2nd Week in Lent, Thursday – 4th March 2021 – Lk 16,19-31
Test of Stewardship
When the rich man died, his body was buried and his soul went to Hades. Hades is the Greek for the OT word Sheol, the state of departed spirits. In the OT times, it was spoken of as the abode of both saved and unsaved. Here it is spoken of as the abode of the unsaved, because we read that the rich man was in torments. The word torment is used four times in this account (Lk 16, 23.24.25.28), and it speaks of definite pain. This is the same word that is used for the doom feared by the evil spirits (Mk 5,7) and the judgments God will send on an unrepentant world (Rev 9,5; 11,10; 20,10). If hell is permanent prison of the damned, then hades is the temporary jail, and the suffering in both is very real. Indeed, it must have come as a shock to the disciples when Jesus said that this rich Jew went to Hades. They had always been taught from the OT that riches were a sign of God’s blessing and favour. An Israelite who obeyed the Lord was promised material prosperity. How then could a wealthy Jew go to Hades? Jesus had just announced that a new order of things began with the preaching of John the Baptist. Henceforth, riches are not a sign of blessing. They are a test of a man’s faithfulness in stewardship: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded” (Lk 12,48).
