Well, I finally made some time to sit down and re-type up the sermon I lost to a crashed flash drive early this year. It was my penultimate sermon at Beth Yeshua, but here it finally is. And I have an MP3 file here, so you can listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
So, we’ve been studying the parables of Yeshua in recent weeks and we began with the Parable of the Talents, in which we learned that the L-RD wants us to regard all the wealth He gives us in this world as belonging to Him, using it to spread the work of His kingdom, rather than on our own temporary comfort in this life. Then, in the Parable of the Great Debt, we came face-to-face with the responsibility we have to forgive others in the same way God has forgiven us, and we explored how, while that seems easy in concept, it’s not so easy when to comes to forgiving some of the gravest sins.
And then, last week, in the Parable of the Weeds, we discussed the problem presented by the presence of evil in the world; about why it exists, how it came to be, and how to remain forgiving, even to the unrepentant. We talked about how, when it comes to the unrepentant, while we must forgive them, it’s not to be a brainless forgiveness, and that in the case of the unrepentant only, it is best to forgive from a distance, because the preservation of life comes before all the rules of Torah.
So, what more is there to learn from Yeshua’s parables? Plenty. The parable I’d like to look at today is one of Yeshua’s less-explored parables, and it was suggested to me by someone here at Beth Yeshua. And I believe not only does it hold an important teaching for us, but it also ties in nicely with the themes of the recent parables we’ve been exploring.
It’s called the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge, so let’s read it now so we all have a common frame of reference. It begins in:
LUKE 18:1-5
Then Yeshua told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!”
Now, some people can find this parable confusing, primarily because they draw too close a parallel between the unjust judge and the L-RD. While the principle Yeshua is teaching about draws such a parallel, it’s not meant to be a close parallel.
Why do I say this? Well, because the judge in this parable is unjust to begin with. Is the L-RD Himself unjust? Of course not. God Himself is the arbiter of all justice; He is the source of justice and He brings justice to everyone, doesn’t he?
So we have to be careful of letting out picture of God begin to reflect the picture of this unjust judge too closely, for the L-RD is not like him. The text has Yeshua describing this judge as not fearing God nor caring about his fellow man. Does this remind us of anything? It calls to mind for me:
MATTHEW 22:35-40
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Yeshua replied: “’Love the L-RD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
So, we know Yeshua teaches these two commandments sum up the entire Torah: to fear God and to care about your neighbor. That’s it; that’s the Messiah’s summary of the entire Torah. So if we’re being told that this judge neither feared the L-RD nor cared about his neighbor, what are we really being told about him? That this ruler is far from… what? He’s far from the Torah, isn’t he? About as far from Torah as he can get! This is why he’s labeled an unjust ruler! Because he is ruling according to his own petty concerns and self-interests and decisions between right and wrong, rather than ruling based on the Torah of God. He is a portrait of the Torah-less world!
So who or what does that remind you of? Remember last week, when we studied the Parable of the Weeds? In that parable, we learned that the wheat represents those of us who are in Yeshua, part of the kingdom of the L-RD, who obey the Torah and follow its instruction; yet we are intertwined with the weeds – those who are children of darkness, sons of the Adversary of the L-RD, workers of evil and injustice. And we read that Yeshua taught that evil cannot be purged until the time of the harvest – that final Yom Kippur, the Day of Judgment – when the good crops will be separated from the weeds, and the weeds will be burned up, while the wheat will be brought into the master’s storehouse.
So we saw that we are in a world filled with both children of God and children of the Adversary. The children of the Adversary are without Torah; and we know that while we must forgive them when they do evil against us, that it would also be unwise to trust them when they are unrepentant, giving them an opportunity to do evil to us again.
That raised the question of how do we interact with those who are children of the Adversary. I mean, it’s not like any of us have a scorecard, is it? We can’t walk down the street, or even a church aisle, and say, “righteous,” “righteous,” “unrighteous.” Can we? Of course not.
