From the damned rich man, and the blessed poor Lazarus.
Luc. 16, 19-31.
Now there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and lived all his days gloriously and joyfully. But there was a poor man named Lazarus, who lay at his door full of sores, desiring to be satisfied with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; but the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And when he was in hell and torment, he lifted up his eyes, and beholding Abraham afar off, and Lazarum in his bosom, cried out, saying, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarum, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am in torment in this flame. And Abraham said, Remember, son, that thou hast received thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus, on the contrary, hath received evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And over all this there is a great gulf fixed between us and you, that they which would go down from hence
We could not go to you, nor could we go from there to us. Then said he, Then pray thee, O father, that thou send him to my father's house: for I have yet five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear the same. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one of the dead should go unto them, they would repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if any of the dead arise.
1 We had this gospel a year ago and it was also printed, and it is easy to understand everywhere, except in the part about the dead. Therefore we want to talk a little about it. In sum, it teaches the works and the Christian life, which consist in faith and love. Faith makes one pious before God, love before men and also before God. In all other things, God can overlook, but in these two things He wants to be strict and rigorous; He demands these two things most strictly. You know that we have been so blind, and have not heeded the two, but have prattled on with works; therefore it is necessary that we perceive ours. The gospel shows us two persons, and sets both of them before us as an example of what belongs to a Christian life, namely, that we live as Lazarus did, and not as the rich man did. Every one that believeth hath enough for himself; he needeth no atonement for sins; he hath all things in faith. Therefore he should not seek his own, but be useful. Marital life is also suitable for this, which is useful against adultery. Also the regiment etc. Which this kingdom has not done. He has clothed himself in the two highest colors, in scarlet and beautiful linen, also apparently eating daily.
002 Now, since outward things neither profit nor hinder, why is it said that he is condemned by them? You know otherwise: If he had put on silken garments and pearls every day, all would have been well, if he had done it for the benefit of his neighbor. Like Esther, who went about badly in her maid's room, but when she went to the king, she put on a crown of gold, and with her maids she was still a dear daughter to God, because she did not seek her own, but wanted to redeem the Jewish people. Such is the thing about love, it can be a
Wear a smock, can also go bareheaded. So St. Paul also says: I can go high, I can also go low. I can let myself be honored, I can also let myself be disgraced. I can live well, I can also fast and live badly. All things are well done, not of works, but of heart, that I do them all for my neighbor's sake. Paul did not fast for himself alone, nor suffer for himself alone etc.; but he boasts of it, saying, I am glad that I suffer for you. Love has no distinction, its eye is single.
3 Therefore this kingdom is not condemned because of its clothing and splendor, but because of its false, unchristian heart, which sought only its own. If there had been faith, he would have been in a different position. And if he had worn sackcloth and eaten only water and bread, he would have been damned because he had such a mind. You will find them here, too, who do not like to put on the least clothes, preferring a good skirt to a bad one, drinking wine to water. You have often heard that where there is faith, love follows; where there is not, there is no faith. In the fact that he lived daily in a drunken stupor, thus spurning poor Lazarus, we may easily gather what he had in his mind. He put all his date on the belly and the estate. And because the fruit of love was not there, he was an unchristian. But the heart of a Christian is like this: Almighty God, for my sake I would not live a day, but that I might be useful to my neighbor. St. Paul says: "It is necessary that I should be in the flesh for your sake. If I have faith, I live to teach you.
This is what this rich man lacks. What would he have done, if he should have preached? Nevertheless, he is a holy man.
He has been a good man. He has not been an adulterer, has not had other people's property, has let himself think that he does many good deeds. He has the heartache of wealth. So he thought: the property is mine, I may give it to whom I want. That is what the lawyers say. He meant: I do right. There is another light, that one may know to whom we are indebted; faith gives the same. A Christian owes no one but everyone: that I should preach to all, and help them out of the devil's bonds; item, that I pray for my neighbor, and take care of him as if his sins were mine: this the world knows not. Item, if my neighbor is sick, then I should offer my body to help him, and one has the other's right. This is where the Lord's Prayer comes from: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And it is written here that he did not mean that he should be guilty of Lazarus. He did not think that all things come from God. If he had not wanted to do it himself, if he had only commanded his servants, it would have been something. After that he said, "I did not know! There it is, learn it. It is also mean, who, if he saw one to whom he had given a thousand florins, and that the same would not give one of them to a poor man, did not say he would be damned. Well, that is from the rich man.
005 The other, poor Lazarus, lying at the door, desired to be satisfied with the crumbs of the table, etc. but the dogs also came and licked his sores. So let us be praised that the dogs are more pious than unchristian men. Behold the image: behold, he praiseth the dog, and if he had understood the unreasonable beast, he would also have borne him bread; the angry beast, which is also called rabiem caninam, hath had mercy on him, and is more kind than this unchristian man. Summa Summarum: What is not of faith is worse than a dog. From this also it comes that one calls a barren a dog, that is, a canine man.
Now let us boast. God does that, it says. It is obvious that Lazarus in
If anyone has lived by faith and love, he enters Abraham's bosom, into which no one can enter unless he is in faith. Faith can do nothing with works; there it lies, it has no money. He has nothing to give for alms, but he must ask. With what then has he been pleasing to God? With the Most High, of whom Paul says: "In the suffering that I suffer for you. In his heart Lazarus also confessed that he suffered all things with a patient mind. He did not murmur about it, he did not curse the rich man to burn his house, but he prayed for him. What followed after that? Then he is presented to the whole world, and now his begging is an example to the whole world; his boils are better than pearls. Nor is there anyone who should bear the ulcers for twenty years; he would gladly do so if he were to come by them. There is no one who would be so foolish as not to flee the rich man's goods. At the same time everyone despised Lazarus; now everyone would like to put him in a silk bed; one would not like to suffer him, one would not like to put on his clothes, one would worry that they would burn him. Lazarus is also not pious because of the ulcers; for how many are they with us, who perish in war, who have St. Velten's disease or French, and are condemned; for they suffer impatiently. But Lazarus sees in right faith against God, he found that God loved him.
