Luke 16:19-31 ESV said:The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 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 us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
What we read in this passage is two Jewish men who die. One is a desired Jewish man with worldly possessions and the other is a wretched man, feeble and an embarrassment. Both die, one go to Abraham's side, the other Hades. The parable tells of a great chasm between the two that cannot be cross and tell us of torment from fire in Hades so bad that the slightest drop would be comforting.
I see a lot of these elements as spiritual metaphors not as physical images of the afterlife.
First Lazarus is brought to Abraham's side or Abraham's bosom. What does this mean? This is the embrace of Abraham only given to his sons and for the account this shows us Lazarus is considered a child of Abraham and the rich man is not. This is a classic separation of the redeemed and unredeemed, sheet/goats etc... in this case it is contrasting earthly honor/heavenly honor. A child of Abraham is a child of God and Abraham is a biblical type of the Father in this account.
These afterlife places are separated by a chasm that cannot be crossed. This chasm is sin and it separates us from God. We cannot be called children of God when we are separated from God and we must be in relationship with him to be called his child. Only Christ can restore this relationship through his death and resurrection. His explicit work is not the the direct focus of the text but it is implicit as he is the only one who can cross the great chasm into relationship at the side of God as his child.
The place of torment, named as hades. "hades" is a greek mythological place of the dead and the text borrows the term but this doesn't mean it inherits the mythology with it. The text shows us the rich man is in torment by fire. Does this mean "hell" is a place of eternal torment and burning? I don't think it does, because although fire is a common image of torment in the afterlife it is not the only image. Never ending decay is also another one, and another is simply an image of suffering.
What I think these images show us is a glimpse of afterlife for the unredeemed using concrete analogies like fire and decay. We don't know what buring forever really feels like but we do know getting burnt hurts and so burning forever would be the extreme limits of this pain and this gives us a taste of what it would be like. It's like someone saying "what is hell like" then the answer being pricked by a needle, then saying now imagine being pricked by 1 million needles at once and it never stopping. This is not saying hell is a bunch of needles but it does help in that we understand the little pain of a needle then it's blown up to it limits and I think that's what the text is telling us. Not to diminish hell, whatever it is there is strong warning against it as a place of unimaginable torment but I don't see the text demanding it is fire, rather it is the concrete it uses as we all understand the fire is painful.
the text concludes with the rich man request to warn his brother being rejected with the argument saying "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead". This is a little tongue and cheek because of course his brothers would take it seriously if he was resurrected but this isn't want Jesus was really saying as he was foreshadowing his own resurrection.
This whole account has lots of analogies and spiritual metaphors and this tells me it is a parable and not a mirror of the afterlife. The point of the parable is not to show us what the afterlife looks like it is first I think to signal out the pharisees as would identify themselves at first as the rich man and be offended when they heard he was not counted as a child of God, it also shows us to store up riches in heaven not on earth and that heavenly honor uses a different measure than earthly honor. This goes in line with a lot of other parables and uses the same sort of contrasts and images, specifically the immediate parables that Jesus just spoke. I think when our take away from this is this detail image of a place overlooking hell that can't be crossed like layers is the wrong focus and misses the point of the text completely.