Matins Devotion: May 28, 2025

Luke 16:19-31

“Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

When Abraham speaks these words to the rich man in condemnation, we shouldn’t get the wrong impression. Jesus is not teaching us, through the mouth of Abraham, that those all who suffer on earth will have paradise forever while all who have comfort on earth will be condemned forever. Heaven will be filled with the poor and the rich alike, as will hell.

Rather, Abraham is explaining the rich man’s state to him in a way that the man will understand. He’s ultimately saying, “you lived as if you had paradise on earth, as if you didn’t need the salvation and mercy of God. Well, now you can spend eternity knowing what it means to be separated from them. But Lazarus lived a life of condemnation on suffering on earth, which made him hunger for the salvation and mercy of God and now he has them. His hunger has been satisfied. Your thirst will last forever.”

The point in all of this is clear: Nobody changes his mind after death. Both Lazarus and the Rich man got what they wanted in their lives. Lazarus wanted Christ and got Christ. The Rich man wanted the realm where Christ is not to be found and got it. He didn’t want the suffering that came with it, but he got the substance of what he desired.

So hunger for Christ now that your hunger may be satisfied in the life to come. Whether you are rich or poor, don’t trust in your wealth or your poverty. Trust in Christ, in His cross, His bloody forgiveness, His glorious resurrection, His inexhaustible love for you. Trust that He has destroyed the sins that made you poor in spirit and has clothed you in His righteousness, the righteousness that gives you the right to possess every jewel of His Father’s kingdom. Hunger for Christ now. Hunger for Him in your dying breath, and He will greet you in paradise when you open your eyes again.