19-21"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores. 22-24"Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.' 25-26"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.' 27-28"The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.' 29"Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.' 30"'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.' 31"Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:19-31)

Simon Parke (in the Church Times 28/09/07) makes the point that it is hard when Messiahs leave be they Jesus or Jose – the disciples were left frightened when Jesus left; Chelsea fans have been left in despair at the departure of Jose. It was at his first press conference that Mr Mourinho announced that he was not arrogant but he was the special one. Some of us may have asked just who did he think he was? Jesus had the same accusation of arrogance thrown at him; such is the lot of messiahs. Interestingly they both had the same disciples Peter (Cech) and John (Terry). Jesus built his church around his favoured two while Jose built his defence. Both messiahs courted controversy. Jesus took on the Temple authorities and Jose took on Roman Abramovich. Both messiahs were good with words. The Pharisees were driven to distraction by the way that the crowds hung on his every word. Jose could make a press conference hum (He described them as ‘salt and pepper’ days). There were significant differences. Jose left a system and Jesus left an adventure. Jose spoke boldly but his team played cautiously; Chelsea played effective but careful football built around not losing; Jesus was more adventurous encouraging people to lose everything as long as they did not lose their soul. Jose encouraged his team to hold onto what they had got; Jesus advised letting go of it all.

The story in this week’s gospel appears more Jose than Jesus. It is grim retribution – akin to uncomfortable football at its most ugly. The rich man ends up in hell and torment because he ignores the poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores and dumped on his doorstep. I told the following story (www.assemblies.org.uk) this week at the St Stephens School Assembly. Mr Grudge was a mean employer. He earned his living by cutting and selling wood. He cheated his customers by giving them fewer logs than they had paid for. He had a lot of timber in his yard and wanted someone to cut it up. He called out to every passer-by and asked if they would like a job cutting up the wood.

‘All right’, said one man, ‘if you give me £5 an hour.’

‘That’s a lot of money,’ said Mr Grudge. ‘You’ll have to work hard to earn that.’

The man did work hard, but at the end of the day Mr Grudge told him that he had only cut half the wood so he only gave him half his pay. ‘If you want the rest of your wages you must come back tomorrow,’ he said. The man did not come back again but found himself a job in the village butcher’s shop. The same thing happened three times with different people. One person went to work in the Grocer’s shop and another in the village fire brigade. Mr Grudge had to saw and chop the wood himself. It made him very hot, tired and hungry. He was looking forward to a good supper. The butcher had delivered the meat, the grocer had delivered bread, cheese and candles and the farmer had delivered the milk. Mr Grudge had a nasty shock. Instead of a nice juicy steak there was only half a chop; there was only half a stale loaf; there was only half a piece of cheese and that was mainly rind. Even the milk tasted funny and he guessed that it was half water. He was very angry. He was thinking about the rude things he would say to the farmer, the grocer and the butcher the next day.

He lit his candle and went to bed with his stomach only half full. But instead of wax the candle was half cardboard and as it burned down it set fire to the table. The fire soon spread. He rushed to the window and shouted, ‘Help, help! Fire, Fire!’ His house was ablaze. Soon he could hear the fire engine coming, but only half as fast as it could really go. Very slowly the firefighters connected their hoses and began to put out the fire.

One firefighter put a ladder up against the window and Mr Grudge came down as fast as he could. But when he was halfway to the ground he came down more quickly than he expected because there were no rungs on the lower part of the ladder! ‘Sorry,’ said the firefighter. ‘It was only half a ladder because we couldn’t afford a whole one.’ The firefighters worked at half pace. The fire was spreading rapidly. The sparks from the blazing house were spreading across to the timber yard. ‘Save my timber!’ shouted Mr Grudge. The fire was beginning to be put out in the house but by this time all the wood in the timber yard was burning like a giant bonfire. The firefighters turned off the water and started to roll up their hoses.

‘You can’t finish now!’ said Mr Grudge.

‘Sorry,’ said one of the firefighters, whose voice seemed familiar. ‘We’ll come back and finish the job tomorrow if you want your money’s worth. Goodnight!’

The point of the story was that if we want people to treat us fairly then we must start off by treating them well ourselves. The woodcutter was mean to his employees and they ended up treating him badly in return. I told the children that if we are mean to others then they may be the same to us and it is not pleasant when we are on the receiving end. I got them to put up their hands and vote. Did they think that the butcher, the baker and the fireman had been wrong in how they treated the woodcutter or were they justified in what they did? ‘After all’, I said, ‘the woodcutter had suffered far more than the three of them’. The vote from the children was ‘yes’ they thought that their behaviour had justified because of how the wood cutter had behaved towards them in the first place.

What the children were saying was more Jose than Jesus – give away nothing and expect nothing in return. There is a brute logic to this position: behaviour always has concequences – as you treat people so will you be treated in return. The trouble with a Jose way of living is that only the strongest survive; everyone thinks only of themselves, the little people get ignored, Lazarus is left on the door stop covered in sores. Chelsea won the championship because they were bigger, meaner and more powerful than the other teams; they relied on their ability to grind out results and wear the opposition down. Jesus offers a more instinctive, free flowing football where everyone is responsible to everyone else. The Lazeruses are not ignored. We are commanded to care. Jesus will say

say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' |(Matthew 25:34-35