When Rich People Laugh at the Poor, An Honest Response (Luke 16:19-31) Artwork

The Lutheran Podcast

I'm Rev. Eric Wolf, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Sudbury, MA (https://www.stjohnsudburyma.org). This podcast mostly contains the sermons I preach there, though I may add more at some point. I believe strongly that the task of preaching is to engage Scripture as a mirror held up to our lives so that we can confront what we see with integrity. This image we engage helps us to understand what it means to be Children of God; gain perspective of what it means that our primary citizenship and allegiance belongs to God’s Kingdom; and discover how the love of God transforms what we see when we look at ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world that God so loves.

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The Lutheran Podcast

When Rich People Laugh at the Poor, An Honest Response (Luke 16:19-31)

September 29, 2022 • ericthelutheran

“The Pharisees, who we’re lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.”

This was their response to the poorly named Parable of the Dishonest Manager, and was the reason Jesus told this parable about Lazarus and the Rich Man. It isn’t that Pharisees we’re particularly uncaring or insensitive, it’s more that they were comfortable as a social class, privileged as a religious class, and seemed to be people who thought more about systems than people. I often wonder if that’s why Jesus runs afoul dog them. I believe it’s reasonable to consider that Jesus is possibly a Pharisee or some other privileged member of the synagogue himself, given the fact that he preaches and teaches there without anyone asking why, so part of the Why is that we criticize the people most like ourselves the most. Also, Jesus preaches and teaches that people are more important than systems when the systems become a burden rather than a boon.

As some of the most wealthy people who ever lived on this planet, many Americans have more in common with the Rich Man than we do with Lazarus. How can we learn the lesson of Jesus that loving concern for others is more important than wealth or comfort when we too are often too comfortable to take this seriously?