Sunday/Another Lazarus

Sunday/Another Lazarus

In today's gospel, Christ gives a parable that depicts the death of the beggar Lazarus at the door of an unnamed rich man who has ignored him. Both die and the rich man goes to hell, Lazarus to heaven. In hell, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to his five brothers and warn them of the punishment suffered by those who dismiss the plight of their fellows. Abraham, in the parable, refuses, saying,

'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'"

This gospel is traditionally discussed in its parallels to Christ's torture and death. But, isolated, this is a remarkable line, fitting more of Mencken than Christ. Here is another, less rewarding, Lazarus than the friend Christ raises from the dead. And there is a head-shaking bitterness about it, as Christ predicts the ineffectiveness of His coming sacrifice. In its indirect praise of the Old Testament, it recalls the God of Lot, annoyed and discouraged by man.

A scary idea.