On August 1, 2007, the I-35 Bridge collapsed, killing 13, and injuring 145. I’m sure many of you remember this; perhaps you were in traffic when it happened, or you heard the news when you got home. Maybe you received a call from a loved one saying, “Where are you??” I remember seeing this on the news after school. After living here for a few years, I cannot imagine traveling over to Minneapolis, or the Western Suburbs, without it! In a state with as many rivers and lakes as Minnesota, bridges are a fact of life, whether this one, the Saint Croix River Bridge, the Stillwater bridge, or the thousands of others that are scattered throughout our great state. And like many facts of life, they go largely ignored in our daily lives. How would you get across the various chasms, lakes, rivers, or land masses without bridges? It would be hard to imagine our lives without them. Our Gospel text poses a similar thought. Abraham puts it this way: “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed.” What is the chasm in the text? What is the chasm in our lives? How are they crossed? We’ll explore these questions this morning.
To do so, we are presented with a pair of two opposite men. They couldn’t be any more different if they tried. You have a rich man and a poor man. The rich man is clothed in fine and expensive clothing, while the poor man is clothed in bleeding, pusing, open sores. The rich man extravagantly feasts, while the poor man starves, longing for the rich one’s crumbs. The rich man lays at his table and comfy couches, while the poor man lays at the gate, hoping that his pitiful estate provokes some generosity. The rich man is surrounded by his brothers, friends, and guests, while the poor man is surrounded by dogs that lick his open sores. He cannot push them away! The rich man has no name, while the poor man’s name seems to reek with irony, and an apparent contradiction. Lazarus means, “one whom God helps.” The only thing they have in common is that death is indiscriminate, and takes them both. However, the differences continue in the life to come. Lazarus is carried by the angels up into Heaven while the rich man goes down to hell. Lazarus is enjoying peace, comfort, and bliss, while the rich man suffers in unending pain, torment, and agony.
In the midst of this, a conversation takes place. The rich man sees Abraham and says, “Have mercy on me!” In other words, “Help me! Please do something!” He continues: “Send Lazarus”. He knows his name. The very one he ignored, he now asks for help! He finally acknowledges him! And he says: “Send him to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.” Can you imagine being in such anguish in that a drop of water would bring relief? Last week, I forgot my water when I joined in on a practice soccer match for the team I coach. When I got home, the first thing I did was go for the biggest glass we had, and filled it with water. A drop was not going to quench my thirst. For the rich man, though, a drop would be welcome relief!
And Abraham is able to hear the rich man, and he says him. He reminds them of their opposite earthly lives, and says, “Besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able to, and none may cross from there to us.” In other words, “I can’t do anything, and couldn’t if I wanted to.” A chasm has been fixed.
And we can know a lot about chasms, can’t we? Those separations that cannot seemed to be bridged or crossed. We certainly know chasms between people. We all seem to have an alienated family member, or “Bruno” in our family (if you have seen the movie Encanto). Maybe it is a split between a parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, grandma and grandson, or cousins. We know splits between neighbors, friends, co-workers, or those on the opposite end of the political spectrum of you. The chasm with people can seem uncrossable, unpassable, unmanageable, unfixable, unnerving, and hopeless. But chasms aren’t just between people, right? It can be this as well.
My cousin Garrett has Downs Syndrome, and his family is heavily involved with a lot of fundraising groups. My grandparents were once invited to one that was billed as “A Night in Italy”. The hall would be decorated as if you were in Italy, with pictures of Rome, Venice, and other famous Italian places). The food would be Italian as would the entertainment. However, when they got there, there was no pictures of places like Rome or the Coliseum, but windmills. People wore wooden shoes, and served traditional…Dutch dishes. They weren’t in Italy, but Holland! The point of the unexpected change was to help show what these parents go through. You plan and expect for one thing, Italy, a healthy child, and instead you get something different, Holland, a child with special needs. What you want and expected is not what you received. Can’t life be like that? You plan for Italy, and you get Holland, instead?
