OK, here is my view of the parable, from my book:
Now we reach the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, one of the usual pillars and proofs of the Hell theory – but there is a lot more going on here. First, all of Jesus’ parables, as far as I can tell, are teaching about the Kingdom of God, especially how it operates. We should not view any of it as being literally true in itself. Consider how Jesus explains the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:24-30) to His disciples. In verses 37-39 He gives it all away – He Himself is the Sower, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, the tares are the children of the “wicked one,” the enemy is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. We could say that His parables are allegories or similes. No one has any problem with political cartoons – elephants and asses are political parties, bears are Russia, bulldogs are the UK, etc.
Given that, how should we regard the characters of this parable/allegory/simile? We will go step-by-step. First off, who is the unnamed rich man? We see him wearing purple, the color of rulers, of royalty. He also wears linen, the fabric of the priesthood. God Himself granted Israel to be a kingdom of priests, in Exodus 19:6. With ten tribes long lost to exile, and most of Judah and Benjamin left behind in Persia, the little kingdom around Jerusalem was “the last man standing,” or the Israel of record. It had a king, it had priests, and it was prosperous – at least, it saw itself as rich in the ways of God. Given all this we should view the rich man as the nation of Judah.
Lazarus has a name, but we must figure him out too. If the rich man is Judah, and Lazarus is poor, could he be a foreign nation, one not rich in the ways of God? Confirmation comes in Luke 16:21 – he wanted to be fed with crumbs from the rich man’s table. This takes us back to Jesus’ brief encounter with the Canaanite woman – she humbly accepted being called a dog, but hinted that she yet deserved some crumbs (Matthew 15:22-28). This sad picture is completed by the dogs licking Lazarus’ sores. Lazarus, then, stands for any heathen nation, or for all of them – in fact, the name “Lazarus” in its Hebrew form, is very close to the name of Abraham’s servant Eliezer, who God refused as Abraham’s heir. Any hearer of Jesus who knew the stories of Genesis would not have missed that. Just as in the parable of the wedding feast, where people are brought into the feast/Kingdom indiscrimately, Lazarus dies and is brought to Abraham’s bosom.
Now as I’ve said before, a funny thing happened on the way to the Septuagint. Jews had more contact with Greek language and culture than they had had before the Babylonian exile. As part of that contact, after the exile, some of their ideas about Sheol began to change. In their minds, Sheol came to be compartmentalized like the Greek Hades. Part of it was now thought to be for the righteous, called the Bosom of Abraham. Another part was for the wicked, and called “hell” in the KJV, but CCR footnoted as “hades.” These parts were thought to be separated by a fiery gulf - all that would have been easily understood by Jesus’ hearers.
OK, we’ve got the rich man and Lazarus both dead, meaning that Judah and the gentiles (nations) are both now in a new condition. The rich man (Judah) sees that Lazarus (the Nations) is now accepted into the Kingdom of God. Jesus spoke of this when He told His Jewish hearers, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matthew 21:43). Do you see how He rejected the figurative fig tree of Judah, just as He cursed the literal fig tree, as we read in Matthew and Mark? I would go so far as to say that the Jewish nation had become the basket of very good and very bad figs we read about in Jeremiah. These represent the Jews who responded to Jesus, and those who did not.
Back to our parable – Lazarus is in a good place, and no doubt the “good fig” Jews are there with him. The early church was made up of these good fig Jews, and more and more non-Jews came in until this whole group came to be called Christians, and made a final split from Judaism. The rich man, and those he stands for, is not in such a good place. These “bad figs” have suffered Roman oppression, the siege of Jerusalem, destruction of the Temple, exile and dispersion. Persecutions went on and on for many centuries, in many countries. Truly, Judah the rich man is now tormented in a flame. He calls out to Abraham for the smallest favor – a drop of water – and could that be a reference to the water Jesus told the woman at the well of? Yes, I think it is.
Abraham admits that the rich man is his son, but reminds him that his time and status as God’s favored nation has come and gone. Truly, his place has been taken by “a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” I won’t try to label any specific nation, but for the sake of convenience, let’s just say it is the “nation” of Christendom, a term seldom heard of in today’s secular world. Since the split between Judaism and Christendom, a fiery gulf has indeed come between them, with few people bridging that gap or being converted one way or the other.
The rich man asks Abraham to send warning to his five brothers. This is another reason to see him as Judah, for the man Judah had five full-blooded brothers, as we can easily read in Genesis 29:32-35 and 30:17-20. They are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zebulun. Abraham insists that Moses and the prophets (which Jesus said testified of Him) should keep the brothers from the rich man’s fate, but then the rich man makes the odd request that someone witness to them from the dead. Truly, this is an odd request, for the Jews disputed the resurrection of Jesus, and did not record the resurrection of those few whose graves were opened after that of Jesus. History bears out that these resurrections would have no impact on those who rejected Jesus. Abraham in the parable confirms this.
There it is, my view on the parable – a prophecy, not a proof text for Hell. Jesus is using a well-understood mythological template as a way to say things without some of His audience understanding the meaning. In our time, many still do not. Consider a literal Hell, based on this parable involving a figurative rich man, figurative Lazarus, and figurative Abraham – it is just absurd.