Luke 17:1-10

Jesus calls us to a narrow (difficult) path.  Today’s passage gives us some great help in following Him faithfully.

·     *   Jesus stresses the importance of how His disciples live their lives, 17:1-4.

If we maintain the context, from Luke 16 and throughout this section on discipleship principles from Luke 9-16, Jesus’ words are clear.  Followers of Jesus must take seriously how they live, especially before those who are weak in the faith.  The little ones might refer to children or to those who are young in the faith.  Jesus pronounces a woe on those whose lives offend others so that they do not enter the kingdom (cf. Lk. 11:37-50).

One way we offend is when we allow the offenses of others in this life to get in the way of following Christ.  This is a major issue for Jesus in training His disciples (Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35; Mark 11:25-26) and for life in the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 2:10-11; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).

·        *Jesus explains the attitude by which His disciples can live their lives, 17:5-10.

Jesus insistence in 17:1-4 leads the disciples to an amazing moment of honesty when they cry out, Increase our faith.  The path is too difficult.  

Jesus’ answer is to say that what He calls for is doable.  First He says the need for the disciples is not for more faith.   When Jesus chided His disciples for their little faith (Mt. 8:26) it was because they had faith for some things but not for others.  It wasn’t the amount of faith but the exercise of faith in every situation.  Faith is, by definition, the absence of unbelief.  The man who cried out to Jesus help my unbelief (Mark 9:24) had it right.  Simple faith in the situation is all that is needed.  Jesus is telling His disciples: you just need to walk in the faith you have.  Paul said this in Col. 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.  The faith that it takes to have our sins forgiven and to be made right with God is the faith by which we live the life of Christ.

For those hung up on another of Jesus’ hyperboles (He also used one in 17:2 about drowning those who offend), the point is not that we should be able at any time to toss a mulberry tree into the sea.  No one, to my knowledge, including Jesus, ever did this.  That is not the point.  We can never have faith for God to do what is not God’s will.  Again, the point is we only need faith as a mustard seed.

Jesus also says that following Him in obedience should be considered our normal life.  This is a matter of attitude.  If we settle the issue of servanthood following Jesus faithfully becomes much easier.  We are the slaves of the one we obey (John 8:34-36; Rom. 6:16).  If we see ourselves as slaves of Christ we will see that the flesh/Spirit struggle is much less of a struggle (Gal. 5:16-18).

Following Jesus is doable IF we walk in faith, trusting our Master to always lead us in the right way.

Luke 16:19-31

Good things can be accomplished through money (16:8-9) but the love of money can keep us from God.  The Pharisees put their trust in money and that was a problem.  The parable in today’s reading illustrates this.

·    *    The Rich Man and Lazarus, 16:19-31.

There were two men.  One was rich, having the finest things in life.  Purple (v19) refers to the imperial purple of the Roman Empire.  It was a dye produced from a snail found in the Mediterranean.  The snails were crushed to produce the purple when exposed to the light (if kept dark it produced the blue dye for threads in the tassels or tzitzit worn by Jews).  It was valuable as it didn’t fade but got brighter over time; and because it took 10,000 snails for one toga or robe.

The other man, Lazarus, was full of sores that dogs licked.  He ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  In the story (we believe it is a parable though it is not identified as such) both men died.  As Ecclesiastes makes clear: death is the great equalizer.  Everyone dies, regardless of how much money you have!  

The beggar was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom, a place of comfort.  The rich man was in torments in Hades.  The description of Hades should be understood as accurate.  Even if this is a parable (i.e. a made-up story based in reality) it describes a true place.  Hades had a gulf in the middle with a place of torment on one side and a place of comfort on the other.  It is not purgatory (the Bible never mentions purgatory); nor is it Hell (the place of final torment for the wicked; Hades is emptied into Hell according to Rev. 20:13ff).  

The important question is: why were these two men in their respective places?  It might appear that one was in torment because he was rich and had an easy life on earth; and the other in comfort because he was poor and had a difficult life on earth.  Being rich can make it harder to follow Christ (Mt. 17:24); and in the afterlife there is justice (Psalm 73).  But Jesus makes it clear that the issue is repentance/faith (v30).  This is the point in this context.  While money might give you some advantages on earth, it will make no difference in the life to come.

Furthermore, note two other important principles concerning the life to come.  First, once we die it is too late to repent (v24-26).  And second: no one will come back from the afterlife to warn those who are still living (v27-31).  Scripture (in Jesus’ day it was Moses and the prophets, v31) are sufficient for salvation (2 Tim. 3:15-17; Rom. 1:16; John 5:46; 1 Peter 1:22-25).  Signs and wonders are insufficient for salvation (John 6:22-27; Acts 8:18-21).  This will surprise many but it is true.  Miracles do not, in fact, convince people to bow the knee to Christ.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

What we learn here is of immense importance personally, in terms of our own after-death experience; and in ministry as to our dependence on the Bible.  Everyone’s eternity depends on their response to the word of God!

Luke 16:13-18

·    *    The rebuke of the Pharisees, 16:13-18.

Jesus has encouraged His disciples to be wise in the use of earthly possessions.  We don’t worship money but money is part and parcel of live on earth, even for the sons of light.  Jesus was saying these words to His disciples (16:1), that you cannot serve God and mammon (16:13).  But as He speaks to His disciples there are others around, listening in, including some from the party of the Pharisees who, Luke notes, were lovers of money (16:14).  The Pharisees derided or sneered at Jesus for this statement.  The Pharisees thought you could love both money and God and that, in fact, the reason they had money was because they loved God.  It was a form of the health and wealth gospel we see today.

Jesus’ first words on the matter is to say that the Pharisees justify their love of money (greed, covetousness) by the fact that they esteem earthly things, things that are an abomination to God.  Remember the context here.  While addressing the Pharisees Jesus is still teaching His followers about living in this world while being citizens of heaven.  When the sons of light indicate that money is not all that important it is often met with ridicule by the people of this world.  The rich usually exalt themselves for having a lot of money; and the poor feel humbled and left out because they don’t have money.  So Jesus rebukes them. 

But what is He saying in v16?  By pressing into the kingdom Jesus does not mean one enters the kingdom by their own effort.  Discipleship is a faith issue.  But Scripture frequently speaks of the need to “strive” (Lk. 13:24), “be diligent” (Heb. 4:11; 2 Pt. 1:10), and “press on” (Phil. 3:12), in the matter of faith.  We must “strive to enter the narrow gate.” How can this be if salvation is not according to our effort?  The issue actually is that it is never easy to deny self and follow Christ.  The thing we must strive with is, in fact, the tendency of humans to think they must come to God by works, by our own effort. With violence one must deny himself to follow Christ (Matt. 11:12).  The Jews stumbled over this (Rom. 3:27f; 4:1-5, etc.) and so will we unless we are ruthless and untiring in striving to come by faith, apart from works.

The point in this context was that the Pharisees disregarded God by their view of money.  The reference in v18 to divorce is saying the same thing as their view of divorce was also a way they disregarded God.  They treated marriage and divorce as the men-pleasers they were, making it easy for a man to divorce his wife and to marry again.  The practices of these leaders resulted in committing adultery, a legal method of engaging in sexual relations with multiple women.

So on the one hand Jesus says His followers should use money wisely, and that faithfulness in that area will mean faithfulness in other areas of life (16:9-12).  But on the other hand Jesus tells His followers that there is a limit to the importance of money.  They cannot love money and love God at the same time.