Maybe your job didn’t go as planned, retirement is what you hoped it would be, and that relationship you want is unfulfilling. Maybe your life plan wasn’t so great after all, or the hopes and dreams that you have aren’t on hold, but in fact, just are no more a reality! Maybe your health is declining, that loved one died too early, or disappointment seems to always be around the corner, ready to clock you on the head. Where you want to be is a million miles away from where you are. There can be chasms between the life you want, and the life you have.
And chasms can also be between one more unseen reality. The prophet Isaiah puts it this way: “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” Paul tells Timothy in our epistle reading: “[Jesus] alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light”. If we experience chasms between people and plans, we certainly experience one with God because of our sin. And the chasm doesn’t seem uncrossable, unpassable, or unmanageable, it is those things. You aren’t crossing that on your own. And so, what happens? What do we do with the chasms in life? How do we cross them? Let’s go back to the text.
The rich man finally shows concern for others, and reveals the real reason why is there. He says, “Then I beg you, father, to send [Lazarus] to my father’s house-for I have five brothers-so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment…if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Like the Pharisees in the Gospel, he too calls Abraham, “Father,” but did not love Jesus, or listen to His voice. Like the Pharisees, he does not repent, but holds on to the sins he grew accustomed to, and will take care them of himself. They did not recognize Jesus as the one mediator between God and man, as announced in the Law and Prophets. They didn’t recognize Him as the one Bridge Who can span the divide, the chasm between God and man. He tragically knows what crosses the chasm, but it is too late.
In theology, we describe Jesus’ offices with three titles: prophet, one who proclaims God’s Word, priest, and king. The word “priest” means “bridge builder,” and that is exactly what Jesus does. He bridges chasms with His death and resurrection for you and me. What chasms does He bridge?
The one we have with God. Jesus has removed the separation we have from God because of our sin. No longer are we far away, but we are brought near by the blood of Christ. No longer are we estranged, but made members of the family through baptism, where His death and resurrection is applied to us. We have crossed over from death to life, Satan’s kingdom to God’s Kingdom, from hell to heaven, from life without God to life with God. He bridges that spiritual chasm.
Jesus bridges the chasm we have with others, and invites us to be bridge builders, too! The only thing, the only thing that will bridge the chasms that we have with others is Jesus’ forgiveness. It is the only thing that will make a lasting path and solid foundation. The forgiveness He pours on us flows out to others. His forgiveness and grace, working in us, helps us to show forgiveness to others, even when it is hard. Even when they have wronged us; even when we remember the hurt and pain; even when we struggle to forgive, and do. Jesus’ forgiveness empowers us to take the first step, to say the first word, “I’m sorry, and I forgive you,” even if we think we shouldn’t (or need to say it first!). Jesus’ forgiveness changes our hearts, and their hearts. It opens us to His love and awakens our love for others.
And Jesus uses us to help bridge the gap He has with others. Just as the rich man wanted Lazarus to warn His brothers, Jesus uses us to tell others, too. He does so with the relationships and friendships we have with people, along with the presence we have in their lives, too. There is a man at Panera that I have probably said “Hi” to, or had minor small talk with most mornings over the last two years. He knows I’m a pastor from our conversations, and because of the stack of theology books I bring with me most mornings. About a month ago, he said, “I have a question about Jesus, can I ask you about that?” It only took about a few hundred times saying, “Hi” to do so! The presence we have in the lives of others makes a difference, and a witness, even if we might not see, or realize it. Jesus uses these things as opportunities to help bridge the chasm He has with them.
And the last chasm He bridges is the one we have with life. For by faith, Holland is okay, isn’t it? Its not Italy, but something better is coming with the life to come. As we wait for that, though, we have a Savior Who waits with us, Who sits with us, Who cries with us, Who comforts us, Who strengthens us, and gives us hope as we sit where we might not want to be. He does this as we hold the broken pieces of plans, jobs, health, hopes, and relationships in our hands. We are invited to hand them over to Him, the One Who will one day make all things new and well. He will bridge this chasm, too.
There will be many more chasms in life, but remember Who your Savior is: Jesus, the Great High Priest, the Master Bridge Builder.