Lazarus,The Beggar, is You and Me

Luke 16:20  But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, who had been placed at his gate,

21  and longing to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. And even the dogs came and would lick his sores.

Romans 3: 27  Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. Through what law? Of works? No, but through the law of faith.

When we lived in Kenya, I heard a magnificent teaching by a good friend, Pastor Donald Wathome.

He describes the following.

We know the story of Old Man Lazarus, a beggar covered with sores and which dogs licked his sore wounds.

Old Man Lazarus patronized the table of a rich man.

As this one ate, crumbs of food fell from his plate.

Old Man Lazarus ravenously scavenged and ate them.

This was his daily bread.

Romans 3:27 states that faith is a law.

A law postulates that under specific circumstances, specific results always transpire.

Hence the law of gravity.

When I let go of a ball in midair, it drops to the ground.

Specific circumstances genders specific results.

The law of faith decrees that whatever we believe for, we will receive, because faith is a law.

God is a serial linear thinker.

He goes from greater to greater, deeper to deeper, and more adventurous, to more adventurous.

God never goes backwards unless we sin.

He created the world by saying, “Let there be light!”

From that one word, scientists have proved, that the universe still linearly expands.

When we obey the voice of God, we function in a linear fashion of expansion and abundance, because of the law of faith.

On the other hand, Lazarus is a serial box thinker.

He had his provision in the lunchbox of the rich man’s crumbs.

Old Man Lazarus knows about the law of faith!

He receives according to his faith!

His faith level was to obtain crumbs, and that is what he acquired.

We are charmed with Old Man Lazarus until we recognize that this account is about us.

We are Old Man Lazarus.

We have God, finances, and our very lives, in a box.

We have a God that is richer and greater than the rich man.

Yet, we are content to be fed with the crumbs which falls from His table.

Disobedience to His voice, and our failure and resolve to press through religious complacency and passivity, keeps us bound to the law of faith for serial box thinkers.

Many of us will die a Lazarus, and will go to heaven, just like him.

We will meet Jesus with the open sores of unrepentance and He will wipe away our tears.

But instead of partaking from the rich man’s table and having abundance to share with others, we left behind a legacy of crumbs for the world to eat from.

Lazarus, the beggar, is you and me.