Parables on Astute Worldly Relationships
Luke 16Now Jesus said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was wasting his possessions. So he called him and asked, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, because you can no longer be manager.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my master is taking the management away from me? I don’t have the strength to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg. I know what I will do so that when I am removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’ So he called each one of his masters’s debtors.
He said, ‘A hundred measures of olive oil.’
Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’
“His master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd than the children of the light in dealing with their own people.
I am telling y’all, y’all must make friends for yourselves* by using unrighteous wealth so that when it runs out, y’all will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever is faithful in a very little is also faithful with much. Whoever is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest with much. So if y’all have not been faithful with unrighteous wealth, who will trust y’all’s with true riches? And if y’all haven’t been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give y’all what is your* own? No servant can serve two masters. A person will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. Y’all can’t serve both God and wealth.”
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this and scoffed at him. Jesus said to them, “Y’all are the ones who justify yourselves* in the sight of humans, but God knows y’all’s hearts. For what is highly esteemed by humans is detestable in the sight of God.
“The Law and the Prophets lead up to John. Since then, the gospel of the Empire of God is proclaimed, and everyone is strongly urged to enter it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the Law to drop out.
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen, happily living in luxury every day. A poor man named Lazarus was dropped off at his gate, full of sores. He longed to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table, but instead the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. While he was in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus by his side. So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and y’all, so that those who want to pass from here to y’all are not able, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
“He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, to warn them, so that they won’t also come to this place of torment.’
“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. They should listen to them.’
“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
“But he told him, ‘If they didn’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”