And the sad truth is that the world we are in is usually ruled by those who are Torah-less. So one of the very real questions about getting through this life is, how can we find justice in a world ruled by the unjust? This parable gives us a clue: persistence, it appears, pays off. The unjust ruler of this parable doesn’t rule justly because he fears the L-RD and agrees with the woman who was wronged; he rules in her favor because she never gives up, never surrenders, never ceases in insisting that he rule rightly on the matter. He does what is right, basically, just to get her off his case!
So how does Yeshua interpret this parable? Let’s read on:
LUKE 18:6-8
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Now this is where we can easily slip into misunderstanding. This is where the connection is made between the nature of God and the nature of the unjust judge. But what is Yeshua really saying here? He’s saying that if even an unjust judge will render a just verdict through the persistence of a widow, how much more will the L-RD, who desires justice and to do what is right, answer the righteous requests of those who bring their concerns to Him?
Of course, that’s not that hard. It’s relatively easy to understand. But it does raise a question, which the person who suggested this parable asked: “So, is this parable teaching us that if we merely bug God enough, He’ll give us whatever we want, like some genie in a magic lamp? Is God no better than us, changing His mind simply because He’s being pestered about something and wants to get someone off His back?”
As I’ve taught often the last few weeks, Scripture reveals Scripture. If you want to understand one verse or passage, study everything around it and eventually the meaning will become clear. Right? So let’s start setting this parable in context to gain our best response to this question.
First and foremost, we ought to understand the word “persistence.” You know, in the NIV, some form of the word “persist” appears only ten times; in only one of these is the word given a positive connotation. In one other appearance, it results in the same effect Yeshua describes in the parable.
We find this positive mention in:
ROMANS 2:7
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
And we find the instance in which the effect of persistence is the same as Yeshua describes in this parable, in:
II KINGS 2:16-17
“Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the L-RD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.” But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they send fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.
Now, this last instance here is not entirely positive. Remember, Elisha the prophet is right to tell his men not to go looking for his master, Elijah. Why? Because Elisha himself saw Elijah taken up to heaven. He knew they were not going to find Elijah, but he finally gives into their demand to search because they simply won’t let it rest.
Now, the other eight instances in which some form of the word “persistence” is used, it is always negative in connotation, referring to how people persist in their sin or their disobedience to the L-RD.
So I thought it might be handy to look at the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as “persist,” but what I found is there is not a precise word in Hebrew or Greek that is always reliably translated that way. In fact, I found at least two different Greek words and two different Hebrew words that are translated as “persist,” but also that these words are not reliably translated that way. They are the Greek words epimeno (ep-ee-men’-o) and hupomone (hoop-om-on-ay’), as well as the Hebrew words patsar (paw-tsar’) and yalak (yaw-lak’).
So persist as we understand it in English is used to translate more than one Biblical word. So I began to look for parallel concepts to persistence, ideas that captured the meaning of persistence, even if it was not translated that way.
Suddenly, I found more positive references to the concept of never giving up, of persistence, than I found when looking for that precise English word. We find one such example in:
PSALM 72:1, 15B
Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness … May people ever (persistently) pray for him and bless him all day long.
We also find this in:
II CHRONICLES 6:14
He said: “O L-RD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth – you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue (persist) wholeheartedly in your way.
So persist means to continue, to so something without ceasing to do it, to never give up. This agrees with what Luke tells us was the purpose of Yeshua’s parable, which was, “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
So, to get back to our question: Does this mean that if we pray without ceasing, that God can and will actually change His mind? There is no quick answer to this; to understand what Yeshua is teaching us better, we must first understand the nature of prayer itself.
