David Bahn – Reflections

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on 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.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶ 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.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Where do you fit in this story? Are you the rich man who dines in full view of the poor and callously ignores them? Or are you a poor man sitting outside a rich man’s gate covered in sores and wishing for even a morsel of food from the rich man’s table? I’m guessing you might not be able to identify with either one. We would all wish to identify as one carried to Abraham’s side. That’s heaven. None of us wish to be taken to hades and suffer that agony.

Jesus makes the comparison so extreme that there is no wiggle room for the rich man in his callous disregard of the poor man’s plight. This is not just a story of a priest passing by on the other side.  This is a man laying at the rich man’s gate. He had to see him every day. And there’s the problem.

“Time in erodes awareness of,” I like to say to church leaders who are crafting a mission plan. We tend to ignore things we’ve seen again and again. So too, the poor. They are easily overlooked. But they ought not be.

We were in China on our way to a restaurant for our evening meal. A man with no legs and dressed in rags was begging on the sidewalk. We had been told to be careful of beggars. Our missionary leader, however, took out some money and gave it to the man. I asked about that, and he said, “He looks to be in legitimate need.” I wish I had given him some money as well.

There will come a time when we see how richly we have been blessed. And as Mother Teresa said, “Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.”

We may always have the poor among us. But that should not erode our awareness of them or blind us to the opportunities we have to serve them. After all that is what Jesus did to serve poor miserable sinners such as us. He didn’t overlook us. He served and saved us and calls us to do the same. Furthermore, Jesus has risen from the dead. Surely we will listen to him!