So we can see that is is Dives who ends up being condemned in this parable. Besides all this,” says Abraham, “there is now a gulf between us and you which is fixed.” 6 But Father Abraham answers, “No, you had your good things in the earth life which Lazarus had only evil things, and now the situation is reversed. Dives requests that Lazarus may come and ease his torment, by bringing one drop of water. Lazarus is now in Abraham's bosom, and Dives is in torment. The second scene of the drama is cast in the next world. His circumstances are so tragic that he counts it good fortune to be fed with crumbs from the rich man's table. He lies outside the rich man's gate, and is not only very poor, but is very ill, covered with sores, and is so weak that he cannot even push the unclean dogs away when they come and lick his sores. He is richly housed in a palatial home, and richly fed with the best of foods. There are two main characters in this drama: Dives, the Rich man and Lazarus, the beggar at his gates. He who takes this parable as a description of the history and geography of the after life “is transplanting it violently from its native soil to a barren literalism where it cannot live.įirst of all, let us get the picture vividly in our minds. He was merely telling a parable to get over a basic truth about this life. He who seeks to describe the furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell is taking the mystery out of religion and incarcerating it in the walls of an illogical logic. We must remember that there is always a penumbra of mystery which hovers around every meaningful assertion about God and the after life. 3 There is always the danger that we will transform mythology into theology. Jesus accepted the Hereafter as a reality, but never sought to describe it. 2 Its symbols are symbols and not literal fact. It is not a Baedeker's guide to the next world. We must not take this story as a theology of the after life. He concluded that Africa, so long exploited and crushed by Western civilization, was a beggar lying at Europe's doorstep, so he willingly relinquished the charming melodies of Bach on the organ and the prestige that comes from an attractive professorship in one of Europe's greatest universities, to establish a hospital in Africa. It was this parable which served as the spark setting off the humanitarian flame in the life of Albert Schweitzer. This dramatic parable, told in first century Palestine, has long been stenciled on the mental sheets of succeeding generations. He charges that “Dives is the white man who refuses to cross the gulf of segregation and lift his Negro brother to the position of first class citizenship, because he thinks segregation is a part of the fixed structure of the universe.” In this sermon, King echoes George Buttrick's lecture on the parable. King uses Jesus' parable to convince his listeners that the disparity between fortune and misfortune is unjust and that they should work to bridge that gap. Chapter 15: Atlanta Arrest and Presidential Politics.Chapter 8: The Violence of Desperate Men.Chapter 6: Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.Major King Events Chronology: 1929-1968.
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