The Rich Man and Lazarus

Fact or fiction?

Jesus' teaching in Luke 16 clearly serves one of His main purposes near the end of His ministry. He wanted His hearers to understand the differences between true godliness and Pharisaism. One difference, the theme of the previous chapter, is that real saints rejoice when a sinner repents, and they welcome him into their fellowship. Another difference, the theme of the present chapter, is that real saints have a proper view of earthly wealth. They see it as a tool not for gaining personal pleasure and prestige, but for advancing God's kingdom in this world.

In the first eighteen verses of Luke 18, Jesus has, with sharp and precise cuts of His critical knife, been exposing the Pharisees as total hypocrites. But because He was driven by mercy and by a loving desire to waken some of them to repentance, He did not stop after telling them how bad they were. He felt that an adequate sermon to such sinners required a clear and candid picture of their eternal destiny. Throughout the remainder of Luke 16, Jesus tells a story traditionally known as the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

This title is, however, unfortunate. The term "parable" generally refers to a story or saying with figurative meaning. In the Parable of the Sower, for example (Matt. 13: 3–9), Jesus is not giving an account of something that really happened. It is realistic enough that the story line could match someone's real experience as a farmer. But whether or not the parable had a counterpart in true events is irrelevant. The purpose of the story is to present a clear picture of some higher truths. To accomplish this goal, many elements of the story are figures or metaphors pointing to something with spiritual significance.

To call the story of the rich man and Lazarus a parable is therefore misleading. For several reasons, we can be sure that Jesus is recalling the contrasting lives and afterlives of two real men.

In His parables, Jesus never gives a name to any human character, but in this story He identifies the beggar as a certain Lazarus. If the beggar is not a real person, the name he bears would serve no purpose unless it has larger significance, perhaps pointing to something the beggar represents, but no one has ever found any figurative meaning in the name Lazarus.
Many of Jesus' stories are introduced or followed by language affirming explicitly that they are parables. The person who reveals the figurative nature of a story may be Jesus Himself (Matt. 13:13; Luke 8:11ff.), the Gospel-writer (Luke 14:7), or one of Jesus' hearers (Luke 12:41). Yet nowhere in the context of the story concerning the rich man and Lazarus do we find any suggestion that it is mere fiction.
The purpose of this story is to put fear into the hearts of religious hypocrites like the Pharisees, who imagine themselves to be God's darlings when they are really God's enemies bound for damnation. Including a picture of hell in a story about make-believe people and events would not be very effective in alerting sinners to their peril. Therefore, to sharpen His warning as much as possible, Jesus told His hearers about a real man who went to hell, and He described the pain and grief that the man really suffered.

He names the beggar but not the rich man. As a legacy of English church tradition, the rich man is generally called Dives, which is simply the Latin word for "rich."¹ It was probably out of consideration for his family that Jesus withheld the man's actual name.

If what Jesus said about the rich man and Lazarus is a true story of real men, why should we include it in our discussion of Jesus' parables? The reason is that their story serves the same purpose. It was a teaching device that Jesus employed to make certain spiritual truths far more vivid so that we can see them as signposts along our own pathway of life.

At the top and bottom of society

Jesus begins the story by drawing a contrast between the two main characters.

19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

Luke 16:19-21

The rich man was rich indeed, endowed by either inheritance or personal enterprise with a standard of living that in ancient Judea was no less than splendid. He had the finest food and fared sumptuously not only on festive occasions, but every day, probably at every meal. The original words imply that his meals were times not only of gorging himself with good food, but also of making merry with his friends. In his prosperity, he was able to furnish them also with fine banquets.

