Chapter 16
2023 - This first parable is still causing me problems. Instead of reading all this, skip on down to the bottom and read the 2023 notes down there.
2022 - Started by reading my notes from previous years. Taken all together, they say I am not very sure of what this parable means, even after this many readings. But there are some key phrases that I picked out of the notes and will focus on as I read it this year.
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. [Luk 16:14 ESV]. So...like the manager and his master, they are characterized by their love of money.
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? [Luk 16:11 ESV] . Out of order on purpose. I think you need the connection of 14 before 11 makes sense.
2025 Extra - Pasting in some notes I wrote today on Romans 8:
2025 - The parable of the dishonest manager? Maybe the whole point of that was precisely that since the 613 laws did not cover "the sin of cooking the books", it was considered a very smart play. A way to get around any sin but still take care of yourself. Dubious, but not against "The Law". Yet today as we read it, it just sits wrong with us, it is deceptive, it is disloyal, and it cost the boss money. We see in this parable the difference between behavior under The Law and the higher standard of the New Covenant.
2025 - The dishonest manager was admired not because he followed the Law so closely and cleanly but because he was able to make money for himself - to get rich - without really breaking the Mosaic in any specific. The Old Law was about the letter, and absolutely ignored the intent sometimes, as here, when money was involved. I think this is the best interpretation yet.
2022 - Note the contrast between vs 1, where Jesus is addressing his disciples, and vs 14 where the Pharisees heard "all these things" and ridiculed him. Perhaps all these things means all the parables, and not just this last one. Had they heard the last one at all?
As it starts out, the manager was a poor manager. Indeed, he was so bad that people report to the rich man - the master - that he is wasting resources. So right off the master sees that he has a problem with his manager not doing a good job and taking care of his business. If I didn't already know the rest of the parable, I might think the master is God, hearing that the Pharisees are really blowing it in the leadership and teaching responsibilities they're entrusted with. The Pharisees are poor managers of the "riches" they're entrusted with. So the bad manager is told that he will be removed. Future tense. He is told to turn in his records so they can be given to another after he is gone. Can we see these phrases as representing the blindness coming on the Jews and the beginning of the Church age? The Pharisees - a recent arrival historically speaking - have done such an absolutely pitiful job of teaching the Law and understanding its purpose, that the Law needs to be turned in and a new manager will take over. A manager with a completely different way of doing things. That manager is Jesus perhaps. (this is making good sense so far...but I fear it will fall apart completely as I go on.) Next, we see how the manager reacts to being put on notice that he is about be unemployed. We can see this as the Pharisees perhaps understanding that their day in the sun is just about over, that their incompetence with the Law is being exposed, and the people are going to turn away from them. Their exalted positions are about to be shown as fraudulent, and what they will lose is the admiration, respect and authority they currently enjoy. And since all they know is religious interpretation, they cannot get a real job later, especially since everyone will know what a poor job the did at their previous job. So what will they do? Oh my...oh my...In the parable, what the manager does is forgive debts that he has no right to forgive. Note that he has each one write down 50 instead of 100, and so on. What the manager is doing is cooking the books before he turns them over to the master. He is placing himself in a position between the debtors and the creditor. He is taking the credit for forgiving debt. But in fact, the debt still exists...So...Does this sound like what priests do? They give absolution. They "sell" absolution. They sell all kinds of things and grant all kinds of things - in the name of the master - though they have no authority to do so. The debt still exists...though the manager says it doesn't. This strategy certainly "creates" a sense of obligation on the part of the debtor toward the manager. The manager gets paid support for the "illegal favor" he performed.
Ah...but here is where it falls apart: 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. [Luk 16:8 ESV].
(2023 - Wait wait wait...The Pharisees make fun of Jesus for his parables...they are just too smart to be persuaded by these little stories. So here in vs 8, the "sons of this world", that is, those who are lost even though they think they are the religious elite, are very shrewd in the way they manipulate other people - especially in the way they manipulate true believers! Jesus is saying that while these people believe themselves to be superior because of the way they use and abused the true believers, they are in fact just one more part of a wholly corrupt system. Hmm...never saw that connection before.)
