16
About a servant with a sharp mind
1 Jesus told his disciples this story about a servant.
There was a servant whose master was very rich and had lots of houses and money and other things. The servant looked after everything that belonged to his master.
Some people came to the rich man and said, “That servant of yours who looks after all your things is very bad. He is wasting everything. Soon you will have nothing left.”
2 So the master called his servant and he came to him. The master said, “What is this that people have said about you? I want you to count all my money today and write everything down for me and give me the paper, because you can't work for me any longer.”
3 Then the servant said to himself, “Oh dear! What shall I do? My master doesn't want me and so I can't work for him any more. I am not strong enough to dig holes. And I can't ask people for money and food, because I would be ashamed.
4 Ah! Now I know what I will do so that other people won't reject me. Then when I leave my master's house, later on they will welcome me in their homes.”
5 So he called all the people who owed his master food and money. He made them come to him one by one. Then he said to the first man, “How much food do you have to give my master?”
6 “I should give him a hundred bottles of olive oil,” he answered.
Then the servant said to him, “No. Take this paper of yours. Now sit down and change this number. Write fifty here, not a hundred. Then you will only have to give him fifty bottles.”
7 Then another man came to the servant. “And you, how much food do you have to give my master?” the servant asked.
“I should give him 1,000 bags of wheat,” he answered.
The servant said, “No. Take your paper. Don't write 1,000 but 800.”
8 Then the master of that dishonest servant heard what he had done. He said, “My servant knows what he is doing. He has got a sharp mind.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The master said that, because people who only love things have very sharp minds. They know how to do well in this world. They know what to do with other people who are also busy with things and nothing else. But people who love God's light are busy with the things in this world and also with everything that belongs to God. So they don't have very sharp minds about the things in this world. They don't know what to do with people who are busy with things and nothing more.
9 “So I am telling you this: help other people. Give them food and things and money. Later when you die you won't need any of those things, and God will take you to his home in heaven.”
10 Then Jesus said to them, “If one of you carefully looks after a little bit of money for another person and you don't waste it, later that person will trust you to look after a lot of money for him. But if you are dishonest, if you don't look after that small amount properly but you waste it, then that person won't trust you to look after a lot of money for him.
11 And if you don't look after money and things carefully in this world, what are you going to look after for God? God won't give you anything of his to look after for him.
12 These things don't belong to you. God has given you his money and things for a little while. So if you don't look after the things you have for a little while in this world, what will you do later? Will God give you his good things to keep in his home forever? No, he won't.”
13 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “No servant can work for two masters. Maybe he will love one of them and trust him, and hate the other one and not look after him properly. I have said that because, when money rules you, God can't rule you.”
About three other words of Jesus
14 Some Pharisees also heard what Jesus had said, and they laughed at him, because they loved money very much.
15 Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who want people to say, ‘You Pharisees are good people, you think straight.’ That is what you want, but God knows your hearts and minds. He knows you people very well. He doesn't think about things like some of you people do. If you say, ‘That is good,’ maybe God will say, ‘That is bad.’ ”
16 Then Jesus went on to say to them, “Long ago teachers taught people Moses' law. They also taught them the words about God that the prophets told his people. Teachers kept on teaching people those same words all the time.
“And so the people of today were still hearing those very same words. Then John the Baptist came. Then after John the Baptist came, I started teaching people the good news about God becoming ruler. So today many people are really wanting God to be their ruler.
17 You say, ‘Heaven and earth won't finish.’ And Moses' law won't finish too. But I am telling you that heaven and earth may finish, but Moses' law will never finish, not even one word.
18 “Long ago, when God gave his laws to Moses, he said,
‘When a man leaves his wife and takes another woman, they are doing wrong. And also if a man leaves his wife and another man marries her, then that man and the woman are both doing wrong.’ ”
About the rich man and Lazarus
19 Then Jesus told the Pharisees this story.
There was once a very important person who was very rich. He had plenty of belongings, money and food, and he always wore expensive clothes. Every day he ate the best food.
20 A man called Lazarus also lived in the same place. He was very, very poor and he had sores all over his body. His friends used to take him to the rich man's house and leave him sitting near the door.
21 Then, when the rich man was eating, little bits of food used to fall to the floor, and Lazarus wanted to eat the food that fell. And the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 Then the poor man died, and the angels lifted him up, and carried him to where Abraham was in heaven, so he could sit there beside him.
Then the rich man died too, and they buried him in the ground.
23 He went to the place for the dead. But he was in great pain there and suffered very much. And he looked up and saw Abraham and Lazarus, but they were a long way away from him.
24 So he called out to Abraham. “Father!” he said. “Have pity on me and send Lazarus to me, so that he can put his finger in some water and cool my tongue. Please! I am in great pain in this fire!”
25 But Abraham answered, “Listen, son. While you were alive you had plenty of everything. But Lazarus had nothing and he was always poor. And now he is happy here, while you are suffering all the time in pain.
26 And also there is a very deep pit between us, so that people who want to go from here over to you can't do it. And no one can cross over to us from where you are.”
27 The man said, “Please, father Abraham, send Lazarus then to my father's house.
28 I have five brothers there. Let him go and warn them, so that they won't come to this place of pain, as I have come here.”
29 Abraham answered, “Your brothers have the words of Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to what they say. They have warned them, so let them obey them.”
30 The man said, “No, father, if someone dies and then comes alive again and goes to them, they are sure to listen. Then they will stop doing wrong and do good.”
31 But Abraham said, “If they won't obey Moses and the prophets, they won't obey anyone else. Look! If someone dies and comes alive again and goes to them from here and warns them, they won't listen.”