What can we learn from the parable of Lazarus and The Rich Man?
The rich man put his faith in his own wealth yet realized, all too soon, that one’s salvation can only be found in accepting Jesus as our Saviour as I have done and countless others. Lazarus was humble, meek and respectful. Jesus was poiting out that like Lazarus and Himself, we also need to be meek, humble, respectful and loving towards our fellow man. Incidentally, I don’t recall if Lazarus & the Rich Man was a true story or a parable because some have argued that it was NOT a parable. We need to re-examine God’s Word, the Bible, to see if it was a parable, or an actual event in biblical history. Either way, we need to be like Jesus.
Since the rich man and Lazarus are not literal persons but symbolize classes of people, logically their deaths are also symbolic. What do their deaths symbolize, or represent? Jesus has just finished pointing to a change in circumstances by saying that the Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptizer, but from then on the kingdom of God is being declared. Hence, it is with the preaching of John and Jesus Christ that both the rich manand Lazarus die to their former circumstances, or condition. Those of the humble, repentant Lazarus class die to their former spiritually deprived condition and come into a position of divine favor. Whereas they had earlier looked to the religious leaders for what little dropped from the spiritual table, now the Scriptural truths imparted by Jesus are filling their needs. They are thus brought into the bosom, or favored position, of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God. On the other hand, those who make up the rich-man class come under divine disfavor beca