Furthermore, he arrayed himself in "purple and fine linen." The word translated "linen" refers to a fabric properly called byssus. According to Alfred Edersheim, the nineteenth-century Jewish scholar who became a Christian and subsequently wrote a monumental classic on the life of Christ that was entitled The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, the rich man's dress was "the finest and most costly, for byssus and purple were the most expensive materials, only inferior to silk, which, if genuine and unmixed . . . was worth its weight in gold. Both byssus—of which it is not yet quite certain, whether it was of hemp or cotton—and purple were indeed manufactured in Palestine, but the best byssus (at least at that time) came from Egypt and India. The white garments of the high priest on the Day of Atonement were made of it."²

From Jesus' setting of the scene, we also learn something about the rich man's house. The entrance did not open onto the street, but sat behind a protective wall and gateway. Perhaps between the gateway and the house was an expanse of ground or stone giving the house some seclusion from the outer world. A private estate was a privilege belonging only to the very rich.

The beggar's world was far different. Even compared with other beggars, he was greatly deprived, for he had no home or family of his own. A typical beggar lived with relatives who, if he was unable to walk, took him every day to a good place for attracting the notice of people who might look with pity on his disability, whatever it was, and give him money. But Lazarus, after he was laid at the rich man's gate, had nowhere else to go.

Perhaps he was left there by kindhearted souls who hoped that when the house owner and his rich friends saw him, they might offer help in some form. But all passersby who were people of privilege were deaf to his pleas. He was not unreasonable in what he desired. He only cried out for some crumbs from the rich man's table. But the word "desiring" implies a desire that went unfulfilled. So, Jesus' words leave little doubt that the rich man ignored the beggar. It is not that he never saw Lazarus. Far from it. Later in the story we learn that he was able to recognize Lazarus when they both reached the afterlife. But before he died, he always turned away from him, probably with the usual Pharisaical excuse that anyone in such dire extremity must be a sinner under divine judgment—in other words, that Lazarus was getting what he deserved.

Even from the beginning of his stay at the rich man's gate, Lazarus was near death. He was full of "sores," a word that can also be translated "ulcers."³ The exact malady he suffered is uncertain, but no one came near to wash or dress his lesions, whatever they were. I should say no human being, for in fact he attracted the attention of dogs. They gladly came and licked his skin. Was their attention helpful? Certainly Jesus does not cast them in an unfavorable light. In some measure they were probably cleaning off dirt and discharge. Certainly they did not look on the beggar as helpless prey to be eaten. All in all, Jesus seems to be saying that the only help Lazarus received was not from fellow men capable of thoughtful compassion in obedience to conscience, but from mindless dogs whose tail-wagging friendliness was only by instinct.

Jesus' reference to assistance from mere dogs was obviously meant to expose just how heartless the rich man was. In Jewish eyes, dogs were disgusting animals because of their willingness to eat almost anything, however unclean. Yet, as Jesus said, they licked the beggar's wounds. To help us appreciate the full scathing effect of His words, we will translate them into plainer terms. He was saying that the rich man was far lower on the scale of kindness than a dirty, drooling dog.

Contrasting destinies

Then at approximately the same time the two central figures in the story, the rich man and Lazarus, died.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Luke 16:22-23

From an earthly perspective, the rich man seemed to enjoy a better departure from life, for he was given the honor of burial, no doubt with impressive ceremony. But the story mentions no burial of Lazarus. Perhaps he was cast into a common grave. Jesus here is emphasizing the difference between appearance and reality. The world thought that the rich man was the one to be envied because of his wealth and social standing, but it was blind to the futures of these two men. It could not see that they did not share the same destiny. The one to be envied was actually Lazarus. Immediately after he died, he was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, whereas after the rich man died, he woke up in hell.

The difference in their destinies was dramatic even in their passage to the next world. At the first moment after the rich man's death, he found himself in hell. In this immediate transfer to a new world, he met no one and heard no voice. It was as if he had been summarily dropped into a pit of flames. But when the beggar died, he entered a new world by stages. First he found himself in the care of a reception committee made up of angels. Then he was transported with gentleness and joy to his new residence, a place of delights far beyond his imagination when his only home was a gutter beside a gate.

Jesus then proceeded to describe more fully the two places of destiny. It is certainly no accident that He tells us about hell in the same discourse where He tells us about heaven. Just before He told the story of Dives and Lazarus, He said,

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Luke 16:9

The wonderful prospect of heaven is not really complete without a clear picture of the future it enables us to escape. One great blessing in joining the saints is never to taste of hell. And likewise the terrible prospect of hell is not complete without a clear picture of the future it denies us. The greatest curse in joining the damned is never to know heaven.

