1. Brother of Martha and Mary, and a resident at Bethany. Jesus loved them all, and He spoke of Lazarus as 'our friend.' Very little is recorded of him except the striking fact that he was raised from the dead by the Lord Jesus, which manifested the glory of God and glorified the Son of God. When his sisters made the Lord a supper at Bethany, Lazarus was one of those who sat with Him. He was a living witness of the power of the Son of God over death, and as such he was in danger of being killed by the Jews, on account of many believing on the Lord because of him. John 11:1-43; John 12:1-17 .
2. The poor man in the parable of Luke 16 . His circumstances are related — his poverty, his sores, and his desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; but nothing is said as to his moral character. Neither is the rich man spoken of as a wicked man, though it is clear that he was living to himself and not to God; he was neither loving his neighbour as himself, nor was he sacrificing the present for the future. The teaching of the parable appears to be that worldly prosperity, which had been a token in O.T. times of God's blessing, was used to exclude the Blesser from the thoughts and life of the man rich in this world only. The poor man entered into Abraham's bosom, and the rich man into torments. Though a parable, it is a vivid picture of the reality of existence after death, and of the different conditions in that existence. Luke 16:19-31 .