[AI translation] I have preached God's message from the same Word in this church many times before, but each time I have only spoken of what Jesus was trying to tell us in this parable about our afterlife. Now, however, especially after reading a study by a Swiss theology professor, I was very struck by the worldly message of this Word. The fact that one of the characters in this parable goes to hell after death and the other to heaven has a history, a prehistory here on earth. And I would like to speak only of this prehistory, which then became the cause of the fate of the two men after death. What I would like to say now, following this parable, is what Jesus teaches about the rich man's relationship to the poor man.It is shocking to think why this rich man went to hell! Was he a loan shark, a man with a rotten life? No, or at least not in the parable. It simply says that he was a rich man who knew how to live life well, comfortably, pleasantly, joyfully. He was an artist who could make every day a holiday. And there is nothing wrong with that. It's good to be able to enjoy life and to enjoy the gifts of life! But! The problem is that right in front of his comfortable, happy home is the unveiled human misery . And the problem is that this rich man does not see it! He does not see it, he does not care! So his sin is not that he is rich, but that he is so selfishly rich, so selfishly rich for his own sake. That is the sin! The sin is the blindness that sees nothing but the SELF, the SELF's wants, needs, desires! And so this rich man lives, "rejoicing every day in his riches". And that is why this life is so terrible, because, as "rich" and "merry" as it is, it is still heading for the most hopeless depths, as the parable shows.
One might say that it is fortunate that the life portrayed here is not relevant to him, because if he were to compare himself to one of the two protagonists of the parable, he would feel much closer to the life of Lazarus than to the other. "Lazarus is my man," he would say, "whom the angels have brought into the bosom of Abraham! But is he really? For though it is true, as the old saying goes, that everyone has something in his life's journey that makes him sad, it is even more true that everyone, without exception, can be compared to this rich man of the parable. There is no one among us who does not have his own individual problems, burdens and difficulties, but there are always those around us who have even greater problems, heavier burdens and more oppressive difficulties than we do, and compared to whom we are still rich! And, Brother, even if you have great troubles - for there is no doubt that you do - believe me: there are many people, and very close to you, who would gladly exchange their troubles for yours, who look up to you, upwards! That is to say, we all have our Lazarus, we all have a Lazarus or two beside us, that is to say, that certain poorer and more miserable one who would wish to be content with the crumbs that fall from our better laid table before our gate! Let us see these! Let us notice such! This is the Lord's message to us today!
So let us not compare ourselves to the one who is higher, not to the one who is better off, who has more. Let us not always look up from below, but vice versa: from our own height down! We look for and notice the one who is lower down. Let us look where Lazarus lies. Stop comparing your fate with those above you: think of Lazarus! That belongs to you, a disciple of Christ! Why? Simply because that is what God does! That is the direction of God's gaze: from above downwards! From high to low! The eternal God, the mighty God, the rich God, out of the riches of His glory, is constantly looking down! In fact, he not only looks down, he comes down! He lowers Himself. So very low, that neither His form nor His glory is no more, where it now seems that we hide our faces from Him. He descends to the point where he himself becomes Lazarus, a beggar with all the wounds of poverty and shame! From the shining heavens to the stable in Bethlehem, from the heavenly throne to the cross! He became poor for us, being rich.
And that means, in effect, that God is now there with the Lazarus, in the Lazarus lot, in the very depths of human existence where the Lazarus lie, suffer, long, suffer! And if you want to meet Him, if you want to find Him, if you want to go to Him, to Jesus: then look for Him down there! He is waiting for you there! There, in the depths, He wants to draw you into His love. You have to go down into the abyss of another man's misery because that is where you get it, that is where you receive Jesus' love by loving that Lazarus there! That is why you look, you seek, you notice Lazarus! Only one thing: don't pass Lazarus by! Because then you'll pass by God! And to go by God is to be lost! Because that rich man passed by Lazarus, because he didn't see Lazarus, because he left him: therefore he didn't find God! And it is the sin of that rich man that brought him to damnation! - Oh, Brother, do not leave Lazarus lying there! Seest thou how much all turns on this, whether thou wilt see, whether thou wilt perceive Lazarus as thy brother? It is a matter of life and death for you!