The resting place of Lazarus was "Abraham's bosom," a term not invented by Jesus but already in use among the Jews.⁴ It referred to the place of comfort and peace that all of Abraham's descendants faithful to his God could expect to enjoy after they died. The term was intended not as a literal picture, but rather as imagery derived from their way of dining on special occasions.⁵ Instead of sitting at a table as we do, they lay on couches that angled off from the edge of the table, so that a man's head was level with chest of the person behind him. Thus, when they spoke of their place of destiny as Abraham's bosom, they were picturing a heavenly feast, where, instead of enduring the troubles of this world, they would recline at table with their ancient father and know his close presence and love.

The term translated "hell" is actually Hades,⁶ the Greek name for the underworld, which the Greeks believed was the residence of all departed souls. The New Testament writers, following the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament in common use in Jesus' day) treat Hades as equivalent to the realm known in the Old Testament as Sheol. One example is when Peter quoted David’s words in Psalm 16:10.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Acts 2:27

The Holy One refers to the Messiah. "Sheol" is the word for hell in the original Hebrew,⁷ but Peter substitutes the word "Hades."⁸

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus reserves the term Hades for the place of torment, yet He also reveals that it is possible for the rich man both to see Lazarus and to speak with Abraham, although a huge gulf falling between the place of torment and the place of rest prevents passage from one to the other. We therefore must conclude that both places—Hades and Abraham's bosom—occupy the same region. From usage of the terms Hades and Sheol in other Scriptural texts we learn that they refer not just to one side of the region, but to both sides; that is, to the whole realm where dead souls, both righteous and unrighteous, await resurrection. Throughout Old Testament writings writings, it is clear that among the inhabitants of Sheol, often translated "grave,"⁹ are the souls of the righteous dead.

And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave [Sheol].

Genesis 42:38

Here the speaker is Jacob, the godly grandson of Abraham. Another example comes from a psalm written for the sons of Korah. These were Levites who oversaw worship in the Temple.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave [Sheol]: for he shall receive me. Selah.

Psalm 49:15

We also have the words of Hezekiah, the righteous king of Judah.

I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave [Sheol]: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

Isaiah 38:10

An especially informative text is the one already quoted, Acts 2:27, taken from Peter's sermon on Pentecost. He said that in fulfillment of David's prophecy in Psalm 16, the soul of the Holy One would briefly abide in Hades (that is, Sheol) before God delivered Him from death. It is unthinkable that Jesus, after finishing His work on the cross, had to endure more suffering. On the contrary, as He was approaching death, He said to the repentant thief hanging next to Him,

To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Luke 23:43

Since on that day Jesus descended to Sheol and remained there until the third day afterward, we can only conclude that He considered a portion of Sheol to be essentially a paradise because of its provision of delights. He must have been referring to the place that He also called Abraham's bosom. Therefore, He left no doubt that Sheol was the proper name for both sides of the great gulf separating the rich man and Lazarus, the side of torment as well as the side of perfect bliss.

Where is Sheol located? Scripture provides many clues that it is in the center of the earth. First we will list these clues, then consider common objections. Other translations of Sheol include "the pit"¹⁰ and "hell."¹¹

Moses said that Korah and his company descended alive into Sheol.

But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit [Sheol]; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

Numbers 16:30
Many texts associate Sheol with great depth.

7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell [Sheol]; what canst thou know?

Job 11:8

The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell [Sheol] beneath.

Proverbs 15:24

Hell [Sheol] from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

Isaiah 14:9
When Samuel and other righteous spirits returned from the dead to confront Saul, they rose from the earth.

13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.

14 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.

