Who anoint themselves with the finest oils,īut are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. (Amos 6: 1, 4-6)Īnd St. Singing idle songs and drinking wine by the bowlful, We’ve heard plenty of that in today’s readings:Īnd for those who are complacent on the mount of Samaria… So is Jesus telling a reversal story in the parable of Dives and Lazarus? Or is he doing something else? The Bible certainly can be critical of wealth’s dark side. “Oh Señor, have mercy on me! I beg you, give me a drop of your water to cool my tongue!”

I have to confess that I myself would take pleasure in a story where, say, the governor of Florida is tricked into boarding an airplane, only to find himself dropped in the middle of a burning desert, with nothing but the desperate hope that a passing migrant might appear with a canteen of water. We all love reversal stories, where the bad get their comeuppance and the lowly are given a happy ending. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” And we hear it in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”Ī twelfth-century Italian bishop, Bruno di Segni, said of this parable, “These words are most necessary both for the rich and for the poor, because they bring fear to the former and consolation to the latter.” In Herman Melville’s 19 th-century novel Redburn, his protagonist invokes the parable when he cries, “Tell me, oh Bible, that story of Lazarus again, that I may find comfort in my heart for the poor and forlorn.” Luke, whose gospel, more than any other, expresses a “preferential option for the poor.” We hear this in Mary’s Magnificat: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. The reversal theme certainly resonated with St. So the idea of a great reversal of fortune was an appealing and consoling image. In first-century Palestine, the rich had scooped up most of the land and money, leaving tenant farmers with pretty much nothing of their own, while those who hired out as laborers got only starvation wages. It’s easy to see why people loved the story in a time when economic inequality was as appalling as it is in America today, where the 3 richest billionaires have more money between them than the bottom 50%. The fact that it makes it into Luke’s gospel suggests that Jesus liked the story well enough to use it in his own preaching.

Most scholars suspect it to be a version of a popular Egyptian folk tale widely told the in the first century. This is also the only gospel parable about the afterlife. That’s Latin for “rich guy,” so readers of the Latin Bible began to treat it as his proper name. The poor man is called Lazarus, a variant of Eleazar, which means “God helps.” The rich man is unidentified in Scripture, but tradition has given him the name Dives. It’s the only one where a character is given a name. But today’s story isn’t quite like any other parable. He knew how to use a good story not just to make a point, but to change lives. To beg for some crumbs from the rich man to eatīut he left him to die like a tramp on the street

Skylight (1732) for the high altar of the cathedral in Toledo, Spain.

Dives and lazarus story