This morning in our Gospel reading we heard the story that Jesus tells to the Pharisees about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. This is a fairly familiar story that illustrates several points.  Remember the weeks we heard the parable of the dishonest manager from Luke 15.  The Pharisees overheard Jesus saying this and were offended because they were lovers of money. And so this is directed toward those like the Pharisees, those like the rich man who refused to help the poor man, those who do not listen to Moses and the Prophets as they testify about Jesus, those who would not believe even after Jesus has risen from the dead. 

This serves as a stern call to consider our purpose.  Last week the shrewd manager heeded the upcoming judgment and acted accordingly, being faithful to his master and what his master had given him.  Here now, the rich man who faces the same upcoming judgment but does not act accordingly.  He answered the question about the purpose of life, “to make myself comfortable.”  The rich man realizes his mistake too late as he asks Abraham to tell his family that this is what awaits them if they don’t believe in God.  So he begs Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to tell his brothers to believe in God and to warn them of the torment of hell. It doesn’t work this way, and even if it did, it wouldn’t work.  Abraham’s answer is simply this: The Word of God is enough.

The author of Hebrews starts his letter in this way: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Through the Word, God created the heavens and the earth. Through the Word, God promises a Messiah to Adam and Eve who would atone for the sin of the world and restore creation. Through Moses and the prophets, God spoke His Word to the world.  And the Word became flesh, dwelling among us, allowing the self-serving, self-loving, self-indulging world to crucify Him. And then the Word rose from the dead, to still speaks the Word of God to the reality that we saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone.  Through the Word, God creates and sustains faith. The Church’s mission of making disciples of Christ is accomplished solely by the Word of God.

What is our worship, the liturgy, but the Word of God, flowing from the Old Testament to the New in a pattern that goes back to the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What are our prayers but repeating back to God what is most sure and true according to His Word?  What is our song but the Word of God put to music to express and teach the faith?

So why is so easy for us to fall into the trap that the Word isn’t enough.  How many times has the Christian Church over the years, and even us here, tried new gimmicks or programs? How many times have we tried to add to the Word of God because we feel like it doesn’t work as well, or as quickly, or as efficiently as we’d like? The fix isn’t in new, pop sounding music, it isn’t in flashy programs and the latest and greatest.  It is simply, and purely, the Word of God. Church isn’t an entertainment venue and the worship service isn’t a marketing ploy.  It is where God meets man in His Word and in His Sacraments. And where we respond with our joy and thanksgiving, founded upon the Good News that Christ has been crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus tells this story as a warning to the Pharisees—and to us—for like the Pharisees, our sinful selves yearn for something more than God’s Word, and we love the “good things” of this life: earthly honor and wealth. It is not wrong to ask God for our daily bread, and to receive the blessings of this life with thanksgiving: health, clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, money and goods.

But God has nowhere promised us constant bounty or ease in this life. He has not promised us honor and recognition in the world’s eyes. He has not promised us fine clothes. Sometimes God’s people are clothed with sores and sickness. Sometimes God’s people face heartache over their children, disappointment in their retirement years, seeming failure in the pursuit of their dreams, tragic accidents that bring life screeching to a crawl. Sometimes God’s people must endure humiliation. Sometimes they must live as beggars.

What God has promised in His Word is that lasting bounty and lasting joy are found in Jesus Christ, in the world to come. This is the testimony of Moses and the Prophets, of the apostles and the Church of God. This inspired Word of God conveys the promises of God, and God does not lie. Whoever turns aside from these divine promises to set his heart instead on earthly pleasures and riches is a fool—in fact, tragically, a damned fool.

Whether we are rich or poor, when we die each of us will stand as a beggar before God. The good news is that, in Christ, God makes beggars rich. As St. Paul writes: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

None of us is worthy to ask or inherit anything before God—not the rich man, not Lazarus, not you or me. There is only one who is worthy of riches before God: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! (Rv 5:12). And Jesus, who alone is worthy, shares this inheritance with all poor, sinful beggars who look to Him in faith.

In the Christian Church, Jesus makes beggars rich. Not at the bank, not at the mall, but in God’s house we find our true prosperity. Here the crucified Savior addresses us in Word and in Sacrament that those who believe in Him have a place at His side. When you lack and worry and fear and weep, look up. Turn your eyes up. The wealth of the eternal God is yours. Christ has purchased for you an everlasting kingdom with His blood. Come then, beggars of mercy, one and all. Come wear the fine purple and the linen robes of Christ’s righteousness! The days of hurting and hungering are almost ended. The feasting and friendship of Jesus coming kingdom are nearly here. Keep praying, keeping waiting, hear the Word, proclaim the Word, for God works through His Word. And by that Word He invites you today to live with Him in eternity, and so we come. Week after week, we come . . . and we are as rich as Lazarus!