Luke 16:19-31
Let’s continue to remember to pray for Jim and Marty – Debbie and Julie too (coming home Wednesday)!
“Notice what you notice.” This story is so familiar to me that it’s hard to see something new. But there is one thing that I’ve always wondered. Is Jesus telling us in this story of the reality of Heaven and Hell? That these are real places, that they do exist…! Or is it more a parable using then-current Jewish understandings of life after death?
The rich man had five brothers. I also have five brothers and relative to billions of people around the world I am very rich. Immediate ouch…! But three of my brothers are believers – at various levels and in different denominations – while two are not. Carol and I and others of my siblings are actively “working on” one of the brothers, Dickie, while we seldom hear from the fifth (Ron), the one who was absent from the family for a couple of years some 4+ decades ago. If Jesus is sharing a real truth about Heaven and Hell, I fear for the outcome my two wayward brothers might encounter. But from childhood they have known that Someone has in fact risen from the dead and as Paul says in Romans 1:20, “They are without excuse…”. Carol also has two wayward brothers, Roger and Mark. All four are regularly on our prayer list. So the point of all this rambling…? Do you have wayward relatives for whom you need to be praying more intently? They may also be “without excuse”, but they should not be without intervening prayer!
Slava Bohu!