Abraham's Bosom

I’ve written previously about how in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man the naming of the poor beggar as Lazarus was intentional and symbolic of these Pharisees’ own rejection of the real Lazarus who was raised from the dead.  Similarly, I don’t think it is a coincidence that in the parable the Savior calls the place of paradise where the rich man could not go “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22).  This is the only place in scripture where heaven or paradise is called “Abraham’s bosom” by either the Lord or a prophet.  The Savior had previously spoken on numerous occasions about how the Father dwells in “heaven”, referencing “your Father which is in heaven” but He had not previously referred to the place of peace we go to in the afterlife as Abraham’s dwelling (Matt. 6:1, 6:9, 7:11, 23:9).  Elder Talmage suggested that paradise was “the resting place of the blessed and commonly known in the figurative lore of the rabbis as Abraham’s bosom,” so the phrase would have been certainly familiar and understood by His audience, but I believe there is a more significant reason for which Christ chose to use Abraham in this parable as the embodiment of heaven.

               Jesus spoke the parable of the rich man and Lazarus to “Pharisees also, who were covetous… and they derided him” (Luke 16:14).  He had previously spoken at length to the Pharisees about their claim to some preeminent status because they were children of Abraham.  On that occasion when Jesus told them that the truth would make them free, they had said to him, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man” and Jesus responded by suggesting that they were servants to sin.  When Christ referred to His Father, the Pharisees again referenced their lineage saying, “Abraham is our father.”  Christ responded, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:33, 39).  Christ’s exchange with them on that occasion really was a reiteration of what John the Baptist had already taught them, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Luke 3:8).  These words of John and Christ admit that the Jews of their day were indeed literal descendants of Abraham, but that this would do them little good without repentance and performing the kind of works that Abraham performed.  I believe that as Christ then mentioned “Abraham’s bosom” to these deriding Pharisees when He told this parable, He was hearkening back to these earlier teachings.  Once again, He was reminding them that even though they came from Abraham, they had no special ticket to the place (heaven) where Abraham had gone.  This is brought out in the fact that the rich man speaks to Abraham and calls him “Father,” and that when Abraham responds to this man tormented in hell he calls him “Son.”  This is one of Abraham’s literal posterity in the parable, but the rich man’s choices on earth prevented him from being saved in paradise where Abraham was.  Similarly, these Pharisees could expect no velvet road to salvation just because they too could call Abraham “Father” in the literal sense.  If they did not accept the “Truth” who was Jesus—whom Abraham had accepted—they would indeed be in bondage to sin just as this rich man and son of Abraham was in Christ’s parable.