The Other Lazarus

Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts I do understand.”

I was thinking of this during Thursday’s Gospel reading about Lazarus (not the Lazarus who was raised from the dead.  The other Lazarus…):

Jesus said to the Pharisees:  There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.  And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.  Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.  When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.  

     The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.  Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’  Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.  Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’  He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’  But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.  Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead. (Lk 16-19-31)

The message of this is very clear and very convicting especially for those of us who are materially well off.  We are called to care for the poor.  It’s ironic that the rich man in the parable wants Lazarus to return from the dead to warn his brothers.  Even in the afterlife, he was still blind to the fact that Lazarus was also one of his brothers.

           Generosity is not something that comes easily to me.  And I, like the rich man in the parable, have difficulty recognizing all people in this world as my brothers or sisters.  While I sometimes stress over how my 401K is doing or how much I have in savings, I have exponentially more money anxiety over how I am using my resources to help the poor (or rather how I am failing to use my resources to help the poor).  Maybe that anxiety is a bad thing, but then again, maybe it’s not.

I think Mark Twain would agree that this is one of those stories that is easy to understand but troubling because we are not great at living it out.  Perhaps, we start by putting effort toward the things we understand before tackling the more complex ideas.