Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 43
The Rich Man and Lazarus
He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
For parents
In the story Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus, a beggar covered with sores is brought to a rich man’s gate. When both men die, the angels carry the beggar to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man is in torment in Hades, suffering in a flame (Luke 16:19–31). Jesus also speaks of divorce and adultery (16:18). He says it would be better for anyone who makes one of these little ones stumble to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea (17:2). It is told plainly and softly, as Jesus says it.
also said to his , “A rich man had a manager, and he heard an accusation that this manager was wasting his possessions.
“He called the manager in. ‘What’s this I hear about you?’ he said. ‘Give me a report on your work as manager, because you can’t be manager here anymore.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do, now that my master is taking away my place as manager? I have no strength for digging, and I’d be ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I lose my place, they’ll take me into their homes.’
“He called in the people who owed his master, one at a time. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘A hundred of oil,’ the man said.” A hundred batos was about a hundred and four gallons. “The manager told him, ‘Here’s your bill. Sit down quickly and write fifty.’
“Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ The man said, ‘A hundred of wheat.’” A hundred cors was about six hundred bushels. “The manager told him, ‘Here’s your bill. Write eighty.’
“His master praised the dishonest manager for acting wisely, because the children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of the light.”
“I tell you,” Jesus went on, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous , so that when you fail, they will welcome you into the eternal tents.
“Someone who is faithful in a very little is faithful in much as well. Someone who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
“So if you haven’t been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will put the true riches in your care? And if you haven’t been faithful with what is someone else’s, who will give you what is yours?
“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold on to one and look down on the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.”
The heard all this too. They were lovers of money, and they scoffed at Jesus.
Jesus told them, “You make yourselves out to be righteous in front of people, but God knows your hearts. What people hold high is hateful in the sight of God.
“The law and the were until . From that time on, the Good News of God’s Kingdom 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 tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall.
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits . He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.”
“Now there was a rich man,” Jesus went on, “who wore purple and fine linen, living in luxury day after day.
“A beggar named was brought to his gate, covered with sores. He longed to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. And the dogs even came and licked his sores.
“When the beggar died, the carried him away to . The rich man died too, and was buried.
“In the rich man was in torment. He looked up. Far off he saw , and Lazarus at his bosom.
“He cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus so he can dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, since I’m suffering in this flame.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember: you received your good things in your lifetime, and in the same way Lazarus received bad things. Now he is comforted here, while you are suffering. Besides all this, a great gulf is fixed in place between us and you, so that anyone who wants to cross from here to you can’t, and no one can cross over from there to us.’
“‘I ask you, then, father,’ the rich man said, ‘send him to my father’s house. I have five brothers. Let him testify to them, so that they won’t come to this place of torment too.’
“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said. ‘But if anyone goes to them from the dead, they will .’
“Abraham said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, then even if someone rises from the dead, they won’t be persuaded.’”
Jesus said to the disciples, “Things that make people stumble are sure to come. But to the person they come through!
“It would be better for him to have a hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea than to make one of these little ones stumble.
“Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the same day, and seven times comes back and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
The said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
“Suppose one of you has a servant out plowing or keeping sheep. When the servant comes in from the field, will his master say to him, ‘Come right away and sit down at the table’? Won’t he tell him instead, ‘Fix my supper. Get dressed properly and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you can eat and drink’?
“Does he thank that servant for doing as he was told? I don’t think so.
“So it is with you too. When you have done all the things you were commanded to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’”