Thursday, March 20th
Meg Kilgore
9 “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.’” Luke 16: 19-31
When I read this scripture in Luke, I have a very distinct image of the rich man (after death) behind heavy bars with intolerable heat/flames directly behind him, asking for pity and begging for the cool water of God’s eternal paradise. This “caged” eternal dead-end environment reminds me of a simple short story by John Eades, PhD entitled “New Year’s Resolutions”.
This story begins with two bird hunters walking in a farmer’s field beside a bubbling stream with lush vegetation discussing changes they would make in their lives as they faced a new year. Changes like doing things that would make them happier, healthier, wealthier, wiser to improve the “quality” of their lives. They agreed that too many extenuating circumstances had prevented those changes in the previous year.
Suddenly they stopped upon seeing a very odd sight—a large, golden, glittering bejeweled bird cage with a heavy lock on the door to prevent any possible escape. Admiring the beauty of the cage, they finally spotted a beautiful dove lying lifeless on the floor of the cage, with empty seed shells and a dry water bowl next to it. They concluded the bird died of thirst and hunger. They didn’t miss the irony of the expensive locked cage hanging beside the beautiful stream and lush landscape and the “torture” the bird must have felt being so close to what it desired for life and unable to reach it. There was no sign that the bird struggled or even tried to escape. One hunter commented that the bird “sure lived in a fine cage while it lived though.”
The men then sat on the side of the stream and ate lunch before heading out to continue their bird-hunting trip. They sat in silence for a long while perhaps thinking about their own lives: both lived in very fine “cages” but seemed to be unaware of the cost of trade-offs they had made for true happiness. Some things are just too difficult to think about much less speak about.
Finally, one hunter spoke up and said “What I do know is I’m ready to go kill my own birds.” Still puzzled with the odd site, he again went to examine the cage. What he saw shocked him, and he couldn’t understand how he and his buddy had missed it the first time. Toward the top of the cage was a hole—made by someone who had neatly sawed away several rows of bars through which the bird could have easily escaped. He called his buddy over to see what they missed. He said “Well, I’ll be damned.” They concluded that the bird was “too stupid” to know how to escape. The second hunter couldn’t believe how he, too, had missed such an obvious way out.
This scripture in Luke reminds us that we, alone, are in control of our relationship with God and his son Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sinful, secular world and offers a peace that passes all understanding and an eternal paradise.We must avoid being “damned”to a place of torture with no escape.As Abraham says, we as individuals have to be silent and listen and look up to accept His grace in this crazy, bustling world that never stops and is so hard to disconnect. We are God’s chosen when the world doesn’t choose us. There are no “cages” that can hold us. Look up for that “hole in the cage” through which we can escape the world that often holds us back from God’s grace.
I would like to leave you with a prayer from a recent Daughters of the King newsletter:
“Heavenly Father, as I come before you today, I humbly ask for your renewal in my life. Wash away the old and worn-out parts of me, and fill me with your fresh grace and your power. Guide me to walk in your ways with a renewed heart, filled with purpose and joy. Thank you for your unending love and the promise of new beginnings in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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