So with this verse, we see that the master in the parable is not God. This master is also corrupt. This master is a leader of leaders, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, elite among the elite. And this underling, this previously under performing minion has hit upon some brilliance that not only keeps him supported, but will also support the master as he puts the same thing into operation at an even higher level. By calling the manager a "son of this world", we see that he was not saved, his heart was never right, his true commitment was to the things of earth. Just as the Pharisees were. Can we also read this as Jesus turning the upside down view of the Pharisees back to right side up? The Pharisees saw poverty as a sign of God's dissatisfaction with the poor and their own wealth as proof of their favor with and blessing from God. And Jesus says no...those who show an aptitude for shrewdness in the dealings of this world in fact are sons of this world, and the poor are in fact the sons of light because they live for the next world, and so can be duped in this one. We all do well at what we study. The Pharisees study the world and create ways to use the Law to enrich themselves with worldly things - the respect of men, the favor of men, the riches of the world. Wow...this is really seeming to fit...
I think this answers the question as to whether vs 9 is still "in the parable" and is that corrupt master speaking or whether the parable ended in 8 and Jesus makes a pronouncement about in 9. At this point, 9 is in the parable, and that corrupt master is saying to those who serve him to take a lesson from the manager and begin to manipulate the sheep so that they will be obligated to you when the truth comes out, and support you because of the favors you can do for them (or claim to do for them) rather than for the light you can bring into their lives through the New Covenant. You see, the Pharisees could have followed Jesus too. It would have meant laying down their fancy robes and becoming like the apostles and the preachers and the evangelists. They'd have had to come down off their pedestals and become equal under God with those that they taught. They would have to trade the best seats for the general seating. But this manager found a way to retain his status by duping the devotees! Wow. This is really working.
10 "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. [Luk 16:10 ESV]. The manager is being dishonest in small matters. In earthly matters. Though the corrupt master saw this as impressive, God is going to see it as dishonest in small matters, and why would he invite such a one into the kingdom? Hmm...that doesn't seem like the right interpretation...You have to put 11 with it:
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? [Luk 16:11 ESV]. So...if the Pharisees were willing to dupe their own masters in order to take care of themselves, their masters were not going to "promote" them. This manager ws still fired by his master. You can't have someone writing off your debtors without authorization stay in your organization. He still got fired. But he had a soft landing because of his dishonesty. So now, since he was corrupt in his service to a corrupt master, what good master will ever hire him. How nearly impossible will it be for a Pharisee or a priest to turn away from being successful in that position, to the position of a rank and file Christian? And the reason is, you live by the ways of the world or you live by the Bible. The more you submerge yourself in the ways the of the world, the more difficult it will be to wash it off.
I think this is on the right track. I think this is really close to what it means. This is Jesus telling the Pharisees that he knows what they are going to do from here, and that it will not fool God. Jesus tells them that their hearts are the key, and that as long as what they really seek is earthly wealth and comfort, they will never receive - or even recognize - true riches.
Vss 14, 15 seem to corroborate this view. But then 16...The Law is abrogated, the gospel is in place. What you misrepresented is not longer even the way. The forcing in may be about the Pharisees looking for ways to function within the gospel framework, but without actually accepting it...but that is a reach. And then...the Law won't be void? I am calling it good right here. Maybe these verses will be clear next time. I am going to just read through the rest of today's stuff - there is much to do before the kids get here.
2022 - Next day - See 2022 note after the Parable of the Persistent Widow in the next chapter.
2022 - Except...the rich man and Lazarus. It goes with the above in that it is a parable contrasting devotion to the good of this world with the good of the next. It is to show that the right way is to look to eternity. Note that it says those in heaven "may" not be able to pass, and those in Hades CANNOT pass. And vs 31 - they won't believe, even if one is raised from the dead. Which is what Jesus did, and those who are fixed on riches and worldliness were not convince, and are not convinced even today, to follow him.
2020 - With all that seemed to clear up yesterday tying all those parables together as being about our internal attitudes, and about not depending on our own resources and more than anything never ever seeing ourselves as "better" than those less fortunate than ourselves, We come to this parable, in 16.
2021 - Yesterday, I saw the parables in Chapter 15 differently than the year before. Yesterday, they seemed to be about Jews and Gentiles and the history that was about to unfold. The Jews about to be set aside for a time, and the Gentiles, worthless as we are, to be primary for a while.
2021 - I note that this chapter begins with "He also said to the disciples..." Before, Jesus was talking to sinners, Pharisees, the unsaved. But this parable is directed to his disciples. What is the significance of this?
2021 - Just read the parable again. It is just an enigmatic parable. I just do not get it. Here are the phrases that baffle me still:
8 ...For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. [Luk 16:8 ESV]
9 And 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. [Luk 16:9 ESV] Is it Jesus saying this to his disciples, or the master saying it to the dishonest manager?
