The Savior for All: You Cannot Serve God and Money

Luke 16 is the Savior's confrontation with the love of money.

He tells two parables. The first — about a dishonest manager — is one of the strangest in the Gospels. The second — about a rich man and Lazarus — is one of the most sobering.

Between them, He says plainly:

"You cannot serve God and money."

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, ridicule Him. He answers them with a parable that ends in the flames of Hades.

The Savior for All has come to set us free from every master that would enslave the soul — including the master of money.

The dishonest manager

He tells His disciples a parable. There was a rich man who had a manager. Charges were brought to him that this manager was wasting his possessions. He called him in: What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

The manager said to himself: What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first: How much do you owe my master?

He said: A hundred measures of oil.

He said to him: Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.

Then to another: How much do you owe?

A hundred measures of wheat. Take your bill, and write eighty.

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

Jesus draws the lesson:

"For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light."

"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."

The point is not to be dishonest. The point is to be as clever about eternity as worldly people are about money. Use your money in a way that pays dividends in heaven, not just on earth.

Faithfulness in little

"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much."

The way you handle small money reveals the way you handle big money. The way you handle worldly money reveals whether you can be trusted with the true riches.

"If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?"

You cannot serve two masters

"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

This is one of the sharpest sayings of the Savior. There is no negotiated peace between these two masters. One will win.

The Pharisees, who are lovers of money, hear all these things and ridicule Him.

He says:

"You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

The respectable can be the most lost. What the world admires, God may abhor.

The Law and the Kingdom

"The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void."

He affirms the Law's enduring authority — and then gives one example by addressing divorce. The Law still binds.

The rich man and Lazarus

He tells another parable.

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.

And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out:

"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 anguish in this flame."

Abraham said:

"Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish."

"And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us."

Death fixes the gulf. What was decided in life remains decided in eternity. There is no second chance after the grave.

"They have Moses and the Prophets"

The rich man pleads:

"Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house — for I have five brothers — so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment."

Abraham says:

"They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them."

The rich man says: No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

Abraham says:

"If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

This is a devastating verdict.

The same Scripture that the religious leaders memorized was the Scripture they refused to obey. If they would not believe Moses and the Prophets, even the resurrection of the dead would not convince them. (And the resurrection of Christ did not convince them, as the rest of Luke and Acts will show.)

The Savior for All warns that the gospel is in the Word. Those who will not be moved by what is written will not be moved by anything more dramatic.

The verdict on the rich man

Notice what the rich man is not condemned for. He is not condemned for being rich. He is not condemned for doing anything explicitly evil to Lazarus.

He is condemned for living in luxury at the gate of suffering — and never noticing. He stepped over Lazarus every day. He could have helped at any time. He did nothing.

The poor man even had a name. The rich man does not.

In the Kingdom of God, the priorities of the world are reversed. The known become unknown. The unnamed are named. The forgotten are remembered.

The Savior for All does not let us read this parable and think that man. He wants us to ask: Who is Lazarus at my gate? Whom do I step over every day?

Closing prayer

Father, save us from serving the master of money. Free us to be faithful in the very little, so that You can entrust us with true riches. Open our eyes to the Lazarus at our gate, and give us hearts to act before death fixes the gulf. Make us those who hear Moses and the Prophets — and most of all Christ — and respond while there is still time. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Savior for All: You Cannot Serve God and Money

Luke 16 is the Savior's confrontation with the love of money.

He tells two parables. The first — about a dishonest manager — is one of the strangest in the Gospels. The second — about a rich man and Lazarus — is one of the most sobering.

Between them, He says plainly:

"You cannot serve God and money."

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, ridicule Him. He answers them with a parable that ends in the flames of Hades.

The Savior for All has come to set us free from every master that would enslave the soul — including the master of money.

The dishonest manager

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first: How much do you owe my master?

He said: A hundred measures of oil.

He said to him: Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.

Then to another: How much do you owe?

A hundred measures of wheat. Take your bill, and write eighty.

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

Jesus draws the lesson:

"For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light."

"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."

The point is not to be dishonest. The point is to be as clever about eternity as worldly people are about money. Use your money in a way that pays dividends in heaven, not just on earth.

Faithfulness in little

"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much."

The way you handle small money reveals the way you handle big money. The way you handle worldly money reveals whether you can be trusted with the true riches.

"If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?"

You cannot serve two masters

"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

This is one of the sharpest sayings of the Savior. There is no negotiated peace between these two masters. One will win.

The Pharisees, who are lovers of money, hear all these things and ridicule Him.

He says:

"You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

The respectable can be the most lost. What the world admires, God may abhor.

The Law and the Kingdom

"The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void."

He affirms the Law's enduring authority — and then gives one example by addressing divorce. The Law still binds.

The rich man and Lazarus

He tells another parable.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.

And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out:

"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 anguish in this flame."

Abraham said:

"Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish."

"And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us."

Death fixes the gulf. What was decided in life remains decided in eternity. There is no second chance after the grave.

"They have Moses and the Prophets"

The rich man pleads:

"Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house — for I have five brothers — so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment."

Abraham says:

"They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them."

The rich man says: No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

Abraham says:

"If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

This is a devastating verdict.

The Savior for All warns that the gospel is in the Word. Those who will not be moved by what is written will not be moved by anything more dramatic.

The verdict on the rich man

Notice what the rich man is not condemned for. He is not condemned for being rich. He is not condemned for doing anything explicitly evil to Lazarus.

He is condemned for living in luxury at the gate of suffering — and never noticing. He stepped over Lazarus every day. He could have helped at any time. He did nothing.

The poor man even had a name. The rich man does not.

In the Kingdom of God, the priorities of the world are reversed. The known become unknown. The unnamed are named. The forgotten are remembered.

The Savior for All does not let us read this parable and think that man. He wants us to ask: Who is Lazarus at my gate? Whom do I step over every day?