There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
Do our chosen pleasures insulate us from the needs of those around us? Do our selfish pursuits prevent us from seeing those in need even when they are on our very doorstep?
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
We may worry that in response to the problem of poverty that we can never do enough. But the rich man wasn't condemned for an effort that was partial but ineffective. He was condemned because even his leftover scraps could have been helpful but his awareness was too closed in on itself to even offer these. He was blinded to the needs of others, needs that he was positioned to address, by his selfish pursuits. He would have had to all but step over Lazarus to come or go and yet he acted as though he did not exist.
God takes pity on the poor, the neglected, and the suffering. He sent his angels to carry Lazarus to the bosom of Abraham to enjoy such consolations as to more than make up for the bad things he received during his life. But to those who refuse to heed the word of God commanding that we show mercy, spoken first by Moses and the prophets, and later by Jesus risen from the dead, he himself will not show mercy. We are here and now being given the opportunity to respond to the call. We won't necessarily solve the problem of poverty for all time. But we can at least begin to notice the poor lying on our doorsteps. They may not have anything with which to pay us back now, but we can imagine them as our advocates at the bosom of Abraham when we come to face our own judgment. The simple questions we can ask are, what is our surplus? and, who is near us who stands in need? When we consistently address these questions we can avoid the risk described by Jeremiah of becoming men and women who trust in human beings, seek our strength in flesh, but turn away from the Lord.
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Even while we remain alive the way of the flesh is not a truly fulfilling way to live. The more we allow ourselves to become isolated from the needs of others by our selfishness the more we become like barren bushes in the desert. Our pleasures may continue, but without a change of season we cease to experience them as pleasures but instead only experience a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. The afterlife for such individuals is the concrete and definitive manifestation of this inner reality.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream
If we are rooted in trust in the Lord we will be able to give to others in a way that not only does not diminish us but in fact makes us grow. When we are rooted in ourselves we rightly experience barrenness, that we have no fruit to offer to others. But when the Lord is our strength he himself make us bear fruit with no distress even in the year of drought. It seems like an easy choice considered in the abstract, but our hearts are good at rationalizing selfishness. We must turn to him who alone probes the mind and tests the heart to help to keep us on the right path, to keep our ears open to the word of God, and our eyes open to those nearby who are in need.
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
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