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Lazarus bible story character2/14/2024 ![]() ![]() And don’t forget-as Lazarus “laid at the gate” (in other words, the rich man’s front door), the dogs came and licked his sores. He paints a vivid enough picture that we can appreciate it for what it was. Jesus doesn’t explain precisely why he had this condition, but that doesn’t matter. well, he was “full of sores.” You got it-covered with sores. ![]() While the rich man was wearing the finest clothes of the day, the beggar. We do know he was never invited in and given a place at the table. He wants what the man is going to throw away. You don’t get the feeling Lazarus feels entitled to the rich man’s food. What about Lazarus, the beggar? He just wanted the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table-you know, the unwanted scraps, the stuff the man would never even notice was gone. In addition to giving us the beggar’s name, Jesus started right out providing a very colorful description of the two characters in this parable: The irony in this parable doesn’t stop there. But if you ask about a homeless man perched on the edge of the curb with a dog licking his sores, Jesus might tell you, “That’s Lazarus.” Saying the name of the beggar and not mentioning the name of the rich man is the exact opposite of what we’d expect. “Oh, that’s a rich man,” Jesus might reply. If you’re walking down the street with Jesus and you see a rich man across the street, you might ask Jesus who it is. Look at what Jesus is saying with this parable. ![]() You’d probably recognize Bill Gates or LeBron James or Oprah Winfrey, even though you’ve never met them or had dinner at their house. Whose name are you most likely to know-the rich man in the news every day or the homeless guy who hangs out on the corner outside the local gas station? Sure. You’ll see.Ĭonsider this, too: Jesus did just the opposite of what most of us would expect. ![]() In fact, the Savior says exactly that as the parable unfolds. According to the Bible Dictionary, the book of life is “a heavenly record” that is “kept of the faithful, whose names are recorded, as well as an account of their righteous deeds.” 2 It looks like the fact that our beggar has a name indicates right up front that maybe, despite his impoverished condition, he’s going to fare better than the “certain rich man” in the eternal scheme of things. The name-Lazarus-is a Greek variant of Eleazar, which means “God is my help.” Elder Talmage had an interesting take on the whole thing: the fact that the beggar got a name but the rich man didn’t may mean that the Savior would have found the name of the poor man, but not the rich man, written in the book of life. And because Jesus never did things like that unintentionally, I’m thinking there was a very good reason why this “certain beggar” was given a name. This guy, on the other hand, got a legitimate name. All the rest of them had only labels: the sower, the father, the prodigal son, the debtor, the master, the Pharisee, the virgins. But here’s something you should know: this Lazarus is the only person in any of Jesus’s parables ever to have a name. ![]()
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