The Rich Man and Lazarus: When Money Blinds You

Introduction

“You need a savior, and I am giving him to you.” That's God's core message for all of humanity. An essential message. And yet you might be asking yourself the same question the preacher asked this morning: if it's so essential, why doesn't it land harder? Why do we ourselves so often struggle to proclaim it?

There's a general reason: human pride, which says, “Saved from what? No thanks, I don't need anything.” And there's a reason more specific to our context: our financial and material comfort. We live in the West, in a city, in a neighborhood where a lot of people are doing pretty well financially. We're soaking in a great lie dressed up as a promise: “Since money can give you everything you need here and now, tomorrow's stakes are really secondary.”

See the dramatic distortion this puts on your perspective on life. A kind of tunnel vision sets in, one that turns you toward the here and now and keeps you from taking the real stakes of life seriously. It's a deadly poison. And it's the solemn warning Jesus gives in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16:19-31.

Jesus isn't saying that having money, even a lot of money, is inherently wrong. He isn't saying being poor gets you an automatic ticket to heaven either. His point is elsewhere: watch out, money blinds you. Blinds you to what really matters in this life. Blinds you to the terrifying reality of hell. And blinds you to the way of escape.

Outline of the message

1. Money blinds you to what really matters in this life (v. 19-22)

• The immediate context is the Pharisees, who loved money and, hearing Jesus, sneered at him (Luke 16:14). Jesus answers them publicly, in front of his disciples, because there's something here every disciple, in every era, needs to hear.
• Take the parable at verse 19 and cover up the rest. This is a moment for honesty. Humanly speaking, which of these two men would you rather be? “There was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
• Let's be honest: humanly, we'd rather be the rich man. We tell ourselves, “money doesn't buy happiness, but it helps.” Why? Because we're not living among Pharisees; we're living among people caught in the very same trap. Owning money can lead to money owning you.
• Money has the power to harden your heart and blind it to what's precious. You end up serving yourself. You live a trivial, fleeting life without even seeing how ridiculous it is. Look at certain athletes stepping out of their cars in absurdly expensive, absurd-looking clothes: they can't even see it anymore. You don't need much money at all to fall into the same pattern. You turn inward, tend to the trivial and the fleeting, and go deaf to the needs of others.
• What's truly precious in God's eyes, the rich man doesn't even see. He doesn't give so much as crumbs. What's truly precious is the value of every person before God, even the smallest, even those invisible to the glamour of his own day.
• The question for you, disciple of Jesus: are you turned toward what's precious in God's eyes, or toward what's precious to your wallet? Does it show in how you use money? As we saw last week with the parable of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1-13), the riches of this world are all “unrighteous” in the sense that the point is to use them the right way.
• A spending target can help you sort things out. In your budget, there's what's vital, what's important, what's useful, what's nice, what's excessive, and what's flat-out ridiculous. If a lot of lines lean toward the excessive and the ridiculous rather than the vital and the important, you're missing what's precious to God. And if you confuse the ridiculous with the important, if appearance is what counts, then you no longer see what actually matters.
• That's why Jesus says in verse 13: “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You aren't able to serve God and Mammon.” The rich man in the parable had put himself in the service of Mammon.
• But the story doesn't end there. Look at verse 22: “The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.” You can want to live it up before you vanish into dust. Plenty of people around you live exactly that way, and it's a temptation in you too. But your death isn't the end. Money blinds you to what really matters in this life.

2. Money blinds you to the terrifying reality of hell (v. 23-26)

• There was only one thing truly precious for the self-sufficient rich man: eternal life. “Abraham's bosom” is the joyful presence of everyone who has placed their faith in God. What really mattered was being saved, escaping God's judgment and hell.
• “Hell? Give me a break. That's for children, for naive people, for people from the Middle Ages.” In our post-Christian context, we've been shaped by cartoonish images (the pitchfork, little devils, forked tails, barbecues) that turn faith in the reality of heaven and hell into a joke. That's a real problem.
• This parable is unusual. Unlike others, Jesus here pulls back a corner of the veil on the unseen reality that's coming. Ask the question again at verse 23: which of these two men would you rather be right now?
• It's remarkable to see how caught up in his own pride this man still is. He still considers himself Abraham's son (“Father Abraham”). He still sees Lazarus as a servant (“send him to dip his finger”). He still believes everything is owed to him, that there will be a way out, that there's still room to negotiate. He hasn't grasped that there's no relief to be had anymore.
• Hell exists, in its terrifying reality. Verse 23: “In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.'”
• Abraham answers: “Son, remember that you, in your life, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.” (v. 25-26)
• Notice four things. Hell is a place of torment and pain, not barbecue and carefree fun. Hell is eternal torment. Hell is a road with no way out, irreversible, final. And it is a great, uncrossable chasm: the moment of God's judgment.
• This is the great reversal Jesus had already announced in Luke 13:28-30: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God's Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God's Kingdom. Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”
• Which would you rather be: comfortable now and tormented forever later? Or suffering now and joyful forever later?
• Lazarus's name matters. Lazarus means “God helps,” “God comes to the rescue.” The poor man never opens his mouth in this parable, but he has a name. The rich man, on the other hand, never stops talking, never stops arguing, but he has no name. Take heart: what's in your pocket or your bank account says nothing about your future destiny. The Lord comes to help. The Lord saves.
• Money can't offer you that. Worse, it has the power to convince you that everything must be lived for the here and now, and that nothing comes after. An extremely powerful blinding power, one you don't need to be rich to fall into. Even the illusion that you'll still be able to work something out later: there's no waiting room before heaven, no place where you can negotiate with some mediator. It's decided now.
• The proof is Jesus himself. His miracles, his teaching, his death on the cross, his resurrection, the very reason for his coming: all of it answers to the existence of hell. The reason Jesus came as a savior is because hell exists on the other side of judgment. That's the proof, through Jesus. You need a savior.
• Agrippa d'Aubigné, a Reformed poet, wrote of the torment of the damned: “there, without dying, one dies.” You need the courage to speak of this reality, hidden from your own eyes and mocked by the world around you.