1 Samuel 28:13–15
When Jesus spoke of His whereabouts after His death and before His resurrection, He said,

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:40

His tomb was just a small hole in the side of a hill. To refer to it as the heart of the earth would be poetic extravagance indeed. He was referring to His soul's stay in Hades.
When Paul described what happened to Jesus after His death, he said,

Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

Ephesians 4:9

We in the modern world recoil from this teaching because we know that the earth is round and has a solid core of iron and nickel with a radius of about 760 miles. But the facts actually reinforce the plausibility of placing Hades at the earth's center. If it were a cavity with dimensions of ten miles, giving an overall volume of a thousand cubic miles, it would have a huge capacity for dead souls, yet it would never be detectable from the earth's surface. The absence of conditions essential to physical life, such as appropriate temperature and atmosphere, serves as no hindrance to the life of bodiless souls.

The Bible teaches that the earth's center is the site of yet another chamber of imprisonment. The Greek name that Scripture uses for this place is abussos, from which is derived the English word "abyss." In the KJV, it is translated in some texts as "the deep;"¹² One example is when Luke recalls what happened after Jesus cast a legion of demons out of the possessed man in the country of the Gadarenes.

30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [the abyss].

Luke 8:31-32

See also Romans 10:7. In some other texts the same word, abussos, is translated "bottomless pit."¹³

1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit [the abyss].

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Revelation 9:1-11

See also Revelation 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3. From references to the abyss in the Book of Revelation, we learn that it is a compartment of hell used solely for the confinement of many fallen angels, presumably the worst or the most powerful among them. In the above text speaking of their release to bring plagues upon the earth during the Tribulation, it clearly informs us where the abyss is located. It sets their former prison inside the earth. Notice that "bottomless pit" is a very appropriate name for this place, since at the earth's center there is no gravity and therefore no up or down. It is truly a pit without a bottom.

Yet another name for the same region is Tartarus.¹⁴

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

2 Peter 2:4

The Book of Revelation discloses that both Hades and the abyss are like prisons in the sense that either to enter or to leave requires passage through a locked door that can only be opened with a single key. It seems to distinguish between the key to Hades and the key to the abyss, suggesting that that they are distinct regions, although both lie at the earth's center.

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit [the abyss¹⁵].

Revelation 9:1

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [Hades¹⁶] and of death.

Revelation 1:18

What the key of death refers to is uncertain, but in this context "death" likely refers to the fate of all who die before they reach the age of accountability. Their spirits go to neither heaven nor Hades but remain unconscious in a grave until the Day of Judgment, when God, using the key of death, will release them for admission to heaven, where they will be schooled in truths enabling them through the filling of the Spirit to choose and receive eternal life.

All Old Testament saints remained in the paradise of Abraham's bosom so-called until Jesus Himself departed from it on the day of His resurrection.

1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Hosea 6:1-3

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:8-10

On Easter Sunday, Jesus removed all the righteous dead to heaven, because after His work on the cross, their confinement to an earthly underworld was no longer necessary. As a result of the atonement He had secured for them, they now had a legal standing before the Father which entitled them to abide in His presence. Further exclusion in Hades would not have been the way of love.

Likewise the unrighteous will not always be confined in Hades. After the Millennium, the present earth and heavens will be destroyed in a great conflagration.

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

2 Peter 3:12

Then God will create new heavens and a new earth.

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

2 Peter 3:13

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Revelation 21:1

In between the extinction of one universe and its replacement by another, God will conduct His judgment of souls who never belonged to the body of Christ.

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:11-15

Among the souls who will face judgment are the remaining residents of Hades. All in the heavenly courtroom whom God declares unrighteous will be cast into hell, but Hades will not be the place of their future imprisonment. Rather, they will be sent to eternal damnation in another place known as Gehenna.

43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna¹⁷], into the fire that never shall be quenched:

44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:43-44

Gehenna will be "a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:42). Another name for this place of unrelieved suffering and regret is "the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14).

Gehenna will not be part of the new universe that God will create after His destruction of the flawed universe where we dwell now. Rather, the eternal hell will be wholly removed from everything good and situated in outer darkness.

But the children of the kingdom [a reference to the ungodly in the nation of Israel] shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 8:12

Gehenna was in fact created long ago to provide a place of confinement and punishment for Satan and his angels.

