When Good People Do Nothing

"Jesus said, 'There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted 
sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. 

The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and 
saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 

But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and 
Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' 

He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 

He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

-Luke 16: 19-31

In seminary I took Greek, not Hebrew.  But I did learn one Hebrew word that has always stuck with me. That word is hesed.  There is no simple English translation for it.  Hesed is associated with "loving kindness", "mercy", and "justice."  It is not a mood or something people feel, rather it is something that people do.  It is a way of being, part of God's great dream of shalom for the world.  Hesed underlies so many pieces of Scripture.  The Old Testament prophet Amos used the word more than anyone else, calling the people of Israel to hesed, as so many in the kingdom were living in luxury while the poor were being ignored. Even St. Paul urges Timothy to remind his congregation that they are to live lives of hesed, so that the rich many not lord it over others.  And, of course, there is the Parable of Poor Man Lazarus, where we what hesed can and should look like.   

This is wonderfully unique parable--if for no other reason than the fact that Lazarus is the only character in any of Jesus' parables who gets a name.  He sits in squalor outside the gate of the home of a rich man whom tradition would later name Dives, which is Latin for "rich."  Dives lives a life of splendor, clothed in the finest robes and feasting in luxury every single day.  Dives pays no attention to poor Lazarus, and when the two men die Lazarus finds himself in the presence of Father Abraham in paradise, while Dives is tormented in the flames of Gehenna. 

What was Dives' sin?  He hadn't ordered Lazarus removed from his gate.  He hadn't kicked him while he was down.  He hadn't gotten angry when Lazarus ate the crumbs under his table.  He was not deliberately cruel to him.  He had done nothing. But in doing nothing he had sinned against him.  He had denied him hesed, denied him mercy and loving kindness. 

Indeed, Lazarus suffered no injustice from Dives directly; it's not like Lazarus was punished for trying to extort or steal anything from the rich man.  But as that ancient Doctor of the Church, John Chrysostem reminds us in his sermon on this parable, "not only the stealing of others' goods, but also the failure to share one's goods with others is theft and swindle...for the rich hold the goods of the poor, no matter how they have gathered their wealth."  In other words, just because Dives didn't cause Lazarus' plight, he was still responsible for him by virtue of the fact that he had much and Lazarus had nothing.  This is what we call privilege.  He still had an obligation to his fellow human being to show him hesed but he ignored him. 

Artist's depiction of poor man Lazarus and rich man Dives.

Over time, as we hear this parable again and again, Dives sounds like the worst kind of person. We could never be as cold and unfeeling as him, right?  Well, I have. At the intersection of Friendly Ave. and Spring St. in Greensboro, NC (a road I travel each time I head back to Asheboro) I always see someone standing on the corner with a sign:  "homeless vet" , "family needs help," or something like that.  More often than not I drive by, doing nothing.  In my collar, no less. I come up with all kinds of excuses.  I'm not responsible for how this person ended up, right?  How do I know they won't use the money for booze? I can't possibly help every single person I see, right?  Like Dives, I've become so desensitized to the plight of others--it's just "normal" to me--and I'm not moved to act.  Sometimes it happens when I see someone on the street, and sometimes it happens when I read the paper or see a story on the tv news.  I see injustice, and I do nothing.  And that is a sin against my brother and sister. 

Becoming desensitized, we end up believing that we are not responsible for others' pain, resulting in a stance of indifference when it comes to matters of justice. Elie Wiezel, the Holocaust survivor and writer who passed away earlier this year, said:  "The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference."  The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.  When we stand around and do nothing, when we see injustice occurring, when we see a world where hesed is denied, we allow darkness and evil to take over.  As Dietrich Bonheoffer once wrote, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, and God will not hold us guiltless."

It is all too easy for us to look upon the plight of others and be silent.  It is easy for us to think we are not responsible, especially when they are not like us:  when they are black, poor, or gay, or hispanic, or Muslim, or a refugee. We come up with those same excuses that I give. It's their own fault, we say.  Or we throw out the entirely bogus claim that "the Bible says to help those who help themselves."  It totally doesn't say that!  Not anywhere!!  As Chrysostem reminds us again, when we see someone who has encountered the shipwrecks of life we are not to judge but to free that person from the bonds of misfortune.  That's Biblical!  Thats what the parable of poor man Lazarus teaches us. That's hesed!  Justice.  Mercy.  Loving kindness.  We ARE responsible! 

We don't intentionally ignore folks in need, but we become so desensitized that we just decide to be indifferent or neutral.   We cannot be indifferent or neutral.  There is an old African proverb that reminds us of this fact: 

If you saw an elephant  stepping on the tail of the mouse, and you said that you were neutral, how do you think the mouse would feel toward you?  

Oh, we say, the elephant must have a good reason.  I don't want to get involved with their dispute.  So we stay neutral.  But there is no such thing as neutral when it comes to matters of injustice.  And elephants keep stepping on mice. Dives keeps ignoring Lazarus.  

We like to think that we live in a world where all lives matter.  We don't.  We never have.  In Jesus' time the lives of folks like poor man Lazarus didn't matter.  The whole reason Lazarus even gets a name in the parable is to illustrate to the audience that, in fact, the poorest of the poor still do matter!  For centuries the lives of women have not mattered, especially in the Church! And in our own country the lives of folks like Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, two black men who were killed last week, have not mattered!  Evil wins when we keep burying our heads in the sand and taking a stance of neutrality.  Evil wins when we do not honor the lives of those who, for so long, have been mistreated, abused, and ignored. Evil wins when we who have plenty choose not to help those who have little, Evil wins when we fail to see that we have privileges--the kinds of privileges that allow us live so comfortably while others live in squalor, or the kind of privilege to walk down the streets of our own neighborhoods without fear of being stopped by someone because they "look suspicious."  Evil wins when those who are the Dives-es of this world continue to ignore the Lazarus-es who are crying from underneath our feet.  All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. Yes, my fellow wealthy, straight, white Christians, we are responsible to our brothers and sisters!  If we decide we want to live in a world of hesed, of justice and mercy, then we will embrace this responsibility with eagerness and with the love of Jesus in our hearts.  All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing.

Dives wasn't an evil person.  We are not evil people.  Dives just didn't care. A lotta folks today 

still don't care.  I pray, brothers and sisters, that we will care.  That we will say "No more!" to neutrality

and indifference. I pray we will care enough to create a world of hesed for all of God's people.