29 February 2024 Luke 16:19-31
Karl Marx said that religion is the opium of the people. Religion is what makes people numb.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
The rich man had it all – food, clothes, house, money. He never knew even a moment of want. He also couldn’t see the things that were right in front of him until it was too late.
He didn’t even notice Lazarus at his gate, covered with sores, dogs licking them. Lazarus would have been happy with the food that the rich man certainly considered trash (Luke 16:20-21). Lazarus wasn’t on the rich man’s radar until he was in torment, and even then Lazarus was visible only far away.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
The rich man didn’t notice the great difference between heaven and hell, how there was a great chasm of difference between them (16:26). That hell was even a possibility for him never crossed his mind – not until it was the only possibility for him.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
The rich man had never heard that judgment day will be a day of shocking surprises and reversals for all those people who aren’t paying attention (16:25). They will all say things like, “Lord, when did we see you? If we had only known it was you that was watching, we certainly would have acted differently” (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). The rich man was shocked at his reversal of fortune because it never occurred to him that God was watching.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
Not only is the rich man unaware of his own need to repent, he is also unaware of the danger his own family is in. It was only his torment that made him aware of the ghastly danger his brothers faced, who had similarly never seen the need to repent: “I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, to that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment” (Luke 16:27-28). The rich man had no sense of compassion for the suffering and danger faced by others until he was in it himself.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
Money can do so many things that are otherwise very difficult. It can provide food, shelter, clothing, education, good neighbors, safe streets, legal representation, medical care, travel, leisure. Life is unquestionably better with all these benefits. The temptation, however, is to think that the only benefits are ones that money can buy, and so all you need is money. But life is also better with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, what St. Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit” (cf. Galatians 5:22-3), virtues that direct us how to use all the benefits money can buy, virtues that will sustain us long after money has done all it can, that sustain us even if there is no money at all.
If all you have is money, you don’t have enough.
Money without virtue is Novocain.
Worse, it’s opium, providing pleasant sensations while it keeps you from seeing what is right in front of you.
It isn’t religion that makes people numb. It’s money.
It is religion that makes people virtuous. It is virtue that makes people human. It is religion that makes money humane.
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