The Lord proceeded to contrast His ‘grace to the humble ’ versus the monetary view of the Phariseesby presenting the story of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. So, the ‘rich man and Lazarus’ should be seen in the context of the two preceding parables 1) the lost sheep, and 2) the prodigal son of a rich man, as the theme of Jesus teaching concerning ‘humility.’ In these we see that Jesus clearly valued rich and poor alike in offering salvation to all the humbled lost souls. Note that the Pharisees had been listening to Jesus (Luke 15:1-2). Then we will better understand what lessons there are in the story of ‘the rich man and Lazarus.’ In this study, we’ll take a closer look at just what a parable really is, and examine the setting in which Jesus told this story. Unfortunately, many religious teachers have isolated Jesus’ story of ‘the rich man and Lazarus’ from its context and use it to scare people with the supposed ‘eternal torment’ that is due for unbelievers. Israel's Pharisaical religious leaders are represtned in Luke 16:19 as those who were ' rich, and clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day' as the High Priest did. Others, citing numerous passages of Scripture that seem to contradict the portrayal of heaven and hell contained in this passage, believe Jesus was teaching an altogether different kind of lesson - a rebuke toward the Pharisees. Luke 15:1) gives us a glimpse of what existence in the afterlife is like. Some Christians feel that in this story of ‘the rich man and Lazarus’ Jesus offered His disciples (and Pharisees, cf.
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