Jesus paints a depressing picture of Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores laying at the door of a rich man who obviously ignored the poor man just outside of his house. Both men die. From the netherworld [hell] the rich man sees Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham [where all Jews hope to be when they die]. The rich man had clearly ignored the Word that God gave Moses to reveal to the Israelites: to love our neighbor as ourselves. Lazarus, laying outside the rich man’s house was clearly his neighbor. He was obviously in need of love and care. But the rich man ignored him. He did not love Lazarus as he loved himself. He did not even love him enough to provide him with the basic necessities of life. Jesus uses this graphic story to teach us that our neighbors can be just outside our door or across the street. In our current age of instantaneous global communications, our neighbors are all over the world. And many of them are in the same condition as Lazarus. Will we love and help them before it is too late for us?