Then shall he [the Lord] say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Matthew 25:41

The first to be imprisoned in Gehenna will be the Antichrist and the false prophet. They will be cast alive into its fires immediately after the glorious return of Christ.

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Revelation 19:20

Gehenna will not receive Satan himself until a thousand years later, at the end of Christ's Millennial reign upon the earth.

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelation 20:10

The desperate plea of Dives

Jesus' chief purpose in the story of the rich man and Lazarus was evidently to give us new information about Hades, especially about the side where souls lie in torment. The details of the rich man's condition are sobering in their impact.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Luke 16:24

His soul still resided in a form that the rich man perceived as his body, for he believed that he still possessed a tongue. How is it possible for a bodiless soul to retain a body in some sense? To answer this question requires us to digress and give fuller consideration to the nature of man.

A human being is a tripartite creature consisting of a body, soul, and spirit.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Mammals as well as other kinds of true animals also have a soul. Several texts in Genesis and Leviticus credit them with possessing a nephesh.

And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature [nephesh] of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Genesis 9:15

Here in the KJV, nephesh is rendered "creature." But an even better translation would be "soul," as we discover when we look at well over a hundred texts where the KJV recognizes "soul" as the true meaning of nephesh. One example is a text we considered earlier.

For thou wilt not leave my soul [nephesh] in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Psalm 16:10

It is not at all surprising that Scripture should treat animals as living souls if we understand a soul's function. It is the seat of consciousness and emotion. A dog, for example, is perfectly capable of perceiving his environment and of reacting with appropriate emotional expressions such as growls or tail-wagging. But although an animal has a soul, it has no spirit. The only earthly creature with a spirit is man. His spirit is the seat of reason and moral judgment, capacities which set him apart from all other living creatures. Only man possesses these capacities because he alone was created in God's image.

An animal's soul is mortal. It does not survive death, but death does not extinguish a man's soul because his spirit is immortal. Survival of reason and moral judgment would be impossible without the survival also of consciousness. Therefore, when the rich man and Lazarus went to Hades, each retained his soul as well as his spirit. Each was fully conscious of his present experience in the context of present surroundings. The window onto these surroundings was not, however, provided by the senses of his earthly body, which lay in a grave back in Palestine. What then provided the necessary window? The evident answer is that both must have retained some sort of bodily presence.

So now we have returned to the question, how is it possible for a bodiless spirit to retain a body in some sense, or at least a bodily presence? We are too ignorant of the invisible world to offer an answer that is any more than speculation, but perhaps the key to at least a partial answer lies in Jesus’ words when He first visited the disciples following His resurrection. In Luke’s account we read,

36 . . . Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

Luke 24:36–39

Compressed within these few sentences are several intriguing suggestions. The first is that although it is possible to see a bodiless spirit and even to hear it speak, it is not possible to touch it and feel something solid. The reason is that it contains no material particles. The hands of a physical body belonging to an earthly human being therefore cannot take hold of it. But if it is nonmaterial, how can it be seen and heard? Again, we can only speculate, but the spirit of someone bereft of a body may nevertheless be able to generate light in such a way as to create a recognizable image; also, that it may be able to emit energy in such a way as to fashion sound waves under the speaker's control.

Looking deeper into Jesus' words, we find a further suggestion—that although a bodiless spirit can be seen, his visible presence does not look exactly like a physical body. In particular, the surface differs in appearance from ordinary mottled and pigmented flesh with protruding bones in various places. Instead it may be smooth and rounded, perhaps even shining if it belongs to a dead saint.

We have sketched how a dead spirit may look to living men. Another question is how self and the surrounding world look to the spirit of a dead man. From the account of the rich man in hell, we infer that his consciousness of the present moment encompassed all five senses. He could see, hear, feel pain and heat on the surface of his being, and taste dryness in his mouth. Although nothing is said specifically about his sense of smell, his complaint that he was "tormented in this flame" makes it probable that the flame was made doubly agonizing by an overwhelmingly foul smell of smoke. What was the source of these perceptions if his physical body was dead? We can only speculate, but apparently a bodiless creature with a surviving soul and spirit is provided by God with a sensory mechanism which would probably be incomprehensible to people with the juvenile intelligence of modern mankind.

