Luke 16:27-31 27And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house, 28for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent!’ 31But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.’”
The parable takes another turn at verse 27 with a short conversation between the rich man and Abraham. Again, the point of this being literally possible is not important. We should first see this dialogue between someone in Hades and someone in heaven as part of the drama of the story to bring out a key point, which appears in verse 31. The situation for the rich man is irreversible; there is no hope for him. But at least he has a bit of concern for his five brothers who appear to be in a similar situation. Perhaps the whole family was rich and following the same path of fleshly and selfish living. The brothers were in the same danger and following the same path to Hades as this man. One day it would be too late for them, but they still had a chance to make things right. The request for Lazarus to appear to the brothers seems odd. We might call this a ghost. It shows some superstition and misunderstanding on the part of the rich man.
Abraham responds to this odd request that implies the correct interpretation of ghosts. The five brothers have all they need to know the truth. They have the Bible. Moses, representing the Law, and the Prophets refer to two major parts of the Hebrew Bible. The Scripture bears witness to Jesus (John 1:45). The five brothers should have realized their need to repent based on Scriptures. The rich man may have thought he knew the Scriptures but was blinded by his misinterpretation. He read things like he wanted, to fit his own agenda and lifestyle. The real problem for the rich man and his five brothers is the need to repent. He failed to listen in his earthly life to Scripture and ignored the poor and needy like Lazarus.
In verse 31, Jesus corrects the wrong idea about Scripture and the appearance of ghosts. The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders should have known better based on Scripture. Everything about Jesus was written down, and they should have understood and believed in him (24:44). They were blinded by their desire for wealth and attention from people.
This verse may also be an allusion to Jesus’ own resurrection. The Jewish religious elite would not believe what their own Scriptures said about the Messiah. Even if the Messiah rose from the dead, they still would not believe. They were so blinded by their own presuppositions and agenda. They refused to repent. They were acting like the rich man in the parable and were neglecting the most important part of the law about loving one’s neighbor with compassion. The same danger can come to those who have been in the church a while and have become comfortable in their piety. Religious observation is not necessarily bad but can cloud one’s vision to the need to repent and love.
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