A Christmas Story (Almost)
A Christmas Story (Almost)
Written by Millicent A. Guarin
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Jesus tells a story in Luke 16:19-31 of two individuals with starkly different economic status. One is a rich man who dons expensive clothes and lives luxuriously, and the other, a very sick beggar who depends on crumbs for subsistence and survival.
The rich man has everything in life. He has money as well as good health. He has nothing to worry about: no unpaid bills, overdue mortgage, threat of foreclosure, maximized credit limit, stockmarket crunch, and dwindling assets. The poor man, on the other hand, has all the misfortune every human being dreads: homelessness, malnutrition, zero investment, and ill health.
The two are no strangers to each other. In fact, they do not live apart from each other. The beggar is laid at the rich man’s gate. He eats what falls from the rich man’s table. Why the rich man lets the poor man hang out in his villa Jesus does not tell. Maybe the poor man at his gate eating his crumbs earns him public honor.
At the end, both meet the same fate. They both die. In a poignant twist, their status is reversed in the afterlife. They exchange roles. The rich man suffers great torment while the poor man enjoys life and bliss.
The story is powerful because it tells very little but suggests much. The quiet representation of the poor man suggests his helplessness and powerlessness. He is given no speech in the narrative because that’s what he really is – voiceless until his cause is taken up by someone greater and higher than himself, by someone with inexhaustible resource.
The story is also silent about what he does to merit good things in the afterlife. (Only his pathetic diet of fallen crumbs and his detestable sores licked by dogs are mentioned) This, it seems, is also intentional. Not being able to reverse his lot, he entrusts himself to the Higher Being. Such utter dependence is reminiscent of the Christian’s cry for help in his conversion experience. The poor man does not need to say or do anything.
Also, the obvious lack of action in the story seems no coincidence and is suggestive of the utter lack of action by the rich man in behalf of the poor man. He does nothing for his fellow human being who is miserably laid at his gate. He shows him no concern, compassion, kindness, and mercy. He does not do anything for the poor man because he has no love for him. He does not know love at all. To him what only matters is himself, his sensual appetite. His self-preoccupation, his self-indulgence, inhibits him from knowing the greater thing in life that is love.
In an ironic twist, Jesus names the poor man Lazarus while he leaves the rich man anonymous. From the perspective of heaven, it is Lazarus - nobody, outcast, insignificant - who is worthy.
Jesus neither glorifies poverty nor condemns riches in his story, although elsewhere He says that it is easier for the poor to enter the kingdom of God than the rich and that money can easily emerge as an idol. Nonetheless, He seems to warn us not to neglect the poor among us, that it is not possible for us to live luxuriously in the presence of the poor. Love, apparently, is restless until the poor receive what is due them.
Jesus’ story could have been a perfect Christmas story had the rich man given himself to Lazarus, exactly what God does when He gives us His Son. He gives Jesus that we who are poor may become rich.
Written by Millicent A. Guarin
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Jesus tells a story in Luke 16:19-31 of two individuals with starkly different economic status. One is a rich man who dons expensive clothes and lives luxuriously, and the other, a very sick beggar who depends on crumbs for subsistence and survival.
The rich man has everything in life. He has money as well as good health. He has nothing to worry about: no unpaid bills, overdue mortgage, threat of foreclosure, maximized credit limit, stockmarket crunch, and dwindling assets. The poor man, on the other hand, has all the misfortune every human being dreads: homelessness, malnutrition, zero investment, and ill health.
The two are no strangers to each other. In fact, they do not live apart from each other. The beggar is laid at the rich man’s gate. He eats what falls from the rich man’s table. Why the rich man lets the poor man hang out in his villa Jesus does not tell. Maybe the poor man at his gate eating his crumbs earns him public honor.
At the end, both meet the same fate. They both die. In a poignant twist, their status is reversed in the afterlife. They exchange roles. The rich man suffers great torment while the poor man enjoys life and bliss.
The story is powerful because it tells very little but suggests much. The quiet representation of the poor man suggests his helplessness and powerlessness. He is given no speech in the narrative because that’s what he really is – voiceless until his cause is taken up by someone greater and higher than himself, by someone with inexhaustible resource.
The story is also silent about what he does to merit good things in the afterlife. (Only his pathetic diet of fallen crumbs and his detestable sores licked by dogs are mentioned) This, it seems, is also intentional. Not being able to reverse his lot, he entrusts himself to the Higher Being. Such utter dependence is reminiscent of the Christian’s cry for help in his conversion experience. The poor man does not need to say or do anything.
Also, the obvious lack of action in the story seems no coincidence and is suggestive of the utter lack of action by the rich man in behalf of the poor man. He does nothing for his fellow human being who is miserably laid at his gate. He shows him no concern, compassion, kindness, and mercy. He does not do anything for the poor man because he has no love for him. He does not know love at all. To him what only matters is himself, his sensual appetite. His self-preoccupation, his self-indulgence, inhibits him from knowing the greater thing in life that is love.
In an ironic twist, Jesus names the poor man Lazarus while he leaves the rich man anonymous. From the perspective of heaven, it is Lazarus - nobody, outcast, insignificant - who is worthy.
Jesus neither glorifies poverty nor condemns riches in his story, although elsewhere He says that it is easier for the poor to enter the kingdom of God than the rich and that money can easily emerge as an idol. Nonetheless, He seems to warn us not to neglect the poor among us, that it is not possible for us to live luxuriously in the presence of the poor. Love, apparently, is restless until the poor receive what is due them.
Jesus’ story could have been a perfect Christmas story had the rich man given himself to Lazarus, exactly what God does when He gives us His Son. He gives Jesus that we who are poor may become rich.
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