So, what is prayer, really? Well, is it simply taking time to communicate with God. To, as Moses did in the Tent of Meeting, come face-to-face with our Maker. That is ideally what prayer is meant to be. As believers, in fact, we are commanded to pray, as Yeshua Himself teaches in:
LUKE 6:27-28
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
James, the brother of Yeshua, teaches us further about the benefits and purposes of prayer in:
JAMES 5:13-18
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the L-RD. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the L-RD will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
What James teaches us here is loaded with important concepts on an effective prayer life, but it’s easy to miss the important details. We all love to hear that prayer is powerful and effective, but too often we read right past one of the most important words in the passage. What does James actually teach? He teaches that, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
A righteous man. Not just anyone, not even just any believer. But the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. And you see, that’s where many of us can trip up. That’s why so many who are believers in this country feel like they have ineffective prayer lives, or complain about God not answering their prayers. Because it is the prayers of the righteous that will be answered, not the prayers of just anyone.
So can you, for example, ignore the Torah commands of God and expect your prayers to be answered? Can you persist in habitual sin and expect God to grant your request? Can you lead a life of casual, only-when-it’s-convenient faith, come home from, say, a night of hard drinking, and pray to the L-RD for some blessing and expect Him to listen and respond affirmatively?
No.
God is not an emergency parachute for when you’re in a tight spot and need to save your butt, only to neglect Him at all other times. God desires to have a relationship with us, a give-and-take relationship, and part of being able to speak with Him as Moses did in the Tent of Meeting – face-to-face – is that we must live at least to the minimum standards set down for us in the Torah; furthermore, we should live to a standard far above that, striving to walk as Yeshua walked, in obedience to the L-RD, obeying everything that was commanded of Him.
Does this mean the L-RD never listens and responds to the prayers of the unrighteous? Not at all! He hears the prayers of repentance offered up by those lost in their sin all the time! But think about it! That repentance needs to come first, just to clear the table!
If you have a relative who, the only time they gave you the time of day was when they needed something, and the rest of the time they were out bad-mouthing you and ruining your reputation, and even when they asked for your something they wouldn’t apologize for how they’ve wronged you – how long would you keep giving them what they ask for?
You see, the kind of righteousness James is talking about here isn’t some unreachable, impossible standard; as he wrote, “Elijah was a man just like us.” So was Moses, for that matter, as we discussed in last week’s Torah commentary. But both men were humble enough to know they were unworthy, in and of themselves. They relied on God’s truth to create their righteousness and they obeyed His commands in gratitude. They agreed with God and relied on Him and that became their righteousness.
That’s a righteousness that doesn’t come from ignoring whatever commands you don’t like or don’t fit what you do; it’s a righteousness that clears the table and allows you to speak with God as Moses did, as Yeshua did. That’s when God starts listening: when you’re not fighting with Him anymore over what the truth is. That’s when the prayer of the righteous becomes powerful and effective, because you become echad with the maker of the universe! Not one person, but of one mind and one spirit with Him, not struggling against Him anymore.
Yeshua instructs us on some more mistakes to guard against when we pray. We read this in:
MATTHEW 6:5-8
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
And Yeshua didn’t just tell others one thing and do something else Himself. He modeled this in His own walk with His Father, as we read in, for example:
MATTHEW 14:23
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
So now we have a basic understanding of how to pray effectively. So the question becomes, let’s assume we’re doing all this right. Let’s assume we’re relying on His righteousness and not fighting with God over the truth; we’re repenting of our sin, we’re face-to-face with God, and we’re talking with Him. Can we, even at this point, change the mind of the creator of the universe? Can we, simply by badgering Him, get whatever we ask?
Let’s first take a look at the prayer live of someone who only had the appearance of righteousness; who went through all the right steps and claimed to have the ear of the L-RD. Let’s see what Balak found out about prayer, as we read in:
NUMBERS 23:19-20
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
A similar statement is expressed in I Samuel 15:29. This testimony about God and His nature is true! God doesn’t lie. He always is truthful and all truth comes from Him. Balak performs all the right steps, does everything the Hebrews do, and yet he could not curse the Jewish people; he could not move the L-RD to cease from blessing the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in this prophecy, Balak is testifying to that fact; man cannot change the mind of God in a way that makes God break His promises. The L-RD will never promise, then fail to fulfill because someone else prays for Him not to.
