Luke 1:26

Luke 1:26

The Great Gulf.

Consider the lasting distinction between the condition of the rich man and of Lazarus which the text brings before us. Abraham says that between the rich man and Lazarus a great gulf was fixed, so that none could pass from one side to the other. A great gulf fixed; observe, it is no slight interval, no trifling difference, but it is a chasm, a gulf and a wide one; and, moreover, it is fixed, the word in the original Greek is quite as strong as that which our English version has given, perhaps stronger; it means that this gulf or chasm has been firmly and durably established, that it is no slight or accidental difference which it may be hoped that time will blot out, but that it is a deep wide gap which no reasoning can hide, and no time can ever heal. It is most necessary that, as this is our Saviour's own description, we should take His words in all the fulness of their meaning, of course not straining them beyond their intention, but, also, not cutting off from them any of their strength.

I. What I conceive, then, that our Lord asserts in the text is this, that there is a great impassable gulf fixed between the spiritual condition of those whom He represents by the rich man, and those whom He represents by Lazarus. The great gulf is not between the rich and the poor, not between those who have been favoured by God in this life and those who have been chastened by Him, but it is between those who have so used this world as to starve their spirits, those who have fixed their eyes so firmly on the things of time and sense that they could not see the realities of a future world, those who have become carnal and sensualised because they must needs give all their efforts to feed their bodies, and have been content to leave their souls uncared for.

II. And without pretending to go into the deep mystery of the other world, yet this, at least, is enough to show us the greatness of the gulf, and why it is so firmly fixed; the joys of heaven are spiritual, there is no pleasure there for a man who has no fear of God, no pleasure in obeying Him; and therefore he who by a long course of carelessness and self-indulgence and neglect of God has hardened his soul, has thereby put a gulf between heaven and him. The mere possibility of doing so should make all of us ask ourselves earnestly and with trembling, how far we are improving our opportunities. Even this is the seed-time of a long existence, and he who does not sow good seed, or having sown it does not water it and weed it, may not complain if his crop fail in the end.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 216.

References: Luke 16:26 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 518; J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, part i., p. 20; Homilist, vol. vi., p. 25.