Do you forget those who are disadvantaged?

DON’T LOOK DOWN ON THE DISADVANTED

Lk. 16:19-31

Jesus addressed today’s parable about the rich man and the beggar to the Pharisees.  Was it His intention to challenge them concerning their attitude towards the disadvantaged?  The rich man and the beggar lived in the same time and place, but their styles of living were as different as night and day.  One lived in a mansion, the other lay at his gate.  One "feasted sumptuously everyday".  The other "longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man's table".  One was apparently in good health.  The other was covered with sores.  Then death, the great equalizer, entered the picture and their lives were drastically changed.  The poor man was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham, in other words he went to Heaven and the rich man suffered the torments of Hell.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus can be found everywhere.  They have been a part of every society in every generation and they still are today.  We have got used to them and hardly notice the disparity of their existence.  Jesus never got used to the idea that some people eat well everyday, while others never eat well at all.  Jesus told this story to the Pharisees to make them aware of this tragic situation. They were privileged people and Jesus was appealing to them not to allow their attitude to the poor ruin their lives. 

Many of the Pharisees were wealthy.  Most of them were prominent in the community, holding positions of power and influence.  All of them were committed above all else to preserving the racial purity and religious traditions of their nation.  They were so caught up in their world of observing their petty rules that there was no thought of considering or caring for those who were less well off than themselves.  Ask them what was wrong with the world, and they would probably have pointed to the tax collectors and sinners.  Tax collectors were collaborators with a foreign power.  They worked for the Roman government.  Sinners, most of them were just ordinary people, who did not observe every little detail of the law.  To the Pharisees, these two groups represented what was wrong with the world.  If the Roman authority could be driven out of their land, and if everyone scrupulously kept the law, then all would be well.

Ask Lazarus, the poor beggar, what was wrong with the world, and how different his answer would have been.  His concern was not Roman rule or religious rituals.  He did not care who ran the government, or who kept the Sabbath and how.  Those were probably the last things on his mind.  He was sick, homeless, and hungry.  What he needed was someone to care. 

You and I come at the world's problems from another direction.  We are aware of them.  We have read about them.  We have seen them on a television screen, but our knowledge is from afar.  It is one thing to know about pain.  It is another thing to feel pain in one's own body and soul.  The rich man was not ignorant of Lazarus.  He had seen him many times.  He had watched him eat scraps that fell from his table.  He knew about suffering the same way most of us do - he had seen it.  With death his wall of protection was torn down.  His advantages were taken away and for the first time, the rich man knew how it felt to be a beggar.  He knew the agony of pleading for help that never came.

It is also so very easy for you and me to be caught up in our own privileged world and forget the disadvantaged.  We look at our nice houses.  Then we see the homeless, sleeping on the streets.  We enjoy a sufficiency of food and then we see on our television pictures of starving people in countries like Ethiopia and Somalia.  How different all of these people seem from us.  We may feel superior and smug, but are we really that superior?  Take away our houses, our bank accounts, our well-stocked freezers, and what kind of people would we be?  Is our privileged position a real thing, or just an illusion, created by the fortunate circumstances that surround and sustain us? 

Should we feel guilty about our privileged position?  We are not suggesting that.  What good would it do?  To wallow in guilt is of no benefit to anyone.  It is, however, of first-rate importance that we be aware of our advantages and help those who need our help.  That we are living more comfortably than someone else does not mean that we are more deserving.  It may simply mean that we got a head start.  Most of our advantages have been given to us.  Very few of them have we earned.  The only real difference between us and the starving people in the world is that we were born here, and they were born there.  Who among us can claim to have earned that?

So let us be aware of our advantages and grateful for them.  But most of all, let us use them to the benefit of the disadvantaged.  The failure of the rich man was that he did nothing to help Lazarus.  That was his downfall.  May it not be ours. 

Lord Jesus, You addressed this parable not only to the Pharisees but also to us.  May we not only be aware of the disadvantaged but do something to alleviate their plight.

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