Study Guide - Tell Me A Story: The Subversive Parables of Jesus

The Dangers of Success

 Week of Sunday, August 19, 2007

Discussion Questions On Luke 16:19-31

1. In the Greek language the word for beggar is related to the word for spit-that is, that the beggar is one who is spat upon. How does this knowledge affect your reading of the story?

2. This parable is the only one of Jesus’ parables that actually names one of the characters-Lazarus. What significance do you see in this fact?

3. What image do you have of the dogs who came and licked the beggar’s sores? Were they housepets or wild dogs?

4. What is the sin, the failing, of the wealthy man in the story?

5. What do you notice and overlook noticing in your life?

6. How is this story similar to the Charles Dickens story “The Christmas Carol”?

7. Who are the people in our own time who are like the beggar for us-persons we rarely notice or whom we could help but do not?

8. What do the words of Jesus elsewhere in this gospel-“Of those to whom much will be expected”-have to do with this story?