Luke 16:19

19. A certain rich man His name is not given; for Dives, which many suppose to be his proper name, is but the Latin word for

rich man. Clothed in purple The purple was anciently the royal colour, the gorgeous hue of the imperial robes; and hence the very term, the purple, is still used to signify the royal dignity. Though already used in our Saviour’s time by the opulent, it was considered a mark of pomp and effeminacy. This most brilliant dye was discovered, it was said, at Sidon, being the juice from a shellfish brought to notice by its having stained the mouth of a dog who had devoured one.

Fine linen The fine byssus or linen was first commonly used by the Jews in the time of Solomon. It was either white, or a brilliant yellow; so that this rich and effeminate man disclosed a golden undergarment beneath the external purple.

Sumptuously Brilliantly, magnificently; referring rather to external pomp than to luxurious diet.

Every day This rich display was not reserved for special days, for festivals, or galas; it was his ordinary style. It has been argued by many divines that no special wickedness is here ascribed to the rich man; nothing but ordinary worldliness; so that we thereby learn that it requires no extraordinary human guilt to attain a terrible destiny in the world to come. On the other hand, Strauss carries the same idea so far as to maintain that Jesus makes simply the being a rich man his only sin, and poverty the only merit of Lazarus by which he attains Paradise. Thence Strauss charges our Saviour with maintaining the ascetic doctrine of the Ebionites, that wealth is in itself a damnable sin, and poverty an excellence deserving salvation. But Trench well replies that Abraham, in whose bosom Lazarus reposed, was a rich man; and we may add that so were Isaac and Jacob; and both Moses and the prophets, whom this rich man was condemned for not believing, taught that riches were a blessing from God. And it may be doubted that Ebionitism or asceticism ever maintained that mere poverty was a merit or constituted a claim to Paradise. Religious poverty poverty from devout motives and accompanied by rigid morality in all other respects, is the poverty which all asceticism demands in order to holy merit. It is perfectly preposterous to maintain that Jesus represents Lazarus as a voluntary religious mendicant. The sins of this rich man were those of the Sadducee: infidelity, selfishness, and a sordid, hard-hearted worldliness. And when we conceive such a character, all kinds of wickedness may be considered as truly in him. Such a man will for his own self-interest sacrifice every other interest. To benefit himself, he will invest in any iniquity, whether it be the rum traffic, the slave-trade, the gambling “hell,” or piracy. So that you may fully consider this rich man as the blank figure, the outline skeleton, upon which you may inscribe any or every iniquity you think proper.