Passage that has always confused me

[nfinke]

So at the end of Luke chapter 16, abraham is talking to the rich man in hell, and after he tells the rich man “sorry there’s nothing I can do to comfort you”, the rich man says “please send Lazarus back to warn my five brothers so they don’t suffer the same fate.” Abraham says “they have Moses and the prophets” and when the rich man says they’ll repent if they see Lazarus come back from the dead, Abraham responds with “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead”

That last bit was always weird to me. Our entire religion and faith is based off the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The fact that that actually happened does indeed do much more towards convincing me than just reading or being told about moses and the prophets. In fact, if I wasn’t sure the resurrection had actually happened, I wouldn’t be able to decide which religion of the world held the true God.

In other words the rich guy in hell makes a good point. Abraham’s last line seems to be the opposite of the truth. Why would Jesus include it in his parable?

 

[englands123]

Blessed are those who have not seen and still believed… Peter believed without knowing because of his Faith. Jesus prayed for St Peter

There is a big difference between believing in someone and having faith in that same person.

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers.”

 

[Emeraldlady]

Jesus was addressing a certain type of prideful hardness in people because in fact even though Jesus rose from the dead, many prominent Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, didn’t want to hear or learn from Him.

 

[po18guy]

He was speaking, not of all mankind, but of those whose hearts were hardened and would not repent.

 

[Dlee]

I’ve always thought that this statement addressed those who need proof - He is saying that there are some who will see Jesus after his death/resurrection - yet they will not believe. We don’t need physical proof to believe in Christ; it’s faith in believing something we have not seen with our eyes. It’s trusting that if Jesus said it, it’s true.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Clearly you haven’t dealt with skeptics and atheists. The last sentence in this passage is actually very true. There are people who will be convinced by nothing, including the dead coming back to life. They would simply rationalize it away as a trick of the mind. In fact, many of those Jews who saw the dead temporarily coming back to life after Jesus’ resurrection probably did just that, in which case this passage is truly prophetic.

 

[CRM_Brother]

Hello nfinke,

Before I address the specific exegesis, I want to pose you a scenario:

Suppose you have a neighbor who believes in an unfamiliar religion. One day he disappears and eventually you hear some rumors that said he had died. Then one day he shows up on your doorstep, alive and saying that he had risen from the dead and you need to convert to his religion

Most likely, you wouldn’t convert. You would just think that the rumors surrounding his death were false and dismiss him as crazy.

The historicity of Jesus’ resurrection is debated. Yes, we know that he died, but the only historical evidence which speaks to his resurrection is the testimonies of his disciples. If you just look at historical testimonies, there are also just as many testimonies from non-disciples saying that the disciples just stole Jesus’ body and that the whole thing is a hoax. It is only through the lens of Moses and the Prophets that Jesus’ resurrection not only becomes possible but almost assured.

Jesus is speaking to the fact that those who have hardened their hearts against the truth will not be convinced by miracles, even his own resurrection. They will explain them away, just like the pagans and Jews after Christ’s resurrection explained it away as a hoax.

God Bless,
Ben

 

[JGD]

“ If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,…"
Abraham’s words indicate that the rich man’s brothers (Jews like their brother the rich man), had rejected their faith, didn’t believe and accept the teachings of Moses and the prophets.

 

[TK421]

I read that line at face value.

When prophets in the Old Testament performed miracles, their opposition blew it off. They rationalized that it was the work of a god, but that they could also appeal to their god, or they rationalized that the person had special powers or something. When Jesus performed miracles, some of the scribes concluded that Jesus was a daemonic.

Or in modern times a person might also attribute it to New Age powers, or powers from aliens, or just shrug their shoulders and say it is unexplainable.

Miracles can’t actually convert people if a person has internally rejected certain teachings because they don’t want to give something up: pride, lust, vanity, etc. The person has an attachment to sin, so they provide rationalizations for why they don’t believe in order to have continued access to that sin. The cart comes before the horse.

 

[Hodos]

So at the end of Luke chapter 16, abraham is talking to the rich man in hell, and after he tells the rich man “sorry there’s nothing I can do to comfort you”, the rich man says “please send Lazarus back to warn my five brothers so they don’t suffer the same fate.” Abraham says “they have Moses and the prophets” and when the rich man says they’ll repent if they see Lazarus come back from the dead, Abraham responds with “ If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead ”

That last bit was always weird to me. Our entire religion and faith is based off the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The fact that that actually happened does indeed do much more towards convincing me than just reading or being told about moses and the prophets. In fact, if I wasn’t sure the resurrection had actually happened, I wouldn’t be able to decide which religion of the world held the true God.

In other words the rich guy in hell makes a good point . Abraham’s last line seems to be the opposite of the truth. Why would Jesus include it in his parable?

So the obvious question here is, did you personally see Jesus rise from the grave? I am assuming no, and yet, you have come to faith. Conversely, there were many who did see the evidence that Jesus had risen from the grave, and yet did not believe. The chief priests, Pharisees, and scribes knew that the tomb was empty on Easter morning and yet they purposefully paid the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb to make up a false story. Even in the time of Moses you see the same thing. The generation of Moses witnessed the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and yet nearly all of them did not trust in the Lord. You have faith because by the Holy Spirit you have been called to faith through the proclamation of the word of God. Lazarus’ brothers had that same word available to them.