Torment

Luke 16:16-31

Today, because it is the last Sunday of the month, we will have a shorter teaching followed by a time of communion and then a sharing time, where we all gather in a circle (or some shape that roughly approximates a circle) and share what the Lord has been teaching us in His word and what He has been doing in our lives.

I want to pose a question to you. Do you think God sees you as too permissive or too legalistic? Speaking for myself, I am pretty sure the answer is both. In some things I am probably too permissive, and in others too legalistic. I think most of us are like this. I was in an email forum this week that included a discussion of some Christian materials designed to teach character. One of the character qualities they cover is punctuality. I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me about this, apart from the part that their scriptural support was pretty sketchy, until someone pointed out two things: first, that in most cultures of the world, punctuality is not a priority at all – in many places, you are not really late until you are 3 or more hours late. The second problem with this is that they give equal time to other character qualities including love. In our culture, generally speaking, punctuality is very important, but our expectations for love, especially for sacrificial love, are minimal. (Punctuality may sometimes be an expression of love, but demanding punctuality can be an expression of selfishness.) Putting love and punctuality on the same platform is simultaneously being too permissive and too legalistic.


As we have been reading through the book of Luke, a common theme is the arguments between Jesus and the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. We tend to think of the Pharisees totally on the legalistic side, but at the same time they could also be quite permissive. Just as with our culture, the whole “love your neighbor” thing received short thrift. I think it is important to remember this as we look at Luke 16, beginning with verse 16.

"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. – Luke 16:16-18

Jesus begins here by highlighting the fact that with Jesus’ coming, the world had entered a new age. No longer was it the age of the Law and the Prophets; now it was the beginning of the age of the kingdom of God. What does “everyone is forcing his way into it” mean? The simplest explanation, which I like, is that all Jesus meant was, “look at the crowds!” At this stage of Jesus’ ministry, when He came to a town, everyone would go crazy. “The healer, the miracle man is here!” people would shout. Before long the sick, the curious, and the establishment would come out to see Him. The sick because they longed for relief; the curious because they didn’t know what to make of this Man, and the establishment primarily because they felt threatened by His teachings. But regardless of motive, nearly everyone in the town would press forward to see Him.

Jesus then speaks to the permissive. He explains that although it is a new age, that the age of the Law and the Prophets is past, the Law itself is eternal. What did Jesus mean by this? I believe He was not talking about the Pharisee’s version of the Law, the nitpicky attitude, the attention to outward appearance, and the seemingly inseparable mixing of man-made rules and regulations with the Law itself – no, instead, He was talking about the Law in its entirety, including the parts about loving the Lord your God, the parts about loving your neighbor, the parts about showing mercy. He was talking about love, not punctuality.

Now are we supposed to follow the entire Law, all the rules and regulations as laid out in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Leviticus? No. Christ has fulfilled the Law. If someone says there is a law that you must pay a dollar to take a toll road, then you either need to pay a dollar when you get up to the toll booth, or someone else has to pay your toll. Jesus has fulfilled the law in a way similar to the idea that no matter how many times we come back to that toll booth, we will find that our toll has always been prepaid in full. This is why we no longer do animal sacrifices. And this is what Jesus has bought us with His blood, something we will each remember and reflect on personally in a few minutes as we take the bread and cup in remembrance of Him.

But although Christ has fulfilled the Law, the Law is still there. And as Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount, the Law is as much about our hearts as it is about our actions.

Now why did Jesus highlight the fact that the Law was still in force? I believe it was because the Pharisees were displaying permissiveness right on top of their legalism. We have seen multiple examples of this through the Book of Luke, where they were legalistic on the letter of the law but permissive with regard to the spirit of it. I believe it was in this spirit that Jesus gives the example of divorce.

Now divorce is a complicated topic, and I don’t have anywhere near the time to go into all the various verses that discuss divorce or the complexities of applying the teaching to the hundreds of types of situations that can occur. If you have questions about what the Bible really teaches about divorce, we have a wonderfully written paper on the topic written by John Hopler, one of the leaders of our association of churches that we can provide a copy of to you. Just let me know, and I’ll be happy to give you a copy.

That being said, I do have a few comments about this verse. First, it is important to understand that in Jesus’ day, some of the leading Pharisees had become extremely permissive. For example, Rabbi Hillel taught that if a wife ruined her husband’s dinner, then that was valid grounds for divorce. Really! But it gets worse! Rabbi Akiba taught that if a husband found a man prettier than his current wife, then that was also valid grounds for divorce. I am not making this up! And Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Akiba were among the most prominent Rabbis ever – even today, both of them are quoted in portions of a traditional Jewish Passover service. (They don’t quote those sayings.) [Ref: Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, pages 332-337.]