So riches are not the sin! Oh, no! You are free to live and to enjoy all that God gives you in bodily, spiritual and spiritual goods. Just remember one thing: that there is someone else right next to you who may lack what you have. There is a Lazarus living next to you, a lonely soul, a man in trouble, a wretched, despised, poor in spirit, someone who lacks love, someone who perhaps lacks your love in a painful, tragic way! And he has no great claim on you: I would be content with the crumbs that would fall from your table - perhaps not your physical table, but your spiritual table! Have you ever seen, have you ever noticed such a man? Once again, the sin of this rich man is not riches, but not seeing the poor man. That is his sin! And that is the danger of all wealth! Jesus warns us again and again how dangerous it is to sit at the rich table of life, how difficult it is for the rich who have riches to enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who have more of something than others: more talent, more ability, more spiritual training, more money. This is dangerous because the door closes so quickly on the other person, on the neighbour, on the person who is lower down, who has less, who is poor, who has nothing! And only with him can you go to God the Father! So see that Lazarus!
The part of the parable where it speaks - now in the afterlife - of the "interposition" between the saved and the damned, so that those who would pass from one place to another cannot! "And above all, there is a great communication between us and you, so that those who would pass from here to you cannot pass, nor can they pass from there to us." (Lk 8,26) The word translated in our Hungarian Bible as "gap" has this meaning in the Bible dictionary: opening, gap, abyss, abyss! So, a great, unbridgeable, impenetrable gulf, an abyss, separates the rich man and Lazarus in eternity. But this chasm does not arise there, it is not there, it is there, it is here on earth! Do you know this gulf that yawns between the eternal rich and the eternal Lazarus, between those above and those below? All the trouble and all the darkness on this earth is because of that chasm. It is because of this chasm that this world is so inhospitable and so cold, even hateful!
Only: the same gulf that has become unbridgeable in eternity, so that those who want to cross it cannot - the same gulf can be bridged here and now, and has been bridged! For it is Jesus Christ, Who bridged the even greater gulf, the intervening gulf between God and man: the abyss between man and man, the distance between rich and poor! The cross of Christ has not only depth and height, but also width and length, and these two dimensions are inseparable. To whom God became Father in Christ, at the same time and in the same way, in Christ, the other man, Lazarus, the neighbour, became brother! Where is your Lazarus? Do you already know him? Have you noticed him? Have you seen him? Perhaps it is your own husband or wife who is suffering beside you because you have not seen her needs! Because you never really noticed! Maybe it is Lazarus among your children, who is struggling alone with his problems, or maybe it is your neighbour in the same house or on the same street, whom you say hello to every day, but whom you have never noticed in the way he would like to be noticed! Maybe it's the colleague you work with without having any idea of the problems and sins that are weighing on his or her life. Maybe it's a beggar who knocks on your door in fear. So see it! See it! Talk to him.
Maybe he's not even sympathetic, maybe you can't stand him, maybe he gets on your nerves. But he's missing something that you have! You have something he doesn't have. You may have talent, he may have no talent, you may have good friends, he may be alone, you may be happy, he may be sad. You have faith and can pray, and he lives apart from God and knows little of the gospel. See her loneliness, her helplessness, her weakness, her bondage, her inhibitions, her sorrow, her unbelief. Do not pass by him! This is your Lazarus, your brother, your neighbour!
Jesus asks, Who is your Lazarus? He asks not to hurt you, to annoy you, but to save you! For He Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, wants to meet you in the person of this Lazarus, and He wants to meet you in this way in order to draw you into the love of God which flows to rich and poor alike, because He is the loving, heavenly Father of all!
Those who have now heard the message of the Spirit to the congregation, sing it in supplication:
O love, shower your warmth on us,
Let us taste your sweetness,
Let us all love with all our hearts,
Let us live in unity and peace.
Have mercy!
(Canto 234, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 10 February 1952.
Lesson
Lk 16,19-31