The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, found in Luke chapter 16 starting from the nineteenth verse to the thirty-first, has an original meaning that is pegged on it. This paper seeks to bring it out after careful investigation of the social and intellectual conditions that used to be present in those days of the Old Testament. I will be looking at the pattern of living during those periods of time and use that to explain more about the events of the parable as they unfolded. It is also going to incorporate the intellectual and social conditions of the New Testament.
This was not really a parable because though traditionally known as one of the literature genres it belongs to falls under Biography. A parable can be said to be a fable that has a moral behind it. It is used with factual objects of things that can happen in real life like the only difference is that the story cannot be traced to a particular period. It can be said to be fictional because the user makes up characters and forms a story that is factual to bring out a lesson. Parables incorporate a visible world and take us to comprehend the invisible things of God. Another characteristic of a parable is that besides appealing to the imaginations and feelings of Man, it also sparks an interest in the ‘intelligent reason of man.’ Jesus’ parables were demonstrated using human relationships that control human beings.
He also used natural phenomena that his audience could easily relate to so as to explain the things that were unfamiliar to his audience. It can conclusively be seen as a way in which Jesus directed Man’s thought processes from the physical world to the spiritual one. ()More still, a parable can be defined as ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.’ This ‘parable’ belongs to the biographical literature genre because it is an event that happened a long time ago. The mentioning of Abraham, Moses, and the prophets clearly takes us back to the times of the Old Testament. In the times of the Old Testament, Moses and prophets were used by God to communicate with the people. Jesus is God, and God is omnipresent, meaning that even then, Jesus was alive and can be said as having witnessed this story. It is not fictional in any way because the characters used are really only that they were alive at some past period of time. They passed on to another life. This Biography cannot be said to be parallel to present-day life, as a parable would be, but speaks about LifeLife before and after death. No one can really relate with LifeLife after death.
To get a clear picture of this biographical work of Jesus, it would be of utmost importance to relate to the characters as they used to be in the Old Testament or in the earlier centuries. Starting with the 24th verse of Luke, chapter 16, we are shown how the rich Man used to dress in purple linen and every day lived in luxury. During those days, there were some social groups of people that were known as aristocrats and social marginals whose social gap was really big. In this verse, we are told of how the rich Man used to dress in purple linen and enjoyed a life of luxury each and every day. This Man is clearly depicted as an aristocrat whose standard was very high. Fine purple linen was clothing that was worn on special occasions by people of the noble class, such as priests. (Exodus 21). Every day of such dressing and of luxury living must have been a costly affair.
The fact that the rich man feasted on sumptuous meals every day makes one believe that he did not have a problem hosting his fellow aristocrats because there was always plenty of food. The word feasting denotes abundance and variety of food. The rich man looks like an aristocrat who had the potential to organize symposiums at any time without any prior arrangements. Verse 20 of the same chapter Lazarus, a beggar covered with sores, is laid at the Rich Man’s gate. He brings out a sharp contrast between him and the Rich Man. He can be compared to a social marginal who longs to have a life like that of the rich Man because further down in verse 21, he is said to have desired what ‘fell from the Rich Man’s table. With reference to the first term paper, close proximity to an aristocrat upgraded one’s social class. This seems like a deliberate move by Lazarus so that he could also be upgraded. Outside the rich ma’s gate was the closest that he could get because there was a gate that barricaded him from being nearer to the Rich Man. At this time, what got so close to Lazarus were the dogs. The latter could lick the sores of Lazarus, which means that they were the ones that were close to him. This boils down to a picture of being downtrodden. People may have looked down upon Lazarus due to his association with dogs.
The death of the beggar in verse 22 symbolizes the end of the miserable LifeLife that the beggar was leading and the commencement of a new one. He can be compared to Mycillus, a social marginal who was promised to spend some time at a symposium. The death of the rich Man also symbolizes the end of his lavish LifeLife and the beginning of one that is full of torment. This can be illustrated by problems that the rich Man had to grapple with, that is, an adulterous wife and a slave who is sexually perverted. The rich Man’s going to hell can be represented as the onset of his tribulations when his wife was proved to practice infidelity. In verse 22, the beggar, upon dying, was carried by angels to Abraham’s side; he did not, first of all, get buried. Contrary to this, the rich man was buried first when he died. Nobody carried him to any place near anyone.
