ST NICOLAS, NEWBURY

LENT REFLECTIONS WEEK 3

JESUS TEACHES ABOUT JUDGEMENT

 1. Read Luke 16:19-33

 2. To start with, how do we feel about the prospect of heaven and hell? How do we feel hearing the word hell coming from the lips of Jesus?

 3. In this passage, what specific contrasts do we see between rich man and Lazarus? during life? after death?

 4. What kind of lifestyle does the rich man have? And what was this taken as a sign of (in relation to God)?

 5. And how about Lazarus? poor, hungry, diseased Therefore he must have been... what?

 6. After death they go there separate ways - Lazarus to Abraham's bosom, or heaven as we might call it, and the rich man down to hell. But why is this the case?

 7. How does the rich man address Abraham? What does this suggest?

 8. But do you think he actually lived as though Abraham was his father? All Jews (by birth) were automatically 'children of Abraham', but not all had faith.

 9. Might there be a parallel to be drawn here between the rich man counting himself a son of Abraham, and many in this country counting themselves as Christians, whilst living a life that suggests otherwise?

10. But when he dies, he gets a rather rude awakening! Far from going from luxury into even greater luxury, he finds himself in hell! But we still haven't got to the bottom of why this is the case...

11. In verse 27 the rich man asks for Lazarus to go back to his Father's house to warn his brothers so that they might not end up there too. What does this suggest about the way they were living?

12. And what does it suggest about the rich man's thinking about the need for faith?

13. What is Abraham's response? There's no need! People have more than enough now in Moses and the Prophets (what for us is the Old Testament) and then even more for us in the New Testament.

14. But if someone were to come back from the dead, says the rich man, then they'd have to believe! We hear similar things today don't we? Why doesn't go show himself? Well of course he has - someone has risen from the dead! Sadly, Abraham in our story was right, people still haven't believed.

15. Why does this passage suggest that all this a matter of some urgency?

16. So how can we be sure of heaven?

17. How does today's Old Testament reading (Jeremiah 17:5-10) back this up? "Cursed is the one who trusts in man... But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord."

Edward Hobbs
24 February 2005