This is part of a year-long series. Find out more about this series here.

Luke 16:19-31 The Rich Man and Lazarus

Jesus tells a parable that contrasts a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. The rich man lives a life of luxury, and Lazarus is covered in sores and must resort to begging. Eventually, both men die and enter the afterlife.

The second half of the parable contains a conversation between the rich man and Abraham, who has appeared in the afterlife. The end of the conversation stood out to me this time, so I want to share my thoughts.

The rich man asks Abraham to send someone from the dead to his living brothers to warn them about the place of torment in the afterlife. Abraham tells the rich man “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them” (Lk. 16:29 ESV). According to the Abraham of Jesus’ parable, Moses and the Prophets are credible witnesses to the realities of the afterlife; they proclaim God’s revelation to humanity about the afterlife, and, thus, they are the credible sources on the topic.

But the rich man does see it this way. He tells Abraham “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Lk. 16:30). The rich man thinks someone from the dead is a more credible witness about the afterlife than Moses and the Prophets. He thinks his brothers would be persuaded by a dead witness rather than prophetic ones. It is important to mention that we should avoid inserting our hindsight-understanding of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead into this part of the parable. The rich man is thinking of sending a dead human to his brothers, not the resurrected Christ.

Abraham responds “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead” (Lk. 16:31). I want to look at this response from two angles. First, Moses and the Prophets proclaim the words and messages of God. Their words and messages are backed by God’s authority. Someone from the dead lacks this credibility. If the brothers reject the superior authority of Moses and the Prophets, why would they accept the inferior authority of a dead human from the afterlife?

From the other angle, the brothers are condemned because they would not listen to either Moses & the Prophets or someone from the dead. Receiving a messenger from the afterlife would be a remarkable event that should make someone pause, but it would have no effect on the brothers. They are completely uninterested.

I walked away from this parable with two things. First, someone who has a heart of faith will listen to Moses and the Prophets. They proclaim God’s words, and their messages should therefore be taken seriously. But this requires faith.

Second, the parable reinforced to me the hardness of the human heart. The rich man showed no compassion to Lazarus in life, and his brothers were uninterested in hearing and understanding God’s revelation, which is the accurate description of the reality humans live in. Our hearts are hard, severely hard. Will we have ears to hear?

Finally, we return to our hindsight-understanding of Christ’s resurrection and think about this parable in today’s context. Abraham tells the rich man that the brothers will not be convinced “even if someone should rise from the dead” (Lk. 16:31). Christ has both components of authority described in the parable. He is God Himself, the second Person of the Trinity. He has within Himself the very authority that gives the messages of Moses and the Prophets their authority. Additionally, He is also risen from the dead. He is the ultimate authority on the afterlife. He is the one who yet lives despite tasting death, and His words are authoritative because of His divine nature. Do we have ears to hear His message?