In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are a lot of important questions that we have to grapple with in this life, but the most important one of all is what happens after this life is over? What happens to us when we die? Almost everybody has something to say to this question regardless of their religious affiliation. Some people will tell you that you can’t be sure about what happens to you when you die, so you might as well not try and answer the question at all. Others will say that nothing happens when you die and that this life is all that there is. In some places its taught that when you die, depending on how good of a person you were in this life, you can return to the world reincarnated as a different a living thing entirely. Another dominant perspective, which is popular even among many Christians, is that when you die you go to a place of cleansing where your soul is purged from the effects of your sin until you’re holy enough to enter God’s presence. And many people believe that everyone simply goes to better place when they die no matter what. That’s what people say.

But today in our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 16, we get to hear about what Jesus says. We get to hear about how God answers this question. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the Author of Life Himself, the one who died and rose again, and holds in His hands the keys to death and hades, tells us what happens when we die. So, in today’s sermon, let us consider together a few things that we learn.

The first thing that we learn from this passage about what happens when we die is that after someone does there are only two possible places where we can go. As Jesus says in our reading, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Here Jesus reminds us that the only two places where you can go after you die is heaven or hell. At the moment of your death, when your soul is separated from your body, which is what death is, immediately your soul is present in either one of two places. You either go to Abraham’s side, or you go to a place called “Hades.”

Abraham’s side is simply another way from the Bible of talking about heaven. As Jesus also tells us in Matthew chapter 8, “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The reason why the Bible uses the language of sharing a meal to describe heaven is because that captures the essence of what heaven is. Heaven is eternal fellowship with God and all of His saints. Heaven is unending communion with the Lord and those who belong to Him. Remember what Saint Paul says about heaven in Philippians chapter 1. He writes, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” And then there is the way that Saint John describes heaven in the book of Revelation. He tells us that, “they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence.” While there may be different things that happen in heaven, the essence of heaven is simply being with God forever. 

On the other hand, then, that also shows us what the essence of hell is. Whereas heaven is all about being with God forever, hell is about being separated from God forever. Since God is the source of everything that is good, being apart from Him can only mean something bad. That’s why Jesus doesn’t just refer to hell just as Hades, which literally means “the realm of the dead,” but He also says that the rich man who went there was in torment. He was in agony, because apart from God and His love, that is all that there is. There is only suffering. As we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” If we don’t have God with us to protect us and provide for us, then there is no protection or provision at all. Since God is love, as we heard in our Epistle lesson today, being apart from Him means experiencing no love at all. Again, that is the essence of hell. It means being separated from God and His love forever.

One of the biggest errors of our time is the idea that everyone goes to a better place when they die no matter what. Sometimes this is referred to in theological terms as “Universalism.” Even though that’s a big word, it isn’t that complicated of a topic. More than likely you’ve seen “universalism” first hand if you’ve ever been to a funeral for someone who wasn’t a Christian. Often times at those funerals you will hear people console one another by saying that “so and so” must be in a better place now. The assumption is that either there is no such thing as hell at all, or that if there is, it’s only reserved for the extremely wicked. And yet, while that may give a certain kind of comfort to those who have experienced loss, it is also a delusion that has not basis in the Word of God. In fact, the Bible teaches us not only that hell is real, but sadly, that is where the vast majority of people actually end up. As Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 7, “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Either way, the point remains that when you die, you either go to heaven or hell, and both of those places are very real.

The next thing that we learn from the account of the rich man and Lazarus is that after we die our eternal state is fixed. When the rich man cried out for Lazarus to come and dip his finger in water to cool his tongue, Abraham told him that it was impossible. He said, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to here.” According to the Bible, there are no second chances after we die. As soon as our soul leaves our body and makes its way to Abraham’s side or to the torments of Hades, that’s it. You can’t leave heaven, and you can’t get out of hell. As we also read very clearly in the book of Hebrews, “After death comes judgment.” It’s not as if there will be more time to get right with God and repent of your sins and trust in Jesus if you are not already doing that when your last hour comes. The idea of purgatory or reincarnation, both of which give the impression that such things are possible, completely ignore the witness of the Scriptures, and give false confidence to people who instead need to be warned.  Rather than teaching people to take their sins more seriously, these false doctrines end up teaching people to take them less. They trick people into thinking that they can keep on doing something that they know is wrong because later on there will always be more time to get forgiveness. But that is simply not true.

Every time that the Bible describes the afterlife it does so by using absolute terms. Remember what Bible tells us that Jesus will say to the sheep and the goats on Judgment Day. He says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Both heaven and hell are described as eternal realities. In hell, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In heaven, the day never turns to night and the righteous never stop shining. After we die, our eternal state is fixed. It can’t be undone.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the account of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us that where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent upon how we received God’s Word in this life. When the rich man died and went to hell, he wanted someone to warn his brothers so that they wouldn’t end up in the same place that he was. But when Abraham told him that his brothers already had Moses and the prophets, as in, they already had the Bible, the rich man said that wasn’t good enough. Instead, he wanted someone to go from the dead and tell them directly. To which Abraham responded, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

The reason why where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent on how we receive God’s Word in this life is because the Bible alone is God’s tool to give us saving faith in Jesus. The Bible is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to teach us about the work of Christ. It is how we learn about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so that through trusting in His sacrifice we can be saved.

God’s Word could not be clearer that we are saved through faith alone. We are not saved by our own good works. We are not saved simply because we avoided certain things and never did anything extremely bad. Whether or not we think that what we’ve done is or is not bad does not mean that God sees it in the same way. God sees all of our sins at once. He sees every single moment of our life in an instant. All of our wicked thoughts and every single one of our wicked deeds are laid bare before His eyes. Even our deepest and darkest secrets that nobody else knows about but us, and that we would be horrified if anyone else found out about, are not hidden from the Lord. And, according to Him, a single sin by itself disqualifies us from being saved on our own. One solitary transgression makes us unfit for His righteous and holy presence. As we read in the book of James, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

Ultimately, then, it is not the mere act of committing a sin that sends people to hell, but rejecting the forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus. Unbelief is what dams, and faith is what saves. That is not because faith in Jesus is a virtue by itself like love or bravery, but because faith in Jesus means receiving the virtues of Jesus. It means trusting in His righteousness and not your own, which God says, counts as yours when you do. Remember what we heard in our Old Testament lesson today. It said, “Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Many people today want to go to heaven, but don’t want to listen to the Bible. They want to be in a better place when they die, but they don’t want to be in the place where God promises to be with them now. They don’t want to go to Church and hear the Word of God. But you can’t have God without His Word. And you can’t have heaven in the afterlife, if you won’t come to heavenly feast that has already begun in this life.  We don’t go to Church simply so that we can be saved by the mere act of going. We go to Church to receive God’s Word and Sacraments. We go to Church to get the forgiveness of our sins. We go to Church so that our faith can be fed, and so that through the witness of Moses and the prophets, together with the words of Apostles and the Evangelists, we can keep on learning to repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus who died for them.

In the account of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus teaches us about exactly what happens when we die. When we die, we either go to heaven or hell. At the moment of our death, our eternal state is fixed, and there is no changing it after it happens. And the only way to avoid hell and come to the joys of heaven is by listening to the invitation of salvation proclaimed to us through God’s Word and believing it. It is by receiving the forgiveness that comes from Jesus. When we listen to the Bible, we are preparing ourselves for the moment of our death. When we come to Church to take Communion, we are already getting to experience the communion with God that never ends. May the Lord Jesus open our hearts to hear His Word so that someday when our hearts stop beating the angels will come and carry us to Abraham’s side. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.