Forming Faith Blog

Lazarus and a Lover of Money (Luke 16)

Posted on March 18 2025 by Gregory Rawn

Jesus illustrates a few of his Blessings and Woes—and God’s special concern for vulnerable people—with an ironic parable of an unnamed rich man and a neglected Lazarus.

A man in green jacket lying on floor, likely homeless like Lazarus.
Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com
The Journey of Lent 

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and the cross, but he continues his ministry of teaching and healing. So far on these Sundays of Lent, we have heard the Parables of the Good Samaritan, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. Jesus has called all people to repent. This week, we get another parable, the one commonly called The Rich Man and Lazarus.

In truth (kinda), this is the middle of three readings involving wealthy men. You wouldn’t normally include the Parable of the Prodigal Father in a list of passages about wealth, but the details of the story make it clear that the father is at least reasonably wealthy. The selfish son reasonably expected his portion of the inheritance to be worth something and the father had servants and a fatted calf ready for slaughtering. This is all context to the real action of the parable, but it is a positive picture of a rich man.

Next week, we get the story of our most popular short tax collector, Zacchaeus, who demonstrates his thankfulness of Jesus’ love by giving away half of his wealth and making restitution for his wrongs.

The Pharisees, Lovers of Money 

Context matters. Not only do we need to seek to understand the historical, cultural, etc. contexts of the original writers and intended audiences, but we need a most basic literary context. Jesus is talking, but who is he talking to? To answer that, we need to scan back to verse 14:

 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.

Luke 16:14

I love doing word studies, so I often have the handy-dandy Bible Hub website open while I’m writing these blog posts. I was struck by a few things related to today’s reading, but one of them is “lovers of money.” Translation is difficult work, and we have to give the scholars who do that our appreciation. But, instead of the three-word phrase, the Greek has one, the adjective philargyroi. “Lovers of money” is a completely accurate translation, but it has a bit of an ambiguous connotation. Is loving money good or bad? Alternate translations are not ambiguous at all: avaricious or covetous.    

So, Jesus is talking to so-called commandment-obsessed people who ignore the whole “do not covet” part of the Ten Commandments.

Irony of Rich and Poor

A bit of cultural context is good here, too. In many places in the Old Testament, it is clear that wealth is a sign of God’s favor and poverty can be a sign of God’s disfavor. (This is, in part, where the prosperity gospel comes from.) In some ways, this is suggested by the introduction of our parable. The NRSV translates the phrase “feasted sumptuously.” Accurate, but the word for “feasted” is the same as used in the father’s celebration of the return of his lost son (e.g., Luke 15:24). It is about joyous celebration. These celebrations were luminous, bright, and shining (sumptuous). So far, so good. These are good things. But, we start seeing the trouble immediately. This shining celebration is not a special occasion. It is something the man does every day.

This is directly followed by the description of the wretched man Lazarus. The man’s daily feasting contrasts starkly with the starving man at the gate. Lazarus is not just starving (though that’s enough), but he is covered with sores with the indignity of unclean animals coming in contact with him. He possibly did not have the energy to keep the dogs away.

One ironic thing here is the name Jesus gives the poor man. Lazarus is from the Hebrew Eleazar, which means “God has helped.” God has clearly not helped this man. A cultural assumption might be that God has helped the rich man and punished the poor man. But for Jesus, it’s the other way around. This fits with his previous Blessings and Woes:

Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”

Luke 6:20-21

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

Luke 6:24-25

The rest of the parable illustrates these blessings and woes. The rich man had his consolation (Luke 16:25) and is suffering, while Lazarus suffered and is sated in the kingdom of God.

God’s Priorities

Throughout the Gospel of Luke and most of the Hebrew prophets before him, God’s priorities are clear. While God can bless someone with success, God’s concern is for vulnerable, suffering people:

Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the [immigrant], or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

Zechariah 7:10

The unnamed rich man was a bad steward of what God had entrusted to him. He did not use his time, talents, and enormous treasure to serve God or others. He only used them to serve himself.

What You Do with It

Very few of us would qualify as rich, at least according to our definition (in 2024 it’s $2.5 million in net worth). But God has entrusted us with what we have, who we are, and the time we have available. How do we use them? What kind of stewards are we? Do we serve God and our neighbors, or only ourselves?

It is important to note, as you are preaching and teaching this, that it is likely that someone who hears you is barely making ends meet, or not even doing that. Some do not have a minute for self-care, much less time to volunteer. We don’t want to spare the feelings of our financially comfortable participants, but we also do not need to add spiritual guilt to the already heavy burden people are carrying.

In Christ’s incomprehensible love,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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