That Jesus saves us is at the heart of every Word of the Bible and ought be the heart of every Church service and every sermon you hear.
But it does us good to pause and ask, “What does Jesus save us from?”
You know that when your healthy, you probably don’t often think about how healthy you are. You take for granted what Jesus gives you. And then you get sick and realize what you had all along.
And so today, our Lord gives us this Gospel text telling a parable of the rich and arrogant and stubborn and wastefully abusive and unmerciful man who then dies and is buried and is sent to hell.
And this text gives us one of the most picturesque and terrifying descriptions of hell.
First, there is a hell.
That needs to be stated because pastors who claim to be Christian are found coming out all the time against God’s clear Word about this truth. That the world or other religions don’t believe there is a hell, that’s one thing, but that some who are Christian and have Moses and the Prophets to hear, have God’s Word.
I suppose they do this because they don’t like it, or it makes them uncomfortable or makes them unpopular – but Christians, especially pastors, are messengers, not the message give. They are stewards, managers – not owners.
Christians are called to be faithful, and so if we have this text set before us today – we faithfully receive all parts of the text, including this: there is a hell, Hades as it is called.
And that it is a place of torment.
And that it is a place where one suffers, but that suffering is made more by seeing the joy of others not there: he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
and that it is a place where one loses all the comforts that he had in this life where our Lord makes the sun shine and rain fall on the just and unjust: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. […what he had…how he acts toward others]
and that it is a place where you remember, both the good old days that you will no longer ever have again, and will you constantly be remembering your sins, your failures in the pain of guilt and regret: Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things;”
and that this will never end:
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
And that it is so difficult to consider hell shows us, among other things, that it is so difficult for us to consider what we deserve because of our abuse and rebellion and lack of mercy and lack of rejoicing in the hearing of God’s Word.
That Jesus saves us is at the heart of every Word of the Bible and ought be the heart of every Church service and every sermon you hear –
and so today we consider what it means that Jesus delivers us from hell and instead gives us heaven and the forgiveness of sins and the cleansing of a guilty conscience and joy and peace and pleasures forevermore and the wiping of every tear from our eye.
And the way that Jesus saves is that He faces the devil and hell and the wrath of God head on for us:
that He is tormented,
that is remembering every sin ever committed and will be ever committed and bears them all,
that all the comforts of this life is removed as He cries out “I thirst” and the sun is darkened and His friends forsake Him,
and that between Him and His heavenly Father, there was a great chasm that had been fixed so that no one could cross.
All so that the devil could not threaten you and frighten you with what you deserve because the devil has nothing to say, your sin and hell is paid for.
Our Epistle declares to us that we have confidence in the day of judgment.
Our Old Testament reading declares to Abraham and you, “Fear not, I am your shield”…and Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted unto him as righteousness.
Our Introit says, “O Lord, I have trusted in Your steadfast love, light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
Your enemy cannot say you get hell, because in the steadfast love of the Love, Jesus faced death and hell, descended into hell, and the thirst day rose again and declares you righteous as Abraham,
lights up your eyes today and on the day you sleep your last sleep lest you sleep the sleep of death,
and gives you confidence today and on the day of judgment.
And He does this all in and through your hearing.
That we believe in hell, that we fear God’s wrath and punishment is God’s work,
and that we believe we have confidence, in Christ, to face judgment because the judge of the living and the dead is also our Brother, our Jesus,
and that this Jesus saves in our hearing, is also God’s Work.
The rich and arrogant and stubborn and wastefully abusive and unmerciful man is compared in this story quite simply to a man who received many bad things in this life and whose name was Lazarus.
The name Lazarus means, “God is my help.”
That God is our constant help protects us from arrogance and stubbornness and waste and abuse of God’s gifts and gives us joy in hearing Abraham and the Prophets and all of God’s Word and works in us mercy toward others and God is their help, too – even through us.
God help us. Jesus save us.
He does. And He will. Amen.