Articles
Death Teaches Us How to Live
Reading: Luke 16:16-31
At once enlightening and intriguing, Jesus’s narrative of an unnamed rich man and a poor man named Lazarus answers many questions about what happens when we die—and prompts just as many questions in their place! But the Lord didn’t recount the ending of these men’s lives to teach us about death primarily. Rather, he was instructing his audience of Pharisees (see vv. 14-15) about the proper way to live.
What appears to be “the good life” is reversed in the rich man’s death, just as Lazarus’s earthly suffering transforms to spiritual bliss at Abraham’s side. When the rich man realizes there is no hope for him, he begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers lest their conduct of life should lead them into torment with him. But Abraham refuses, pointing to the Old Testament Scriptures as a suitable warning: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them [the brothers] hear them [the writings]” (v. 29). According to Abraham, not even a witness rising from the dead would convince someone who wasn’t willing to listen to God’s word first.
Today, God’s full plan has been revealed in Jesus Christ and established in His church. Still the good news is preached, and lost souls are eagerly urged to enter into the kingdom (v. 16). Each person has the opportunity to truly consider and live by the teachings of Christ, with his own death, burial, and resurrection attesting to the validity and power of the gospel. But once your life has ended, there no longer remains an opportunity to hear and obey. When we pass out of this life, the chasm between the saved and the lost, as Abraham said, is fixed (v. 26). So today, let’s eagerly lean in to hear and live by what God would teach us, and let’s share the message of Jesus with others whose souls depend on it.
