Title: Rich and Poor / Luke 16:19-31
People often say that everyone needs someone smaller than themselves. In other words, when you meet someone, you have a dislike if that person is more educated than you or richer than you. It's that he wants to meet someone who is smaller and weaker than him and always wants to have someone he can control as he pleases. This is due to the shallow thinking of humans who believe that they can show off their superiority in this way. It is said that I want a person who will be most pleased with receiving his gift, someone who is willing to give up his life while weeping for the kindness that I have given him, so he can provide for me at any time according to my needs.
There is a hidden shadow behind people's desire to succeed. By the way, it comes in two contrasting forms. There are people who succeed because they have a sense of superiority and enjoy looking down on people who are inferior to them, and there are people who want to return that success for others who have not tasted it.
Perhaps the best indicator of this life is the relationship between the rich and the poor. Everyone wants to be rich in anything. A world that wants to be rich in knowledge. So, the world has become a world where even a doctorate degree can be bought and sold if you put your mind to it. Also, the world is full of people who long for the rich for fame. Therefore, they lose their mission, which is like life, and fall into a swamp that is not their duty, and then fail and shed tears of regret with their droopy shoulders. Not only that, but above all else, the world is thirsty for wealth. In a world where money is the best. The world has become a world where people can dare to say that they become rich only when they have money. The author, Towards this rich-oriented and career-oriented world, in his booklet [Buried Treasure], said, "Is it the love of the poor that moves you, or Hatred of the rich?" points to our blind longing for the rich.
What do you want to be rich for? No, exactly how would you like to live if you were rich? People often suffer from a lot of despair and anguish about their poverty in life. But you shouldn't be self-deprecating just because you're poor. We need to change the philosophy of the true rich that we should seek and the most beautiful fruit that is obtained through ceaseless efforts. Is it possible? Do you think it could be?
Among the great men of the century who have moved the world so far, more than half of them were born into lowly and poor families, and with their indomitable will, pioneered their own lives and became people who will go down in history.
Those who are not afraid of poverty but rather try to overcome it, have a noble wealth that can be acquired by being poor. This wealth is something the rich cannot find. It is a strong courage that is not afraid of anything, the strength to take the initiative in any task, and a beautiful heart that knows how to care for neighbors. What we are truly afraid of is not poverty and hardship, but of those whose spirits are devastated by material abundance and whose souls are weary.
Because money has been made of gold or silver, it feels cold to the touch. If you touch a coin in midsummer, you will feel cold as well. But the poor, who have nothing, grab this precious money and give it warmth. Will the rich touch a lot of money? Will the poor touch a lot of money? The rich don't have money in their hands. Most of the money is stored in chests or banks, so the rich have no contact with people, so they always keep the coolness of metal. But the poor tinker with the value of a coin. Naturally, the coin warms up. In this way, there is a lesson in the Talmud that money can be made warm or cold according to the person who owns it. It all depends on people. Rich people are always buried in money, so they do not know that the coldness of money is passed on to themselves and their families, and their blood and heart are getting colder. Therefore, even if the rich man who has a lot has children, he is not a child in the true sense, but an heir who inherits the property. How cold is this relationship?
The famous famous saying, "It is a disgrace to die rich." This means that being rich does not know when to accumulate wealth and when to return it.
When we often say we are rich, it is important to know what wealth means. Wealth is in our mission. Wealth is never given just for me alone. It is to do something important with this given wealth. Money or knowledge should not be buried or misused. The given gift is right when it is used as it is received. If you think that the purpose of a gift is to share it with others rather than for yourself, it is the same with what you call wealth. Moreover, if you do nothing with this wealth and rather waste it on luxury and contact, you are clearly living a wrong life. It is a waste of time, a waste of material, and a waste of lust. All of this goes on to become a sin. Knowing this, you can live right away.
People can be divided into two types. There is this and there is this. The value of a person is measured by what he owns. However, it is not the "what" that matters, but the "how". That's why I'm more interested in "how to live" than "what to become"
Today's text teaches us who we should be.
One had a luxurious contact and the other lived such a miserable life, but the problem is that both of them are dead. Who gave first? The poor beggar died first. It makes sense that the hungry and sick beggar died first. After that, the rich man also died. It must have been a wonderful funeral. There is no mention of Lazarus's funeral, but imagining it, it is believed that he was roughly thrown to the side of the tomb. I don't know how it would be if I understood it that way, but if it was now, I would have put on makeup, but I wouldn't have been able to. On the other hand, imagine the funeral of a rich man. The tomb must have been a very large and luxurious funeral. Let's think about the funeral of these two people. Lazarus had just died. And before his body could fall into the morgue, his soul was carried up to heaven by angels. But the rich man said that the funeral was held and his body was buried and he went to hell. You can call this the reverse pole of your life.
Life is a career in the visible world, and just because you do well here doesn't mean you will succeed forever. Of course, this cannot be ignored. But more importantly, how you designed the eternal future world is important.
Today we are all rich. God has given us so much that there is nothing we do not have. But how they use it is different. Some continue to be rich, and some continue to be poor. So who is the happy one? poor people. They are not poor because they have no money. These are people who have become poor by giving and giving everything for others. They are not poor because they have received nothing, but are poor because they have given everything. They are successful people, and they are the ones who have been guaranteed the love of God.
The success or failure of our life is not proportional to the size of the wealth we hold on this earth, but to how much we have lived while giving up on God's will. So, didn't Jesus also say, "Blessed are the poor"? How should we live? This is not just an illustration. It is not a story that will end with a single parable. It's true. So it can happen to anyone. And it's happening to us too.
Dear saints!
You have to choose between two situations. One is the life of a rich man, the other is the fate of a beggar. Of course, not everyone wants to enter the fate of the rich. On the other hand, not everyone wants to live the life of Lazarus. So how do we resolve this contradiction? This is done by learning . In other words, we live by sharing what we have. We live by giving back what we have received from God. Being rich doesn't make you righteous, and being poor doesn't make you a sinner. Whether you are poor or rich, it just matters how righteously you are before God.
I hope that the secret of being spiritually poor will settle together in your hearts who want to become rich.