The first time the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man was told was in a culture very different from ours. It was a world where there were an elite few that held power and wealth over the vast majority. There was no middle class. There was no working your way to the top through hard work. It was a world where you were born into a particular class and that is where you remained. This is often referred as a premodern domination society.

As humanity emerged from horticultural society into an agricultural society, this type of society first developed. As larger and larger farms developed, cities began to develop for the first time in history. With the first cities, the governing class emerged. As did a protector class. This governing and protector class lived off the wealth of the society. Over time, they became increasingly powerful and wealthy.

This domination system was politically oppressive. The ruling elites were about 1-2% of the population. There were about another 5% of populations that lived to serve this elite ruling class: religious leaders, the protector class, the urban merchants.

There were the rulers (and their retainers) and the ruled, the peasant class. Ordinary people had no say in the society. It was also economically exploitative. The ruling class required half to 2/3’s of the society’s wealth to stay in power. It was often religiously backed. The rulers were in place by divine right. Their rule was the will of God.

The wealthy ruling class kept those they ruled in an impoverished state. They had perfected keeping the peasant class in the perfect state of oppression without rebellion. Though sometimes, a rebellion did arise. Though they were usually quickly dealt with.

And this is the Rich Man that Jesus lays forth in this parable.

He is the oppressor. He lives inside the gate of abundance. Lazarus does not. And the proximity of Lazarus being right outside the gate drives home that Lazarus seems invisible to this Rich Man. Even after death, when the rich man gazes across the abyss to see Lazarus by Abraham’s side, he speaks of the poor man in the third person, as if he were not there.

Lazarus is just a tool to be used.

Another point that the text presents is Abraham stating that the Rich Man’s brothers have “Moses and the prophets: They should listen to them”. Moses is credited with the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known collectively as the Torah. We often translate this as the Law, but it is more accurately translated as ‘instructions’. It instructed early Jews on what laws to live their lives by. The most well-known is the 10 Commandments, on how we treat God and others.

The Torah also includes details on how to live their daily life: how much compensation for damaged property, rules on divorce and remarriage, food laws that distinguished between what was clean and unclean. Laws about land and debt directly conflicted with life under the premodern domination system. Rural land could not be sold or bought in perpetuity for it belonged to God. Every seventh year, all debts were to be forgiven and all indenture slaves were to be freed. During the Jubilee year, the 50^th year, all land was to be returned to the original owners without payment.

One could see how this would conflict with Roman domination system.

This text presents us with the great moral challenge of seeing, and then making visible, the invisible suffering of the world. As our world becomes ever increasingly connected, we are seeing more and more of the invisible injustices across the planet. Though social media and smart phones, our eyes are being open. Whether we want them to or not.

Because sometimes, it is easier to not see the injustices then to do something about it. The invisible suffering is still there no matter what we choose to see. It is the suffering of women and children in sweatshops who are invisible behind the clothes that we wear. It is the suffering of animals in factory farms, who supply our fast food restaurants. It is the suspect who is being tortured behind locked doors to ease our fears. Our political and economic systems feed upon the suffering of others.

But we cannot keep our eyes closed. We cannot ignore the invisible sufferings of our world. As followers of Christ, we are called to action. We are called to change. And we are called to that change now. Now. Today.

We cannot wait for that sign. It is not coming. Jesus has called for us to change and to follow him we must change. He has laid the path before us. We must choose to walk it. It is our path alone. We, through Christ, determine our level of involvement.

Some of us are called to fight on the front lines of suffering. They are out there right now fighting the good fight. They are the protestors standing up to big banks or pipelines or dirty water. They are homeless rescue teams that work long into the night after finishing their ‘normal’ work day. They are doctors in faraway lands helping to cure diseases that we are lucky enough to never worry about. They live with such a passion that it truly makes me envious most days.

Then there are those of us that do what we can while we can. We choose to spend our money at businesses that support our causes and we boycott those stores that do not. We have an app on our phones that tells us what products to buy and which ones to avoid. We donate to charities that do wonderful things and help to make that small difference. We like and share posts on social media to raise awareness.

And it is all important work. We are all called to work towards justice in our own ways. It is important to not let the injustices and invisible sufferings to go unnoticed…to go invisible. It is our role to call out these injustices where and how we can.

As we go through this season of Lent, we must reevaluate our own level of involvement with God, our own level of dedication. It is time to look at the path that we are walking and decide for ourselves whether it still the path to follow or if it is time to take a new path.

Maybe this is the year that we get off the couch and into the neighborhood to help.

Maybe this is the year that we get out of the neighborhood and help across the city, in that neighborhood that makes us nervous.

Maybe this is the year that we get out of our city and help others fight an injustice that does not affect us.

Maybe this is the year that we leave our country and help in a part of the world that desperately needs it.

Maybe this is the year that we end world hunger, obliterate an infectious disease, provide clean drinking water.

Maybe this the year that we turn an invisible suffering into a visible one and we are forced to act on it.

Or maybe this is the year that we inspire someone else to change the world.

And that is the true beauty and irony of God’s plan. We never truly know our role in it. Most of us can never see the impact that we have on the world around us. We never see the ripple effects that our lives have on the people in them.

We are not all called to change the world. Some of us are simply called to make a dent. Others are called to inspire others to change the world.

We change the people in our lives, for better or worse, by our actions and choices, or lack thereof. We are the shining example of what Christ could be in the world. Or we are the example of the Rich Man ignoring the sufferings of the world because it is more convenient.

The Rich Man continued to pass Lazarus day in and day out. Every day, he made a choice, whether conscious or not, to ignore the plight of Lazarus. He made a choice to not feed him, to not heal him.

He made the choice to keep this suffering invisible because it was more convenient.

He made the choice to keep this suffering invisible because it was the social norm.

Let us not make the same choices as the Rich Man.

Let us walk the path that God has called us to walk.