The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (16:19-31)
In today’s reading we are met face to face with certain uncomfortable realities according to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are met with the realities of wealth and luxury as well as great poverty. We are met with the realities of life and death. We are met with the realities of heaven and hell. All of these realities are presented to us within the framework of this parable or story told by Our Lord Jesus Christ. For us, a parable of Jesus Christ becomes the truth because it is the word of truth from the mouth of the one who is Himself the Truth.
We hear of the rich man who has no name. One of the signs of his wealth is the fact that he was clothed in the fanciest of fabrics and that his fabric was purple. You might see movies where there is a king or queen who is dressed with a purple robe and this is because the purple color was rare and very expensive. We are also told that this man feasted sumptuously every day. He ate plentifully. He was always full, while in contrast there was a beggar who was near the gate of his property, his estate. This poor man, named Lazarus was so impoverished, was so hungry, that he wished only to sit on the floor near the table and pick up the scraps that fell from the table in order to have something to eat and fill his belly which ached from hunger. To add insult to injury we are told that this poor, poor man had to endure dogs who came to lick his sores. But something was about to happen that would change the entire situation. This event would reset all aspects of their existence. They both died.
Until now we live and pretend that death is not a reality. I mentioned to you a few weeks ago that we are often controlled by our deep fear of death. It pushes us to fall into sin. We are moved to pursue illusions of happiness and security and control in order to avoid wrestling with the reality of death, but as fallen beings we pursue happiness and security to an extreme that leads us far away from God and from our neighbors and even our loved ones. We see this example in the life of the nameless rich man. He likely worked hard and he was certainly blessed by God. His blessings turned into wealth and yet his blessings became a curse due to his own attachment to greed and luxury, which are offsprings from the fear of going hungry and lacking safety and happiness. The rich man failed to see that everything that was given to him was from God and even more, that God expected that this man would bless others as he himself had been blessed by God. But the rich man was selfish and only concerned with filling his belly and his accounts. He did not have a heart at all for the needs of others. While a man lay at the gate of his property, unable to have one decent crumb, let alone a proper meal, the rich man ate for two. This is a great sin in God’s eyes.
Now, of course, not everyone is financially wealthy, but before you consider yourself safe from this parable, remember that people can be rich in many ways. Perhaps you are not rich in your savings account but you may be rich in the number of garments and the clothing that is sitting in your closets and drawers and boxes that are in the attic. Perhaps you are wealthy in talents or rich in intelligence or in your physical health. Perhaps you have abundant free time. God knows who you are by how you use these blessings He has given you. In the case of the rich man, God never saw him using his abundant riches to benefit anyone other than himself. He had turned a blind eye to the poor man who begged for a morsel. For these reasons, God did not even recognize the man by name. Furthermore, it seemed to this man that after his death, God and the saints, turned a blind eye to him.
We are told that both men, the rich man and Lazarus died. The poor man Lazarus was carried to a place called “Abraham’s bosom”. The rich man, we are told was in a place called Hades, in torment. Now as some of you may know typical English translation will translate this word Hades as “Hell.” This is a theological interpretation but it is an unsound translation. There are 3 words in the New Testament that are commonly translated as “Hell” while in fact each word has a unique usage and meaning. The word that is most often mistranslated is this word “Hades.” The meaning of this word is “the unseen,” the place or state of the departed spirits.
“In The Complete WordStudy Dictionary Edited by Sprios Zodhiates Th.D and Dr. George Hadjiantoniou Ph.D., the authors describe Hades as:
“The region of departed spirits of the lost…in the story of the rich man and Lazarus… [it has] been taken to put our Lord’s confirmation on the Jewish idea of two compartments in Hades, distinct from and yet near one another…Hades is associated with death. It expresses the general concept of the invisible world or abode into which the spirits of men are ushered immediately after death…In none of the passages in which the word itself occurs have we any disclosures or even hints of purgatorial fires, purifying processes, or extended operations of grace. The state of human beings in Hades is immediate and irreversible after death… Our Lord conclusively teaches in the story of the rich man and Lazarus that there is no possibility of repentance after death….Unfortunately, both the OT and NT words have been translated in the KJV as “hell” (Ps. 16:10) or the “grave” (Gen. 37:35) or the “pit” (Num. 16:30, 33). Hades never denotes the physical grave nor is it the permanent region of the lost. It is the intermediate state between death and the ultimate hell, Gehennah”
So we see that in fact the rich man and Lazarus are in some proximity to one another. They can see each other, they can speak to one another. The rich man pleads with Abraham, yet Abraham says to the rich man, “Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.” And Abraham likewise responds saying, “Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
This coincides with our Orthodox Christian understanding of heaven and hell not as literal places that can be found on a map, but as real spiritual states or conditions. Furthermore, it points to the fact that the real torment comes from the state of our soul when it encounters God. The soul who has not practiced and not cultivated love and mercy, will not feel love and mercy. Even the presence of God’s unending mercy and love would be experienced by such a person as everlasting torment or hell. This is much the same as a man who has been living in a dark place might experience the brightness of the sun for the first time. Indeed the Psalmist says, “Where can I go away from your spirit? And away from your presence, where can I flee? If I go up into heaven, you are there. If I go down into Hades, there is your presence.” (Ps 139:7-8)
The noted Roman Catholic Scholar Dr. Peter Kreeft writes that, “Hell is not thrust upon us from without. Hell grows up from within, a spiritual cancer. It emerges from our freedom and eats away that freedom, just as a cancer eats its host.” All of these things are consistent with the teaching of the Church fathers including St. Nikolai of Zicha who writes, That(God’s)fire gladdens the righteous and torments the sinners. It also torments us often, until we are completely cleansed of every unrighteousness, injustice, and impurity. For it is written, “Our God is a consuming fire.”May we each hear these words and proceed with caution and with great love, so thatlike Lazarus,we may know Love and thatLove Himselfmight know us.
Source: Sermons