"It's Never Too Late to Do Some Good"

Where did that “great chasm” come from? Who put it there? We believe that God the Father is the origin and Creator of all things and that He made all things good; however, there is evil in the world, there are places where the good is hard to see or obscured by evil. This chasm that seems to separate people in Jesus’ parable doesn’t seem like a good thing. It is preventing the delivery of comfort and care; it is isolating those on the “wrong” side of it. So, why is it there, and where did it come from?

I think that sometimes, we fall into the belief that when God created the universe, He also created heaven and hell. Hell was created to send the bad people and heaven was for everyone who was good. However, we also read in Genesis that God was present with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and that they walked together and shared communion of life. That is heaven. There was no other place. To be in God’s presence, fully aware of that and at peace, is heaven. To be separated from that – especially eternally – to be apart from that presence of God because of our sin – that is hell. So, it’s not really a creation of God as it is the absence of the Good that God intends. In other words, God did not create that “great chasm.”

In the story that Jesus tells, we begin with people who are together – in close proximity.  The rich man has his home, and Lazarus is a regular character, “lying at his door.” We are not told that the rich man was particularly “evil.” There is no commandment breaking going on, it would seem. He was just rich and did “rich people things”: “dressing in purple and fine linens and dining sumptuously each day.” However, there is something that he does not do – or rather, maybe he actively does it and it appears as something he doesn’t do. He ignores the poor Lazarus. If Lazarus is at his door, the man would definitely see him; so, he would have to actively ignore him to deny him any aid.

Every time the rich man was aware of that nearness and need and ignored it, he distanced himself from Lazarus. He created space between them. Again, he doesn’t seem to be breaking any of the Ten Commandments; but that is not Christ’s point. Jesus’ point is that there was good to be done, and it was denied. The philosopher Voltaire said, “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”

The chasm, then, was put there by the rich man himself. Every time you or I deny someone a good that they deserve because of their human dignity, we are forging a chasm of our own. I pray mine isn’t too great! And we are given today to bridge that gap – by imitation of Jesus Christ. He identified with the poor; He reached out to the outcast; He healed the broken; He sought the lost; He forgave the sinner. This is what it means to be a Christian, and we are challenged by the Gospel even as it comforts us.

I saw this in stark display last Sunday at that memorial service for Charlie Kirk. You have probably seen or heard of it as well. Mr. Kirk’s widow Erika, standing in front of thousands of strangers, said this:

My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life. That young man. That young man on the cross, our Savior said, "Father, forgive them for they not know what they do." That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him, because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love, and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us. The world needs … a group that will point young people away from the path of misery and sin. It needs something that will lead people away from hell in this world and in the next. It needs young people pointed in the direction of truth and beauty. 

I’m not sharing this because I have a political agenda. I am a priest, a pastor, shepherd of souls – your souls. I believe that we (myself included) need to hear this message. Not because it belongs to the right or the left, but because it belongs to Jesus. As for the chasms that exist in our world today, only moments after that heroic Christian witness of forgiveness, our president said

Charlie Kirk … did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.

These two attitudes are the same stark contrast that exists between the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus was anything if not clear in what He called His disciples to be. We cannot profess to love our Lord and hate anyone. We all fall short, and the president is not alone in that attitude – I find myself there at times as well. That’s why we need Jesus – His example, His Word, and above all His grace. And we ought to be praying that everyone – even our enemies – experience that grace. Pray for Charlie Kirk’s soul, for his widow, for the young man who shot him (across his own chasm), for those who celebrated him, for the president, and for all our brothers and sisters. This is what God wants!

As I said, God created Eden with the idea that we all would be walking together in it – not that some would be there and others would not. That chasm is not God’s will, and it is something that each of us creates, knowingly or not.

I’ll leave you with these lovely words from Maya Angelou: “I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.”