Yet it’s important to remember Balak is not a righteous man; as he’s testifying to the L-RD’s goodness to Balaam, Balak is there trying to curse Israel against the L-RD’s wishes. The L-RD allows Balak to do this, but He does not answer Balaam’s prayer.
Why?
Because part of the prayer of the righteous being powerful and effective is that the righteous never pray for the L-RD to do something outside of His own will. The righteous never pray for the L-RD to violate His own promises.
So, even a man like Balak, who has the appearance of righteousness, can pray and yet the L-RD will not make those prayers either powerful or effective; because the prayers are not righteous.
But is that the end of the subject? Is the L-RD never swayed? Well, let’s remember this episode from:
GENESIS 18:22-26
The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the L-RD. Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The L-RD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Now, we should all remember how the rest of this story goes. Abraham is bold in his prayer life with the L-RD and keeps asking Him for His mercy for forty, for thirty, for twenty and then for ten righteous left in the city. Why did Abraham stop at ten? Because that comprises a minyan – the minimum number of people required to start a congregation.
Did the end result change? No. Sodom and Gomorrah fell, but only because there could not be found even ten righteous who were willing to turn from their sin, repent and follow the L-RD and His commands.
Yet if they had found ten righteous, would the city have been spared? You bet; and it would have been spared because of Abraham’s prayer life, his communication with the L-RD. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. And we know this is true because there are times when the L-RD, in the wilderness, wishes to slay the children of Israel for their unrighteousness, and it was the prayer life of Moses, praying a righteous prayer for the L-RD to protect His name among the Gentiles, that caused the L-RD not to slay the children of Israel and instead offer them a path to forgiveness.
You see, God never repents because God never sins where He has to repent. But can the prayer of the righteous move God to change? In some ways, yes. We read an example of this in:
JONAH 4:3
He prayed to the L-RD, “O L-RD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
This is where the prayers of the righteous can have an impact. When we pray for God to relent from judgment, to show mercy to the unrighteous, to give time for repentance. Not when we pray outside of the will of God, or for the L-RD to violate His will or His nature, but when we pray for the L-RD to be who He is, to live up to His name and show His greatness.
That’s when the L-RD moves. That’s when the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective, because we’re remaining in the L-RD and His will. That’s the kind of prayer life we should want. The kind of walk with the L-RD we should want. That’s when Messiah Yeshua reigns and gives us the ability to forgive, even to forgive the unrepentant and yet stay safe. That’s when we rest in Him.
Shabbat Shalom.
Sermon – Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Here’s my FINAL sermon from Beth Yeshua. Sorry it took so long to get it posted, but here’s the MP3 file so you can listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at some of the parables of Yeshua, and I tried to pay special attention to some of those parables that have been a bit more overlooked or at least misunderstood. We started out with the Parable of the Talents, in which we learned that Yeshua desires us to go beyond tithing to regard all that the L-RD has given us as belonging to Him, and to use our wealth in this world to spread His kingdom, so that we have riches in the World to Come. Then we moved on to the Parable of Great Debt, which taught us to forgive from our hearts so that we could be forgiven by the same measure. After that, we looked at the Parable of the Weeds, which helped us understand how the presence of evil in the world came about and why it is allowed to continue. And last week, we looked at the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Ruler, through which Yeshua was encouraging us to pray without giving up.
Today, we have one final parable to explore. As I prayed about which of Yeshua’s many parables to delve into today, I kept coming back to one in particular: the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus.
Now, many great teachers have spent time on this one; next to the Parable of the Lost – or some would say Prodigal – Son, it is one of Yeshua’s most often-quoted parables because of what it teaches about social justice. So, is there anything we can gain from looking at this parable more closely, that we haven’t heard before?
