Don’t Send a Dog To Do A Christian’s Job

Luke 16:19-21

The point of our lesson on money is to help us to be generous and unselfish with our money.

The second subtitle of our lesson is “How do you use your money?”  The text is Christ’s familiar telling of Lazarus outside the rich man’s gates longing for table scraps while dogs lick his sores.  All the while, the rich man is inside living the highlife. 

I stopped and meditated on the question of how I use my money.  Most of it I spend on me and mine.  I so readily condemned the “rich man” because Lazarus was right there in his doorway. However, because of technology and media most of the poor of the world reside not outside my door, but inside my living room.  I see them, but do I respond in generosity; do I use my money to help elevate the hunger and sickness that afflict the world’s poor?

Post Script: I often see beggars on street corners with dogs.  Why waste resources feeding and watering a dog?  It was only after reading today’s passage that I realized a great truth.  The dogs were serving as the church to Lazarus.  They provided his only aid and comfort, companionship and acceptance. 

Don’t send a dog to do a Christian’s job!