Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 25 September 2022; Proper 21C (RCL); Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31.
Finally, a glimmer of hope in Jeremiah. King Zedekiah has asked Jeremiah (in the verses we leave out) why he is prophesying that Jerusalem will fall and that Zedekiah will go into Exile. Jeremiah responds with God’s instructions to him to buy his cousin Hanamel’s field. The text doesn’t tell us why Hanamel wants to sell the property, but the fact of the Babylonian occupation of the land may have something to do with it.
Jeremiah refers his actions to the Lord’s word to him. Like the loincloth God told him to buy and hide, he may well have expected the land to be worthless. Hanamel, if fleeing Judah, would have been glad to have the money. The story ends with Jeremiah burying the deed of purchase (for safe keeping for the future) with the Lord’s word to him that the time will come again when land will be bought and sold in Judah. The Babylonian occupation will not last forever.
The Gospel story gives us another reversal. This is the third parable introduced with the phrase, “There was a rich man” (the Prodigal Son, the dishonest steward, and now the rich man and Lazarus). We’ve had a whole sequence of teachings on wealth, which can be summed up in Jesus’ saying that we cannot be his disciples if we don’t give up all our possessions (presumably to the poor).
This is the only parable of Jesus with a named character, and commentators have wondered why. Lazarus is derived from Eleazar, which means “God helps,” so there is a certain aptness to the name. In the story of the Road to Emmaus, one of the characters is named and the other is not. In John’s Gospel, one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who follow Jesus is named, and the other is not. I would argue that in these instances, the reader is invited to take the place of the unnamed character. In this instance, that forces us to enter the parable as the rich man.
If Luke’s community included some wealthy persons, it would make sense that he would want them to hear themselves in the story. Even the rich man knows Lazarus’ name (when he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue) — and that complicates the story. It’s not like Lazarus is some problem “over there,” in another ZIP code, but a known individual, whom he managed still somehow to ignore. That should make us uncomfortable.
And again, we are told that Moses and the prophets should be sufficient to restructure the economic system. This should be apparent to all — how much more to Luke’s community! In the Book of Acts, new converts sell their possessions and lay the proceeds at the feet of the apostles for distribution to any who has need. All the rich man needed to do was recognize Lazarus at his gate, and let him have the leftovers. Remember Jesus’ instructions to his host — when you give a banquet, don’t invite your friends and relatives, but the poor, the blind, and the lame, so that you will receive your repayment in the resurrection. That’s the real reversal.