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? [Luk 16:11 ESV] What????? So...if you are dishonest with the "best" the world offers, that being wealth and riches, you aren't worthy even to be offered the much better, purer, righteous riches of heaven.
And supposedly, all this confusing verbiage is summarized, so that it makes sense, with this verse:
13 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." [Luk 16:13 ESV]
So after starting this session reading through my notes from the previous two years, and thinking I was really starting to understand, I read it this year and find these phrases that do not in any way fit my "learned" interpretation of this parable. So difficult for me.
Starting in 15, Luke has been retelling parables that Jesus told. This chapter opens with the parable of the dishonest manager. I have not heard it called this before, and I have not and do not understand it. It seems to contradict itself. A dishonest manager, on learning that he is to be fired, goes and "forgives" debt that hasn't been paid. He does this to curry favor toward himself from those forgiven the debts. They thank the dishonest manager and provide for him after he is dismissed because he allowed dishonesty about how much they owed his former master.
Question 1 I guess is whether or not the master ever figured out that the manager had even done this? Perhaps that master was so out of touch he didn't even know what he was owed? (2020- vs 8 says the master not only knew, but commended the manager for his shrewd actions.) Perhaps this master represents the world and material wealth. Second, the manager is enticing the debtors to enter into a conspiracy to defraud the master. They are participating in the same crime. The manager is too lazy to work, and too arrogant to beg. So...there seems to be nothing about the manager that we should admire. This parable is like a late 60's movie where even the hero is an anti-hero that is impossible to support.
MSB says the manager in this parable is like the prodigal son in that he wasted the resources he was managing, but unlike the prodigal, he managed to provide resources for himself against a future time when his wastefulness came home to roost. MSB says the master's warning that he was going to dismiss this manager was unwise, possibly owing to the master believing his servant was incompetent rather than criminally neglectful.
MSB says the master's compliment to the fired manager about his shrewdness shows that the master too was corrupt, and couldn't help but admire the shrewd though self-serving genius of his former manager. As I said, so MSB says: "...all the characters in this parable are unjust, unscrupulous, and corrupt." So my question is still...what are we to learn from it??? Perhaps this from MSB: Most unbelievers are wiser in the ways of the world than believers are in things of God. But if this means we are to be wiser in the things of God, doesn't it imply that we're doing so to gain criminal advantage? I will not put God in a position of being duped by me or by anyone else! That cannot be right!
MSB has still another paragraph...and it does not help. It implies that we need to "cultivate" friends that will await us in heaven as this man, in and of the world, used the worlds ways to cultivate friends that would support him in the future. We are to use God's ways to cultivate friends to support us in heaven? In what way will they support us? Are there any other verses or parables that even imply that we should do this? I don't think this is the right interpretation of the parable. I think it is about something else entirely. Moving on....
Ah. Here it is. I guess I think like a Pharisee. In vss 14-17 there is an exchange between the Pharisees who ridicule Jesus because of this parable and Jesus' response to that ridicule. Jesus contrasts the efforts of Pharisees to justify themselves before men - as shrewd in business, brilliant in management, and long on foresight - even by dishonest means - and the justification of believers as pleasing to God, and faithful in kingdom business, looking to their position in the eternity that is the hereafter instead of focusing only on their comfort in this world. So the Pharisees maneuver politically and financially to outwit, usurp, and surpass their masters, and they admire each other for the success of their plotting. They plot to unseat or surpass or even cheat their own masters to give themselves advantage in the hierarchy. This is the focus of their lives. All these things are mistaken. They forget that what really matters, what really lasts, is eternity, and though brilliant in earthly things, they are making no provision at all for themselves in the kingdom of God. This parable describes only the ways common and admired by the Pharisees, things that are - per vs 15 - abomination in the sight of God. There is no hero in the story, just one more successful and shrewd at unrighteousness than the unrighteous man he serves. Both are missing the entire point. AND, the manager in this parable never repents of the evil of mismanagement and arrogance and pride as the prodigal son in the previous parable did. To forsake the ways and pleasures of the world, to humble oneself as no Pharisee would ever do, is more acceptable in the kingdom, more admired in the kingdom, than this so-called shrewd manager. The prodigal son is the hero of the two parables. They are in fact related.
