God’s favor isn’t always visible

Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

You see a rich, healthy man enjoying life. You see a poor man so sickly and poor that he can’t work; he has to beg for his every meal. What does reason tell you about these two men? Reason concludes that God rewards the one whom He considers righteous; He “deals a good hand” to the one He loves. Well, the rich man is prosperous. Therefore, God favors the rich man. Reason concludes that God sends afflictions on the one whom He considers to be wicked; He deals a rough hand to the one He doesn’t love. Well, the poor man is afflicted. Therefore, God considers the poor man to be wicked. That’s the judgment of reason. Poverty and afflictions are a sign of God’s contempt. Riches and prosperity are a sign of God’s favor. That’s how reason reasons.

But reason’s reasoning is superficial and flawed, in several ways. but most of all, reason’s reasoning ignores this important truth: this earthly life is not the main venue for God’s rewards and punishments. What you receive here in this relatively short earthly life may be the exact opposite of what you will receive in the next life—and that life is the one that lasts forever.

That’s the point Jesus was driving home in His parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus. It’s not a simple warning for the rich to share with the poor, or else they’ll go to hell. Far from it! It’s a message to rich and poor. Don’t be deceived by appearances! God’s favor isn’t always visible. Prosperity in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s favor, and affliction in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s contempt. Your lot in life here on earth, whether it lasts only a few months or whether it lasts a hundred plus years, is not all you get. It’s the proverbial drop in the bucket compared with the everlasting joys—or punishments—of the next life. Your lot in life here is not a reliable indicator of God’s favor or displeasure.

According to Jesus’ parable, the rich man was dressed in fine clothes and “feasted lavishly every day.” He received good things. Lazarus, on the other hand, spent his earthly life sick, poor and begging, yearning for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He received bad things.

But death took them both, as death always does, rich and poor, male and female, celebrities and nobodies, kings and peasants. And in this case, their situations were completely reversed. Poor Lazarus wasn’t poor anymore. His soul was at peace and he rested comfortably in God’s presence with all the saints, with all the righteous who had gone before him, most notably, Father Abraham, as Jesus is talking to the Jews, who believed they were all destined to sit at the heavenly table with their Father Abraham. Well, for Lazarus, that was true. He was embraced by Father Abraham. He received his good things at Abraham’s side. The rich man’s soul, on the other hand, was in torment and flame, far removed from God and from Father Abraham. As Lazarus had yearned for the rich man’s crumbs in this life, the rich man yearned for a drop of water from Lazarus in the next life. There in hell he received his bad things.

Now, knowing how things turned out, do you think Lazarus wished he could have gone back and traded places with the rich man? No, not for a second. His life on earth had been hard, but that was over now. He endured the hardships and made it through, and now there would never be any more pain or want to endure. Only the experience of God’s love and the eternal companionship of the saints.

And knowing how things turned out, do you think the rich man in hell was able to look back at his wonderful life on earth and bask in the happy memories of good times past? A lot of people want to believe it will be that way. But no. The rich man realized too late that he had squandered his earthly life, and it was not worth it in the end. Hell is a worse punishment and torture than anyone on earth imagines it to be. We may speak metaphorically of people who are “going through hell” right now. But let me assure you, hell itself is still unimaginably worse, because for as much as it may seem like our present troubles have no end in sight, there will most certainly be an end to them. Not so with the torments of hell.

The rich man learned from Abraham that there was no possibility of him receiving any help from anyone or of eventually being able to cross over from Hades to Paradise. As the writer to the Hebrews says, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Or as Abraham put it, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us. So his thoughts turned to his brothers, who were still alive on earth. What could be done for them? How could they avoid this place of torment? Maybe sending Lazarus back to them from the dead? No, says Abraham. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’ And he said, “No, father Abraham. But if someone were to go to them from the dead, they would repent.” But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.”

