Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

uses that word respecting him because it is the Latin word meaning “rich man”. So the rich man they generally call “Di′ves”, and we may do so. But now the question is, Who is this rich man?

Jesus did not dignify the rich man with a given name, but merely described him in order to describe the class of persons he represents. In keeping with his riches he clothed himself with purple and linen, and daily enjoyed himself with magnificence, including a bountifully spread table. Since Jesus uttered his words directly to the Jews, the rich man pictures first a class among them with privileges and advantages like those described. In the final application of the parable in our own day, he pictures a similar class now, the counterpart of that in Jesus’ day. Jesus was talking partly for the benefit of the Pharisees, who were listening in, and they were money-lovers. So the facts and the Scriptures bear out that the rich man stands for a class of religious leaders who are rich in spiritual privileges and opportunities and who conduct themselves as the rich man did.

Clothing is a symbol of position, rank, material means, and identity. Purple was a color of royalty. When the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus’ royal claims and lineage, they “arrayed him with a purple outer garment” and said to him: “Good day, you king of the Jews!” (John 19:2-5, NW; Mark 15:16-20) The leaders claimed to be in line for God’s kingdom, remembering God’s words to them through Moses at Mount Sinai: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Ex. 19:5, 6) Jesus even referred to them as the “children of the kingdom” and disclosed to us who they were, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before mankind; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in.” Because of this course of action Jesus said: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits”; and the chief priests and the Pharisees took note that he was speaking about them. (Matt. 8:12; 23:13; 21:43, 45, NW) So here already we have the rich man identified as representing the hypocritical Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests, which included the Sadducees; and these constituted the Jewish clergy or religious leaders.

The rich man clothed himself not alone with purple, but also with linen. This is significant, for in Scripture linen pictures righteousness: “the fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the holy ones.” (Rev. 19:8, NW) If there was one class on earth that laid claim to righteousness, self-made righteousness, it was these Jewish religionists. Why, when the Pharisees were sneering at Jesus, he said to them just before he told about the rich man and Lazarus: “You are those who declare yourselves righteous before men, but God knows your hearts; because what is lofty among men is a disgusting thing in God’s sight.” (Luke 16:15, NW) Thus he told them they figuratively clothed their exterior with linen. But it was to cover over a disgusting interior. He later pointed this out in these words: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of every kind of uncleanness. In that way you also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt. 23:27, 28, NW) For this reason he gave the parable of the Pharisee and the despised tax collector, because the Pharisaical crowd “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and . . . considered the rest as nothing”. (Luke 18:9-14, NW) But the tax collector went home really more righteous than the Pharisee.

Showing off in their fine linen, they paraded their righteousness publicly in order to be visible to men, sounding a trumpet before them when they made their distribution of charity so as to call attention to themselves and win applause. (Matt. 6:1, 2) The apostle Paul was once a zealous member of that strict sect of the Pharisees and considered himself blameless as far as righteousness by means of the Mosaic law is concerned. But he abandoned that false course of self-righteousness, that he might gain real righteousness: “not my own righteousness which results from law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which issues from God on the basis of faith.” (Phil. 3:4-6, 9, NW) As a Christian he deplored the course of the Israelites under the leadership of their clergy and said: “Israel, although pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. For what reason? Because he pursued it, not by faith, but as by works. . . . For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge; for, because of not knowing the righteousness of God but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the accomplished end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness.” (Rom. 9:31, 32; 10:2-4, NW) So the linen with which the “rich man” class clothed themselves was not the kind that God gives through Christ. It was self-righteousness, and Jesus courageously exposed it as such.

PERSONS WITH A PEDIGREE

One thing that strengthened the “rich man” class in their self-assurance and haughtiness was something the parable later shows, namely, that they were the natural descendants of Abraham. To Abraham Jehovah God upon his own oath had given the promise: “By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, . . . I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 22:16-18, AS) Hence they said to Jesus: “We are Abraham’s offspring and never have we been slaves to anybody.”

