The Rich Man
In many sermons that are preached on this
message this rich man is presented as being exceedingly vile, and is set
forth as a representative sinner. There is no such picture here, and our
Lord exercised care that no idea of great wickedness is set forth. That
would have spoiled the picture He is drawing. All that we know of this man
is that he was rich, that he wore expensive clothing and that he lived
luxuriously every day. This is all we know of him, and it is very little.
There is not enough here to form any true estimate of his character, since
the facts given deal with his state. They reveal nothing of his character.
As Trench says: "He was one of whom all may have spoken well; of whom none
could say worse than that he was content to dwell at ease, would fain put
far from himself all things painful to the flesh, and surround himself
with all things pleasurable."
In our smug self-righteousness we are apt to
think that these statements describe a great sinner like Ahab or Judas
Iscariot, but this is wholly imaginary. The average middle-class American
of today probably dresses better, eats better, and enjoys comforts far
beyond what this man ever dreamed. We do not judge a man's character to be
bad when we discover that he is rich. Neither do we judge a man as wicked
because he dresses well. And while we may question the wisdom of living
luxuriously and splendidly, we do not question its morality. Why then
should the man in this story be judged as flagrantly wicked'? Do we dare
to calumniate one whom our Lord did not? True it is that he may not have
fed the beggar, but even of this we cannot be sure.
We are not told how this man gained his wealth,
so, if we desire to be among those who "impute not evil" let us not say
that his riches were gained dishonestly. Our Lord gave no revelation
concerning this, and Abraham made no such accusation when he spoke to him.
In view of this, a simple quatrain fits well here:
Be sure that you have Scripture, For all you
say or do;
And where God's Word is silent, May you be
silent too.
It is evident that our Lord desired to set
forth a composite picture of the rich and powerful men in Israel at that
time, especially the Pharisees, but also the Sadducees, the Scribes,
Lawyers and Priests. Let us not be guilty of taking from or adding to His
picture.
The Poor Man
The next character set before us is a poor man,
a man in desperate need. In many studies this poor man is represented as
being a godly man, a devout man, a saint. But there is no such portrayal
in the words of our Lord. He sets him forth as a poor man, one afflicted
all over his body with ulcerating sores, but nothing more than this. Our
Lord seems to have exercised care in avoiding any such picture of this
man. There is not one single fact revealed about this poor man that would
bring forth admiration or compliment. His condition arouses our sympathy,
but we see nothing about him that is worthy of emulation. We would not
dare to advise anyone to pattern their life after his, nor can we point to
him and say "Go thou and do likewise." We would feel more rapport with him
if we had been told that he looked to God to supply his needs, rather than
looking to a rich man for crumbs. We wonder if God's provision of prayer
had a place in his life. From what we are told we know only that his
expectation was in the rich man.
Some who read these lines will feel that I am
treating this poor man somewhat harshly. I admit this, but hasten to say
that this does not arise from lack of feeling and sympathy for him. It
springs only from my desire to maintain the true picture the Lord gave of
him, and to counteract the false picture of great godliness that men are
so prone to paint of him.
It must be admitted that there are some things
about the rich man that deserve censure. He dressed too well and lived too
luxuriously, but, all in all, he was not a bad character. But while there
are things about him we might condemn, there is not one thing about the
poor man we can commend or admire. There is no known fact about him that
suggests a righteous man or a man of faith. If he had lived in David's
time, David could not have written his great testimony:
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I
not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm
37:25.
The reader can confirm all that has been said
about these two men by carefully reading the words of the Lord. The honest
seeker for truth cannot accept the idea that this is a story in which the
righteous and wicked are set in contrast. There is nothing revealed
concerning the rich man that even suggests great wickedness, and nothing
revealed about the beggar that suggests righteousness. The rich man is no
picture of a sinner. The beggar gives no picture of the
saint.
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