Luke 16:30-31

[G4m]

Luke 16
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.


Could Jesus be refering to himself as one rising from the dead?

 

[St. Worm2]

Luke 16

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Could Jesus be referring to himself as one rising from the dead?

Could be, but I don't think so, at least not here anyway. It seems that the "Rich Man" was asking Abraham to have Lazarus do things for him (v24, 'cool his tongue'; v27 - 28 'go to his father's house and warn his brothers' ... IOW, rise from the dead to do so).

But in general, I would say yes. Miracles are not the typical means of conversion, the Word of God is (see: Romans 1:16). This is probably one of the reasons that Jesus only appeared to Believers from the time of His Resurrection until the time of His Ascension.

Yours and His,
David

 

[Under_His_Shadow]

Luke 16
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.


Could Jesus be refering to himself as one rising from the dead?

I think what Jesus was emphasizing was the importance and necessity of God's Word being the grounds and motivation for repentance and faith, as opposed to any supernatural events, visions, etc. We can be sometimes be deceived by what we see, hear, feel, etc., and "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." (2 Cor.11:14, AMP.)

Even though he was given a supernatural vision/experience of seeing Christ's glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat.17:1-8; Mk.9:2-8), Peter later wrote that God's Word was a " more sure word of prophecy" (2 Pet.1:16, KJV).

 

[tqpix]

But in general, I would say yes. Miracles are not the typical means of conversion, the Word of God is (see: Romans 1:16). This is probably one of the reasons that Jesus only appeared to Believers from the time of His Resurrection until the time of His Ascension.

Yours and His,
David

Just for reference:

[bible]Romans 1:16[/bible]

 

[mark kennedy]

Jesus made it clear that the miracles often did little to convince people of the truth of the Gospel. I'm reminded of the crowd that followed him in John 6 and he said that they were only looking for him because they ate and where filled. He told them that they were going to have to believe in Him and they left, and would not follow Him anymore. He looks at His disciples and asks if they will leave Him to. Peter says (I'm parapharsing of course), where will we go, you have the words of life. I know that miracles happen and there may be times that they convince people of the power of God, but it can't make them believe the Gospel.

 

[Polycarp1]

Remember that the Resurrection, as a hoped-for promise resembling the Second Coming today, was an article of faith among the Pharisees and disagreed with by the Sadducees, so this is not necessarily a reference to Jesus's own Resurrection.

Apropos of that, there is only one case in any of Jesus's parables where a character is given an actual name -- Lazarus, in this one. And I don't need to remind anyone of the raising of Lazarus.

I think what Jesus is saying in the parable is that, quite simply, if someone has made his mind up not to believe or to accept, even the facts won't change his mind.

 

[G4m]

Thank you for all your inputs!

 

[Crazy Liz]

I agree with Polycarp, but thanks for posting the question. Is it possible Jesus used the name Lazarus in this parable when normally he didn't use names as an allusion to what he was going to do in the future - raise a man named Lazarus from the dead? I had never thought of the parable in that way before.