Jesus believed heaven and hell to be real places. However, hell seems to have dropped off the map in recent years. With humans dictating what is true and false, they have decided that there is no ‘hell’. However, there does still seem to be a heaven for those who dream about it. People comfort each other with the words that the dead have ‘gone to be with Jesus’ at a funeral. Why? Jesus never spoke the way that we do about heaven and hell. The story Jesus tells below puts the rich and successful in hell whilst a beggar called lazarus is in heaven. Those who have not had a thought for Jesus whilst they are alive will be surprised to find they have an address far from his house when they die.
Luke 16:19-31
19 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
Questions
- Where did Lazarus live?
- What did the rich man ask Abraham to do for his family?
- Why would the rich man’s family have thought they were entitled to heaven?
- Why do people believe they are entitled to heaven today?
- Why do people believe a loving God would force people to be with him forever?
Plymothian 