Helping Lazarus

I was thinking about Lazarus one night and what a powerful picture is drawn here for us. Here we have two people living two completely different cultures. The rich man who has all that he wants and needs. I picture him coming out of his safe secure home each morning, nodding to Lazarus. Some mornings greeting him with "good morning Lazarus, how are you today", he might even throw him a coin or two if he was feeling particularly good that day, before walking to the city gate. 

Lazarus not only wanted help, he needed help. Here is a man in great need and from a completely different culture. 

The rich man had all those resources at his disposal and God wanted him to help Lazarus but the question is, how. I think that we just expect the rich man to take Lazarus into his home and share all his wealth with him. 

What sort of help did Lazarus want or need?

Lazarus didn’t want to live with the rich man, his life and existence was meant to be outside the rich man’s compound and that was where he wanted to stay. His home and family were already established and they relied on him for their survival.

So, how was the rich man supposed to help Lazarus? 

The rich man should have come out and sat down with him, listened to him to find out how he had got into such a position. It is too easy to assume that the Lazarus’ of this world have made poor decisions or made silly mistakes that leave them facing really bad consequences.

This is not always the case. 

Often they find themselves in such positions due to the greed, business decisions or power plays by other people around them. The other causes could be droughts, that kill stock, floods which wash away the infrastructures, fires or winds that burn or blow away feed and grass. So it was important for the rich man to come out and sit with Lazarus and listen to his story in order to understand the issues that he faced. It was not something that he could do in a few minutes or even a few hours. It’s imperative that the rich man give Lazarus a lot of time, even to the point of taking his mat outside and lying beside Lazarus and letting him talk long into the night. It was only by engaging with him over the long term that the rich man or men in this world can get to understand the differences in the cultures that exist.

I know that the Bible tells us that the dogs came to Lazarus and licked his sores, but I have to wonder if the rich man was even aware of how much pain Lazarus was in. Now you are going to say how could the rich man miss it. It is very easy to hide the pain that we feel often because we imagine that the world doesn’t care. I think that many of the Lazarus’ out there also try to follow the Bible’s instructions “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” Matthew 6:16.

So in order to discover the extent of Lazarus' pain, the rich man has to be compassionate and bring out a bowl of warm water, slowly and gently wash off the different layers of dirt, mud, blood and dust that have collected on his feet. Only then will he be aware of just how hurt and damaged Lazarus is. It is only then that the rich man can know and understand what treatment is truly needed and what will be most effective.

There are many people in our country who are Lazarus but we know them as Bill, Jack, Ian, Tom, Robert, Mary, Jane, Sue, Lisa or Jenny.