The Impact of Moral Discretions on the Afterlife – A Theological Reflection on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31

Abstract

This study examines the Christian afterlife motif from the analysis of a New Testament parable that the writer considers to concisely convey the biblical afterlife view from the composite of a Jewish and Christian perspective. The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man recorded in Luke 16:19-31 is significant in outlining Jesus’ teaching on what awaits the righteous and the unrighteous in the Christian afterlife based on their response to the religious creed on moral responsibility. The study outlines the roles of the parable characters in the portrayal of the afterlife theme under a sociocultural, historical, and contextual analysis of the passage and related texts of Scripture. It interacts with the structure, passage context, and theological implications of the moral lessons of the parable. The findings of the study are significant for theological application. While Lazarus’ portrayal as a disadvantaged, sickly, and destitute man, the superfluity and avarice of the rich man cascade beyond the confines of social class distinctions. He is representative of the selfish, self-centred members of the nobility of his day whose trappings of privilege had numbed their moral senses. He never cared for the suffering in his community of context. His afterlife experience serves as a warning to all men that God values empathy and moral stewardship, irrespective of class distinctions. Lazarus is finally vindicated as a godly soul, being joined to Abraham, a venerated Jewish patriarch in the paradise of God. In the converse, the Rich Man is consigned to Hades, a place reserved for the wicked and the unrighteous in Jewish theology. The rich man suffers in Hades, not because of his social status but on account of his ungodly comportment. Hades and Hell can be avoided if an earthly soul lives by the dictates of the creed of God’s word rather than by the exigencies of culture or class. God will punish men not based on their accumulation of earthly resources or the trappings of power and privilege but for what they failed to do so in easing the pain of the disadvantaged when they could.