Luke
Chapter 16
Overview
Jesus speaks first to his followers, then answers Pharisees—members of a respected Jewish religious movement—who mock his teaching because they love money. He tells stories that expose what wealth can reveal about a person’s loyalties. The chapter moves from a dishonest manager’s clever response to crisis, through warnings about faithfulness and divided devotion, to a rich man who discovers too late that comfort can hide another person’s suffering. Money looks powerful here, yet it also proves strangely temporary: what people possess matters less than what their choices show about them.
1Jesus also said to his followers, “There was a rich man who had a manager. The manager was accused of wasting his property.
2So the rich man called him in and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a full account of how you have managed my property, because you can no longer be my manager.’
3The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do now that my master is taking my position away? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
4I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position, people will welcome me into their homes.’
5He called in everyone who owed his master something. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6The man answered, ‘One hundred large jars of olive oil.’ The manager told him, ‘Take your account, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
7Then he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’ The man answered, ‘One hundred large measures of wheat.’ The manager told him, ‘Take your account and write eighty.’
8The master praised the dishonest manager because he had acted cleverly. Jesus explained, “In dealing with people like themselves, the people who belong to this age are more clever than those who belong to the light.
9I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when the wealth is gone, you may be welcomed into an eternal home.
10Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
11So if you have not been trustworthy with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what has true value?
12And if you have not been trustworthy with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is meant to be yours?
13No household servant can serve two masters. The servant will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth.”
14The Pharisees heard all this. Because they loved money, they made fun of Jesus.
15He told them, “You make yourselves look right in front of other people, but God knows your hearts. What people admire as great can be disgusting in God’s sight.
16The Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets guided people until John came. Since then, the good news of God’s rule has been announced, and everyone is pressing urgently toward it.
17Yet it would be easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for even the smallest stroke of a letter in the Law to lose its force.
18Every man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. A man who marries a woman divorced from her husband also commits adultery.
19There was a rich man who dressed in purple cloth and fine linen and enjoyed splendid luxury every day.
20A poor man named Lazarus, whose body was covered with sores, had been laid at the rich man’s gate.
21He longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22The poor man died, and the angels carried him to the place of honor beside Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
23In the realm of the dead, the rich man was in torment. He looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus beside him.
24He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering terribly in this flame.’
25But Abraham said, ‘My child, remember that during your life you received your good things, while Lazarus received terrible things. Now he is being comforted here, while you are suffering.
26Besides all this, a huge gulf has been fixed between us and you. Those who want to cross from here to you cannot, and no one can cross from there to us.’
27The rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house,
28because I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29But Abraham said, ‘They have the writings of Moses and the prophets. They should listen to them.’
30The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will change their hearts and lives.’
31Abraham told him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’