In this context of ultra-permissive divorce, Jesus is saying, “Hold on. This isn’t how it works.” Other verses that go into more depth explain that there are valid situations for divorce and remarriage, but when a man marries a woman, he takes a vow, and he can’t just break that vow for trivial reasons. That is not a divorce, in God’s eyes. And when a woman leaves her husband for similarly trivial reasons, that is not a divorce either in God’s eyes, and someone who marries her is like someone trying to marry an already married woman.

We now come to a famous passage about a rich man and Lazarus. Verse 19:

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 

In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" – Luke 16:19-31

OK – you have heard the complete parable, and I believe it is a parable, by the way, which means it is a story told to make a point. Some parables, like the one we heard last week, simply show people behaving in a certain way in order to say that you should behave this way (or not behave this way), but others go much deeper because they reveal much about God. The parable of the prodigal son is in this latter category, because it shows us the loving heart of God the Father. This parable is also in this latter category, because it mostly takes place in the afterlife.

There are three main characters in this parable. First is the rich man, clearly symbolic of the Pharisees who believe that because they are sons of Abraham, their eternity is set. Jesus explained the falseness of this belief several times in the gospels, and this parable just demolishes any hope of such a belief. The rich man even called Abraham “father,” but this didn’t help his situation at all. The theme of not setting your heart on your wealth is also present here – the rich man is now poor and in even worse condition than the beggar was when he sat at the gate of the rich man day after day and never received any help or was shown any compassion or mercy. What happened to loving your neighbor as yourself? The rich man is the most developed character because it is with him that Jesus makes his point.

The other characters, Lazarus and Abraham are less well developed because they are devices used to help Jesus make his point to the Pharisees. Are we to assume that “Father Abraham” talks to people in torment in the afterlife like this? No. Are we to make the conclusion that the afterlife is kind of like karma, in that you get what is coming to you, and if you have had it rough, then things will be good? Absolutely not! This false idea totally contradicts the main message of the New Testament.

But what about this parable’s basic description of the nature of the afterlife, that some people will be welcomed to a wonderful life whereas others will experience torment? Is this accurate? Yes, because other Scripture confirms it and this really is the whole point of the parable. Jesus is telling the Pharisees that with their hardened hearts, this is what they are headed for. And His conclusion in the parable that even seeing a resurrection wouldn’t change their hearts is prophetic as well as literally true. Recall that elsewhere in scripture a real man named Lazarus actually does rise from the dead, and yet the Pharisees, who know this, still want to kill him. But even the true resurrection of Lazarus is just a “living parable,” if you will, of the main event: the resurrection of Jesus Himself. With this resurrection all the claims of Jesus, including those of His own divinity and those of His power to save, were verified.

Many non-Christians ask the following question when confronted with this scene of the afterlife: How can a loving God send a man to a place of eternal torment? (And it is eternal – see Rev. 14.) I would say that this is a question that contains a fallacy. Suppose you killed a man. You were arrested, tried and found guilty, and then the judge sentences you to death. If you were to ask the judge, “How can a good judge like you send me to death?” What would his answer be? Something like this: “I didn’t send you to death – you did that yourself when you killed the man.” This parable implies something similar – the rich man was given his punishment because he earned it himself by how he treated poor Lazarus.

But not only is the “How can a loving God” question fallacious because people send themselves to hell, the question ignores the whole gospel, which is that our loving God did everything possible to keep us out of hell. He sent His Son, whom He loved, to die on the cross so that you wouldn’t have to go to hell. Jesus assumed the frail shell of a human body and suffered temptation, hunger, scorn, and then torture and death to seek and save those who were lost. And then God raised Him from the dead (just like the rich man begs it would be done for his brothers in this parable), and He appeared before hundreds and hundreds of eyewitnesses, so that it would only take the faith of a mustard seed to believe.

And so let us remember Him. As some music quietly plays, I ask you all individually to remember Jesus, crucified so you could live. Spend time in prayer, thanking Him for what He has done. If you believe, if you have asked Him to take over the direction of your life, you too will be carried into Heaven. Spend some time recommitting your life to Him, giving Him permission to do whatever it takes to transform you into someone who is compatible with Heaven. And when you are ready, come up and take the bread and the cup back to your seat and remember Him with the symbols He has made for us.