The setting for this passage of scripture is when Jeremiah is being held under house arrest by Zedekiah, the King of Judah. He was being held in the “court of the guard.” At this same time, the city of Jerusalem was surrounded by the Babylonian army. While he was there, he heard a message form God. He was told to buy a field. This seemed like a very unusual request. His city and nation were about to be conquered by a foreign country, and many would be carried off to Babylon. Why would you want to spend money on property that you were about to lose?

Being Aware of the Needs of Others (Luke 16:19–31)

In our Gospel lesson, we hear the story of “the rich man and Lazarus.” In the story, the rich man has more than enough to satisfy his needs and yet cannot find it in his heart to give even a scrap of food to Lazarus, who is starving and sitting on the rich man’s very doorstep. Lazarus has become invisible to the rich man, even though the Hebrew scriptures charge all of the faiffiful to care for those who have nothing.

We get a clue early on in this story about who is the important figure. Lazarus is called by name, and the other character is only referred to by the title of “rich man.” In the second part of the story, we see both the rich man and Lazarus in the afterlife. The rich man still has not gotten the message. He wants Lazarus to do his biding even though Lazarus is the one that is allowed to be with Father Abraham and enjoying the reward he deserves. We should learn from this that there are those around us who are in need, and we should always be looking for them—not just those who are poor in material things but also those who are poor in spirit. Sometimes they are harder to see.