Review What You Already Know!

19th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/29/13
Luke 16:19-31


Review What You Already Know!
I. That the focus of life is not luxury living
II. That the time to hear God’s saving good news is not endless


The Latin phrase is “Repetitio est mater studiorem.” You probably know it better as “Repetition is the mother of study.” And even if you’ve never heard that phrase before, you still know how true it is.

Think about it. As a child, how many times did you memorize the alphabet? How often did you learn your addition and multiplication tables? How many times did you locate the 50 states on a map? Which Bible passages or hymn verses did your pastor ask you to recite every year of your Catechism instruction? How often did your learn about the creation of the world, the birth of Jesus and his death and resurrection in Sunday School or Lutheran elementary school?

With the world full of things to learn, why spend time relearning what you had previously learned? Because repetition is the mother of study. Too easily we forget what we’ve learned, even some of the basic things such as addition and multiplication tables. If we don’t commit them to long term memory, we’re not going to be able to progress in our education.

The same holds true for spiritual truths. We learned them once for the first time and we relearned them perhaps more times than we can remember, but we tend to forget, and, when we do, we put obstacles in the way of our relationship with our Lord Jesus and with our fellow Christians.

In the parable before us this morning Jesus doesn’t tell us anything we haven’t heard or learned before. But we forget. So let’s review it. Review what you already know. Let’s see what Jesus has in store for us this morning.

Part I.

About a week ago the national news included information on the growing income inequality among US citizens. While incomes have stopped falling as they were during the recession and the poverty rate seems to have stabilized as well, 95% of the financial gains have gone to the richest 1% of the population. So what does that growing gap mean? There’s far little upward movement. The middle class suffers. People despair of making any gains. Education levels suffer, making more people susceptible to falling into poverty. Social unrest increases. The possibility of demonstrations and riots increases.

While Jesus doesn’t mention any of those negative outcomes in this parable before us this morning, he does present an income gap and it’s one of the widest gaps imaginable. He begins the parable with these words, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” These words might not stand out for us, but imagine how unusual such a life was in biblical times? This nameless rich man lived like a king. He dressed in clothes that only a few could afford. Jesus stated that he lived in luxury every day. I imagine that included the finest of homes to live in, domestic help to wait on him hand and foot, and the finest food to eat.

Literally, outside his front door was the exact opposite. “At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked his sores.” Since others had to lay Lazarus at the rich man’s gate, it seems he was non-ambulatory—dependent on others just to get him to a place where he could beg. Imagine him watching the rich man feast while his stomach growled for anything to eat, even crumbs. But it got worse. He suffered from open sores. The only relief came from dogs that licked them. It makes us shudder.

But let’s not despise the rich man simply because he was rich. His wealth, like all other earthly things we enjoy, was a blessing from God. From what we know, biblical people such as Abraham, David, Solomon, Mary and Martha, and Nicodemus were all wealthy people. They enjoyed wealthy lifestyles. And surely they came into contact with beggars and witnessed poverty on a daily basis.

So what made this situation different? This rich man appears to have made his wealth and the enjoyment of it the focus of his life. As the parable progresses, Jesus doesn’t make any mention of the rich man’s charitable efforts toward Lazarus or anyone else. Instead, the picture we receive is that the rich man was purposely detached from Lazarus’ situation. We imagine that he viewed Lazarus as a nuisance that he tried to ignore. And why? Because thinking about Lazarus’ situation killed the enjoyment of his wealth. In fact, he was so busy enjoying his wealth each day that he didn’t even consider his death.

Let’s not make the same mistake! So that we don’t, review what you already know—that the focus of life is not on luxury living.

We know that. In fact, we’re put off by people who are snobbishly wealthy, who enjoy showing others how much they have. We know that’s not the focus of life. But we forget. We view scenes of luxury living and we wonder why we can’t enjoy the same. We let so much of life pass us by because we’re so focused on working more so that we can attain more. And we even do so at times to the detriment of our spiritual lives. We’re plagued daily by materialism, thinking that one more thing is going to make us happy. And we excuse it by telling ourselves that we don’t want to live in luxury; we just want to be happy.

It’s likely at a font of water in many of our cases decades ago that our gracious God changed the focus of our lives forever. He made us his own child at our baptisms. He bound himself to us so that, by faith in Jesus, we could have it all in heaven with him. Jesus accomplished that life for us when he died for our sins on Calvary’s cross. And when he rose from the dead he guaranteed that eternal riches are ours. That’s where our focus is. Review what you already know!

Part II.

Some of you have heard me tell the following story, but most of you have not. I once had an agnostic friend. I say “once” because he died more than two years ago. This man knew his Bible fairly well. But he was an agnostic. I tried sharing God’s truths with him, but I stopped after he told me one day, “If Jesus were alive and on this earth right now, I’d kill him just to see if he could raise himself from the dead.” He knew what the Bible said, he just wanted more proof.

Although not as blasphemous as my friend, the rich man in the parable makes a similar request. When Abraham told him that Lazarus could not come to hell to comfort him, he replied, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Wow! It sounds as if he’s had a change of heart. Whereas prior to his death he seemed to care little about others such as Lazarus, now he cares about his 5 brothers and doesn’t want them to experience the suffering in hell that he is.

He even supplies what sounds like good reasoning, “If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Give them a sign—one that they can’t possibly dismiss. Send Lazarus back from the dead to warn them. Surely that would get them to fall on their knees and ask the Lord for forgiveness for the sins of their lives.

But Abraham doesn’t buy it. Abraham replied, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” In using the term, “Moses and the prophets,” Jesus was referring to the books of Old Testament which were readily available and read in every synagogue on every Sabbath.

In fact, by making this request, the rich man is actually blaming God for the fact that he was in hell. He’s making the claim that if God would have sent him such a sign, he would have believed and wouldn’t be in eternal punishment.

What’s more, it’s a denial of the saving power of the word of God. God has not chosen to convert people by making dead people come back to life and sending them into our lives. Thank goodness he doesn’t do that to people who are already experiencing bliss in heaven! Instead, he has placed his saving power in his word, the good news of Jesus as our Savior from sin. We can hear and read that word whenever we want to. We can make that word a vital part of our Christian lives. We can share that saving word with others any time we have the opportunity. And there’s the important point—whenever we have the opportunity to read, hear and share God’s saving word. Those opportunities aren’t eternal. Some day they will end for us and for others.

But I don’t think I’m telling you anything you didn’t already know. But that’s OK. Repetition is the mother of study. Review what you already know—that the time to hear God’s saving good news is not endless.

I’m glad you took the time to hear God’s word this morning. Tomorrow might not arrive. We know that. But we need the reminder. We need the reminder because there are so many options for what can take up our time that we can’t possibly do them all. The rich man was so busy living in luxury that he never got around to doing the most important thing—taking care of his soul. How will you take care of yours? You’re off to a good start, hearing his word today. If you’re one of our qualified communicants, stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellow Christians here at the Lord’s Table and receive the assurance of forgiveness and eternal life. Make God’s word a part of your daily life. I can direct you to a daily devotion you can receive on your computer or smart phone. Look forward to the next time you can gather with your fellow believers. One day, those opportunities will end. But you know that already. It’s still good to be reminded of it. May our God richly share his saving wisdom with you as you take the opportunities to hear and read it! Amen.