The two characters had something in common, which was death. However, the LifeLife afterward was different for each of them. Lazarus seems to have an aristocratic life after death, while the rich man seems to have a marginalized one. Roles seem to have changed for both characters. Abraham can be seen as a veteran aristocrat, while Lazarus is a young one. Lazarus is reserved for a seat next to Abraham, which shows how significant he is. On the other hand, the rich man is very far away from the two. This is because he has now become a social marginal and cannot get close to the aristocrats. Verse 24 speaks of how at some point, the rich Man requested Abraham to ask Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in cold water and then dip it on his tongue.
This illustrates how Lazarus is living in an abundance of resources. Just like he used to desire the breadcrumbs that fell from the rich Man’s table, the rich Man now desires that just a drop of cold water could drip on his tongue from Lazarus’ fingertip in order to cool him fromanhe heat he was experiencing. The rich Man wished that he could join Abraham and Lazarus, but this was not possible because there was a great barrier between them. This can be used to show the disparity that existed between those who made it to heaven and those who went to hell, or that which existed between the he,avenly aristocrats and their Social marginal counterparts. Abraham in verse 25, reminds the rich Man that during his LifeLife on earth, he enjoyed all his good things while Lazarus received only the bad things and that this was Lazarus’ moment of rejoicing and vice versa for the Rich Man.
Further, in the 26th verse, Abraham speaks of a great chasm that had been fixed between the two sides that that movement to either side was not possible. Earlier on in the parable, we find how difficult it was for poor Lazarus to move from where he had been to the Rich Man’s house. There was a gate that divided them so that none of them could have access to the other. The rich man in verse 27 begged that Lazarus be sent to his brothers so that they could repent and be saved from the LifeLife that was full of tribulations. His request was declined, and instead, he was told that the siblings should listen to Moses and the prophets. This compares to the point at which the aristocrat known as * started complaining of how the social margins like Metycyllus envied him, not knowing how bad things followed the aristocrats. The rich man had now realized that the high class of LifeLife he had been living had its many demerits and only wished that his siblings knew it. The brothers must also have been aristocrats, while the prophets and Moses were social marginals.
The rich man is almost sure that the brothers will not listen to Moses and the prophets in verse 30. He knows that the brothers will not make it because he had lived in the world with them and was just like them. He knew all too well that they could not have socialized with Moses because they were not coming from the same social class. Abraham ends up saying that even if a dead person rose from LifeLife, the brothers would not listen to him as long as they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets.
Cynical philosophy is a discipline that was invented by a philosopher known as Diogenes. It is based on the principle that says ‘The minimum is the optimum’. This cynical philosophy can be likened to the parable because it shows how someone who is rejected later or gets a good life. Lazarus, in his LifeLife on earth, had the least because he was a beggar, but in the end he was celebrating. He did not go through a burial but went straight to the good LifeLife. Cynical philosophy was not highly regarded because the philosophers were seen to be lying to young aristocrats.
The rich Man’s request that Lazarus be sent to his siblings to warn them so that they can be rescued from ever experiencing such suffering was denied. This is very ironic because the rich Man was used to having everything done at his request, but this time around the former beggar cannot be sent because he has achieved another class. The refusal was acceptable because allowing it would have meant that spirits of the dead be involved because it would have meant dead people appearing to people.
In conclusion, I think the original reader was supposed to get the meaning that LifeLife on earth is not permanent. The reader is supposed to be generous to the poor and the sick because not giving a helping hand means that there is no support.One common thing between the rich and the poor is that they all die and have a destiny.
Works Cited
R. E. Trench, Notes on the Parables and Miracles of Our Lord Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., n.d.), p. 8.
The Holy Bible. New International Version. Luke 16:19-31.