The Two Covenants

I am going to deal, here, with the parable of the beggar Lazarus found in Luke 16:16-31, but not so much with the parable as certain comments upon which this parable depends.

We all know the parable. Lazarus dies and goes to heaven; rich man dies and goes to hell. To the studied, this parable is about how the tables turn.

The statements upon which this parable depend are indicative of the two covenants, that is to say, the old and new testaments. This, then, is the framework within which the parable is presented.

The old covenant is represented by Moses and the prophets while the new covenant is portrayed, from the time of John the baptist, as the preaching of the kingdom of God. The two covenants, after a manner, are set against one another. There is, however, an addendum that highlights one particular fact about the difference between the two covenants.

It is this: the new covenant is not a departure from the law. As an example, Jesus states that if you commit adultery under the new covenant, you are still guilty. The old covenant laws are still fully binding. Yet, Jesus paints a picture of a mass-mental-migration from an old mold to a new, from an old standard to a new.

He said, “and every man presseth into it.” So then we must ask, what exactly are we pressing into? Is it into the preaching? Is it into something novel and different? Is it all about the new set of characters, or might it be, rather, a new mold – a new approach to the same desired end?

The parable shows us how the rich man with everything ended up in a reverse situation. Likewise, we see that Lazarus finds his situation reversed. We must remember that earlier in this chapter, Jesus told the Pharisees who derided him exactly the difference between the worldly and the heavenly. Everything is exactly the opposite.

If you know want in this life, you will know plenty in the afterlife. If you know plenty in this worldly plane, in a higher plane you will know want.

Believe it or not, the parable of Lazarus is a new covenant construct. It is the preaching of the kingdom of God. It is exactly what we would expect to hear from a John or a Jesus or any number of apostles, disciples, and the like. Although many of the old testament persuasion believed in a reward after death, and a place with Abraham in glory, that was not the focus of the older frame of mind.

The old testament focus was on the observance of the law in this present life. It was a bottom-rung frame of mind. In opposition, the frame of mind that everyone was pressing into, as Jesus spoke, was a top-rung frame of mind.

The point in all this is to say there was a predisposition to find a way around the law. The Pharisees found there way around the law by using the law. The ones who followed John and Jesus would, naturally, be attempting to make a break from all the Pharisees represented – that is the darker points of rule and oppression through law-mongering.

For the average Joe, pressing into the new, quite possibly for relief from the Pharisees always having their way, the law actually took a backseat to the needs of daily life. We may picture these average Joes by comparing them to modern day Joes. Sure, they go to church on Sunday, but what about the rest of the week? Strife and relief from strife. They strive to obtain a means upon which they might subsist, but for the sake of respite, they will spend much of it in bars, at dances, in theaters, and at worldly sporting events.

The point of the parable was to say that the law would always apply. Don't throw the law out with the wash. In the new covenant construct, the rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to his brothers thinking that if they were approached by one from the dead, they might repent and avoid the reversal of fortune.

The final say and ultimate answer for those pressing into the new is a stark rebuttal found in verse 31, “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Of course, one did rise from the dead, and many of us press gladly into the resurrection of Jesus. But are we persuaded? Have we at all paid any heed to the will of God, to his law, or even to things just and wholesome? How many Christians say they believe in the Ten Commandments, yet regularly fail to observe the Sabbath of God? How many of us fail to honor our parents? How many of us totally ignore the needs of the less fortunate?

What is the divorce/adultery rate for our day and age? Just what is it that we are so blindly pressing into? It is the stewardship of our Father's goods which we gather to ourselves and withhold from our brothers. These are all simple bottom-rung matters, but we just can't seem to pass the test. Fail. Fail. Fail.

Our failures in simple matters have an outcome. We always prove who we are by word and by deed. What are the true colors of those pressing into what Christ offers? Bloodlust and the black smoke of war. The gray cloud of approaching enemies and the red flames of hell licking up from our eternal abyss.