Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel, Luke 16:19-31                  

Luke 16:19-31

I love this parable. Probably for more than one reason, but I love the summary most of all. While we all love Jesus’ stories and his bringing us the miraculous in word and work, the point of this parable sets everything about Jesus in order. Most of us know the story of Lazarus and the rich man. But what is tucked inside it is a giant framing of all the Word of God. I mean that. Very simply the table is set for contrasting thoughts about what God uses to save. It is not the thunderous miracles that fill our Bibles and have leaked onto our movie screens. It is, rather, the means by which we have learned of those miracles in the first place: God’s Holy and Matchless Word. Jesus says so here by giving place in the story to the Word over “works,” no matter how grand. Please read the parable again with special focus on verses 27 to the end. It is God’s Word, pointing always to Jesus Christ, which saves. Every time.