Notice that the sensory input concerning his body's condition and circumstances did not build a scene disconnected from self. Rather, he saw it as his own experience. Thus, he retained his personal identity.

Also, he was able to think. He could recognize some other persons also in Hades. He could employ his mind in the work necessary to understand his plight and to conceive desires and to make proposals. And he could engage another person in conversation.

Yet none of these holdovers from earthly humanity was a blessing. On the contrary, they were a curse, because in his body he felt only pain and thirst, in his mind he knew only regret and the longing to escape, and through his conversation with Abraham he merely discovered how far removed he was from the happy fate of the poor beggar he had always neglected.

The same story also gives us a small glimpse of the side where the beggar resided. Notice that the rich man perceived Lazarus as alive and active, to the degree that he imagined it possible for Lazarus to come over and relieve his discomfort. Thus, we find in this story no support for the false doctrine known as "soul sleep," which teaches that the righteous dead are currently sleeping as they await future resurrection. No, although Lazarus existed as a bodiless spirit rather than as a creature in possession of both spirit and body, he was not asleep. To the rich man, he appeared to be awake. Moreover, as we have said, he was not a nebulous being without distinct parts. The rich man apparently saw him in possession of a finger.

We are reminded of the account recalling when Samuel came to Saul from Sheol.

7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.

8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.

9 And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

10 And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.

11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.

12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.

13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.

14 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.

15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.

16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

17 And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David:

18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.

19 Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.

20 Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.

1 Samuel 28:7-20

Samuel on that occasion had a visible presence in a bodily form clothed with a mantle, and he had a voice. He was even recognizable as an old man. The witch who was standing nearby was terrified at the sight. Despite her claim to be a medium for communication with the dead, Samuel's appearance was unlike anything she had ever seen before. She called the ascending spirits "gods." Which other saints accompanied Samuel is unknown, but evidently they were all majestic and shining. In the past, she had never brought spirits of this kind into her presence because, like all witches in the ancient and modern world, her claim to be a medium was false. The only spirits she could summon to manifest themselves in some fashion were demons masquerading as the spirits of dead men. Her "familiar spirit" was also a demon. That is why the sight of Samuel's glorious spirit was a wholly new experience for her. Samuel rose up from Hades not because she summoned him, but because the Lord wanted him to present Saul with frightening words of judgment that would move him to repentance for his past sins. Like the witch at Endor, countless other people throughout history have also reported hearing or seeing human ghosts, but their stories are just lies or delusions. Often what really happened was a demonic charade.

Although Samuel was glorious after his ascent from Sheol, the rich man Dives was by no means glorious after his descent to the same realm. The only illumination near him came from the sea of flames. Yet it is probable that like Samuel, the beggar would, to any of us earthbound creatures, have had an appearance suggesting a shining god.

Of all the nagging miseries the rich man felt, one of the worst apparently was a sense that his mouth was filled with searing heat like the heat of a desert. He cried out to Abraham a desperate plea that he would allow Lazarus to come over and cool his tongue with a touch of water. The rich man did not ask for much—just a small token of relief. But we who hear the story cannot help but remember that when Lazarus lay outside the rich man's gate and begged for no more than a few crumbs of bread, the rich man responded by contemptuously refusing even to notice that the beggar existed, or so it would seem. The rich man wanted kindness from a man who had never received the least kindness from the rich man.

The response of Abraham

Having sketched the backgrounds of the man in paradise and the man in hellfire, Jesus has well prepared us for Abraham's response.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

Luke 16:25-26

Abraham said, basically, "No, I will not provide you with any relief from your pain." An interesting sidelight here is their terms of address. The rich man called Abraham "father," and Abraham called him "son." The terms do, of course, reflect their actual relationship, for the rich man was a Jew whose distant ancestor was Abraham. Yet although we understand why the rich man would have positioned himself as Abraham's son when he was seeking Abraham's help—he was of course trying to arouse fatherly concern—we do not necessarily understand why Abraham acknowledged their relationship. Why did he call this reprobate a son if he was unwilling to do anything to relieve his suffering? The reason is that he was reminding the rich man of the full extent of his guilt. Because as a son of Abraham he was well acquainted with the record of Abraham's life, he had no excuse for spurning his forefather's godliness and choosing instead to live mired in ungodliness.