Let’s find out. First, let’s establish a common frame of reference for our discussion; let’s first read this parable in its entirety, which we find in:
One of the reasons this parable is one of Yeshua’s most-quoted is because it seems clearer and easier to understand than, say, the Parable of the Talents or some of his other, more symbolic, parables. And indeed, there is much to be gained from simply reading the pashat of the text. It reminds us of the theme Yeshua taught on with the Parable of the Talents, that our riches in this world are not to be used exclusively for our own comfort, but to reach out to those in need so that the kingdom of the L-RD can be spread. It reiterates the theme that all that we have comes from the L-RD and it is not our own to do with as we please, but we are to use what we have been given to help those who have little – or nothing at all.
The parable has such a universal message, we can even find parallel teachings in the works of the rabbis. For example, we read this in:
This concept of the kingdom of heaven, the World to Come, as a place where everything seems upside down according to how things are in this life is a theme Yeshua uses more than once. And I don’t believe that Yeshua is just using this theme to make a point in a dramatic, attention-grabbing way. I believe He is speaking to us about a kingdom reality.
This can be an unsettling message, and it ought to be. There are many ways in which we can indulge ourselves and our own needs in this life while ignoring the needs of those around us. If we think that simply because we attend a congregation that seems to properly teach the Word of God, that we celebrate the L-RD feasts and festivals properly, and that we agree with all the right theology, that this will excuse us from ignoring those in need, well… maybe you’ll want to read through this parable again on your own when you go home today.
You see, all of us in one way or another are tempted to view Yeshua in the way that makes us feel the most comfortable, the most at ease with ourselves. While nearly all believers will say they want to know the L-RD, the truth is that it’s a lot easier to know Him when he seems to largely agree with us. However, this can lead to many false images of who Yeshua is, and ultimately of who God is. And that’s idolatry.
Yet the Yeshua of the New Covenant writings, the Yeshua of history, is not such a convenient figure. He’s not just a Pound Puppy doll we can hug when we’re feeling sad and blue! He’s not American, he’s not a Republican or a Democrat, and he’s not someone who just tells you what you want to hear. Nowhere is this more clear than in this Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus.
Some teachers spend so much time trying to wipe away the confrontative truth Yeshua states so plainly that what Yeshua is actually saying in rather plain, simple language gets lost entirely. Ask yourself, how often have you hear some Bible teacher say something like this: “Well, what Yeshua REALLY means here is…”
There are times when Yeshua’s words do need further explanation. There are statements that have been poorly translated and require a deeper understanding of first-century times and culture, first-century Judaism, of the familiar sayings and idioms of that time and place.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus is not one of those instances, however. It’s message is clear. If you use all that God has given you only on yourself, you have received your reward in full; if you go through life not caring about the unmet needs of those around you, you may be unpleasantly surprised about how you will spend eternity in the World to Come.
So, why does Yeshua here teach this? Why does He seem to value social justice over other forms of religious devotion, such as a deep and devout belief? We get a clue from:
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” So what does that mean? Well, as we discussed last week, looking at the words used in this passage for mercy and sacrifice, what Yeshua is saying is that he desires compassion on the poor and needy with an intent to help them out of their troubles, far more than he desires self-denial, sacrifices or all our other outward expressions of religious devotion.
Let’s look at this another way.
We all know that it’s a good thing to fast, right? The discipline of denying ourselves so that we can dedicate ourselves to prayer is something many people teach. Yet how often, when you fast, do you gather up the food you would have been eating for that meal or that day, and donate it to a family that has no groceries, or bring it to a food shelf, so that the food you would have eaten is passed on to others in need of a meal?
Any hands? Not many, right?
You see, self-denial – sacrifice – can be a good thing. Fasting can be a good thing. But if we’re just storing up our goods and eating them later on, rather than passing them on to those who have no food at all, well… what do you think God is more concerned about? The fact that you went hungry by choice a few nights a year? Or is he more concerned that there are families who go hungry all the time and have no choice about it at all, and even when you were denying yourself, you did nothing to improve the lives of those in need around you?
