WE have seen the conclusion of the earthly state of things; the Jew, who had wasted his master's goods, losing his stewardship, the character of those who receive heavenly things, the close of all the earthly testimony and the necessity of a new one, the kingdom of God preached, which alone was gain (that or nothing), the attempt to keep the old thing being exposed as altogether evil in the sight of God.
This is followed up by the rich man and Lazarus—I was going to say, by the parable, but the Lord does not so say; though it has this character, as it seems to me. It puts in a most vivid manner the condition of the soul viewed in the light of the future, not yet of Gehenna but of torment in hades. The light therefore of the future even before the judgment is let fall upon present things to judge them. “There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.” According to a Jew's notion a good fortune, as men say, was happiness. The Jews regarded such prosperity as a mark of God's favor. His name was not to the Lord's mind worth recording, the beggar's was. The rich man had all that heart, or rather really flesh, could desire; and he gratified it. But it was all selfish enjoyment: God was not in it, nor was there even care for man. All centered in self. This was put to the proof and made evident by “a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.” For him it was little more than desire. The rich man cared not for him but for himself; the dogs were more considerate, and rendered him better favor than their master. They came and licked his sores.
Such was man, such the Jew in present life, according to his thoughts of earthly good; but when death comes, when that stands revealed which was beyond the grave, the difference at once appears in all its solemnity. Then we have things in their true light. “And it came to pass that the beggar died.” And how different! There is not a word of his burial: perhaps indeed he was not buried; but he “was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom,” the place of special blessedness according to a Jew, in the unseen world, with the most honorable of God's servants waiting on him.
“The rich man also died, and was buried.” Here there might be splendor of retinue and ample show of grief in the eyes of men. But “in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.” This is not a picture of the final state of judgment, but of a certain condition after death. This is of great importance. Luke gives us both, confirming what is seen in the Old Testament, and even adding to it. He gives its full prominence to the resurrection elsewhere; but here it was of consequence to know what would be even now for man's profit here below. In hades then “he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off.” We are not judges, save so far as scripture speaks and we are subject to it, of what is entirely outside our experience. How far those that are lost can have the knowledge of the condition of those that are saved, it is not for us to pronounce on. Scripture is plain as to the distance between them. There is no mingling of the two together. But what would be incredibly distant to man living on the earth may be simply far off to those in the separate state, and the difference between them mutually known. Lazarus then, according to the word, was seen in Abraham's bosom by him who was in torment. “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me: and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.”
Thus we have clear proof that, even before the judgment, the wicked man is in torment. Figures no doubt are employed; but these founded on that which would be intelligible to us. It is through the body that we feel in this world. From this the Lord takes figures in order to be understood by those whom He addresses in presenting according to His own wisdom the case of the unseen world. There at least the departed rich man has the sense of the need of mercy.
It is well to see that this man does not in any way take the place of an infidel. There was no faith in him assuredly, but still he talks of father Abraham; and though he had never looked to God for mercy, he sees that there at any rate the richest mercy was enjoyed—in Abraham's bosom. He asks him therefore to send Lazarus that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. What a very small favor this had been once! utterly despicable—a drop of water, and above all, sent by such as Lazarus! it would have been detestable to him on the earth. But the truth appears when man has left this life. Do we then hear while on the earth what the Lord says?
“I am tormented in this flame.” He who tells us this is Jesus; and we know that He is the truth, and that these are the true sayings of God. Abraham's answer too is most noteworthy. “Son” (says he, for he does not repudiate the connection after the flesh)— “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” He that was of Satan had good things on earth; he that was born of God received evil things here. The earth as it is gives no measure for the judgments of God: when Jesus comes, and the kingdom is set up, it will be different. But the Jew and men in general have to learn that it is not so now, and that, before He comes, there is still the solemn truth that men show by their ways here how little they believe such words of God as these. But when they die, they will surely prove the truth of what they refused to hear in this world. “Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
It is not the day of Messiah's public kingdom. Luke lets us see what is deeper even than it both in good and ill, the unseen portion of the righteous, as well as that of the unjust. “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.” The severance between the good and evil in the intermediate state is incalculably great and fixed. There is no passing from one to the other. The notion of possible mercy in the separate condition is absolutely excluded by scripture. It is the mere dream of men who wish to cling to evil as long as they can, or at least to enjoy themselves in this world, who therefore despise the warnings of God, being bent on holding fast or acquiring good things here, and utterly careless of the solemn lesson furnished by the rich man and Lazarus. “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed” says Abraham—between the departed righteous and those that die in their sins the separation is complete” so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.” Still less can any pass to Abraham that would come from beyond that gulf. In every way such change is impossible.
Thus, as no possibility of change remains for himself, he turns his attention to his family. “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house (for I have five brethren), that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But the answer of Abraham brings out another grand truth from the Lord's mind—the all-importance of the word of God, and this too even in its lower forms. The New Testament undoubtedly has fuller and perfect light; but the Old is no less really inspired. “Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” Still he pleads: “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” The answer of Abraham is decisive. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”
There is no proof that can succeed for eternity where the word of God is rejected. Such is the testimony from the unseen world. I do not deny that, for this world, there may be a conviction pressed by crushing judgments of God; but the tale before us is in view of present things before the kingdom comes, and during this state of things there is no conviction so profound, no proof so deep, as that which is rendered by the word of God. In fact also our Lord's own resurrection seals the truth of His words. For what so evident proof of the total failure of any other means to arouse man? Though He rose from the dead, out of the midst of a band of armed men set to watch as we know, men were not persuaded; least of all the Jewish priests and elders who only hardened themselves more completely. As one portion of the people set themselves against the Lord during His life, the rest were equally chagrined by the truth of His resurrection. Thus all the people made manifest their unbelief. It was bad to prove their want of sympathy with the only righteous One here below; it was, if possible, worse to refuse the testimony of grace which had raised Him from the dead and sent the message of salvation in His name. This Israel did.
But there was even more than this and sooner. A Lazarus did proceed from the dead not long after at the call of Jesus; and many of the rich man's brethren came to see him when so raised. But, far from repenting, the chiefs at least, yea the chief priests, consulted together that they might put Lazarus also to death, as well as Him whose resurrection power only provoked their deadly hatred, instead of persuading them to hear Moses and the prophets.
Hence the rich man who had departed, careless o the truth before man during his life, had no doubt received the due reward of his deeds; but those who rejected the testimony of Christ risen from the dead fall into a still greater gulf. Thus all the people were judged. The only light for the benighted soul, the only testimony that brings eternal life to the dead sinner, is the word of God received by faith.