Title: Luke 16:22-26 The Great Pit
Contents Luke 16:22-26
Nothing is permanent in this world. What you have today will someday be gone. The rich are likely to be beggars, and in rare cases, beggars can become rich. So, paradoxically, there is hope while living on this earth. When you die, there is nothing more to expect. Life after death remains fixed and eternal.
In the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, the Lord makes it clear. The condition of Lazarus, a beggar in the arms of a rich man who went to hell and Abraham, is not likely to change at all. The rich man and Lazarus fixed their circumstances. Once you go to hell, you will lose hope for heaven, and if you go to heaven, you will never have to worry about falling into hell.
If hell is a place where there is no hope of going to heaven, there is also a hell in this world. If there is no possibility that tomorrow will be any better than today, or where tomorrow's laughter cannot be guaranteed through today's tears, it would be no different from hell.
The world we live in is becoming like hell all of a sudden. As long as the vicious cycle of poor study and poor study continues, no matter how well we live, it is only a world far from heaven.
We live in an apartment and our house is very close. The ‘next house’ has a wall in between, the ‘upstairs house’ is located directly above the ceiling and the ‘downstairs house’ is located under the floor. The world has also narrowed its distance. Even on the other side of the world, we can see and talk to each other at any time. Even though we have come so close to everywhere in the world, the chasm in our hearts grows so large that it becomes a desolate world. The pit where I can't get along with you has grown bigger and the path from where I am to your place has been blocked. Getting rid of this pit is the way to heaven.
We are worried about the H1N1 flu these days, but for many years, there are people who can't prevent or treat even when a child dies every 30 seconds. This is the story of malaria in poor countries such as Africa. Malaria, which kills one in five children in Africa, kills a million people a year, making it a serious problem for few countries. It is because countries where people live well do not have this worry. The chasm between the countries is very deep.
The chasm between the church and the church is also growing. It is very difficult for a pioneering church, and for a rural church, it is difficult to find hope even if you work to death. The gap between the South and the North is also one of the pitfalls we need to address.
We need to fill these voids in our society. So there must be hope that we can cross over. The way to get rid of that pitfall and create hope is to consider each other. The teaching of the law is consideration for others. It was an encouragement to orphans and widows living in the neighborhood, and a warm welcome to a stranger.
When I am full and thinking about dieting, when I try to replace an old bed with a new one, when my church thinks about building a new chapel, we need to look around and consider our surroundings.
The new heaven and new earth are about caring for each other and nurturing hope. The Lord came into this world and broke His body to fill this pit, but we should think about whether we are digging deeper into that pit.