See, you don’t have to be Bill Gates to feel convicted by this parable. You don’t need to be super-rich. All you have to be is selfish, concerned only about your own needs and never thinking of the needs of those around you. If that describes your behavior and your attitudes, then it don’t matter if you make $25,000 a year or $250,000 a year or $2.5 million a year, this parable is a warning you need to pay attention to.
Some people will, no doubt, feel unsettled by this. They might argue that helping the needy is purely the government’s job; that’s why they pay taxes. Others might argue that helping the needy with a handout creates a cycle of dependency on government, and teaching self-reliance through offering real jobs is a greater form of charity – though in a nation with double-digit unemployment rates, such an argument rings a bit hollow these days, doesn’t it?
But remember, Yeshua is not a Republican or a Democrat. How you help the needy is not as important as making sure you do help them in some way, making sure they don’t sit for a lifetime outside your gates, wishing for the scraps that fall from your table because you never once invite them in to share a meal, nor do you offer them a way out of their poverty.
Now, this is the pashat – the clear, direct, literal meaning of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus. And if this is all that this parable had ever been used to teach, we could simply read it every now and again as a reminder to help our fellow man and that would be that.
However, there are some teachings out there, ways to interpret this parable, which are false and misleading, so I’d like to address one of those issues as well today.
One of the most disturbing ways of misinterpreting this parable is drawn from the last few verses, so let’s refresh our memory of what they actually say. We read this in:
This passage from the parable is where misunderstanding arises. Some teachers assert that in this passage, Yeshua is predicting the faithlessness of the Jewish people in the wake of His death and resurrection; that the hidden message of this parable is that Yeshua knew the Jewish people would reject him as Messiah, and that this parable is some indication of that.
Let me say this right now, and clearly: BA-LO-NEY!
Nothing could be further from the truth, and no teaching could be more out of step with the first-century reality of Yeshua, his ministry, and the ministry of His disciples, His talmudim.
First of all, let’s address the context: in this parable, Yeshua is clearly teaching about the differences in the rewards for the selfish rich and the needy poor. Why, then, would he suddenly, without skipping a beat, begin talking about the Jews and the Gentiles? He wouldn’t.
The argument goes that the rich man represents the Jews, who are rich in their closeness to God from the time of the patriarchs and the Torah until the arrival of Yeshua, and that Lazerus represents the Gentiles, who have been poor in their relationship with the L-RD until they are brought to Abraham’s bosom, basically being grafted in as a substitute for the Jewish people.
Let me say it again, and clearly: this interpretation of this parable is pure replacement theology. It is false and misleading and has no basis in the actual teachings and intent of Yeshua.
You see, those who teach from this perspective tend to forget that from the time of Yeshua until the ministry of Paul, in the first century, the movement of those who followed Yeshua as Messiah was a movement completely made up of Jewish believers. There were no Gentiles in it, until Peter met the Ethiopian eunuch, as recorded in the book of Acts.
Furthermore, many of the initial so-called Gentile converts were not complete heathens, but rather, Hellenized Jews who had spread throughout the world in the diaspora, following Israel’s capture by Babylon and the destruction of the first temple. Yes, there were also Gentile converts who were neither Jews nor Hellenized Jews; but the point is that, at least throughout the first century, the vast majority of Yeshua followers were Messianic Jews, not Gentile believers.
Interpreting this parable from a replacement theology standpoint is also not consistent with how Yeshua blatantly outlines His own vision of his mission while on this earth in other parts of the Gospel accounts. Take, for example:
Now, if you want a teaching that indicates Yeshua will extend the tents of Jacob to include faithful Gentiles, this passage is a far better one to look at, but notice what Yeshua says here about his ministry. He is here for the lost sheep of Israel, and it’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs. These statements indicate his role is that of a Jewish messiah first and foremost.
Yes, he ultimately does heal the Canannite woman’s child, but only after clarifying his Messianic role, and because of her great faith. There is no Gentile replacement of the Jewish people present in this teaching. God is merely doing as he has always done, allowing a “mixed multitude” of those who are faithful to the L-RD to attach themselves to Israel and be included in His promises. Yet this does not indicate a Gentile replacement of the Jews in the promises of God, merely an inclusion.
