Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
September 29 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 16
Don’t Neglect Lazarus
“The dogs licked his wounds.” (Luke 16:21)
—
We learn a great deal of holy Christian doctrine from today’s parable! Many hear it as a morality tale and if that is all it is, then it is a good one.
The devil, world and flesh teach us to live opulent lives. To spend all of our resources, be they many or few, on ourselves and ourselves alone; and to pay no attention whatsoever to those in need. Jesus neatly teaches us where that road leads!
And this is the next point of the parable. It teaches us about the afterlife. The one that the same devil, world and flesh would teach us to deny; and truth be told one we would much rather deny! Deny because it is too alarming. Too distressing. Too disquieting even for the heartiest arrogant soul, the most vocal of famous atheists – even for those who are champions at living in denial which, for the record, is a “non-virtue” at which humanity is progressing at lightning speed.
That said we must not feel morally superior towards others, or criticize people who deny the Christian verities. Because short of the intimate knowledge of Christ who is our “soul’s salvation” (Ps. 35) we would be equally as terrified, the biggest deniers of all, to be most pitied among all men.
This parable has also led people to ask: is the Lord’s teaching here accurate? Is hell really a lake of fire where the wicked are condemned to eternal pain? Many people, believer and unbeliever alike, think that this too terrible! But consider: If hell is the fire and torment that Jesus says, then we must bow to the inscrutable judgment of God, which our tiny brains can no more comprehend than a gerbil can comprehend the internet. But if it is not fire, we can be equally sure that separation from God for eternity is something equally as horrible.
Something to be avoided at all costs.
And eternal praise and glory be to God on High that the fate of the Rich Man is avoidable, entirely avoidable because our Lord Jesus Christ embraced the wages of our sins, and suffered for them in full in his holy passion and death.
In this regard keep in mind that what we see of our Lord’s gruesome and gory outward passion: covered with the sores of our sins from head to foot is only indicative of: “the pangs that his soul sustained.” Sustained in that brief but eternally salvific moment when He cried out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Then and there he assumed the fire of hell for every sin of every sinner!
But there is one aspect of this parable we dare not miss and it is this: That in the parable Abraham is code for God the Father and Lazarus code for our Lord Jesus Christ who, according to Isaiah’s prophecy, was “wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities … and by whose stripes we are healed.”
Yes, Lazarus is none other than Jesus. An interpretation of the parable that is further evidenced when the rich man lifts up his eyes from hell and sees Lazarus afar off in the bosom of Abraham. This is none other than our ascended Lord who having endured the cross, is now seated at the right hand of God.
But there is one more point that must not be missed if we are to maximize this dominical teaching. Namely verse 2 of the parable, “And the dogs licked his sores.”
In biblical terms we are dogs! Not cute little puppies, or man’s best friend. Because in ancient near east culture dogs were dirty animals who, according to St. Peter’s epistle, return to their own vomit to lick it up. Think about that next time you want to kiss your doggie.
No we are not cute little pets who have accidents, but the vicious dogs of Psalm 22:18 that surrounded our Lord and pierced his hands and feet.
The dogs that ate the remains of the fiendish Queen Jezebel who killed the Lord’s prophets, worshiped every false god there was, and led Israel into the same to their own condemnation.
The dogs that Saint Paul warns us about in Philippians 3:2 who preached circumcision, rather than the cross of Jesus for life and salvation.
The dogs of Revelation 22:5 who keep company with: sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and liars.
Yes we are dogs in this respect! Not faithful friends but faithless.
But also dogs like the Syro-Phoenecian woman in Mt.15 who was undeterred when Jesus flat out called her a dog. Because she perceived by faith that even as a dog the Crumbs from the Lord’s table make sinners alive, and give life to the whole dead world! For they are the medicine of immortality. The Mustard seed that blooms and covers the whole world with much-needed shade from the burning fires of sin, death, devil and judgment.
Today we have a variation on the theme when we as sinful dogs are invited to lick the sores of Lazarus, the wounds of Jesus in Holy Communion! Talk about the Lord’s Supper!
Yes, even though our Lord was raised to glorious life and ascended into heaven, He is still “the Lamb upon the throne.” The Sacrificial Victim who still retains the five glorious wounds in his hands, and feet and side. And will retain them for eternity as the living Icon of the great love with which He loves us.
Yes, we “lick” as it were Lazarus’ wounds at this Holy Altar! Because the “bread which we break and the cup which we bless” are not ordinary food, or some Protestant symbol of a greater reality. But they are the resurrected, ascended, glorified flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same flesh that was carried in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The same flesh that was nailed to the cross and laid in the grave. But now as we said: glorified! Which, at our Lord’s own command, we take, eat and drink – so that we too may be glorified and have our share in the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4).
And so let us now as redeemed dogs lick Lazarus’s wounds here at his Holy Altar. Amen.