The rich man in today's story seemed to have everything. He could afford to be dressed in expensive clothes (purple dye was very costly) and he ate at a table groaning with exotic food. He does not even seem to have had to do any work. A lifestyle dreamed of by many. At the foot of his table is a poor man called Lazarus. His condition was pitiable. He was so hungry he would have been happy to eat any scraps which fell to the floor. An indication of his misery was that he did not even have the strength to drive away dogs that licked the ulcers on his body. Dogs were regarded as highly unclean and would not be allowed to approach an ordinary person. Yet it is Lazarus who, on his death, is taken straight to God while the rich man was buried in Hades, cut off forever from God. Yet the rich man had done nothing to the poor man. He had not scolded him or driven him off. But that is precisely the point; the rich man did nothing to help his poor brother. If we cannot see God in the needy around us and care for them then how can we love God.