THE ROME HERALD - #31
By your humble correspondent in Rome, the 15th day of Quintilis, in the 18th year of Tiberius Caesar
Citizens of the Eternal City, hold onto your togas, a wandering teacher from Galilee just dropped a parable that has Pharisees choking on their figs and tax collectors hiding their account books. Jesus of Nazareth told the tale of a certain rich man who lived like a minor emperor: purple robes every day (the kind that costs more than a small province), fine linen smoother than a senator’s promise, and banquets so lavish the leftovers could feed half of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, right outside his gate, close enough to smell the roast lamb, lay poor Lazarus, covered in sores, starving for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s overloaded table. The neighborhood dogs showed more mercy than the homeowner; at least they licked the beggar’s wounds.
Then came the great equalizer. Both men died.
Angels rolled out the red carpet and escorted Lazarus straight to the place of honor in Abraham’s bosom: think eternal comfort, no more sores, and all the heavenly manna he could want. The rich man? He woke up in Hades, in torment, looking across an unbridgeable chasm at the very beggar he had stepped over for years.
“Father Abraham!” the former millionaire cried out, “Send Lazarus over here with just a drop of water on his finger, my tongue is on fire!” (One can only imagine the irony of a man who never offered a cup of cold water now begging for one.)
Abraham, ever the gracious patriarch, reminded him: “Son, you had your good things in life. Lazarus had the bad. Now the accounts are settled. And that chasm? It’s fixed. No crossing, no exceptions, not even for purple-wearers.”
Desperate, the rich man begged for a spectral messenger to warn his five brothers still living it up back home. Abraham’s reply was drier than Judean dust: “They already have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to those.” The rich man protested that surely a ghost would get their attention. Abraham delivered the final sting: “If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
Ouch. Pass the figs.
Cultural Shocks Most Modern Readers Miss
Daily purple robes weren’t just fashion; they were the ancient equivalent of driving a golden chariot through Rome while everyone else walked. Pure status signaling in a brutal honor-shame world.
Dogs licking sores? In the first century, that was the ultimate insult, not animal therapy. Lazarus was lower than the street animals.
The fixed “great chasm” was a direct slap at popular pagan ideas of ghosts, heroes, and permeable underworlds where favors could still be bought.
Abraham pointing to “Moses and the Prophets” as sufficient warning would have landed like a rabbinic mic drop…the rich had the Scriptures all along and simply chose to ignore the parts about caring for the poor.
Biblical Shocking Takeaway
The chasm isn’t created by God on a whim… it’s the final result of ignoring the needy while we still have time to listen to Moses, the Prophets, and the One who did rise from the dead.
So, who’s the Lazarus parked outside your gate (or your social media feed) right now?
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