There are many examples of such inclusion, from Ruth to Tamar to Rahab to Ephraim and Manassah and more. Also the mixed multitude who joined the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt. There are many such cases. That is all that is indicated in our passage from Matthew; Yeshua shows mercy to a woman showing great faith, but does He dump his twelve Jewish talmudim and put this Canaanite woman in their place? Of course not.
If anything, this episode with the Canaanite woman merely supports the parable we looked at last week; because of the Canaanite woman’s persistence in trusting Yeshua to heal her daughter, He grants her request!
The nature of the L-RD is to show mercy to all who trust in Him from their hearts; yet His promises remain His promises, no matter what.
So, to return our focus to the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazerus, the question now becomes, “OK, so if these last few verses of the parable don’t indicate Gentile replacement of Israel, what are they about?”
Frankly, I believe what these last few verses indicate is the opposite of the replacement theology assumption. They are an indication by Yeshua that the written Torah, the prophets, and the writings are all sufficient to bring people the message of God’s salvation. After all, that is what Abraham says in this parable, right? “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”
And when the rich man suggests that having Lazerus return from the dead would lead them to repentance, Abraham corrects that assumption. “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
And history has borne this out, hasn’t it? You see, this is not a teaching about Jew and Gentile, but about those who are willing to believe, and those who are not willing to believe.
Those who listen to and obey the L-RD will recognize the Messiah; as Yeshua has taught in John 10:27, “my sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” But those who are unwilling to study the Torah or the prophets, those who are unwilling to believe – did Yeshua’s death and resurrection change everything for everyone? Are we all, throughout the Earth, believing in the L-RD, hearing from God directly and doing only what He commands us, never substituting His will for our own?
Unfortunately, no. You see, the deeper meaning of these last verses is not a teaching about the Jewish people in particular; it is a teaching about our fallen nature. Those of us who recognize our sin and agree with God seek him out, and look to the L-RD for our strength and salvation. What Yeshua is hinting at here is that His death and resurrection won’t by itself change all of humanity’s worst instincts. Those who are willing to believe didn’t need it as proof; God’s salvation is found in Moses and the prophets, because all they teach point toward Messiah Yeshua. But for those who didn’t believe in the first place, even Yeshua’s death and resurrection did not change their hardened hearts.
Is this idea that Yeshua puts forward through this parable, that even Moses and the prophets alone are enough to bring people to the L-RD, true? Yes, even Paul agrees with that, as we read in:
II TIMOTHY 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We must keep in mind here that when Paul uses the term Scripture, he is referring to the same things as Yeshua was when he said, “Moses and the prophets.” Because, remember, the New Covenant writings hadn’t even been gathered together yet at the time Paul wrote these words; the Tenakh is the only thing Paul, as a first century Messianic Jew, could be referring to here.
The concept of the L-RD being our salvation is not a New Covenant concept alone. The L-RD is praised for being our salvation throughout the Tenakh, all of which points us toward the promise of that salvation, the Messiah who came first to suffer and die in our place in the way of Joseph, but who one day soon will be returning in the way of David, as the conquering king.
Let’s not be like the rich man or his brothers, failing to worship the L-RD despite having Moses and the prophets and – even more – having Yeshua, who has risen from the dead! Let’s instead allow the L-RD to enter our lives, take His place, rule us and be our God. Let’s allow Him to rule us so much that we do not turn a blind eye to those around us who are in need, but give of ourselves so that their needs our met in real, tangible ways.
So, let us join in the first mention of the word salvation – the Hebrew word yeshua – which points us toward our Messiah, as found in the victory song of Moses after the L-RD had the Red Sea swallow up the army of Pharaoh. His entire word has one unified and unique message: salvation through our Jewish Messiah, the Messiah Yeshua. Let us praise the L-RD together in:
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: lazerus, parable, rich man
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