Luke 16 To Whom Much Is Given Much is Expected!

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The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Jesus once again uses his favorite teaching tool parables. Parables were earthly analogies which put forth a spiritual truth. Parables showed how God’s kingdom came on earth as it is in heaven. 

The subject of money has always been challenging for Christians. Though the love of money is the root of all evil, in itself it is amoral. This is why this parable Jesus teaches his disciples is so interesting.  

In the parable, a manager has not being doing a good job and is about to be fired. So, he goes to his existing clients and reduces their bill, which is better than collecting nothing. When he returns to his master, he is commended for being  a shrewd manager  

Then, comes the punchline  Jesus says one use wealth in this world to make friends in this life. He says that people in the world are more shrewd than his followers. This tells us that when God blesses Christians with money, he expects them to use it wisely. It also shows that God has no problem with Christians acquiring wealth, if they use it wisely for the kingdom. 

Further it says that if God has entrusted money to us, he expects us to use it wisely. If we do more will be entrusted to us. Jesus finishes with a warning that money can become your master.  He reminds them they cannot serve both God and money. 

The Pharisees, who were all about money, sneered at Jesus. Unlike the faithful manager, money had changed their hearts.  They loved money and it was their master.  

Additional Teachings 

Jesus was teaching and preaching that the kingdom of God had draw near, but others took this as an opening to take the kingdom of God forcibly.  Jesus made it clear that although the kingdom of God had come in through him, it did not abolish the Law.

People could not claim they were advancing the kingdom while breaking the Old Testament law of Moses.  He gives the example of divorce. If a man divorced his wife, he could not marry another wife, or else he would be committing adultery.  

Jesus uplifted the ideal of marriage here. Under the new covenant, God still requires obedience to the Law  

The Rich Man and Lazarus 

In this story there was a rich man, who was living in the lap of luxury and a man named Lazarus, who sat by the rich man’s gate just hoping for a scrap of bread.  It seems that the rich man did nothing to help Lazarus.

Both the rich man and Lazarus died. The rich man ended up in hell and was agonizing in the fire.  Meanwhile, the poor man was at Abraham’s side presumably in heaven.  The rich man begged Abraham to come and at least give him some water to cool the tip of his tongue. 

But Abraham said that the rich man had enjoyed his life, while the poor man suffered. Now the tables were turned.  Besides there was a wall between the rich man and Abraham, which could not be moved. So in his last attempt; he asked Lazarus to go and tell his family about these things so they would not end up in hell like he did.  

But, Abraham said that if they would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not listen to someone who rose from the dead.  The rich man now had become the beggar. 

The mention of the five brothers is the first indication that the rich man thought about anyone except himself. Unfortunately, his concern for others came when it was too late to do any good. - Guzik 

The rich man immediately objected, knowing that his family did not take Moses and the prophets seriously. He desperately hoped that if someone came The rich man immediately objected, knowing that his family did not take Moses and the prophets seriously. He desperately hoped that if someone came from the dead, it would be more convincing than the Word of God. Yet it would not be more convincing, because if they would not believe because of God’s Word, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.