Perhaps, Lazarus hoped each day would be different. Only the dogs show mercy on Lazarus, licking his sore-covered body. A society desensitized to suffering and hunger would rather have pets than hungry human beings eat the leftovers. Nevertheless, Lazarus hopes to eat at least the crumbs and leftovers from the rich man’s feasts. Perhaps leaving the rich man nameless signifies how love of wealth over love of people dehumanizes and desensitizes people to others’ suffering so that ‘subordinates’ are treated with indifference, hatred, and cruelty. As he feasts and wears expensive clothing in his gated house, a poor hungry man languishes at the base of the rich man’s gate. He eats as lavishly as he dresses, as do other elites and rich people (Luke 16:19 see also 15:22-23). In our parable the rich man is anonymous he wears purple attire made of fine linen, which is the color of royalty and is of high social status. Jesus attempts to raise the consciousness of the rich about poverty, compassion, and social inequality. As wealth becomes concentrated with the top one to two percent of a population, masses live in poverty. Unlike most politicians today who focus on the so-called “middle class” as if the poor matter less/little, Jesus is concerned with the poor, sick, and marginalized. Luke’s Jesus offers significant advice for men with wealth and social position: they should not take the VIP seats at feasts (Luke 14:7) they should invite the poor, dis-eased, and marginalized to their lavish feasts rather than their elite friends and family and folks who can return the invitation (14:21-24) consider selling all their possessions and redistribute the proceeds to the poor (18:18-25) be commended for giving half their possessions to the poor and making restitution to those they defrauded (19:1-10) and he shames the rich who contribute gifts to the Temple from their wealth, while a poor widow gives her she sacrificed (too) much and they gifted relatively little (21:1-4). They are about the father who throws a lavish feast for his younger son when he returns home penniless after having squandered the inheritance given him (15:11-32) the owner of a hundred sheep who recovers the one that strayed from the flock (15:3-7) the rich man who accuses his slave manager of squandering his property (16:1-13) and a rich man who has no compassion for a poor man named Lazarus (16:19-31), which is our Gospel text for this week. The parables primarily concern well-off or rich men. These crowds included Jesus’ disciples, tax collectors and sinners, Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes (Luke 14:25 15:1,3,8,11 16:1, 14). This parable of the rich man and Lazarus is one in a series of lengthy parables Jesus shared with a large traveling crowd.
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