Lectio Divina: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025)
LK 16:19-31 Lectio Divina for 26th Sunday 2025
The parable of Dives and Lazarus continues the theme about the dangers, mentioned in last week’s gospel. It makes its point by taking over a tale which apparently was widely disseminated in the ancient world. This parable was spoken during a series of encounters with the Pharisees. They professed belief in a future life and in future judgment. However, they did not live in conformity with that belief but rather in the pursuit of wealth, just like the rich man. Implicit in the account is that one's attitude to God and his word is confirmed in this life and cannot be altered in the next one.
The fact that Jesus named the "beggar" while not naming the "rich man" (Dives is the Latin for rich. So, it is a description rather than a name) is significant. The text may imply that one was ultimately more important than the other. The naming of a character in the story need not lead to the conclusion that Lazarus was a real person, in spite of the fact that parables usually do not have named characters. Nor is there convincing evidence that this Lazarus is the same one Jesus raised from the dead. When he dies, w are told that he went to Abraham’s bosom. It referred to a temporary realm within Hades (i.e., the realm of the dead) here the righteous souls of the Old Covenant era waited patiently for Christ to open the gates of Heaven.
We are told that dives wore "Purple." It was a dyed cloth worn by the wealthy. Remember how the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus by putting a purple robe on him in the Praetorium before the Crucifixion. In a vivid contrast to the rich man, Jesus depicts Lazarus as someone neglected and subjected to insult even by "the dogs" who licked his wounds.
In the parable there is a clear reversal of fortunes, one that has been anticipated on two previous occasions in Luke. At the visitation to Elizabeth, Mary said, “He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands” (Lk 1:52-53). In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “how terrible for you who are rich now; you have had your easy life! How terrible for you who are full now; you will go hungry! . . . “Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours! Happy are you who are hungry now, you will be filled!” (Lk 6:2-26). Whereas Lazarus went to Abraham’s bosom, the rich man went to Hades also, but to the section where sinners languish in the grip of torment. It is separated from the abode of the righteous by a permanent , unbridgeable gulf that permits no traffic to pass between them.
In Eph 4:8-10 we read about what happened as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection, “In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” In 1 Pt 3:18-19 we read, “He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually, and in his spiritual existence he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits.”
The parable proclaims a change of fortunes in the future age. Those who neglect the poor will be judged. Luke has Jesus direct his remarks to the Pharisees, and it may be that this parable encouraged him to call them 'lovers of money'. In his Homilies St John Chrysostom, who wrote a whole series of homilies on this topic, widened its scope by repeatedly warning wealthy hearers that their mistreatment of the poor will become the very evidence by which they will be condemned. He even went so far as to say that the wronged poor will themselves give testimony against the rich before Christ’s tribunal: “Your wealth, thus hoarded up, will rise against you as an accuser,” he warned. “All the hungry, naked, and sick whom you ignored will stand forth and charge you,” he added. He framed it almost as though the poor will stand as “judges” giving witness to our failure to love our neighbor on the last day. Their testimony, Chrysostom said, will be decisive as far as our ultimate destiny is concerned.