John Calvin Commentary Luke 16:23

"And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." — Luke 16:23 (ASV)

And, lifting up his eyes in hell. Though Christ is relating a history, he describes spiritual things using figures of speech, which he knew to be adapted to our senses.

Souls have neither fingers nor eyes, and are not liable to thirst, nor do they hold such conversations among themselves as are described here as taking place between Abraham and the rich man. Instead, our Lord has drawn a picture here that represents the condition of the life to come according to the measure of our capacity.

The general truth conveyed is that believing souls, after they have left their bodies, lead a joyful and blessed life beyond this world. For the reprobate, dreadful torments are prepared, which can no more be conceived by our minds than can the boundless glory of the heavens.

Since it is only in a small measure—only to the extent that we are enlightened by the Spirit of God—that we taste by hope the glory promised to us, which far exceeds all our senses, let it be reckoned enough that the inconceivable vengeance of God, which awaits the ungodly, is communicated to us in an obscure manner, to the extent necessary to strike terror into our minds.

On these subjects, the words of Christ give us slender information, and in a manner that is fitted to restrain curiosity.

The wicked are described as fearfully tormented by the misery they feel. They desire some relief but are cut off from hope, thus experiencing a double torment. Their anguish is further increased by being compelled to remember their crimes and to compare the present blessedness of believers with their own miserable and lost condition.

In connection with this, a conversation is related, as if persons who have no communication with each other were supposed to talk together. When the rich man says, Father Abraham, this expresses an additional torment: that he perceives, when it is too late, that he is cut off from the number of the children of Abraham.