There is a famous fairy tale that most of you will know. It is called “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. In it a vain and confident king, much enamored with his own judgment and majesty, is hoodwinked, tricked into prancing boldly before his subjects stark naked. 

He does this because he has been led astray by these two men, who have told him that only stupid people cannot see their seemingly invisible clothes. The king cannot see them either, as they do not exist, but not wanting to look stupid, he puts on his non-existent clothes and struts before his people. 

It is only when the honesty of a mere boy calls out his nakedness in front of everyone, that the full, regretful stupidity and shame that his vanity has led him to is finally revealed.

I tell you that when we think we know better than our Creator, how we should live or what is right and what is wrong (in the world He created), we do the very same thing. But we get away with nothing.

“Tush, say they, how should God perceive it? is there knowledge in the Most High?” (Psalm 73:11 BCP)

But the Lord replies:

“Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:23-24)

In our Gospel reading today, we heard the tale of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

The Rich Man had everything in this life. Good food to eat. Good clothes to wear. A house with a gate. His life was good.

Lazarus was a beggar, covered in sores, who would lay in front of the gate of the Rich Man, asking the crumbs from his tables, as the dogs licked his sores. Lazarus had a life of pain and suffering. 

This beggar died and we are told he was carried by an angel into the bosom of Abraham. The Patriarch Abraham, from whom God’s promise was first given. God’s promise which would be revealed in fullness by Jesus Christ. That the true promised land is that heavenly promised land to all the children of Abraham. 

And as Paul tells us:

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7-9)

The Rich Man also died. It says:

“[I]n hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 16:23-24)

Yet Abraham tells him that he cannot do what he requests. He says, besides the fact that he had his reward in the life he lived. He says also:

“[B]eside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” (Luke 16:26)

This Rich Man, in his torment, when told that he cannot be helped or reached now, says in love:

“I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” (Luke 16:27-28)

Abraham replied:

           “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” (Luke 16:29)

The Rich Man protest he says: 

“Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” (Luke 16:30)

Then Abraham speaks a very certain truth:

“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)

For we know that one did rise from the dead. He testified to us:

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matthew 7:13-14)

But what meant Abraham by “if they listen not to Moses and the Prophets.” What did Moses and the prophets say?

In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses says, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken”          

In Exodus 12 God institutes through Moses the Passover. The sacrifice of the lamb to save the people from destruction.

In Numbers 21 Moses raises up the snake on the cross, so that those who look upon it can live.

But what of the prophets?

The prophet Isaiah, writing of the Messiah says: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

The prophet Micah says :“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

The prophet Zechariah says: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9)

Isaiah again writing of the Messiah says:

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:3-6)

All of these scriptures, over hundreds and thousands of years, point to just this one place. The God-man Christ. Who would be born to a virgin in Bethlehem. Who would enter Jerusalem, lowly, on a donkey, bring salvation. Who would be a prophet, from among the people, who would be like unto Moses, showing great signs and wonders. He would be despised. A “man of sorrows”. Smitten of God bearing our transgressions. The Lord having laid our iniquity on Him, He was raised up on the cross for us. He it our Passover Lamb. It is through His blood on door of our hearts that the Angel of death to Passover us for. But without the blood we shall likewise, all shall parish. 

The way is narrow and there are many false prophets that would gladly lead us astray. We must walk in His ways, even when they are hard. Even when everything and everyone tells us to just come with them, a little way down that much broader path.

Remember at these times, what the Apostle said, “we [love Jesus Christ], because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and gave his life for us, that we might live. He is not a God “afar off”, but He is close to us. Here and now, in our pain and in our suffering. And He has promised that all will be well, if we just walk in His ways.

So let us do so. Today and tomorrow and forever. When everyone is looking and when no one is around. For “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2)