Luke 16:19-31 Lazarus and the rich man

The point of this parable is summarized in the last few verses. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers of the consequences of the lifestyle, which was characterized by dressing well and living in joyous splendor, and ignoring Lazarus who lay on the ground outside his gate starving and covered with sores. Abraham says that if they (his brothers) do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they won't listen even if someone returns from the dead. This was fulfilled in John 11:43-53 when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and the Pharisees began making plans to have Him killed. Prophetically, Jesus seems to be saying that faith that is translated into action, if it is based on God's revelation in the Old Testament, is essentially the same faith that will result from responding to His resurrection. Not doctrinally, but in terms of how one responds to God's revelation. People who are sold out to, or caught up in, worldly lifestyles will ignore the actions that faith would drive them to, regardless of whether they are presented with the Law of Moses and the warnings of the Old Testament prophets, or with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This echoes again Jesus' words to the Pharisees in John 8:39-40, mentioned above. Response to God is cut from the fabric of our life. We do or we don't do what He says. We cannot earn our salvation by feeding and caring for the poor, but we also cannot be God's people if we ignore the poor, or whatever people He has placed in our path to minister to. Jesus did not in this place say that the rich man should have given away all of his goods to the poor as He did in Luke 18:22. But it seems that He did expect him to have helped Lazarus who was laying outside his gate starving and ill. See also I John 3:17.