Hmmm. Yesterday was Luke Fifteenth. Rather a large typo.
Well today is December Sixteenth and we focus our attention on Luke 16 a difficult chapter to wrap our minds around. I am going to pull out one of the pictures Jesus uses to paint the plight of Lazarus the beggar.
"Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores."
The Family-ization of pets in the United States of America means that a main punch in this story, told by Jesus, loses its force. Americans spend around 60 billion dollars on pets a year.
60 billion dollars.
Dogs' often hold family status with rooms of their own and if not a room at least a bed. I feel shocked by a recent Christmas advertisement where families write notes of thanks to their pets. I wonder if anyone truly feels that the animals are able to read, or understand.
Dogs in South Asia are dirty. They are mangy. They run in packs. Now sometimes those packs guard certain neighborhoods but they also spread disease. In the book from which the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based a close friend of the main character dies from rabies spread by a dog. This happens.
Dogs are not household pets for the average South Asian and though they are gaining popularity amongst the growing rich they still are an animal and not considered part of the family.
This is not a picture of comfort for Lazarus. Some sort of canine compassion ministry. Jesus is speaking to a culture that did not esteem or include dogs into any part of their living. This is not a positive picture. I believe most of you know that but we do not understand the depth of despair that this statement evokes. The squalor, dirt and desperation this short sentence portrays. Until you have seen the creatures posing as dogs rummaging through garbage and half gnawed to pieces by parasites do you understand the grotesque picture Jesus is painting. Truly hell on earth.
Hell. Lazarus perhaps even demented in his pain and need. Outcast, dirty, despised. And yet Lazarus is welcomed to Abraham's bosom. This story read from a South Asian cultural understanding sees the dichotomy between these two characters with vivid clarity making the eternal ramifications ever so crystalline.
So how does this relate to Christmas? May we be increasingly thankful for the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus our Lord. May the God-Child in the Manger point us forward to that same King on the Cross and then Resurrected and may our hearts sing with the wealth of our glorious home where we will see Him face to face.
Well today is December Sixteenth and we focus our attention on Luke 16 a difficult chapter to wrap our minds around. I am going to pull out one of the pictures Jesus uses to paint the plight of Lazarus the beggar.
"Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores."
The Family-ization of pets in the United States of America means that a main punch in this story, told by Jesus, loses its force. Americans spend around 60 billion dollars on pets a year.
60 billion dollars.
Dogs' often hold family status with rooms of their own and if not a room at least a bed. I feel shocked by a recent Christmas advertisement where families write notes of thanks to their pets. I wonder if anyone truly feels that the animals are able to read, or understand.
Dogs in South Asia are dirty. They are mangy. They run in packs. Now sometimes those packs guard certain neighborhoods but they also spread disease. In the book from which the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based a close friend of the main character dies from rabies spread by a dog. This happens.
Dogs are not household pets for the average South Asian and though they are gaining popularity amongst the growing rich they still are an animal and not considered part of the family.
This is not a picture of comfort for Lazarus. Some sort of canine compassion ministry. Jesus is speaking to a culture that did not esteem or include dogs into any part of their living. This is not a positive picture. I believe most of you know that but we do not understand the depth of despair that this statement evokes. The squalor, dirt and desperation this short sentence portrays. Until you have seen the creatures posing as dogs rummaging through garbage and half gnawed to pieces by parasites do you understand the grotesque picture Jesus is painting. Truly hell on earth.
Hell. Lazarus perhaps even demented in his pain and need. Outcast, dirty, despised. And yet Lazarus is welcomed to Abraham's bosom. This story read from a South Asian cultural understanding sees the dichotomy between these two characters with vivid clarity making the eternal ramifications ever so crystalline.
So how does this relate to Christmas? May we be increasingly thankful for the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus our Lord. May the God-Child in the Manger point us forward to that same King on the Cross and then Resurrected and may our hearts sing with the wealth of our glorious home where we will see Him face to face.
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