He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.' – Luke 16:31 (ESV)
Jesus gives us another parable, this time on the nature of proof. As a former student of science, I am moved by evidence, by verifiable results. Being convinced of something is a high value I hold and so this parable is very intriguing to me. Lazarus (a potential reference to Jesus’ friend?) has lived a poor life at the gate of a rich man. Upon their deaths, the rich man could see Lazarus, even though he was in torment, and he wanted Abraham to send Lazarus back to the land of the living to warn his brothers. Abraham’s response is amazing, “They have Moses and the Prophets” (a reference to Scripture, i.e. that God has already spoken about this). If I were one of the brothers, I guess I’d want the dead person coming back to life too! But this means that I share the same lack of understanding that the rich man has: evidence draws people to the Lord. That, however, is not true. God draws people to Himself – even the miracle of a person rising from the dead cannot convince someone to have saving faith. For anyone who has shared the Gospel, this fact is all too evident. Simply giving proof of a miraculous resurrection (while helpful in certain cases) doesn’t mean that someone will put their faith in Christ. Is the evidence of a miracle more important for faith than God’s message? No, and we already learned this lesson in Luke 11.
Another interesting thing is that the real Lazarus did rise from the dead, as did Jesus, the person telling this parable. While I am more than anxious to read about the significance of these resurrections in Luke and in John (for Lazarus), M’Cheyne’s schedule makes us wait a little while longer.
