Luke 16, Reed’s Version
Then Jesus said to his apprentices, “There once was a rich man who had a household manager. But he was accused of squandering his boss’s assets. So the man called him in and said, ‘Do you know what I’ve heard about you? Turn in your accounting records. You are no longer my manager.’ He thought to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I need this job! I’m no laborer, and I couldn’t bear the shame of begging… I know! Here’s how I’ll line up a job for myself after I leave here.’ So he called up each one of his boss’s debtors. He asked one, ‘How much do you owe my employer?’ He replied, ‘One- thousand gallons of oil.’ So he said, ‘Quickly, take your bill, cross that out and instead write, “Five-hundred.”’ Then he asked another, ‘What about you, what do you owe?’ He said, ‘One-thousand bushels of wheat.’ So he said, ‘Take your bill, and instead write, “Eight- hundred.”’ When the bad steward’s boss found out, he commended him for using his head. You see, the people who belong to this world understand this world better than the people who belong to the light. So, just like the steward, learn to make good use of your worldly resources while you still can to make friendships, so you will always have a home—and for eternity. Whoever is trustworthy with little is also trustworthy with much. And whoever is self-serving with little is also self-serving with much. So if you cannot be trusted with even worldly wealth, why should you be trusted with true, heavenly wealth? And if you cannot be trusted with someone else’s property, why should anyone give you property of your own? Nobody can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and adore the other, or you will devote yourself to one and ignore the other. It is impossible to serve both God and possessions.”
When the Pharisees heard all this they scoffed at Jesus, because they loved their money. So he said to them, “You try so hard to get other people to think you are pious, but God knows what is really in your hearts. You see, what most people think is admirable, God sees as repulsive. The law of Moses and the words of the prophets were in effect until John the Immerser; but now, the good news about the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is strongly urged to enter it. Still, it is easier to obliterate heaven and earth than to erase a single letter from the law. For example, if you divorce your wife and marry another, it is adultery. And if you marry a divorced woman, it is adultery.”
“There once was a rich man who wore the finest clothes and drove the nicest cars, and he partied every day. And a poor man named Lazarus, who was covered in sores, would lay by the road in front of his house. He always hoped to be given some of the rich man’s leftover scraps of food, but only stray dogs visited him, to lick his sores. One day Lazarus died, and God’s messengers carried him off to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died, and was buried. And finding himself in agony in Hades, he looked up and saw in the distance Abraham with Lazarus at his side. So he called out to him, ‘Father Abraham, please be merciful to me and send Lazarus to cool my tongue with even a drop of water, since I am being tormented here in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, don’t forget that you received all your good things during your lifetime, but Lazarus got only bad things. Now, he is receiving comfort here, and so you are receiving torment. Besides, even if he wanted to go, it is impossible because of the wide chasm placed between you and us, which no one is able to cross, from here to there or there to here. So he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house to warn my five brothers, so they won’t also end up in this terrible place.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have the words of Moses and all the prophets; that is enough.’ He replied, ‘No it’s not, father Abraham! But if someone came to them from the dead, then surely they would change their ways.’ But Abraham said, ‘If they refuse to listen to Moses and the prophets, not even someone rising from the dead will be enough to persuade them.’”