One reason Jesus chose to include the terms "father" and "son" when recalling this exchange between the rich man and Abraham was to challenge the complacency of the Pharisees and other self-righteous Jews. They thought that they were assured a place in God's kingdom simply because they were proud sons and daughters of Abraham.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Matthew 3:7-9

See also John 8:31-40. To contradict this foolish thinking, Jesus stressed that the rich man immersed in the flames of hell was no less a descendant of Abraham than they were.

Abraham denied the rich man's request for assistance and gave two decisive reasons. The first is that each of the men, the rich man and Lazarus, was getting what he deserved. Lazarus had always been the victim of injustice in the form of "evil things" that fellow Jews were unwilling to remove from his life. The rich man and his friends as well as other people refused to help him. Yet he must have cried out for help from God, and God saved him by removing him from this wicked world and placing him in the joyous company of the truly noble and great, like Abraham. The rich man, on the other hand, was chief among the heartless Jews who ignored Lazarus, instead devoting their lives to self-indulgence blind to the needs of others. Therefore, the rich man had nothing left to enjoy, because he had wasted his life in a quest for things of no lasting value. All the pleasure and wealth he had seized for himself in this world had evaporated, never to exist again. As a result, his future had shriveled to a total absence of pleasure and wealth forever.

The second decisive reason that Abraham could not help the rich man is that an impassable barrier separated them. Between the regions of torment and comfort within the larger realm of Hades was fixed a great gulf (literally, "chasm"¹⁸). Abraham informed his wayward son that to move across it was equally impossible for the damned and for the blessed. Therefore, Lazarus could not come to relieve the rich man even if the former beggar wanted out of the goodness of his heart to help the person who so mistreated him. Likewise, the rich man could not escape from his flaming prison and join Lazarus.

At this point, a reader might say, "Wait a minute. If a great gulf divided the damned from the blessed, how was it possible for Abraham and the rich man to converse as if they were just forty or fifty feet apart? Moreover, how could they have seen each other? And even if they did, how could the place called Abraham's bosom have been a true paradise if its residents watched the suffering of people in flames?" Here are natural questions that might occur to any thoughtful reader. But if he uses them to reject the story, he is displaying a kind of worldly wisdom that we might call sophomoric skepticism because it fails to dig for good answers. Here, the answers require a closer look at what Jesus said. In fact, He gave us no reason at all to think that Lazarus could hear or see the rich man. No, it is doubtful that the company of the blessed were spectators of the ugly scene across the impassable divide. The rich man could evidently see Lazarus, but this capacity was part of the just penalty that he received for his cruel contempt of Lazarus while they both lived in the present world.

Perhaps the only person in Paradise who could hear and see the rich man was Abraham. As the father of all the blessed and also of many among the damned, he apparently exercised oversight of the whole underworld known as Hades. In that role, he may have informed newcomers of their fate—a probable necessity for two reasons. The first was justice; the second, mercy. Justice may have prevented the imposition of dreadful punishment upon a man without informing him of the divine verdict that required it. Mercy may have required the removal of any hope of deliverance from the man's thoughts, lest his anguish be forever compounded by hope unfulfilled. We will suggest further, but only as pure speculation, that the damned were not allowed to curse God for their fate. If so, a warning voice like Abraham's was necessary to inform any lost soul inclined to curse God that the consequence would be even greater suffering. To fulfill his role, Abraham was endowed by God with supernatural ability to see the damned and converse with them.

