I'd rather be a name in heaven than a name on earth
I heard a sermon recently on the story of the Rich man and Lazarus that Jesus tells and is recorded in Luke 16:19-31. It is a really powerful message from Jesus about what happens after we die and how what we do now affects that.
In the passage Lazarus is a beggar who lies at the rich man’s gate hoping for a few scraps from his table. The rich man is painted as a high society gentleman who only wears the finest clothes and hosts banquets every night for the great and the good. But both the rich man and Lazarus die, Lazarus is taken up to heaven and the rich man sent to hades to be in torment. This is not a story about how beggars go to heaven and rich people go to hell, it is about how your priorities on earth determine what will happen after you die. The rich man wanted to be loved by the people around him, he wanted them all to be impressed by his huge wealth and he squandered it on fine clothes, food and drink and wouldn’t even give a scrap to a poor beggar at his gate, let alone spend any of his money on the kingdom of God.
One of the things that really struck me about the story was how the rich man had no name, he was described as “a certain rich man”. Whereas Lazarus is named. As the pastor said in his message everyone in that town would have known the rich man’s name and no one would have known Lazarus. But when it came to death God personally sent his angels to take away Lazarus, and the rich man was suddenly lonely and nameless. The rich man wanted for nothing on earth became a beggar in death and the beggar in life experienced the full richness of God after death. I know which person I would rather be in this story.
