September 15th, 2006
THE CHOCOLATE GATE SCANDAL: PART IV
You know, I have to be honest, I can’t say that I am all that strong spiritually right now. It would be a real stretch. Sometimes, I really just want to take a baseball bat and beat people around me, just to let them know how I am feeling, to give them a small taste. It isn’t healthy, it isn’t loving, but seriously, that’s what I’m these days. I keep telling myself, there are people out there worse off than me, but when the pain takes over, it really is hard to keep that perspective. And I have this really nasty pain in my arm, with whelps and stuff that pain killers don’t do much for and the worst of it all, I feel like a whiner. I whine and whine and whine… won’t this guy just shut up?
Luke 16:19-31
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’”
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’”
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 16:20 gate:
pulōn (noun)
THE CHOCOLATE GATE SCANDAL: PART IV
You know, I have to be honest, I can’t say that I am all that strong spiritually right now. It would be a real stretch. Sometimes, I really just want to take a baseball bat and beat people around me, just to let them know how I am feeling, to give them a small taste. It isn’t healthy, it isn’t loving, but seriously, that’s what I’m these days. I keep telling myself, there are people out there worse off than me, but when the pain takes over, it really is hard to keep that perspective. And I have this really nasty pain in my arm, with whelps and stuff that pain killers don’t do much for and the worst of it all, I feel like a whiner. I whine and whine and whine… won’t this guy just shut up?
Luke 16:19-31
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’”
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’”
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 16:20 gate:
pulōn (noun)
- a large gate: of a palace
- the front part of a house, into which one enters through the gate, porch
- a gateway, door way or a building or city; by implication a portal or vestibule: - gate, porch.
Essentially, Lazarus was sitting on this rich man’s porch begging for the crumbs that he had, and he wouldn’t even give him those. And the man’s dogs would come up and lick on the guys wounds, and I am assuming the dogs and the rich mans, it makes sense in my mind, anyway. The poor guy was bad off. I mean bad off in ways that are hard to understand. And yet his name means “whom God helps”. Would you say that he felt helped as he sat there on the porch of a rich man, being licked by dogs, sores all over his body, and starving for food? Yeah, I wouldn’t think so. How about this: would you say that he was feeling loved by God? And how about those around him who were supposed to be helping him in his time of need, where were they? I mean, the dude could have been getting all sorts of bitter in all sorts of areas, yet he continually sat at the same place and did the same thing. I’ve heard it once said, that if you do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, that is the definition of insanity. I don’t know about Lazarus, but all the same, he still didn’t deserve to go through what he went through. The poor guy, that must have been something else. Again, in his time, no doctors to tell him that there’s nothing wrong him, no other doctors to tell him that they can’t help him, and still no other doctors to tell him that they have no clue as to what in the world is wrong with him.
Luke 16:20 Lazarus:
Lazaros (noun)
- Lazarus = “whom God helps” (a form of Eleazar)
- an inhabitant of Bethany, beloved by Christ and raised from the dead by him
- a very poor and wretched person to whom Jesus referred to in Luke 16:20-25
But, let’s flip this around a little. The gate is not just a porch, per se, but by Greek definition, it is also a portal. And for the rich man, he could pass through the portal and do his part in helping Lazarus, doing what that Samaritan did, feeding him and taking care of his wounds, wouldn’t that portal end him in a different direction? I can’t help but think so… but then again, it is written that is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Johnny Out.
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