Listen to Moses and the prophets, the Bible, the Word of God. That’s what the rich man’s brothers needed. That’s what you need. That’s what everyone still alive on this earth needs. To hear the Law of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and to let it have its effect. Moses is the one who reveals how sin entered the world through Adam, and that all men born of Adam are born in sin and subject to sin’s curse, which includes all manner of sickness, suffering, poverty, and finally death, all of which is not necessarily a direct punishment from God, but the general curse under which all sinners live in this cursed world. So the poverty and sickness of Lazarus wasn’t a good indicator at all of whether or not God accepted him.

As for the riches of the rich man, here’s what Moses had to say: You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God. God does give wealth to some people. But He also requires those people to hear His voice and to obey His commandments, and that, the rich man never found time to do. He was too busy enjoying his life to care about God, or to care about that beggar at his gates, even enough to send him the crumbs that fell from his table.

So hear Moses and the prophets as they reveal your sin. And then hear Moses and the prophets as they call you to repent and look to God for mercy, not because you deserve it, but because of Christ alone. As the Psalm says, O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. That redemption is wrapped up in Christ, the Redeemer. Abraham knew that, one of the richest men alive at his time. In his case, God’s favor was visible in this life. But Abraham was righteous in God’s sight, not because of his goodness, not because of his obedience, but through faith alone in God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of the coming Christ. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And then, as a true believer in that merciful and forgiving God, Abraham’s life, though not perfect by any means, reflected the righteousness that was his by faith, and God did choose to reveal His favor toward Abraham in external, visible ways, as a testimony to the world that Abraham’s God was the true God.

Whether you’re rich or poor, prosperous or afflicted, it’s this same message of sin, repentance, and God’s forgiveness through Christ that you all need to hear and believe, because what you’re suffering here, or the life you’re enjoying here on earth, will soon be over. And the good things here and the bad things here won’t matter at all anymore. The real reckoning will be revealed in the next life.

So for now, if you’re impoverished or sick or otherwise miserable in this life, don’t automatically take it as a sign of God’s disfavor. Hear the Word of God! Repent and believe in Christ Jesus! Receive His Sacraments! And then take heart! Don’t despair! Don’t give up! Don’t imagine that God is displeased with you because of how difficult things are, or that you’re alone in your suffering. Lazarus appeared to have been abandoned by God, but in reality, God was there with him, ready to bear him home to Abraham’s bosom at just the right time. To endure hardship for Christ’s sake, without giving into despair, is a blessed thing, a precious good work that has God’s own seal of approval. It’s what Jesus did, after all. And you have God’s promise to help you persevere until the end, to enable you to bear the cross with patience, until the suffering is passed and the comfort of the next life is revealed.

Or, maybe you don’t suffer much, relatively speaking. Or maybe it’s just that you’re not suffering right now, but feast lavishly every day, like the rich man did, or as I daresay most Americans do, including most of us here. What will you do with this time when you have all you need and more? You could focus on enjoying life, like the rich man did, and maintaining this lifestyle, while ignoring both God and man. But then you would end up like the rich man in the parable, regretting it all in the end.

No, if you have a moment of comfort, a moment of peace, a moment of prosperity, a moment of leisure where you’re not scrambling just to survive, use it. Use this time wisely. Use it to hear God’s Word, His Law and His Gospel. Walk in the new obedience of the children of God. Walk with the Holy Spirit and set aside your sinful desires and your self-centered goals, and devote your life—every moment—to God’s service within your own vocation. Turn your gaze outward. Turn toward your neighbor in need, and especially your brother in Christ, who sits at your gate, yearning for just a little help, for even the leftovers of the prosperity with which you have been entrusted.

Rich or poor, carefree or weighted down with cares, train your reason to submit to God’s Word and don’t assume God’s favor or disfavor based on how much or how little you suffer in this life. God’s approval comes for Christ’s sake alone and through faith alone in Him. And His favor toward those who believe and His displeasure with those who disbelieve, while it may not be visible in this life, will most surely be visible in the next. Amen.