Prayer, Its Power Is In Its Brutal Honesty. We Can Engage and Know the Honesty of Forgiveness, or Not and Know the Honesty of Consequence

 For Sunday, our passage is from Luke 16: 19-31

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰ He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

           This passage may not be the first one that comes to mind when we talk about prayer.  The first thought may center around Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer.  Or it might be around one of the great prayers in the Bible, like that of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in the first book of Samuel.  This one’s not even a ‘real’ prayer, it’s a parable.  And its not addressed to God, its addressed to Father Abraham.  The conversation does not even take place on ‘this side’ of death.  And the man calling out in desperation is the villain of the piece.  He was rich, he could care less about poor, sickly Lazarus, until he died.  Then he’s desperate for relief and, not receiving that, to save his brothers from his fate.  And he’s crying out from the fiery furnaces of Hades (Hell) itself.  Can we even pray from Hell?

          That is why it is so important to understand that this is a parable.  It is a story told that the listeners would have understood, how Lazarus received hell on earth and heaven in the hereafter, while the rich man received heaven on earth and hell in the hereafter.  So how does this even intersect with prayer?  These fictional, or, perhaps more accurately, these ‘parablized’ conversations?

          To me, it is their brutal honesty.  Heck, the rich man probably went to synagogue and prayed all the ‘proper words' there.  It takes the rich man’s descent into hell to trigger the brutal honesty needed in prayer, to reach out to Father Abraham (the figure of God).  “Send me Lazarus to relieve my suffering!”  The brutal honesty is that the rich man should have done that in life, for Lazarus, but he chose not to.  “Send Lazarus to warn my brothers!”  The brutal honesty is that the brothers have Moses and the prophets (the bible of Jesus) and if they did not listen to the Word of God, they are certainly not going to listen to a voice from the dead to change their ways.

          Jesus speaks the same message as Moses and the prophets.  His is a call to truth, to honesty, a brutal honesty if we choose to ignore it.  If the rich man had prayed with such brutal honesty in life, things would have been different in death.  He would have seen the right and the wrong of how he lived with his riches and, perhaps, could have changed his ways. 

          I am reminded of a line from the song “Ghost Riders in the Sky”.  One of the ghost riders turns to say, “Cowboy, change your ways or with us you shall ride, trying to catch the devil’s herd, across these endless skies.”  Again, not a ‘God and me’ prayer, but a brutally honest message.

          Prayer is that place where our love of God intersects with our minds.  And God already knows our thoughts.  So, to truly pray is to pray the brutal honesty of our sinful lives, laying it all out before Jesus.  Because God will reply with His own honesty.  That there is no sin that cannot be forgiven, that there is no life that cannot be turned, that there is no end to the depth of loving connection we can have with Him.  Otherwise, that brutal honesty will come upon us like it did the rich man.

 

Peace,

Pastor Peter