Daily Devotion for Lent - Day 28

Scripture Reading: Luke 16:14-31

We see a lot of reversals in today's reading.

Those with wealth assume that they are favored by God and Jesus reverses this thought.

The law and the prophets are to be absorbed in our being rather than followed only as actions.

Divorce is outlawed, granting equality in the marriage relationship to women.

Then we see the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.  In Luke, Lazarus is a poor man rather than the brother of Martha and Mary as per the Gospel of John.  While the resurrection in John is a physical one in this life, in Luke's parable, it comes in the next life.

The reversal in this story comes in the social roles of the rich man and Lazarus.  In this life, Lazarus is lower than the dogs and is ignored by the rich man.  He doesn't even see him.

In the next life, Lazarus is literally on top of the rich man.  Note that the man in Hades tries to reassert his old role and tells Abraham to send Lazarus to serve him.  

Ain't happening!

In Jesus' day, the Pharisees would have been at the top of the Jewish social ladder in a regular town.  Jesus may have been telling them this parable to try to get them to notice the people they saw beneath them.

All social groups have 
a pecking order

Note the foreshadowing of the resurrection.  It is an inditement of those who will continue to reject this reversal even after Jesus is raised from the dead.

The difficulty of social roles is that the hierarchies creep back in.  We have them in the church today even though we would like to hold up an egalitarian philosophy once you come into the sanctuary.

As we see people who we would subconsciously consider lower than ourselves, we may see them in the same way the Pharisees saw others.  How does this parable of Lazarus teach us to really see people?

Prayer for the day:

God, the difficulty of being human is that we get set in our ways.  Sometimes we set them in concrete before we even realize it.  Help us to remember the Way of Jesus.  And as we remember, help us to align our ways with his.  We pray these things in Christ's holy name.  Amen.

Photo by The Wasp Factory via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons License.