One way to read Scripture is to look for yourself in a story or passage. I may not be dressed in purple or fine linen today, but I think I am a “have.” I live in a secure home; I sleep in a comfortable bed; I have plenty of food in the kitchen. I have to identify with the rich man in this story, and probably, so do you. He lived well, but at the entrance to his home, there lay a sick, starving, poor man. The rich man had the means to help him easily at hand, yet he did nothing. Daily, he walked past that suffering man and never did a thing for him. There came a day when time was up for the rich man, and he went to Hades. The first thing he asked for was that the poor man serve him, that Lazarus leave his heavenly reward and come to relieve the suffering of the rich man in Hell. The man he watched slowly die at his gate, he now had a use for: to serve him in Hell. He wanted from Lazarus what he was unwilling to offer Lazarus in life: relief from his own suffering.
How deadly ironic this is.
I have to ask myself if the irony of my own life is lost on me. Am I as blind and callous and uncaring about the suffering of the poor at my gate as was the rich man? Do I have the means to relieve suffering while not caring enough to do it? Do I sneer at the poor until I think I have a use for them? Do I think of people in terms of their use for my benefit? Do I find fault with the way the have-nots live, criticizing them? Do I bear the name of Christ, but ignore the way I am supposed to live?
Or do I open my hands, sharing what I have in my lifetime? Do I actually see the suffering around me and let it lean on me? Do I see the suffering poor as fellow human beings who are doing the best they can, and who could do better if I and others like me would help?
There is a way to live in a hell of selfishness, afraid and aloof from the have-nots in our midst. And there is a way to live as though Jesus is King. There’s a way to live remembering that the poor are seen and valued in the Kingdom that I am a part of. That’s the way to live in Heaven in the here and now that Jesus makes possible.