So, the Lord rewards everyone according to the merits of his\ndeeds. Such are Jeremiah\u2019s words today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Jesus\u2019 parable of Lazarus and the rich man seems to echo\nthat promise by the Lord. Did you notice\nthat the rich man knows who Lazarus is? That\ntells us that although the rich man saw Lazarus during his lifetime, he did\nnothing to help him. But he felt\nfamiliar enough with Lazarus to ask the favor of a drop of water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How\u2019s that for indifference! \nAfter his passing from this world, and finding himself in a tormented\nstate, he still regards himself as superior to Lazarus. So, he has the boldness to ask Lazarus to do\nhim a favor. This rich man is oblivious\nto the reality of his situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, there\u2019s no mention of any deeds by the rich man at all. He doesn\u2019t present any defense for the charge\nagainst him- he just asks for relief of his pain. Rather, the rich man just enjoyed the gifts\nthat God gave him in life, dining sumptuously each day. His wealth was his security; it allowed him\nto comfortably practice his faith. He\nprobably considered himself a good practicing Jew- keeping all the ritual laws;\navoiding the unclean like Lazarus with those dreadful sores; tithing\ncomfortably from his wealth; following the rules for the Passover explicitly. He just was living life happily, just\nenjoying the gifts God gave him; perhaps he regarded his good station in life\nas a reward for his literal compliance to the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jesus makes it clear that because he was indifferent to\nthe suffering that was going on around him; unwilling to share what he had, and\nperhaps even unaware that anything else was expected of him, his life after\ndeath was going to be a miserable one. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You know, we all learn that the core of our faith is the\nbelief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior, and that he sacrificed himself\nfor our sins. We are told that if we\nbelieve, and follow his commandments, we will be saved. We are told that we cannot gain our place in\nthe heavenly Kingdom by our good works. I\nam certain the rich man thought he was doing that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, this parable sheds a unique light on the salvation\nprocess, doesn\u2019t it? You see, we have\nbeen saved by Christ- salvation is there for all of us. But it is there to lose if\u2026 In fact, it\u2019s there to lose If a whole lot\nof things, isn\u2019t it? If we don\u2019t love\nGod with our whole heart; if we don\u2019t love our neighbor as ourselves; if we are\nnot meek and humble of heart; if we don\u2019t follow the rest of the beatitudes; if\nwe don\u2019t follow his law with our heart. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeremiah says it best. \n\u201cCursed is the man who\u2026 seeks his strength in the flesh, \u2026whose heart\nturns away from the Lord.\u201d It is the\nheart that the Lord looks to in order to determine if we really believe. And all of us only reflect the image and\nlikeness of God if our hearts all full of love for all of God\u2019s people, even\nthe unclean person in the street covered with sores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These readings are presented in Lent for a good reason. They challenge us to reflect on our own\nlives. Do we follow the law to the\nletter of the law only? Do we follow the\nlaw only as long as it is comfortable for us? \nOr do we follow the law in our Hearts? \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of Second Week in Lent Jer 17:5-10; Lk 16: 19-31 Deacon Larry Brockman So, the Lord rewards everyone according to the merits of his deeds. Such are Jeremiah\u2019s words today. And Jesus\u2019 parable of Lazarus and the rich man seems to echo that promise by the Lord. Did you notice that the rich man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[590,589],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/1155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}