In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus speaks of a rich man who wore expensive purple linen clothes and ate sumptuous feasts every day, while a poor man named Lazarus begged at his  gate.  Covered in sores which dogs came and licked, he longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  Yet the rich man did not draw near nor show compassion to the poor man.  

As is so often in Jesus’ parables, he turned the table on his listeners: what do we do in the face of suffering? Do we draw near? Do we distance?