1 John 4.16–21 + Luke 16.19–31
There is a life after this one. Heaven or hell. The bosom of Abraham—the place of comfort and rest to which the angels take Lazarus, or the torments of hell which the rich man finds himself in upon death. This life after death is attested to by Moses and the prophets. Jesus says in Luke 20[:37-38], “Even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” Moses also testifies how the life of comfort and rest is attained in the next life. He writes of Abraham in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Life, peace, rest, comfort, and joy in the life to come is only attained by faith in God’s promise. No amount of good works can attain that life. For one, we already owe them to God. Two, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (64:6). God commands good works. He commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But any work or love that does not flow from faith, St. Paul calls sin (Rom 14:23). Good works only are good because they are done by the one who places their trust in God’s promise as Abraham did.
This is why the rich man Jesus tells us about had no works of love. He let Lazarus languish outside of his front gate. He could have helped him but chose to neglect the poor beggar instead. He could have had his table scraps or leftovers taken to the man, but chose not to. Why didn’t he help the beggar at his gate, the neighbor whom God had placed their to exercise him? He chose not to because he did not have true faith in his heart, and so He had no love for God in his heart. St. John reminds us in today’s epistle, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 Jn 4:20). True faith and love for God would have produced love for his neighbor and moved him to help poor Lazarus. The rich man certainly had faith, but not in God’s promise. His faith was in his riches. He had set his heart on them so that his wealth and his comfortable lifestyle had become his idol. He expected all good things in life as long as he had riches, as long as he protected his riches, and as long as he enjoyed his riches. And faith in riches cannot produce love for neighbor. Faith in riches only produces more and more love for one’s self and it’s idol. Thus, when the rich man dies, he finds himself in the torments of hell. While he was a child of Abraham by blood, He was not a true child of Abraham. During his earthly life he never repented of his false faith—loving riches and trusting in them for every good thing, and the lack of love his false faith produced.
Lazarus on the other hand, has nothing but faith. He doesn’t even have any good works of love. This is because love, even love that flows from faith, is not what justifies us before God. This is evident from the fact that that we had nothing in this life, and though he only had sickness and debilitation, when he dies, angels take him to the bosom of Abraham. And you only go to the place where Abraham is if you were righteous like Abraham was, who believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Poor Lazarus, like his father Abraham, believed God’s promises, especially the promise to send a Messiah who would make atonement for the world’s sins and justify believers. Jesus tells us that this was the faith of Abraham when He told the Jews in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Faith justified Abraham. Faith produced love in Abraham as well, so that Abraham rescued lot when he was kidnapped by the king of Sodom. Abraham’s Faith produced love by which he loved his son Isaac and—although very imperfectly—loved all of his other children after Isaac. Faith produced love in Abraham as a witness and testimony to the fact that Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him for righteousness.
This is the faith in which Lazarus lived. He had nothing in this life. Yet, he is the one escorted by angels to the bosom of Abraham when he closed his eyes in death. Lazarus would have had good works of love if he had of had health, because He loved God by faith. Even if he had the good work of praying for others—which is still well within the power of even the bedridden person—those works would still not have justified him, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified as St. Paul writes in Galatians 2:16. Works of love follow faith as good fruit comes from a good tree.
It’s this life of faith—believing God’s promise as Abraham believed—which justifies, so that when you close your eyes for the final time and death, the angels will carry you to Abraham’s bosom, Paradise, eternal rest and true blessedness. There you will live with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all who have died in the faith but continue to live to the Lord, serving him, praising him, rejoicing in His salvation, and waiting with them. Waiting, because Abraham’s bosom is not the final promise. All who live to Christ Jesus in paradise eagerly await the resurrection of their bodies on the Last Day, when they will be made whole, with glorified bodies, to reign with the Triune God forever in the new heavens and new earth. Yesterday, angels escorted our brother Matt to Abraham’s bosom. And though we mourn, we do not mourn without hope, for we know that Matt, like Abraham, like Lazarus, like all the elect, believed God’s promise in the gospel and was counted, by God, as righteous by that faith. He, with all our loved ones who have died in the faith, are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev 7:15-17).
Too many imagine that, like the rich man, they can be externally of Israel and still worship their lifestyle, their wealth, and their creature comforts. Too many place their faith in the things of this world, thinking that as long as they have those things, they have everything they need. Too many view riches, popularity, worldly honors, and pleasures as signs that God counts them righteous. Yet none of these idols justify anyone before God. Nor does trusting in them produce the love for neighbor. Like the rich man, trusting in riches—or any worldly thing—only produces a sinful love of oneself. Too many will, at death, go to Hades where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where they will be in torment in that flame, having missed the time of grace during which they had the opportunity to repent of their sin and believe God’s promise as Abraham did. The rich man serves as a warning to us so that if riches, popularity, worldly honors, or pleasures increase, we do not set our hearts on them, but set our hearts on things above, where true joys are to be found. With this Christ would warn His faithful against the subtle creep of unrecognized idolatry, lest we share the rich man’s fate.
Christ would have us be Lazarus instead, so that no matter what He gives and what He takes away in this life, we trust in His mercies. Christ would have us be Lazarus so that regardless of whether we have good health or poor, riches or poverty, popularity or persecutions, we believe God as Abraham did, who did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform (Rom 4:20-21). This is the faith that justifies. This is the faith that will lead you to the bosom of Abraham on your last day, to perfect comfort, peace, and rest. And until that day, this is the faith that will lead you to love one another in a true Christian love. For we have this promise: he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 Jn 4:16). May God grant us this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
