‘Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day,'
The story opens with the picture of a man who according to Pharisaic teaching was a man blessed by God. He was wealthy, he dressed in the most sumptuous of clothing, he ate at a well-filled table. He saw himself as ‘almost royalty'. He would have been admired and respected, and have been seen as a good example by all, for nothing bad was known about him. And all thought how fortunate he was. He was shielded from the problems of life that faced most people, a picture of total (but selfish and self-satisfied) contentment. His clothing, if not his life, was modelled on the woman in Proverbs 31:22. But whereas for her it was a sign of her industry, for him it was a sign of his total self-sufficiency and selfishness.