Luke 16
Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.
“And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’
“And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
“Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
“And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
“Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
“And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable 1in the sight of God.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
“And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
“Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
“In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
“And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’
“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
“But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’
“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
What does this story tell us about God? 2-3 attributes that stand out to you. Be prepared to discuss.
What does this story tell us about people? Same.
If this is God’s word for our lives what changes will we make in response to it? It helps to express these as “I will” statements. For example “I will listen to other people before I …”
Who am I going to tell?
Known as one of the most difficult parables to interpret. Main reason: the dishonest steward is commended. Why? For taking decisive action in a crisis? Was the manager was applauded for for his astuteness, not his practices?
But perhaps we should understand it all in the light of the commercial practices of the day. Jews were forbidden to take interest from fellow-Jews when they lent them money (Exod. 22:25; Lev. 25:36; Deut. 23:19). Those who wished to make money from loans evaded this by reasoning that the law was concerned to prohibit the exploitation of the poor. It was not meant to forbid innocent transactions that were mutually beneficial and where the payment of interest amounted to the sharing of profits. If anyone had even a little of a given commodity he was not destitute and thus lending to him was not exploitation.
Whatever was borrowed was given a value in oil or wheat (say, eighty measures of wheat), the interest added on (say, twenty measures), and the bond made out for the repayment of the total in terms of oil or wheat (in this case one hundred measures). The transaction was usurious, but the bond gave no indication of this. Commonly such transactions were carried out by stewards, ostensibly without the owner’s knowledge. Understood in this way, the parable presents us with a steward who, faced with the loss of his employment, protected his future by calling in the bonds and getting the debtors to rewrite them so that they no longer carried interest. He looked to their gratitude to express itself by their taking him into their homes. His action put the owner in a difficult position. He would have the greatest of difficulty in establishing his claim to the original amounts now that the first bonds were destroyed. In any case he could not repudiate the steward’s action without convicting himself of taking usury. It would be extremely difficult to obtain his legal rights and in the process he would convict himself of acting impiously. So he put the best face possible on the situation and ‘commended’ the steward, thus securing an undeserved reputation for piety. The steward was now seen as conforming to the law of God and the owner as applauding this. Both were acting decisively in a difficult situation.
1-2: This story is addressed to the disciples with the pharisees listening in.
The manager/steward was typically a slave put in charge of an estate to take over routine management responsibilities from the owner.
Here, it appears, the manager was not a slave because he would not be able to enter into contracts on behalf of his boss.
He was accused of wasting his boss' goods/resources. The verb for wasting is the same used of the prodigal in ch 15.
The way the job worked, it was easy for the manager to be careless or misuse funds for his own purposes.
Owner found out, fired but before, get the books ready for an audit.
3-4: I've got it. Suddenly inspired, he sees the way to be taken in by people who own money to his boss.
5-6: First debtor owns about 8 3/4 gallons of oil on a debt of about 875 gallons of oil (what is produced by about 146 olive trees). A BIG debt. Reduce the bill to 50.
7: Second debtor. Reduce the wheat owed from 1000 bushels to 800. The harvest from about 100 acres. A different currency/commodity.
We should probably understand that the steward continued the process with the other debtors.
8: Master is in an awkward position. If the manager is getting rid of bad contracts, to correct him would be to say he himself is corrupt.
Only thing to do is make the most of the situation and endorse what the manager is doing - making things right.
It might be presumed that the steward had entered the usurious contracts without his knowledge and now he piously praised their cancellation. That the steward is called dishonest may be the master’s protest against the way he had been deprived of his money in these transactions, or it may indicate his conviction that the steward had been dishonest from the beginning (1f.)
If it is not a matter of usurious contracts, we must feel that the master appreciated the fact that he had been outwitted by a smart rogue and paid his tribute to the wisdom, though not the morality, of the act. He did not say that he was pleased. He simply admired the astuteness of the steward while doubtless deploring its effect on himself.
16-17:
The kingdom is Jesus’ favourite topic of teaching (see on 4:43). It stands for the rule of God in all of life.
Those pressing into the kingdom must be at least as much in earnest as the violent men of Palestine who tried to bring it in by force of arms. In the context we may think of people like the astute steward. When they see the value of entrance to God’s kingdom they are ready to force their way in, in contrast to the Pharisees who did not make use of their opportunity.
19-31
This man had all he asked in life and lived a life of enjoyable ease. He is not said to have committed any grave sin, but he lived only for himself. That was his condemnation.
Lazarus means God has helped.
Lazarus lay at the gate of the other, the word denoting a large gate or portico like that of a city or a palace. The house was a grand one. Full of sores points to physical misery and this is emphasized with the detail that the pariah dogs licked his sores. His destitution comes out in the information that he desired to be fed (not necessarily was fed) with what fell from the rich man’s table. The one man had all he wanted; the other had nothing.
Abraham’s bosom. The expression is not common, but plainly it denotes felicity. Some see in it the relationship of child to parent (cf. John 1:18), but it is better to see a contrast between the table at the opening of the story and Lazarus at table with Abraham (for seating at table see note on 14:7). The bliss of the saved is pictured as a great feast in which the favoured one reclines with his head on the bosom of the great patriarch (in the manner of John 13:23; cf. Matt. 8:11).
Hades is normally a colourless term, signifying the abode of all the departed whether good or bad. In the New Testament, however, it is never used of the saved. Here it seems to be equivalent to Gehenna, the place of punishment, for the rich man was in torment.
There is a note of unconscious arrogance in his attitude to Lazarus, for he assumes that he can have the poor man sent across to do him service (unless his words mean no more than that he was ready to accept the slightest alleviation from any source). He has not realized that earth’s values no longer apply.
In life the rich man had had his good things. The adjective your is significant. He had had what he chose. He could have spent time with the things of God and delighted in the word of God. He could have served the poor (Lazarus was right there).
He had chosen what he wanted and now he must abide by his choice. Lazarus had received evil things. In this case there is no ‘his’. Lazarus had not been responsible for the evils he had suffered.
A different set of values is now in operation. Justice is done.
The afterlife is not passing from one state to another. There is a permanent separation in the afterlife.
First time in the story the rich man shows interest in others (not the poor, but his own, people close to him, like him - his 5 brothers).
Again assumes Lazarus would serve him by warning his brothers. Still feels superior.
And says he wasn't treated fairly. Had he been given all the information he needed, he would have acted differently (THIS IS RELEVANT ON SO MANY LEVELS).
Lazarus doesn't complain about his hard life nor gloats over the rich man's demise or is resentful the rich man tries to have him run errands.
Lazarus accepts what God gives him.
Moses means the writings of Moses.
Prophets points to the whole of Scripture.
+The bible gives the brothers all they need. It was in their life, part of their people's faith heritage. If they ignore it, it's on them.
Implication: The rich man neglected Scripture and it's teaching on life as God intended; proper use of resources, caring for the poor, etc.
Not the case with Lazarus who was treated to be outside the faith.
Last shot: If they have a sign - someone raised from the dead goes to them, they will change their ways. Nope.
If someone can't live the way God intended with the Old Testament in his hand and Lazarus on his doorstep (opportunity right in front of him), nothing will bring convince him or her otherwise to change.
Luke's readers would have recognized the reference to Jesus' being raised from the dead. Those who refuse to see Jesus in the Scriptures and do what is written in them refused to be convinced by the One who was raised from the dead.