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᛭ INI ᛭
[What’s] our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone.
[What’s] our only confidence?
That our souls to Him belong.
Who holds our days within His hand?
What comes apart from His command?
And [what’ll] keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand.
This was the faith and hope of Lazarus in Christ’s parable. He was kept to the end no matter what. Starvation, dehydration, sickness, sores, even dogs couldn’t keep him, separate him from the love of God in Christ IHS our Lord!
Now, you might be wondering how I can say that about a fictional character in one of Christ’s parables. Well, it’s pretty simple actually. When Christ tells His parable about the rich man and Lazarus, His original hearers would understand that if Lazarus made it to Abraham’s bosom, then that character believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we Christians know that that God and Lord is Christ IHS Himself, who is one God, one Lord with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The rich man’s hope was not in the Lord. His hope was the house he had. His faith was the food filling his face. His confidence was the clothes covering his back. It all makes for a seemingly good and full life, but it all amounts to nothing.
There are many ways that our hearts turn toward the pleasures that the rich man enjoyed in Christ’s parable. But houses need repair, food goes rotten, clothes wear out. Medical care doesn’t keep you alive. Your investments, retirement accounts, or land holdings don’t mean you’re taken care of. Lazarus was far more taken care of than the rich man. Whoever has Christ by faith, then Christ has him, no matter what happens in this life. Whoever Christ holds in His keeping, can have nothing but yet possess everything, for that person is the possession, the treasured possession, of the Creator of the Universe, the crucified King, the risen Lord—your God and Savior, IHS Christ.
What kept Lazarus to the end was the love of Christ. The rich man wasn’t kept unto the end at all because He was without Christ.
Now and ever we confess: Christ, our hope in life and death.
What truth can calm the troubled soul?
God is good, God is good.
[Where’s] His grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemer’s blood.
Who holds our faith when fears arise?
Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
Unto the shore, the rock of Christ?
Christ isn’t only telling you the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as a warning—a warning about having faith in things that aren’t the true God. He’s telling it to comfort you. It is to say that the Lord’s angels watch over you, that He upholds you in His hands, that you are His and He is yours no matter what you experience in this life. It’s to show you in vivid detail that His goodness isn’t known in your wealth, your status, or even your health. The rich man had all those things, but he wasn’t the Lord’s. Lazarus didn’t have any of those things, but he was the Lord’s. The Lord knew him by name.
God is good, but His goodness isn’t known in how comfortable your life is, how abundant the crops are, or how healthy you are. His goodness is on vivid display at Calvary. There Christ is most acting like the Son of God, there Christ is most Redeemer, most Savior, most God and Lord for you. There God’s goodness drips down from Christ’s thorn encircled brow, His nail scarred hands and feet. God’s goodness bursts forth from Christ’s riven side—blood and water flowing for you.
Any trial or sickness or even death that comes your way is just driving you all the more to Christ. He’s your only hope! Not only in this life, but most especially when this life ends. Cry out to Him, even as He cried to His Father at Cavalry. Even as Lazarus in the parable would’ve cried out to Him, maybe even in the words of our Introit, that is, Entrance Psalm:
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me for- | ever?*
How long will You hide Your | face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart | all the day?*
How long shall my enemy be exalted | over me?
Our only hope, again, isn’t what we experience or feel but rather Christ alone, who was crucified and raised for us. And because of that, no matter what comes our way,
Now and ever we confess: Christ, our hope in life and death.
Unto the grave, what shall we sing?
“Christ, He lives; Christ, He lives!”
And what reward will heaven bring?
Everlasting life with Him.
There we will rise to meet the Lord,
Then sin and death will be destroyed,
And we will feast in endless joy,
When Christ is ours forevermore.
Your future is in His hands, and it’s a future, an eternity where you are with Him. Our entire life He builds us up with that truth and promise. That’s also what this parable is all about. It’s the promise of resurrection—His and yours in Him. He calls us to listen to this promise—in Parable and in His Word. As the final conversation between the rich man and Abraham makes clear:
29 Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Someone did! Yet, if someone wants something else besides listening to Moses and the Prophets, besides building on the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles, then the resurrection that awaits him is one akin to rich man in the parable.
And yet the Lord preaches His parable as a promise of what’s waiting for you who trust in Christ alone, who through your entire life hear and hope, sigh and sing that Christ lives, while looking forward to the Lord keeping His promises of everlasting life. On the Last Day your death will be destroyed even as Christ conquered it through His death, and that reward is not only promised but is already made yours in Holy Baptism. As you know from the Small Catechism:
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6:
“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6)
We will feast with Him forever, too. It’s what’s pictured in the Parable as well, Lazarus lying on Abraham’s bosom. As Christ promises elsewhere, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
This is also true now and also not yet. It is true now because we gather at the Lord’s Altar “with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven.” It’s not yet because we are not yet brought into that eternal presence of Christ. But our only hope and confidence in Christ alone says we will, not just because we believe it but because He promises it: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6)
After all,
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