Jesus replied: “I know you are Abraham’s offspring; but you are seeking to kill me, because my word makes no progress among you.” He said that, if they were Abraham’s children, then they ought to do the works of Abraham. But even before Jesus, John the Baptist warned them against depending too much upon natural descent from the faithful friend of God. When he caught sight of many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the baptism he said to them: “You offspring of vipers, . . . do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘As a father we have Abraham.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (John 8:33, 37, 39 and Matt. 3:7-9, NW) They were of the stock of Abraham naturally, like the natural branches in a cultivated olive tree. But they did not appreciate that they could be broken off from that stock because of not believing in the Son of God, the principal Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. Besides that, branches from a wild olive tree could be miraculously grafted into the places vacated by them. Another thing: Abraham had two natural sons, Ishmael and Isaac; and they could be cast away as Ishmael was, leaving Isaac the full heir, because he was miraculously born in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.—Rom. 11:1, 17-24; Gal. 4:29, 30.

Being so highly favoured naturally because of their descent from the faithful forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they enjoyed themselves from day to day amid magnificence. The “rich man” class could feast at a sumptuous table, because, Jesus’ parable notifies us, they had rich spiritual provisions, “Moses and the Prophets.” Moses represented the Law and the first five books of the Bible which he wrote, whereas the Prophets included the writings of the early and later prophets; and linked with these were the Psalms or collection of Bible books headed by the Psalms. All together, these comprised the Hebrew Scriptures, and it was from these that Jesus continually quoted to prove he was the Messiah or Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham. “And commencing at Moses and all the Prophets he interpreted to them things pertaining to himself in all the Scriptures.” He said: “All the things written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms about me must be fulfilled.”—Luke 24:27, 44, NW.

Consequently, with this God-given treasure the circumcised Israelites had an advantage over all the Gentile nations. Paul asks: “What, then, is the superiority of the Jew, or what is the benefit of the circumcision? A great deal in every way. First of all, because they were entrusted with the sacred pronouncements of God.” (Rom. 3:1, 2, NW) Standing before the Jewish San′he·drin presided over by the high priest, the Christian martyr Stephen said to them: “This is the Moses that . . . came to be among the congregation in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our forefathers, and he received living sacred pronouncements to give you.” (Acts 7:37, 38, NW) The apostle Paul spoke of them as “my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, who, as such, are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the sacred service and the promises; to whom the forefathers belong and from whom Christ sprang according to the flesh”. (Rom. 9:3-5, NW) Jehovah God indeed set an exclusive feast before his chosen people, and hence the psalmist said: “He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Praise ye Jehovah.”—Ps. 147:19, 20, AS.

This privilege of feasting was specially true of the religious leaders in Israel, the “rich man” class back there. They had the “key of knowledge” therefore, and it was their privilege to teach the common people. But though they feasted at the rich man’s table, reclining in magnificence and assuming to be Abraham’s promised seed, yet they did not recline in the “bosom of Abraham” and obtain his chief favor. Jesus disclosed the reason when he said to his religious opposers: “Woe to you who are versed in the Law, because you took away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not go in, and those going in you hindered!” (Luke 11:52, NW) Certainly the “rich man” represents a selfish lot of religionists both back there and today. Though furnished with such a sumptuous table of spiritual food, they let very little drop from it or be thrown away from it for the poor people to enjoy.

THE POOR BEGGAR LAZARUS

Jesus now shifts our view from inside the rich man’s palace to outside his gate, with the words: “But a certain beggar named Lazarus used to be put at his gate, full of ulcers and desiring to be filled with the things dropping from the table of the rich man. Yes, too, the dogs would come and lick his ulcers.” (Luke 16:20, 21, NW) The beggar Lazarus had a right to be at the rich man’s gate, for God’s law specifically taught the well-to-do to be openhanded toward the poor. If the “rich man” class had conducted themselves unselfishly according to God’s law, with love for their neighbor as for themselves, there would have been no poor in the land. But now that there actually were poor in the land because of the self-seeking world organization, the rich man was under orders by the Law and also under warning by the Prophets to consider the poor and to give some relief to them.—Deut. 15:4, 7,