Luke 16
A dismissed steward secures his future through debt reduction; a beggar named Lazarus dies and finds himself in Abraham's arms.
Summary
The parable of the dishonest manager presents an interpretive difficulty that has occupied commentators for centuries. A manager accused of mismanagement is called to account and dismissed. Before surrendering his position, he reduces the debts owed to his master by the master's debtors — one owed a hundred measures of oil gets the bill reduced to fifty; one owed a hundred measures of wheat gets the bill reduced to eighty. The manager's calculation is explicit: since he cannot dig and is ashamed to beg, he will create obligations that will result in his being received into homes after he loses his management. The commendation that follows is the master's commendation of the manager's shrewdness, not his honesty. The application Jesus draws is oblique but pointed: the children of this age are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light; use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. Faithfulness in small things and large; impossibility of serving two masters; the Pharisees who love money hearing all this and ridiculing it. Jesus answers: what is exalted among human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.
The story of Lazarus and the rich man is unique to Luke and is the only parable in any of the gospels in which a character has a proper name — Lazarus. The rich man dresses in purple and fine linen and feasts every day. At his gate lies Lazarus, covered in sores, longing for what falls from the table, while the dogs come and lick his sores. Both die. Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham's bosom; the rich man is buried and in Hades, in torment, and lifts his eyes and sees Abraham far away with Lazarus beside him. He appeals to Abraham — Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. Abraham answers that between them is fixed a great chasm that cannot be crossed in either direction. The rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to his father's house to warn his five brothers; Abraham says they have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead. The parable does not explain why the rich man is in torment and Lazarus is not, but the contrast in their earthly conditions is the story's ground.
- Luke 1Chapter 1 opens with a formal literary preface — Luke addresses a certain Theophilus and claims to have investigated everything carefully, setting himself apart as a self-conscious historian among the gospel writers.
- Luke 2Chapter 2 contains the nativity scene that dominates Western cultural memory of the gospels: the census under Quirinius, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth, the manger, the swaddling cloths, the angels appearing to shepherds in the fields at night.
- Luke 3Luke situates John's ministry with extraordinary chronological precision — the fifteenth year of Tiberius, the governorship of Pilate, the tetrarchies of Herod and Philip and Lysanias, the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
- Luke 4The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, where the devil offers him bread, political authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and divine protection — and is refused at each turn with a quotation from Deuteronomy.
- Luke 5By the Lake of Gennesaret, the crowds press against Jesus and he steps into Simon's empty boat to teach.
- Luke 6The chapter opens with two Sabbath controversies: the disciples pluck grain as they walk through fields, and Jesus defends them by citing David's eating the showbread when his men were hungry.
- Luke 7Three distinct episodes give chapter 7 its range.
- Luke 8Chapter 8 moves quickly across a range of narrative modes.
- Luke 9Chapter 9 is a turning-point chapter.
- Luke 10Jesus sends out seventy (some manuscripts say seventy-two) in pairs ahead of him into every town and place he intends to visit, with instructions similar to the twelve's but addressed to a larger group and a longer journey.
- Luke 11The chapter opens with Jesus praying in a certain place; when he stops, a disciple asks him to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples.
- Luke 12With ten thousand pressing around him, Jesus addresses the disciples first: beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- Luke 13Some report to Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
- Luke 14Jesus goes to eat at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, watched carefully by those present.
- Luke 15The Pharisees and scribes grumble that this man receives sinners and eats with them.
- Luke 16Chapter 16 contains two of Luke's most difficult parables.
- Luke 17The chapter opens with warnings about causing stumbling — better to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea — and the obligation to rebuke and forgive a brother who sins seven times in a day and repents each time.
- Luke 18Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow to teach that they ought always to pray and not lose heart: a widow in a city where a judge neither fears God nor respects people keeps coming to him demanding justice against her adversary; he eventually grants it not because of justice but because she is wearing him out.
- Luke 19Jericho contains the Zacchaeus scene, unique to Luke: a chief tax collector who is wealthy and short climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus over the crowd.
- Luke 20Chapter 20 is a series of confrontations in the temple.
- Luke 21Looking up at those putting gifts into the treasury, Jesus observes that a poor widow puts in two small copper coins — the smallest unit of currency — and says she has put in more than all of them, because they gave from their abundance and she from her poverty gave everything she had.
- Luke 22Satan enters Judas Iscariot and he goes to the chief priests to discuss how to betray Jesus.
- Luke 23The assembly brings Jesus to Pilate, accusing him of perverting the nation, forbidding tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be king.
- Luke 24Very early on the first day of the week, the women — Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others — bring spices to the tomb and find the stone rolled away.