The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is about a wealthy man who wants for nothing and is oblivious to those around him who are in need. He is selfish and cruel. The beggar is a man on his last leg, desperate for help. The rich man passes by the lame beggar everyday without seeing him because he has no desire for a relationship with someone who he feels is beneath him in stature and worth. In the afterlife the roles are reversed with the beggar in heaven and the rich man in hell begging Abraham to get the beggar to give him water to soothe his thirst.

There is a great chasm between these two men both in life and in the afterlife. In life the beggar was ignored and the rich man exalted. In the afterlife the beggar was exalted and the rich man ignored. This story is not about the afterlife but the life we live now. Scripture warns that we cannot serve both God and mammon and until we understand everything that we have on earth belongs to God we will miss His greater truth. The only way we progress is to understand that Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets by dying for our sins and bringing salvation to all men.

God looks to see if his people are faithful stewards of material possessions and then decides what he will reveal to them of the deep things of God (I Cor. 2:10). The potential transforming power of such a worldview is limitless. This worldview was demonstrated by Jesus who exalted the poor and warned the proud that a new world was being fulfilled in Scripture and in the miracles of Christ.