But God sees the heart. God saw the self denial of the humble followers of Jesus Christ. Though they look like fools and beggars and are despised in the eyes of the self-righteous and the covetous, God sees them as His true people. Those who truly followed Christ were clowns and fools in the minds of the Pharisees. They were considered the lowest of society.
Lazarus put himself in poverty. He chose to not seek the envy of others and self-glory. Lazarus lost his life that he might find it again. He let go of covetousness. He, in effect, chose to lay at the gate of the rich man like a beggar as it appeared in the eyes of the covetous! For he knew that true peace and happiness awaited those who seek not their own glory.
Please understand that the law of Moses did not fail. It served its purpose. However, it was fulfilled!
Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.To enter into the Kingdom, one must be reborn. This constitutes death of the old life. All of one’s past is forgotten. Therefore, the remarriage, so to speak, is legal due to the element of death that was the key to legal remarriage in the law of Moses. On eis free from the Law to be married to Christ. And that element of death is achieved through the substitutionary death of the Messiah.
There was no rebirth involved in law. So, as hard as it was to be released from law to join with Christ, it was just as hard to be freed from a married spouse. It could not be done. Only death and rebirth could accomplish that. That was Jesus’ point.
You could say that mankind is taxed by God’s law until you become a child of God. Romans 7 tells us that so long as a man is alive, he is bound beneath the Law of Moses.
Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?And Paul went on to explain that by using the illustration of a married man and woman.
Romans 7:2-3 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.As death alone can free one from another so as to be able to marry a second spouse person, our individual deaths are provided through Christ’s death, so we can say that we died with Him. This frees us from “marriage” to law, so that we can be married to Christ, so to speak.
Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.We are dead to the law by the body of Christ because we joined Him in His death by our baptism into His death (Ro. 6:3). So we can say that by the body of Christ we died.
This is the issue that Jesus Christ was pointing out when He, too, spoke of marriage and divorce and law versus New Covenant grace.
Only the “children” are free – only those born again in to the Kingdom. To help us understand this truth more clearly there is another story in Matthew that clarifies things.
Matthew 17:24-26 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.Tribute was temple tax (Exodus 30:13).
In Matthew 17, Jesus told Peter, after Peter gave affirmation to the question of whether or not Jesus paid the temple tribute, that the children of the kingdom are free from taxation. Since Jesus was the Son of God, He was child of the King, so to speak. But so as not to offend the people, He told Peter to find a coin in the mouth of a fish and to pay the tribute tax. But the point was that He was Son of the King.
You could say that Israel was under the taxation of the Law. The temple tax was similar to tax issued by a king in his palace. Since it was temple tax, we understand that the King in the temple, God, taxed the people. Obedience to Law was the taxes demanded by God of the people.
After Jesus explained this to Peter, we read...
Matthew 18:1-4 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.In Matthew 18, this event was said to occur “at the same time” that He spoke with Peter about the children of the king being free, Jesus calls to Himself a little child and indicates that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a link here to the discussion of Peter, in other words. Keep in mind Jesus words concerning who is free from taxation.
In order to enter into the Kingdom, one must humble himself as a little child. The disciples had questioned who was the greatest in the kingdom. The fact was that seeking places of esteem would keep one out of the kingdom altogether, and that was exactly what the disciples were doing! One must be converted and become as a little child to enter the kingdom. Shirk esteem above others!
It is interesting that this is found immediately after Jesus spoke to Peter about His status as Son of God, the King, so as to not be taxed. It was as though Jesus said, “I am a Son of the King. I am freed from the taxation of the Law. But, you, too, can be a son of God. If you will be converted, you can be born again and be made a child of the King, too. And you will be freed from the taxation of the law of Moses! You will be free of Moses, for you will have died and been born again.”
So, once again we see the picture of achieiving our deaths through Christ’s death, as being freedom from marriage to the law, and rebirth occurring that we might be instead “married” to Christ.
Let’s return to Luke 16 once again.
Luke 16:30-31 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.The brothers of the rich man, the Pharisees, would not be persuaded of the truth, though one rose from the dead. It is fascinating to realize that a man named Lazarus did rise from the dead in John 11:43. And chief priests and Pharisees did not believe, neither were they persuaded of the truth by it, just as Jesus predicted in this story! (Vs. 43 – 53.) They never gave up their lust for self-righteousness!
In John 12: 10–11 we read that the Pharisees actually sought to kill Lazarus because many people believed upon Jesus because of them.
John 12:10-11 But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.That is how blinded they were! They were so filled with rage and envy, and hunger for the thing that the flesh of people highly esteem – self-righteousness – that they did not stop to think that Lazarus actually arose from the dead by a sheer act of God! Anyone who could not hear from Moses properly, would be so filled with pride that they could not be convinced even if one rose from the dead!
This resurrection of Lazarus accounted in John’s Gospel occurred in chronology in John’s account before the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. And so, too, was the discourse of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke’s Gospel. The triumphal entry in Luke can be found in chapter 19. In John, it was chapter 12. Lazarus was raised in Chapter 11 of John and the discourse was in chapter 16 of Luke.
Not only that, but later, after Jesus gave the Jews a sign they requested, the sign of death, being threee days and three nights in the earth and then resurrected, the Jews would still not believe. In fact, knowing something miraculous had occured, we read this of the Jews:
Matthew 28:11-15 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.Many times Jesus said that Moses and the prophets told of Him. This is one point that we must keep in mind when we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus. If the brothers truly heard and received Moses’ words they would indeed have been persuaded by the resurrection performed by Jesus, for Moses pointed to Jesus.
Moses wrote of Jesus. Again, the purpose of the law comes into play here. Not many understand the purpose of the law of Moses. In fact, many Christian believers still try to keep it today. The law was an impossible burden to carry. It was meant to effect the desire for freedom from lowly flesh, and show the futility of efforts to make oneself righteous through good works. Flesh made it impossible to keep the law. Matthew 15: 6 says that the Pharisees made the Commandments of none effect. They claimed to be free of the command to honour their parents by saying, “It is a gift by whatsoever you might be profited by me,” thinking that such a statement would take care of everything so as to freed them from the burden of ensuring they indeed did honor their parents. (Also Mark 7: 11).
King Saul of the Old Testament was another example of one who was covetous! He was covetous of David’s glory from the people.
The Pharisees were covetous, hence the rich man fared sumptuously.
This discourse by Jesus goes hand in hand with his teaching that if we lose our lives we will gain them. But if we save our lives, our natural satisfaction is filled now, but we will lose our lives afterwards.
We might be like beggars in the eyes of the covetous of our world, but
those who lose their lives by refusing to be covetous and who die with
Christ, giving their lives to serve Him, will find their lives again unto
eternal life!