I Continued Teaching with Many Parables: Part Three

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

November 11, 2019

I Continued Teaching with Many Parables:

Part Three

Page 190-191

Luke 16:1-17, 19-31

Jesus’ parable is about how Israel, the manager in the parable, had not been a good steward of her calling to be a light to the world. Jesus’ teachings made it clear that Israel’s days were numbered; she was in danger of losing God’s favor. The Pharisees responded to this problem by trying to become even more strenuous in their keeping of every dot and tittle of the law. Jesus’ response was that if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep on getting what you're been getting. Jesus’ story suggests that perhaps it is time to throw caution to the wind and try something else.

By his teaching on faithfulness, which follows this parable, Jesus makes clear he is not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Jesus affirms the teachings of the Old Testament, and shows that with the coming Kingdom of God, there is a new way of incorporating God’s ways into our lives. Jesus was speaking to a culture that was caught up in performance-based acceptance. Your worth was determined by what you did and how well you did it. Ultimately, your worth was determined by your wealth, which came primarily through the ownership of land. Jesus was announcing a new Kingdom, where a person’s worth was determined by God’s unconditional acceptance. Material wealth is no longer needed to validate the value of our lives; it can now be used to share God’s blessings with others. God’s unconditional love and acceptance creates within us the desire for our lives to be marked by fidelity to God in all of our relationships.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not about life after death. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see they were like the rich man in the parable: keeping the poor in their place. Did you notice how the rich man knew Lazarus’ name and tried to boss him around even from the next life?

My Takeaway: We can draw many inferences from Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus. For me it is quite simple: when some have plenty to eat and others lack, the Kingdom of God has not arrived.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.