3. Money blinds you to the way of escape (v. 27-31)

• If you take what Jesus just said in verses 19 to 26 seriously, what's the logical response? What would you want to do? The preacher tells the story of a man, now deceased, who told his family: “If all this is really true, if it's really that dire, I'll find a way to come back and tell you, so you can get ready.”
• That's more or less what the rich man does in the parable. Verses 27-28: “I ask you therefore, father, to send him to my father's house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won't also come into this place of torment.”
• Abraham answers: “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” The rich man insists, still bold: “No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” A great, thoroughly convincing miracle, surely.
• Verse 31: here's the key. “If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.”
• God has warned all of humanity in the Scriptures. The warnings are abundant throughout the Bible. Psalm 95:7-8 says it already, centuries before Jesus: “Today, oh that you would hear his voice! Don't harden your heart.” In Jeremiah 5:11-13, God laments those who say: “He is not; neither will evil come on us; neither will we see sword nor famine.”
• The central lesson, for you and for the message you carry: if you're not willing to listen to what God says in the Scriptures, no miracle, however great, will make you believe the real stakes of life. You've probably met people who say, “If Jesus came back, if there were really miracles, then I'd believe.” Jesus himself says that not even his own resurrection would convince them. Because if hearts are hard, they're hard.
• The way God has chosen to call hardened hearts to change is his word. Not a miracle, not someone coming back from the dead, but the word of God. It's what reveals the state of your heart, the conviction of your sin, your radical need for a savior.
• Verse 15 recalls what Jesus told the Pharisees: “God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” A typical resistance born of human pride is refusing to listen to what God says, so as not to see the stakes, so as not to have to escape hell.
• The main response you can offer comes down to four movements: listen, to see the stakes; fear, the eternal stakes of heaven and hell; humble yourself, before God instead of setting yourself up against him; repent, meaning turn toward God and away from the evil that separates you from him and hardens you. And above all: believe in the savior. The reason Jesus came is precisely that hell exists. He gave you a savior; the point is to believe in him and find hope.

Key takeaways

• Money isn't inherently bad, but it blinds you. Owning money can lead to you being owned by it.
• What's precious in God's eyes isn't glamour or luxury living: it's the value of a person like Lazarus before him, and eternal life.
• Hell is real, terrifying, final. Mocking its existence doesn't make it disappear; it only helps you avoid the essential questions.
• The proof of hell's seriousness is Jesus himself. He came as a savior because hell exists on the other side of judgment.
• The way of escape isn't a spectacular miracle, but a humble listening to God's word that leads you to repent and believe in the savior.

Personal application

• If I honestly look at my budget through the lens of “vital / important / useful / nice / excessive / ridiculous,” what does that reveal about my heart?
• Who is the “Lazarus” I pass by every week without seeing? An isolated coworker, a fragile neighbor, an invisible brother or sister in my church?
• How do I react, deep down, when I hear people talk about hell? Do I laugh it off along with everyone else, or do I take it as seriously as Jesus does?
• Do I really listen to “Moses and the prophets” (that is, the Scriptures), or am I still waiting for some spectacular sign before I decide?
• Who, this week, could I speak to about the savior with courage, without looking away from the reality of judgment?

Scriptures cited

• Luke 16:19-31 · The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (central text)
• Luke 16:13-15 · “You aren't able to serve God and Mammon”
• Luke 13:28-30 · The great reversal in the kingdom
• Psalm 95:7-8 · “Don't harden your heart”
• Jeremiah 5:11-13 · Those who say “He is not”

FAQ

Does Jesus condemn being rich?

No. Jesus doesn't say having money, even a lot of it, is inherently wrong. Nor does he say being poor gets you an automatic ticket to heaven. What he calls out is the blindness money produces: believing you're self-sufficient, no longer seeing the value of a Lazarus, no longer taking eternal stakes seriously. The question isn't how much you own, but who owns your heart.

Isn't hell just an image for remorse or suffering here on earth?

No. In this parable, Jesus pulls back a corner of the veil on an unseen reality that's coming. He describes a place of torment, a road with no way out, an uncrossable and final chasm. The proof of how serious this reality is comes from the very coming of Jesus as savior: if hell were just a metaphor, there would have been no need for the cross.

If Jesus came back today and performed a spectacular miracle, wouldn't everyone believe?

That's exactly the rich man's objection in verse 30: “If one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Abraham answers in verse 31 that if you don't already listen to “Moses and the prophets” (that is, the Scriptures), no miracle, however great, will change a hardened heart. Jesus confirms this in his own way: his own resurrection didn't convince everyone. The means God has chosen to speak to your heart is his word.