Contending Grace

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, 

or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 

You cannot serve God and money. 

(Luke 16:13)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

The Lazarus and the Rich Man is a parable in the form of a lengthy story of two men: a poor beggar named Lazarus and a rich man, who is not named. This parable appears only in Luke 16 and it follows another story about an unfaithful and unscrupulous manager. This prior story concludes with the above proverbial statement: You cannot serve God and money. The context of this prior story suggests that money-obsessed Pharisees are the ones in view being criticized in the above story and also the rich man in our parable.

If grace is an undeserved blessing, then the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is a story of contending acts of grace. We read:

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores.” (Luke 16:19-20)

Neither acts of God’s sovereign grace are initially explained, but we learn more about the rich man as the story unfolds. We read:

“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” (Luke 16:22-23)

For a Jew accustomed to blessings for adhering to the law and curses for disobeying the law in this life and the next, as outlined in Deuteronomy 28,  we sense bewilderment in the rich man’s eyes as he looks up from Hades to Lazarus enjoying Abraham’s bosom. This role reversal is unexpected and comes as a shock that the rich man questions Abraham and asks Abraham to warn his five brothers, to which Abraham responds: ”They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”(Luke 16:29)

Curiously, we are never told why Lazarus warranted heaven, only that the rich man failed to heed Moses and the Prophets’ teaching on how to deal with divine judgment. Given the context of the parable, however, we can surmise that we are to love God, not money (Luke 16:13), unlike the Pharisees. The quality of our relationship with God is the key.

Grace in the Parable

For Lazarus, grace means a reversal of fortunes in death. God takes pity on him in death for his undeserved suffering in life.

For the rich man, grace means prosperity in life with the caveat that he love God, not money, and heed Mose’s and the Prophets.

The story is silent on Lazarus’ relationship with God and attitude towards Moses and the Prophets, which reinforces the perception that the parable is directed at and critical of the Pharisees, as with the prior story.

Grace in Relationship

The idea that God’s grace is dispensed in the context of relationship is explicit in the Parable of the Two Sons, usually called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In the parable, the younger son asks for his inheritance early and uses it to engage in riotous living in a foreign country while the old son remains at home and works for this father. At this point, neither son loves his father. After ending up destitute, the younger son returns home to ask his father’s forgiveness which leaves the older son even more bitter, both at his brother and at his father for accepting him back. For the younger son, this episode represents a coming-of-age story where he learns to love his father, something that his older brother never manages (Luke 15:11-32).

In the Parable of the Two Sons, the father models God’s grace in two paragrammatical cases represented by the two sons. In both cases, the father offers restorative justice—grace designed to allow growth—where he might have rendered criminal justice, had the sons not been in relationship.

Restorative justice makes sense to Christians because we have known Christ our entire lives, but it was new to Jesus’ audience, as we read: “This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.” (Deut 21:20-21) One reading of the passage—“but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)—is that the father was protecting his son from a community more accustomed to stoning rebellious sons than offering them restoration. Against this backdrop, the father’s response is unexpected, a radical departure from local custom.

The grace that Jesus displays in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is transformative because it allows renewal of relationship and the opportunity of personal growth.

Contending Grace
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com




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