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The Chasm We Build With Our Indifference
Where We Are
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent. This week's arc has moved from mercy to humility to servanthood, and today the readings deliver a sobering warning about what happens when we ignore all three. Luke's parable of the rich man and Lazarus is one of the most vivid stories Jesus ever told. The prophet Jeremiah echoes the theme: cursed is the one who trusts in human beings rather than in God. We are halfway through the second week of Lent, and the readings are growing more urgent.
The Word
Jeremiah presents two vivid images: the person who trusts in human strength is like a barren bush in the desert, while the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside water, whose leaves stay green even in drought. In the Gospel, Jesus tells of a rich man who feasted sumptuously every day while Lazarus lay at his gate, covered in sores, longing for scraps. Both die. Lazarus rests in Abraham's bosom; the rich man suffers in flame. He begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, but Abraham replies, "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead."
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Reflect
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not primarily about the afterlife. It is about the chasms we build in this life through indifference. Notice what the rich man's sin was: not cruelty, not theft, not blasphemy. He simply did not see the man at his gate. Lazarus was there every single day, and the rich man stepped over him on his way to dinner.
This is the sin of comfortable blindness. We can construct entire lives that insulate us from suffering: gated communities, curated social media feeds, routines that never bring us into contact with anyone unlike ourselves. The chasm that separates the rich man from Lazarus in the afterlife is simply the visible form of the chasm he built during his lifetime.
Jeremiah's tree-and-bush imagery makes the same point from another angle. The person rooted in God stays sensitive, green, alive to others. The person rooted only in human security becomes a barren bush, dry and isolated.
Lent is an invitation to cross the chasms we have built. Fasting makes us feel hunger. Almsgiving connects us to those in need. Prayer opens our eyes to what we have trained ourselves not to see. The question is not whether Lazarus exists at our gate. He does. The question is whether we will see him.
Living It
Deliberately cross a "chasm" today: visit a part of your city you normally avoid, eat lunch with someone outside your usual circle, or volunteer at a food bank or shelter, even for an hour. Let the discomfort of unfamiliar territory teach you something about the chasms you build without noticing. Practice Lenten fasting with awareness this week. When you feel hunger, use it as a prompt to pray for those who are hungry not by choice, letting your small sacrifice connect you to their larger one. Then audit your media consumption honestly. Are your feeds showing you only people like you? Follow one organization that serves the poor and let their stories enter your daily scroll, expanding the boundaries of your attention and compassion.
Prayer
Lord God, we confess that we have built comfortable chasms between ourselves and those who suffer. Open our eyes to the Lazarus at our gate, the neighbor in need, the stranger in distress, the person we have learned to overlook. May our Lenten fasting make us more tender, not less. Root us deeply in Your love so that we bear fruit for others, even in seasons of drought. Amen.
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