The Deepest Region of the Heart
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Luke 16:19-31
NO 9/30/07 MW

The Scene

Can you recall those times in high school when friends or enemies would gather and have a conversation that was planned to be overheard?  Most of those conversations had to do with what boy liked what girl or who wanted to date who, etc.  Overhearing conversations can be extremely powerful even more than direct conversations at time.

            Argument Between My Parents

I overheard an argument between my parents one evening concerning one of my favorite ways to get around my daddy saying, “No.”  All us kids would go to mother and she would say, “Yes.”  Seldom were they together when it came to setting limits.  Daddy said to mother, “Well, you do it your way and I’ll just stay out of it.  I’ll earn all the money you can spend and you can do the kids.”  And as far as I can tell that’s the way it was from that point on.  It was a powerfully unpleasant moment to overhear those words.

            The Same for the Pharisees

I suspect this is the same kind of overhearing that the Pharisees experienced in this scene today.  The conversation is directed at the disciples but the Pharisees are present and have already chastised Jesus moments earlier.  Jesus gives a warning to those who overhear this story.  It was a warning then and it is a warning now.

The Snare In this Story

As is often in the words of Jesus there is a portion of the story that can snare one’s thoughts and keep the primary meaning from the hearers.  Perhaps this is the reason that Jesus often admonishes his disciples that not everyone will understand him.  The snare in this instance, as best I can tell, is the setting of the rich man and Lazarus being in Hades.  The understanding of heaven and hell had not develop at that time as we understand it today.  Consequently, some of those overhearing Jesus would have stopped listening and began arguing about what he was talking about.  In doing this they would have missed the main message and so can we if we get hung up on this point.

            The Scene for the Message

The plot of the story is the relationship between the wealthy man and Lazarus.  Plus, as one of our Bible Study participants recognized, the dogs providing Lazarus what he needed while the wealthy man ignored him.  One might even say that the dogs remind us that God provides for us in mighty and mysterious ways.  The relationship that is described prior to their death is very similar to that in Hades and this is the primary message of our Lord.

            The Agony of Separation

The agony of being separated from God begins right now.  We don’t have to wait until we die to experience separation from God.  In fact, I believe that we all experience this to a greater or lesser degree.

                        Lazarus

We are not told this but I would suspect that Lazarus would often pray for something to eat.  He may have had those times when he would ask, “God, where are you?”  As the hunger pains grew stronger it may have been an agonizing faith experience that many of us know something about – being separated from our Lord.  Lazarus would look at the wealth man’s table and ask just for the crumbs that fell to the ground.

                        The Wealth Man

Again, we are not told anything about this but I suspect that he may have agonized much the same as Lazarus.  He may have been praying to God with prayers of thanksgiving for all his wealth and being blessed to such a great degree.  He may have said something like, “Lord, please get that dirty sick poor man from my doorstep.  He must have done something awful for you to punish him to this degree.  He bothers me.”

                                    Normal Perception

It would be easy to blast the wealthy man for such thoughts but those were just normal during his day.  His culture as well as mom-and-them all spoke to what was considered fact:  God blessed you and made you wealthy and God cursed you and made you poor or sick.  It was all the work of God who was blessed and who was hanging on by their fingernails.

Remember, even the disciples asked Jesus what the blind man or his parents had done to cause the blindness.  It was believed that illness was a way of God punishing those who have sinned.  So, both Lazarus and the wealthy man would most likely believe this.

Jump to Hades

Jesus has them both die and Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham and the wealth man is in agony in the flames.  Again, I think the snare is in place because nowhere does the Old Testament speak of flames in Sheol and Hades is the New Testament language for Sheol.  So, it would be easy to stop right there.

            The Wealth Man’s Separation Continues

When you think of this scene just think about the wealthy man’s requests to Abraham.  In everything requested he asks that Lazarus continue to be the one who is sent.  Send Lazarus for cooling water and send Lazarus to warn my family.  As it was pointed out by another Bible Study participant, the wealthy man never suggest that he go for himself.  Plus, his torment is so great that he was willing to allow Lazarus to touch his tongue with cooling water.  He would have never allowed Lazarus to touch him prior to this.

It Is a Matter from the Deepest Region of the Heart

Jesus wanted to be overheard because he wanted those who had ears to hear to hear.  He wanted them to look at themselves and dig t the deepest region of their heart in order to heed this warning about how we relate to others.  Let’s look at some of the regions of the heart:

            Mama-and-Them

One of the most powerful regions of our heart has to do with family and the values we bring from our family.  What Mama-and-Them teach as truth is powerful stuff and it affects how we live as long as we taut it as the way.  Now, no doubt much of this is good stuff but some misses the mark by a mile and we have to discern which is which.

            Popular Culture

Another region of power is our culture.  We feel the strong need to be accepted and this means we will listen to our friends and neighbors in order to know the norms.  These norms are what tell us how to live life.  For example, the issue of gambling is on the table in our community and we will hear things like, “Our schools (children) need the money that will be generated.” or “It’s just recreational.  Our community is different from others and we won’t have the problems others have.”  In my opinion, the Travel Channel has done a really great job of normalizing gambling in our society.

The other cultural norm is that people should be able to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.  We have taken Benjamin Franklin’s statement, “God helps those who help themselves.” and made it a biblical quote. 

Cultural norms have one central purpose and that is to keep the greatest number of people as comfortable as possible.  It is our way of deciding what is acceptable and what isn’t which gives us the parameters within which we can be comfortable.

Conclusion

Jesus is telling us that when we peel away the region of mama-and-them and we then peel away the region of cultural norms we are getting to the very deepest region of the heart.  Jesus clearly states that what we say and how we behave comes from the heart and he wants us to get to the core.  For it is at the deepest region of the heart that we are able to find the Way of our Lord and nowhere else.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were very religious folks.  They knew their Bible that we call the Old Testament.  They paid close attention to the Laws of God.  They were so obedient that some could say, “I’ve followed all the laws since my childhood.”

In the deepest region we go beyond obedience to the laws.  There we find that this is God’s world and we are given the privilege and responsibility to live in it but we are to never forget that this is God’s world.  We find that every other human being, regardless of anything that can be said about them, is our sister and brother – we are all God’s children and there is no one that God does not love.

To narrow the gap of separation between oneself and God one must, to the greatest degree possible, Love the Lord with all your soul and love your neighbor, everyone, as you love yourself.  God has placed in the deepest region of our heart the ability to grasp this manner of living and Jesus calls us and shows us how to live in the Love of God!  Amen.