Pharisees | Knowable Word

Sharon McCutcheon (2018), public domain

In my last article, I described my latest experiment. In preparing to lead my small group through Luke 16, I read the chapter as many times as possible.

In this article I’ll provide the results.

An Overview

There are three sections to Luke 16.

The Dishonest Manager (verses 1–13)

Jesus begins the chapter with a story of a rich man and a dishonest manager. The manager squandered the man’s possessions and was fired. On the way out, he had to give an account of his business transactions (Luke 16:2).

The manager called the man’s debtors and cut their bills. He aimed to gain favor with these debtors in hopes of securing his next employment.

The rich man praised the manager “because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8). Jesus extracted principles about money from this story (Luke 16:8–13).

The Pharisees (verses 13–18)

Pharisees were listening and scoffed at Jesus (Luke 16:13). Jesus rebuked the Pharisees as those who justified themselves and sought only what is praised by men (Luke 16:15).

Jesus then spoke about the relationship between the Law and the Prophets and the preaching of the gospel (Luke 16:16–18).

The Rich Man and Lazarus (verses 19–31)

The chapter concludes with the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man lived lavishly while Lazarus suffered severely just outside the rich man’s gate. After death, the rich man cried out from Hades to Lazarus and Abraham in heaven for relief.

The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to his family to warn them (Luke 16:28). Abraham told him that Moses and the Prophets were warning enough.

Themes in Luke 16

The major themes in Luke 16 become obvious when we pay attention to repetition: money and the law and the prophets.

The “rich man” is a character in two stories in this chapter. In between, after Jesus says “You cannot serve God and wealth,” the Pharisees are introduced as “lovers of money.” There is also instruction on wealth in Luke 16:8–12.

Earlier portions of Luke (Luke 6:1–11, Luke 11:37–54, Luke 14:1–6) show the Pharisees’ devotion to and distortion of the law and the prophets, so the Pharisees’ self-justification is likely related to the law. Jesus then talks about the preaching of the law and the preaching of the gospel, concluding that not even one stroke of a letter of the Law will fail (Luke 16:17). Abraham tells the rich man that the law (Moses) and the prophets should be enough to bring his family to repentance.

How Rereading Brought Clarity

It didn’t take long for me to identify the most confusing verse in this chapter.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:9)

By reading this chapter multiple times, I began to see the structure of the passage, and this helped me grasp the main point. (Most commentaries on Luke were not helpful, because they took the text in too-small portions. Despite good analysis of the trees, there was no analysis of the forest.)

When we consider the context of a passage, we usually look backward: an earlier passage sheds light on a later one. In this chapter the opposite is true.

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus shines a spotlight on the rich man’s money (Luke 16:19). The rich man ignored Lazarus, who needed just a bit of the rich man’s abundance. Further, since wealth often runs in families, the rich man’s concern for his brothers (Luke 16:28) was a concern for other rich men. The rich man’s wealth produced a numbness in him toward his neighbor (Lazarus). Wealth is dangerous, as it can also lead to an ignorance of Moses and the Prophets (Luke 16:29–31).

We need this story to understand verse 9. The dishonest manager was shrewd with his master’s wealth, hoping to be welcomed into the homes of others, and Jesus praises this shrewdness. But, lest we think too highly of this manager, Jesus criticizes him in verses 10–12.

In contrast to the dishonest manager, the “sons of light” (verse 8) are to do better things with their wealth. He used wealth for worldly gains; followers of Jesus are to use wealth for heavenly gains.

Here’s the key. Money kept the rich man (at the end of the chapter) out of the eternal dwellings (verse 9). Christians are to use money in such a way that we make friends who can receive us into the eternal dwellings. This points to generosity.

The middle section of the chapter brings all of this together. You cannot serve God and wealth. In particular, you cannot serve God if you are a lover of money. However, you can (in fact, you must) serve God with your wealth.¹

Main Point and Conclusion

The main point of this chapter can be stated succinctly.

You cannot serve God and wealth, but you can (and must) serve God with your wealth.

I don’t claim a perfect understanding of this passage, but I owe the understanding I have to reading this passage multiple times. This practice unlocked the chapter’s structure for me, giving me insight into a confusing verse. I commend this discipline to you.

This interpretation depends on the phrase “unrighteous wealth” referring to wealth on earth as opposed to treasures in heaven, not wealth gained in an evil way. This interpretation depends on Luke 16:11. ↩

The main points of the Bible are the ones worth fighting for. Often, however, Christians disagree over things other than the main points. And while we’re not wrong to draw conclusions about secondary, debatable, or implied points, such conclusions must never drown out the Bible’s main points.

Alex Indigo (2008), Creative Commons

The Pharisees demonstrate the problem. As the fundamentalists of their day, they cared about God’s truth. They wanted to glorify God and live lives pleasing to him. They passionately protected important doctrines, and they went to great lengths to win converts and change the world.

But in the process of remembering good things, they forgot the best things.

They attended Bible studies to improve their lives, but they didn’t embrace Life when God sent him (John 5:39-40).

They promoted God’s moral standards to a degenerate, fallen world, but they plotted harm on the day designed for doing good (Mark 3:1-6).

They put God first over every relationship, but they neglected God’s own wishes for human relationships (Matthew 15:3-6).

Sometimes Jesus condemns them for doing the wrong things, but sometimes he condemns them for neglecting the best things. Consider this judgement in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt 23:23-24, ESV)

Notice that they should have continued tithing. They weren’t expected to exercise justice, mercy, or faithfulness instead of giving 10%. They were expected to exercise justice, mercy, and faithfulness in addition to it. They always drank skim milk, but then got caught eating too much ice cream.

Today, we likewise can get distracted from the Bible’s main points. The worst distractions are not bad things but good things. They’re not false teaching but true teaching. They’re not opposed to God’s kingdom but in favor of God’s kingdom. These distractions consist of things that should concern us, but they’re not the only things that should concern us. Nor are they the main things that should concern us. We should reserve plenty of bandwidth for the weightier matters.

For example, we study Genesis 1 and focus our discussion on the length or literalness of the days of creation. We spend so much time on the “what” that we forget to seek the “why,” and we mistakenly believe we know the “why” because we’ve discovered the “what.” We might get the “what” (“What is the length of each day?”), and we should try hard to get the “what.” But we must press on to get the “why” (“Why does the author tell the story of creation as a sequence of 7 days?”). We must not neglect the fact that God’s creative process sets the pattern for our lives on earth (Mark 10:6-9, 2 Cor 4:5-6, Heb 4:1-5). And we must not ignore Jesus—the creator, light, life, word, sustainer, ruler, subduer, multiplier, author of faith, image of the invisible God, and firstborn of all creation.

For another example, we study Hebrews 11 and trumpet the heroes of faith. And rightly so, as the text recounts their lives with much fanfare. But we must not miss the main point. It’s a faith hall of fame and not a works hall of fame. The point is not so much to show the greatness of these heroes as it is to show their smallness. We should fix our gaze on these heroes, but only as long as we keep Jesus in our field of vision. The heroes huddle around us, bearing witness to the real Hero, Jesus (Heb 12:1-2).

Finding a passage’s main point is hard work, but we must fight to get it. And once we’ve got it, we must fight to keep it.

What I Learned By Reading a Passage 25 Times