There is no apparent parallel for this parable in the gospel accounts.
Luke then records Jesus saying a parable. It is commonly known as “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” This parable seems to have been offered to an audience composed of Jesus’s disciples and the Pharisees who scoffed at Him (Luke 16:14).
Before we begin, it is important to mention that poor Lazarus is not the beloved friend of Jesus who died and was raised from the dead. That Lazarus was not a poor beggar. That Lazarus’s story is told in John 11:1-46. However, it is interesting that Jesus chose the name of Lazarus for the figure in this parable in which resurrection is discussed. If there is a significance connecting these two stories, it is not apparent.
Jesus’s reason for choosing the name Lazarus for this story could be because of the meaning of the name Lazarus, which is “Whom God helps.” This fits the basic idea that God helps the humble while He scoffs at the scoffers (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5b). Jesus does not name the rich man, perhaps to allow anyone to place themselves in the place of that character.
Jesus had just rebuked these Pharisees for flaunting God’s law and justifying their wickedness, calling their sin righteousness. He warned them that God knows your hearts and the human opinions of justice are of no consequence in the sight of God (Luke 16:15).
And He reminded them that God’s Law is more enduring than the earth they stood on or the air they breathed (Luke 16:16-17) before mentioning the matter of divorce as one way they violate His commands while claiming to be righteous because they followed their own system of religious regulations (Luke 16:18).
One of the main points of “The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus” is that the consequences of our response to God’s Laws will carry over to the afterlife. Moral consequences do not end with our physical death. Rather,
they appear to be more fully revealed and intensified in the next life. This point is best seen when it is understood within the context in which the parable is presented. The basic context of the parable was the Pharisees’ scoffing at Jesus’s teachings on earthly wealth (Luke 16:1-14), and Jesus (who is God) highlighting the incredible endurability of God’s Law (Luke 16:15-18).