7 Now let us also see that we do not have such eyes against the poor as the rich man has here. We see that they have infirmities, and look upon them, not minding them; but they abide in a right faith toward God. If our eyes were open, we would take off our clothes, in sum, we would give them everything. But because such a cloth, even a wall, is before our eyes that we cannot see it, we pass by; and this is done by God's will. But this is terrible, when we come there, when we shall also see those whom we have rejected; then shall they say, Lord, when did we see thee?
hungry? etc. This is a gross puff against our head. So also, when the gospel is persecuted, it is not respected; but in the sight of God it is great. If God would have us lower our eyes, and not go over, but remember: This is Lazarus. Silently it goes to; but the word, when it comes to the day, it will go. Follow:
The rich man also died and was buried in hell. There is no silence. While they were still in the world, none of them felt anything, like the foolish virgins. The rich man had forgotten; he thought that it would be like this everywhere. And so the whole world looks on unthinkingly, and when it comes thereafter, they say, O! we ought to have done that, to have left that. The gospel teaches us not to spurn our neighbor. Here is the judgment. Lazarus was lying at the rich man's door, and he went before him and respected his nothing. Before, he did not want to look at him among himself. His beautiful house has now become hell, his red purple has become fire; but Lazari's bed is now in the bosom of Abraham, in the most tender place. He who lived so well all his days, now has not a drop of water; Lazarus has all abundance enough, is also comforted; for his evil is all gone and is now good. He begs, and is sorry that no one will send him; he cannot rest: it has been a fearful torment to him; everything is denied him. He is not only in hell, but also buried in it, that is, he must remain there forever. This is an example of love. Otherwise, there are a number of things that even I do not know, which are very sharp, and nature also likes to tease with such things, as: what hell, what heaven, what Abraham's bosom fei? What they say about it, I will command God. In sum, you have that a Christian life should go and stand in surrender of the neighbor, that we put all our being to his use. The other, however, of the above-mentioned things, that is for the enlightened. But I want to say a little.
009 First, Abraham's bosom is not the bodily bosom; for Abraham is buried in the land of Canaan, and is also there.
decayed, therefore it could not have been the bodily womb; then our mind would go mad. Now the soul has neither hands nor feet, nor a womb. I have also said that I do not want to be certain and hold that the womb is the word of God and the promise made to Abraham, Gen. 22:18: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," which are divine words and have as much in them as the whole gospel, that Christ was born, crucified, died and came to life. Therefore, this lock is the gospel, the promise made to Abraham, into which we must all enter; if I and every Christian must die, he must close his eyes and cling to God's word alone, and trust God to receive us. He must go there fresh in faith, believing that there is nothing but the Word, and then he will go into the Abrahams' castle. The rich man, when he is described as looking above him, we must not think that he had eyes and tongue, nor that Lazarus had fingers. No, it is not a physical thing, it is all in the conscience, where he realized that he had acted against the gospel. Nothing was said to him, everything happened in his conscience; he felt in his conscience that he should have been there forever; so he did not rest: he sought help everywhere, in heaven and hell; there was no help, just like the foolish virgins who had no oil. He thought, "Almighty God, if I had believed, or if there had been a believer to share his faith with me," and when I say that he thought this way, everything in his conscience was denied him. "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear the same"; if they miss it in life, they have missed it. This is the heartache and sorrow that no man can know, for he who has suffered it, and it all goes down in the conscience; and this then will be eternal damnation. They say that they are in a place where one could pray for them. It may be; God does it as He wills, they are not in a heap. In that being, before God, a thousand years are not one day,
and when one is resurrected, it will become Adam and the old fathers as if they were still alive half an hour ago. There is no time, therefore there can be no special place, and there is neither day nor night. It is^or God everything happened at once. It is not neither before nor behind. Those will not come sooner on the last day than we.
10 This text does not conclude that they are gathered into one place; but it may well be possible. I do not know how to keep purgatory, so I cannot refuse it, it is in God's power. So I cannot refuse to pray for them, but I myself may pray for my friends and say: O Almighty God, I know your power, I pray for this soul; it may sleep or suffer. If it is in suffering, I ask you, it is your divine will that you finish it. That would be right to pray. But to sing masses and vigils and to always keep anniversaries, that is fool's work, it is not useful. You may ask once or twice, and stop there, and not set up a foundation; it is the
In the Scriptures, hell and heaven are found, and there is no middle place; however, it can be a means.
But that the spirits appeared and asked for masses, that was certainly the devil. St. Gregory set many such examples in a book, and he was also seduced by the devil. That is why he does it, the evil one, so that he can deprive us of our goods, body and soul with the masses and vigils. Therefore they are devils, be they what they will. But the reason why I do not believe in it is that there is nothing in the whole Scripture about souls going around, but about devils going around. The same, it says, that they fly in the air; yea, we have devils also in house and court. But if thou hearest anything, say, Thou art the devil. Do not take care of him, and let him rustle and rumble. There is no deeper thing than to hold masses and vigils for the dead; for the devil has let himself be confessed so much, until he has brought about such a thing. Beware of the evil one. Amen.
God have praise.