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We continue our survey of the parables in Luke with a challenging one. What looks like a simple morality tale—akin to one of Aesop’s fables—emerges instead as a picture of something much deeper. How are we to love God? How are we to love our neighbor? This parable gives it to us straight. Let’s have a look!

  • What’s your definition of the virtuous life? In what ways has society’s association of material success to living rightly shaped your definition? Or, in what ways might you have formed your definition of right living over against the prevailing opinion?

  • The rich man in the story serves as a foil for the point Jesus is making. Where has the rich man gone wrong? Why is the passive Lazarus so richly rewarded? What behaviors in the rich man’s conversation with Abraham indicate his inability to understand where he’s gone wrong? Is Jesus simply warning against wealth or is he pointing us toward something else?

  • Who do the rich man’s brothers represent? And, given the fact that Jesus did rise from the dead, what do you make of Abraham’s insistence that even rising from the dead is no guarantee that one’s testimony will be believed?

Next Step: The story of the rich man’s money is that it disabled him in critical ways. What is your opinion of the disabling nature of wealth. Are your resources enabling or disabling you? In what ways could you be using your resources more effectively to lead a life pleasing to God?

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