A second plea, even more desperate

Once the rich man understood that his destiny was irreversible, he felt a surge of anxiety concerning his family still alive in this world.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Luke 16:27-28

The rich man knew that before he died, his family shared his twisted interpretation of life, thinking of it as no more than today's pleasure ground. Therefore, it struck him as an alarming fact that they were also headed for the hell that had become his torture chamber. He was particularly concerned about the future of his five brothers. He asked Abraham whether he would send Lazarus to inform them of their peril. He probably was not proposing that Lazarus be raised from the dead. More likely, in keeping with popular superstitions among the ungodly Jews as well in other nations, he wanted Lazarus to visit them in an unresurrected state; in other words, as a ghost.

What a peculiar request! We see in it evidence that the experience of hell had not transformed the heart of this man. In at least two ways, his thinking still stood miles apart from the renewed mind of a man transformed by the Spirit of God.

His outlook was still saturated with self-importance. He still looked upon Lazarus as belonging to a much lower social class—indeed as essentially a servant or slave who existed only to run errands for lofty figures like himself. His suggestion that Lazarus be dispatched to bring water to himself and carry news to the earth expressed not respect, but condescension. He even thought that to relieve his own thirst, Lazarus's inferior standing justified sending him through the flames of hell.
His kind of love was empty of elementary natural affection. Yes, he wanted news of hell taken to his five brothers, but they probably held a place in his heart only because they were his drinking buddies. We see no evidence that he was concerned about the destinies of his own wife and children. Many readers probably assume that his brothers were now taking care of them. But it is unlikely that they stepped into his place if he had son who was at least a teenager. Among ancient Jews, a son only needed to be thirteen years old in order to assume leadership of a family bereaved by a father's death.¹⁹ Did the rich man say nothing about his immediate family because he knew they were right with God? That's unlikely. In telling the story, Jesus said nothing to relieve our impression that the whole family fared sumptuously every day and that the whole family neglected the beggar at the gate.

One reason that Jesus told us about the rich man's words to Abraham was, I think, to steer us away from a false doctrine very prominent in the history of the church—the Roman Catholic doctrine that many dead souls are consigned to a place of punishment before they are admitted to heaven. The place of punishment is called purgatory.

One fallacy in this doctrine is its assumption that mere punishment can fundamentally change a sinful heart, refashioning it with the same transforming power that the Holy Spirit exercises when a person is born again by faith. But no, even after wallowing in misery within a sea of hellish flame, the rich man could not be trusted to conduct himself ever after as a true saint, whose thoughts and behavior would always be shaped more by love of God and love of others than by love of self.

Another fallacy in the doctrine of purgatory is its assumption that a man can pay for his own sins. But no, the rich man's sinful deeds and selfish tendencies and corrupt habits of mind were liabilities far greater than any payment that he could offer God for tolerating such a flawed creature forever in heaven.

Therefore, a purgatory would serve no purpose in God's scheme of things. However long the rich man dwelt in hell's fire, he would still be ineligible for heaven. He would be ineligible first because he would still bear a load of unpaid sin debt. No amount of suffering in any imagined purgatory could atone for a man's sin. The only acceptable atonement is Christ's death on the cross. Furthermore, the rich man would always be ineligible for heaven because he would still be bound by a sin nature. No amount of suffering in any imagined purgatory could produce a sinless human being capable of functioning properly as a citizen of heaven. The only work equal to this task is regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

A somber warning

Abraham's reply was brief and to the point.

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Luke 16:29-31

He declined to send Lazarus on a mission to prevent the rich man's brothers from joining him in hell. Why did Abraham refuse? Because they had already received adequate warning of divine judgment. Jews in Jesus' day possessed the entire Old Testament, including the writings of Moses and the prophets. In the daily world of these brothers, they could hear local rabbis teach the Scriptures. Also, they could read the Scriptures for themselves, either from copies kept at local synagogues or perhaps from copies in their own possession. From the Old Testament, they should have learned that God will bring horrible judgment upon the wicked.

9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10

16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Psalm 9:16-17

See also Isaiah 13:11 and Daniel 12:2. Moreover in the pages of the Old Testament they should have discovered that God will consume the wicked with fire.

5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

Psalm 11:5-7

Parables