The tale of three rich men
In the New Testament 3 rich men
are described, the rich young ruler, the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus,
and lastly a tax collector named Zacchaeus.
What I would like to do is make
some comparisons and differences between the three of them.
1. Let’s
start with the rich man and the beggar Lazarus.
In Luke 16:19-31 we read the following, “19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple
and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At
his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s
table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The
time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.
The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In
Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with
Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to
him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But
Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good
things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you
are in agony. 26 And besides all
this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who
want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to
us.’
27 “He
answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so
that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham
replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No,
father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will
repent.’
31 “He
said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be
convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
2. The rich
younger ruler
16 Just
then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to
get eternal life?”
17 “Why
do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus
replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter
life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which
ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You
shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall
not give false testimony, 19 honor your father
and mother,’[a] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
20 “All
these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus
answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell
your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
22 When
the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I
tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom
of God.”
25 When
the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can
be saved?”
26 Jesus
looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with
God all things are possible.”
3. Zacchaeus
the tax collector
5 When
Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus,
come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All
the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a
sinner.”
8 But
Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half
of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I
will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus
said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house,
because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost.”
Comparisons
What we see
with the first rich man is not a godly man by virtue of the fact that he dies
and goes to hell (Luke 16:23). There’s a comparison between the rich man in
hell and the rich younger ruler who turns his back on Jesus; both men were self
righteous, unrepentant and selfish rejecting God’s word.
Self righteous - With the man burning in hell we
see his insolence when he has the audacity to demand that Abraham send Lazarus
from the dead to warn his five brothers of the place of torment he forever
dwells in. Abraham declares to him even if someone would rise from the dead
they would not believe. They are to listen to Moses and the prophets (i.e. the
word of God) (Luke 16:29-31). The rich young ruler also was self righteous in that
he claimed he kept the commandments of the law and was not in any lack. This
speaks to his unwillingness to recognize his own sinfulness and spiritual
deficiency. What we discover is that he loved his material wealth at the
expense of his own soul which makes him utterly poor toward God. See also the
parable of the rich fool (Matt 16:26;Luke 13-21).[i]
Unrepentant – Not once did the rich man in hell
repent for his sinful life on earth. Rather he simply wanted relief from his
torment. He never considered why he was being punished. He showed contempt for the beggar Lazarus by
not helping him, and he dishonored God by not honoring the poor (Proverbs 17:5;Matt
25:41-43). He wanted Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool his
tongue due to his torment (Luke 18:24). Likewise the rich young ruler also
believed by keeping the law he could earn his way to heaven, but once Jesus commanded him to forsake his treasure on
earth, sell what he had and give to the poor, take up his cross and live a life
of self denial, he refused by walking away sealing his doom (Matt 19:21-22).
This
posture, turning the back on Jesus when he lovingly commands all to repent is
the attitude of the majority of the earth. The rich ruler’s disobedience to
this command proved he was an unrighteous man and needed salvation by grace
through faith not by or because of works(Ephesians 2:8-9).
Selfish – Jesus exposed the rich young ruler’s
hypocrisy by 1) when he commanded him to give to the poor. By the young ruler
refusing proved that he did not observe law as carefully as he thought. He did not love his neighbor as himself. 2)
he worshipped his possessions above God which made the ruler idolatrous
violating the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me”
(Exodus 20:3).
Differences
We now come
to the third of the rich men Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector; meaning
he had tax collectors working under him called publicans. Tax collectors were Hebrews that worked for Imperial
Rome. In the eyes of the natives this made them traitors for Jews hated paying
taxes to Rome. To make matters worse the tax collectors charged more tax than
what the law required so this made them rich by extortion angering the
Israelites even more. The Jew classified the tax collectors in two groups: gabbai and moksha. The first group levied taxes on agricultural goods and
census taxes. The second group collected taxes from travelers.[ii]
Jesus referred to the tax collectors in an indicting way to those who listened
to him preach when referring to those
that love and greet their loved ones as opposed to showing love and kindness to
their enemies which is a sacrificial selfless love. Jesus said even the tax
collectors do that. Jesus was simply saying those whom you regard as the worst
of all is your love no better than theirs (Matt 5:46-47)?
Jesus also
stated that tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the kingdom of God
before the religious leaders would due to their repentance(Matt 31:32). The
idea that Jesus declared that tax collectors and prostitutes the under belly of
society were more righteous than them infuriated the religious elite. The
Pharisees and the upper echelon of society regarded tax collectors as the scum
of the earth and the very worst of sinners. In their mind there was no way
possible for these of type of people to be saved.
Zacchaeus
upon hearing the preaching of the Lord Jesus demonstrated true repentance by
stating that he would give half his goods to the poor, and anyone he cheated he
would repay 400%. He was totally the opposite of the rich younger ruler who
refused to sell his goods, give to the poor, take up his cross and follow
Jesus. Jesus declared that salvation had come to the house of Zacchaeus (Luke
19:10); the outflow of his regeneration was manifested in his willingness to
pay more restitution than the law required of him.
The
unfortunate legacy the rich younger left was the Lord Jesus saying, “How hard
is it for those that have riches to enter into the kingdom of God” (Luke
18:25). Jesus followed that thought with another emphatic statement regarding
who can be saved, “With men this is impossible
(italics added), but with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26).
NOTES
[i] There
are some scholars that believe that this account is an actual event and not a
parable. Ordinarily when Jesus utters a parable, proper names are not used. In
this particular account 3 proper names are used, Abraham, Lazarus, and Moses
[ii]
J.I.Packer, Merrill C. Tenney, Will
White Jr, The Bible Almanac (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980),
530
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