Confronting our Blindness

September 29^th, 2013     “Confronting our Blindness”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Luke 16:19-31

          This morning’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus is found only in the Gospel of Luke.  The topic of wealth is very important to the Lukan author, and many of his stories center around this topic of money.  From Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Plain, to the parable of the rich fool, on into Acts and the many lessons on money in the community; Luke spends a lot of time discussing the right approach money and possessions.

          In this morning’s story, we meet an unnamed rich man.  He dresses in purple and fine linen, a sign of his great wealth and a hint that he might even come from a royal family.  He lives in a gated community, walled off from his neighbors, and more importantly, walled off from the poor.

          The counter to the rich man in the story is of course, Lazarus.  (No relation to the Lazarus who rises from the dead in the gospel of John.)  Lazarus lies outside the rich man’s gate, hoping for a scrap of food from the rich man’s sumptuous table.  He is so weak that even the dogs lick his sores, which is not only disgusting but also makes him unclean.  In more ways than one, Lazarus is an outsider in the Jewish society.

          Common thinking in the time of Jesus would lead one to believe that the rich man was a good man.  He had been blessed by God and so he enjoys great comfort in this life.  By contrast, Lazarus would have been considered to be a sinner.  His multitude of conditions; from poverty, to whatever medical condition causes his sores, to the fact that he is literally and religiously unclean, would all be signs of his sinful nature.  Lazarus has been cursed by God.

          So, listeners to Jesus’ parable would have been greatly surprised to find that after death, while the rich man is simply buried, Lazarus is transported into the presence of Abraham by a multitude of angels.  In Hades, where he is being tormented, the rich man looks up and spies Lazarus by the side of Abraham.  Though he seemed unable to notice or even see Lazarus during his lifetime, the rich man suddenly sees him now in heaven.  The rich man calls out, not to Lazarus, but to Abraham, and requests that Lazarus come down with a drop of water for him.

          When Abraham declares it impossible, the rich man continues to make requests.  “Send Lazarus back to my family so they don’t make the same mistakes I did.”  Not possible.  The rich man’s family probably is no better than him, and they will not listen to the word of truth, even if someone rises from the dead.  Here we find Luke clearly hinting to the end of the story he is telling in his gospel.

          Many of the parables that Jesus tells are lost in our modern American culture.  From lessons on farming, to reinterpretations of Jewish law, to trying to imagine wedding feasts in ancient Israel; a lot of these stories are a stretch for us.  But not this one.  The story of the rich man and Lazarus hits frightfully close to home.

          If we back up a bit, we read in verse 14 that Jesus is telling this story to the Pharisees who were, and I quote, “lovers of money.”  Who here is a “lover of money”, raise your hand.  I’ll be honest, I know I am.  I spend a lot of time thinking about money in my daily life; from grocery shopping, to bill paying, to wondering about the church budget I am confident you can put me in this category.  I love money, and I know I am not alone.

          Throughout the gospel of Luke, Jesus warns us against this love of money.  I think the point of the story of the rich man in particular, is how blind money can make us.  Though they are living within yards of each other during their lifetimes, the rich man is never able to really see Lazarus.  Sure, the rich man might notice Lazarus enough to step over him on his way to the town square, but he never really sees him there.  The rich man never really considers Lazarus as a fellow child of God.

          This is even more evident after they die.  Even though it is clear to the rich man that he is suffering and Lazarus is not, the rich man is still blinded by his wealth.  Though his money is gone and he is in hell, the rich man still thinks that he is better than Lazarus.  He still thinks that he is above Lazarus in the social order.  That is why he insists on bossing Lazarus around and sending him on errands.  “Lazarus come to hell for me, Lazarus rise from the dead for me, Lazarus do this and that for me.”  He doesn’t even talk to Lazarus about it, he just orders him around through Abraham.  The rich man still doesn’t really see Lazarus.

          I think that is the true chasm that separates them.  It is a chasm of blindness.  And it was there before the two men died and so it is there after they die. 

          I see this chasm of blindness show up in many ways and in many places in our modern American culture.  Think of the real life parable of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.  Blindness caused Zimmerman to shoot a neighbor, while ironically on neighborhood watch.  He obviously couldn’t have been watching the neighborhood that closely, if he didn’t even know who his neighbors were.  Clearly, even though he was on watch, he couldn’t see.  He was blind.

          Think of the way that whenever there is a tragedy in a neighborhood, especially domestic violence or child abuse, all the neighbors they interview on TV say, “They were such a nice person.  We didn’t see this coming.”  We don’t see it coming because we are not really looking.  I think part of us senses the trouble, and in the name of self-preservation, we ignore it.  We are blind because we have closed our eyes.  Like the rich man, we can’t see our neighbors.

          Think of the growing gap between the rich and the poor in our nation.  The income gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% is at the greatest it has been in over 100 years.  The great recession hit the rich the hardest, because they had the most money to lose, but when it comes to economic recovery, they are the biggest gainers.  Between 1993 and 2012 the incomes of the 1% grew by over 86% while the rest of us saw 6% growth. In think that chasm is even bigger than the one between the rich man and Lazarus in our parable.  Blindness is certainly an issue whenever we are talking economics. 

           The sad truth is that many if not all of us in the 99% are also blind to the suffering and situation of others.  In the commentary “Feasting on the Word” Scott Bader-Saye says that;

“This parable challenges us not simply to share wealth but to become attentive to the poor and suffering persons who are before us, who dwell at our doorstep or, more likely, in another part of town where we do not see them if we do not want to.  Where is the invisible suffering in our world: the suffering of women and children in sweatshops, who are invisible behind the labels we buy; the suffering of animals in factory farms, who are invisible behind our fast food; the suffering of the suspect who is tortured behind locked doors to calm our cancerous fears?  We live within political and economic systems that feed upon the sufferings of others, all the while keeping those sufferings invisible.  The call of Christ is to refuse to live any longer by those convenient fabrications.”

The call of Christ is a call to open our eyes to the world around us.  It is the call to confront our blindness, to admit to all the things we don’t see because we aren’t looking.  The great difficulty is found in the cost to us personally as we open our eyes.  It will cost us to spend the energy needed to truly look at the world around us.  Like Neo peering behind the matrix, we need to look behind our systems that feed on the suffering of others.  And once we really look, it will be very hard to enjoy the comfortable lifestyles we have crafted for ourselves on the backs of other people.

          The story of the rich man and Lazarus is a warning to all of us.  The chasm caused by our own blindness can be deeper and harder to cross in this life than even the chasm of death.  As followers of Christ, and as readers of the gospel of Luke, we are challenged to open our eyes to the suffering around us.  We are challenged to really see our brothers and sisters in this world.  And once we confront our blindness, we are challenged to speak the truth to those we meet, working for God’s justice and peace in this world.  May God open our eyes so that we never again blindly step over a person in need right outside our door.  Amen.