Identity Theft

Before we begin to read the following passage it is good for us to understand what exactly we are going to be reading.

First, Jesus is the One who is doing the teaching in this passage.

Second, Jesus is teaching by the use of a parable. In very simplistic terms a parable is a story that uses earthly peoples and objects to point the listener to deeper truths about God’s heavenly kingdom and about God’s dealings with men. When we read a parable we are not reading a story about real people…BUT…we are reading a story that is teaching us about real 'types' of people and the 'real' things that God says about them. Jesus, as the perfect Teacher has made these characters up to teach us realities about everyday happenings in this life, and also what things in the afterlife will be like.

In a later post we will look to see who the rich man is specifically, but today we will try and understand him in a more general way. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the passage, let’s first look at it;

Luke 16:19-31 [NKJV]
There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment‘. Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’

Our passage opens up [Verses 19-23] showing us the lives of two men, a poor man named Lazarus and a rich man in whom a name is not given. In these two characters Jesus is showing us the lives, deaths and eternal destinies of the whole human race!

Why is it that Jesus gives us the name of one man and not the other? Jesus is showing us that one man had invested his deepest identity in Something that endured past this life, while the other man did not. The reason why Lazarus still had an identity in eternity was for the sole fact that while in this life he had intermingled his identity with Jesus. He had trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins and he had trusted in Jesus for his full acceptance before God and man.

This is the wisest choice that a person can make. To make the Creator of the universe your identity [as He has commanded us to] means that He is our greatest treasure, our deepest passion, our reason for living. It also means that our identity doesn’t end here and now. It means we have a purpose for living in the time God has given us in this life, and it also means that we have a purpose in the eternity that awaits us.

Please notice that Jesus doesn’t give the other man a name. The second man is known merely as ‘a rich man’. Remember, Jesus isn’t just talking about one man! He is using this parable to show us the only two categories that human beings are divided into. The rich man in Jesus parable is a person who makes anything BUT Jesus their ultimate identity. Anything! This doesn’t only mean sex, drugs and rock and roll. It means absolutely any other person or thing, other than Jesus! If you put your ultimate trust in money or power, then you will get your identity from money and power. When you have lots of money and power you will feel fulfilled, successful, and accepted. And if you ever lose all your money, because it has become your identity, you will think your life is no longer worth living. We can see examples of this sad reality when the Stock Market crashes and people ended up taking their own lives because they lost their fortunes. When they lost their money and power they also lost their acceptance of how they viewed themselves as successful,or in other words, they lost their identities.

God is the Giver of every good and perfect gift we enjoy. When we take His gift’s and make them our highest and most ultimate identity we become what the Bible calls idolaters. An idol isn’t only a block of wood or stone that is shaped into a false god. An idol is anything you put your ultimate trust in, a trust that is due to God alone!

Jesus is teaching us something here that we already know, even though we try our hardest to keep it pushed far back in the corners of our minds. What is He teaching? Jesus is saying that no matter who you are. You may be reading this and you are very successful, you live in comfort and have many things in this life, but one day you are going to die and then comes God’s judgment. You may have little in this life, the world may view you as a failure and things may be going hard for you in this life, you also are going to die one day and be judged by God.

As we will see in a later post, Jesus’ teaching in this parable is in agreement with the rest of God’s word. Because God is truth, God’s word will not contradict itself [even though there are places that may appear to contradict at first sight]. The Bible no where teaches that money is evil, or that the lack of it automatically makes a person righteous. The Bible teaches that the love of money is a root of all manner of evil. There are rich people in the world who are trusting Jesus, and there are rich people who are not. There are poor people in the world who are making Jesus their ultimate identity, and there are poor people who are not! Our eternal destinies do not depend on our social status, they depend on our what our relationship to Jesus is.

Jesus is teaching us that if our identity rests in the gifts that God is giving us, and not in God Himself, then when we step into eternity we will be left without God and without His gifts.

God cannot be fooled even though we often fool others and even try to fool ourselves!

You will devote your life to your highest and most ultimate treasure. You will prioritize your time, energy and money towards that treasure. You will make sacrifices for that treasure.

We cannot merely say with our lips that Jesus is our highest treasure...our lives must match this verbal declaration!