God and money: the shrewd manager, the Law that stands, and the rich man and Lazarus

Luke 16 stands in the third Gospel, which tradition ascribes to Luke, the physician and companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24). Early writers such as Irenaeus say so, and many scholars accept it, though some critical scholars question whether the author knew Paul. The Gospel is addressed to Theophilus (1:3) and is usually thought to be written for a mainly Gentile, Greek-speaking readership. Dates from the early 60s to the 80s have been argued. Luke tells Theophilus that he wants him to be sure of what he has been taught, and he gives unusual space to teaching on money and the poor.

That concern gives the chapter its setting. Luke's Gospel opens with the praise of a God who fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty (1:53), and its teaching on wealth appears in the beatitudes and woes (6:20-26), the rich fool (12:13-21), the great banquet (14:12-24) and the rich ruler (18:18-25). Most of Luke 16 is found only in Luke. The sayings in verses 13 and 16-18 have parallels in Matthew (6:24; 11:12-13; 5:18, 32), and the divorce saying also in Mark 10:11-12. This is why scholars who accept a shared sayings source assign them to it, while others see Luke drawing on Matthew. The parable of the shrewd manager and the story of Lazarus have no parallel.

The immediate setting is the travel narrative (9:51-19:44) and the dispute of chapter 15. Jesus has just defended his welcome of sinners to Pharisees and scribes. Now he turns to his disciples, and in verse 14 the Pharisees, whom Luke calls lovers of money, listen and scoff. The background is a world where wealth was often read as a sign of God's favour, and where debts, land and patrons ordered everyone's life.

The chapter has two parables and a block of sayings between them, and the whole is about the proper use of wealth and the authority of Scripture. The first parable is one of the hardest in the Gospels. A rich man's manager is accused of wasting his master's goods. Facing dismissal, he cuts the bills of the master's debtors to make friends, and the master commends him. The commendation is for shrewdness and not for dishonesty: the Greek calls him a manager of unrighteousness yet says he acted wisely. Interpreters differ on what was dishonest. Some think the manager cancelled the interest or commission that was his own, so he gave up only his own profit. Others think he really defrauded the master. In either reading the point is that the manager acted decisively in light of an approaching crisis, and the disciples are urged to use worldly wealth with the future in view. It is also unclear whether 'the master' who commends him in verse 8 is the rich man or Jesus. The class follows the many commentators who take it to be the rich man.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is a narrative of reversal. It is the only parable in the Gospels in which a character is named. It is not obvious whether it is a parable or an account of actual people, and its purpose is not to give a full map of the afterlife. Readers should not build a detailed doctrine of the intermediate state from images such as the flame, the water and the chasm without testing them against the rest of Scripture. Its aim is the closing point about listening to Moses and the prophets.

Verses 1–9

A rich man hears that his manager has been squandering his property and demands an account. The manager, who is too weak to dig and ashamed to beg, plans to win friends who will receive him into their homes. He summons the debtors one by one.

• The first owes a hundred measures of olive oil and is told to write fifty.
• The second owes a hundred measures of wheat and is told to write eighty. These are large amounts, and the debtors will remember the favour. The master commends the manager for acting shrewdly. Jesus then says that the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light, and that his hearers should use worldly wealth to make friends so that when it fails they will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The lesson is not to copy the dishonesty but the foresight: use what you have now in the light of what is coming.

Verses 10–13

Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful in much, and the unrighteous in little is unrighteous in much. If the disciples have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust them with true riches? If they have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give them their own? Then comes the central saying: no servant can serve two masters, for he will hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. The Aramaic word behind money, mamonas, is a word for property or wealth, and Jesus personifies it as a rival master.

Verses 14–18

The Pharisees, who loved money, hear all this and ridicule him. Jesus tells them that they justify themselves before people, but God knows their hearts, and what is highly valued among people is an abomination in God's sight. He then says that the Law and the Prophets were until John, and since then the kingdom of God is preached and everyone presses into it. The Greek verb for 'presses' can be read as middle or passive, and the sense is disputed, as is the similar saying in Matthew 11:12. Verse 17 guards against a misreading: it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the Law to fall. The kingdom does not cancel the Law. Verse 18 then gives an example of the Law's continued force: whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. The saying is a hard one, and its link to the surrounding text may be that the leaders who claim to keep the Law do not keep it in practice.

Verses 19–26

A rich man dressed in purple and fine linen feasts every day. At his gate lies a beggar named Lazarus, his body covered with sores and longing for the crumbs from the rich man's table, while the dogs come and lick his sores. Lazarus, a form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, means 'God helps'. Both die. Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham's side, probably a place of honour at the heavenly banquet. The rich man is buried and in Hades he is in torment. He sees Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side and calls to him as father Abraham, asking for Lazarus to cool his tongue with the tip of a finger. Abraham addresses him as child and says that he received good things in his lifetime and Lazarus bad, and now their places are reversed. Between them is a great chasm. The rich man is not accused of an outrageous crime. The failure is that Lazarus lay at his gate and he did nothing.

Verses 27–31

The rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to his five brothers to warn them. Abraham says they have Moses and the prophets and should listen to them. The man protests that if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent. Abraham answers that if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. The Scriptures are enough, and a sign will not take their place.

The chapter teaches that wealth is a trust and a rival. The Old Testament Law ordered care for the poor (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) and the prophets condemned those who feasted while the poor lay outside (Amos 6:4-7; Isaiah 58:6-7). Jesus' words here press the same truth: no one can be devoted to both God and money. Faithfulness with little is the training for faithfulness with more, and all possessions belong to another, that is, to God.

It also teaches that the Scriptures are sufficient to lead people to repentance. Moses and the prophets, read rightly, announce the need for justice and mercy, and a person who is deaf to them will not be persuaded by a spectacular sign. This echoes the Old Testament view of the Word as the sure guide (Isaiah 8:20; Psalm 19:7-11). The story also presents the chasm after death as fixed, and the reversal of fortunes as real. Christians differ on what the passage shows about the intermediate state between death and resurrection, and the class does not build detailed doctrine from its imagery.

The closing line speaks of one who might rise from the dead. This is an echo that points ahead to Jesus' own resurrection, and Luke shows the warning coming true: many are not persuaded even by it. In Luke 24 the risen Jesus does what Abraham says is enough. He opens Moses and all the Prophets, and explains the things written about himself (24:27, 44). The same Scriptures the rich man's brothers should have heard are the ones that speak of the Christ. Abraham's words thus tie together the Old Testament as witness and the resurrection as confirmation.

Jesus also stands at the turning point of history that verse 16 names. The Law and the Prophets were until John, and since then the kingdom is preached. The Law is not set aside (verse 17), but the coming of the kingdom in Jesus gives it its fulfilment. Jesus claims authority to say what the Law means, as in the saying on divorce, in which he speaks with a right to interpret that Matthew 5:17-48 sets out at greater length. And the reversal of Lazarus and the rich man matches the promises of his mother's song (1:52-53) and his own teaching that the kingdom belongs to the poor (6:20).