The first - we'll call him 'poor Lazarus' - is found in the book of Luke, where Jesus tells the story of “the rich man and Lazarus”:
“There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.
“Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side." (Luke 16:19-23)
‘Poor Lazarus’ died, and was taken up in glory. The second – we'll refer to him as ‘friend Lazarus’ – also died, and we can hopefully assume that he was also taken up in glory, since he was a dear friend of the Son of God. But after death, our ‘poor Lazarus’ was not allowed to return when the sinful rich man asked:
“Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’ (Luke 16:27-28)
Why wasn’t he brought back? In Jesus’ parable, Abraham responds to the rich man:
“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31)
How do we know that they will not listen, even if ‘poor Lazarus’ was raised from the dead to proclaim God’s glory? Well, perhaps we can see what happened when our ‘friend Lazarus’ - the one whom Jesus loved and wept over – was actually raised from the dead!
Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” (John 11:43-44)
Our friend Lazarus was literally raised from the dead – and how did the 'rich men' of Jesus' day react to this miracle?
Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus. (John 12:10-11)
Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence that ‘friend Lazarus’ was used as an object lesson to prove the point that the parable of ‘poor Lazarus’ was making…?
#LoveMatters