2021 - Jesus has switched audiences. That parable was for his disciples, but now the Pharisees - maybe listening though not addressed? - ridicule Jesus. Apparently they ridicule him about the parables he's just told, up to and including the dishonest manager. So they understand what he's saying? No...parables were only for those who have ears...yet the Pharisees did often seem to know that the parables were directed at them, and condemning of them. So maybe still the right track...Jesus is tearing down their castle built on materialism as the key indicator before men of personal righteousness. This is why they made such a show of their giving. The fact that they "had so much" was in their eyes proof of their righteousness! In vs 15 they justify themselves before men. Jesus says they have missed the point.
2020 - I think maybe this strange parable fits just exactly the way the others did. These Pharisees see worldly success as an indicator of sinlessness. (I can't be right about this, no one has ever preached it this way that I know of.) So the more successful they are at one-upping each other in matters of wealth, the more it means they are nearer perfection than the ones they out foxed.
(2021 - In the same way that they saw the lame, deaf, and demon possessed as obvious sinners, else they would not be in such straights, perhaps they see material, worldly success as an indicator of how favored by God they are. And if cheating gets them ahead, rather than getting them punished, then it must be ok to cheat. After all, God is "rewarding" it with worldly blessings. But we know from previous illustrations that people are not blind because they are sinners. They are blind so that God can show mercy and heal, and as a testament to the authority of Christ on earth. Disease and disfigurement was not generally about sin. Surely sometimes our distress is about sin - the Corinthians who abused the Lord's Supper for instance, and some died because of it - but it was not the general rule. Perhaps that is the contrast here. Material success doesn't say any more about one's righteousness than being blind says about one's sinfulness. The Pharisees cannot seem to separate the worldly from the spiritual. Hmm...Finally I may be onto something with this parable.)
Perhaps the Pharisees have completely changed the "evaluation" of dedication to God from what goes on in the heart to what goes on in the bank account. He goes on to say that those unfaithful in little things will never be trusted with big things. Those who cannot make sense of The Law and the Prophets are not going to be given insight into the New Covenant. This does seem to corroborate that the Pharisees have turned the Law on it's head, and are using it to prove they are sinless instead of understanding that its purpose is to show how impossibly imperfect all men must be. So upside down that they admire the self-serving, cheating corrupt manager who outsmarts his own corrupt master - they admire the one who thinks only of himself, only of "promoting" himself, only of gaining for himself a better seat at the banquet....than of repentance of heart, of squelching his self-praise, of growing in the things of the kingdom instead of growing in the things of the world. This parable too is contrasting the current "world view" of the Pharisees with what Jesus says that view should be. vs 8b says the sons of this world are more shrewd - so the shrewd manager is most certainly not acting as a son of light, just the opposite - but he is admired for his cunning by the masters. Jesus is saying this way of thinking is not kingdom thinking, that those who would admire such a manager have no part in the kingdom.
This verse:
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? [Luk 16:11 ESV] So direct and simple. So profound. If you're cheating each other with something as base and crass and worldly as money, why would anyone trust you with anything really valuable - like the New Covenant. Jesus is again saying "You guys are so far off the track that God isn't even going to try and salvage you. It is because he knew guys like you were coming that the punishment of Israel is double!"
This is all corroborated by vs 14:
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. [Luk 16:14 ESV] They were lovers of money. And hearing the truth but being unable to assimilate it, they ridicule the source. They don't argue that they aren't that way, they are concretely sure that being that way is the right way. So they ridicule the speaker, rather than defending their attitudes. Just before this came the 'no one can serve two masters" verse. The Pharisees have made wealth acquisition more important than spiritual acquisition.
(2021 - No...they have made them equivalent. They have made the former an indicator of the second. They have it completely reversed. I wonder...the Pharisees arose during the intertestamentary period. There were none when Micah prophesied. But it seems like this one group has appropriated the entire Jewish faith and perverted it to their own ends. They usurped tradition and the grounding of all principal in the word and said instead that the old words were stagnant and no longer relevant to these modern times. How is that not exactly what's going on these days with Nietzsche, Jung, and the "power based" philosophies of our time. Get the names of these for crying out loud, and learn how to oppose them!)
(2021 - Those who have so corrupted the gospel, who have appropriated the Law to themselves, now go out and tell others that they really don't have to meet the strict requirements of the Law. Here, accept our leadership, our position, our knowledge as truer than God's word, and we will cut you some slack, we will credit your bill, and you don't have to do anything but admire us and pay homage to us, and tell us how great we are. This is what it meant when the master actually complimented the bad manager for his craftiness. He had won honor for himself and given away nothing that was his own. The master had likely gotten rich by such sleight of hand - or wished he had - and so he admired the manager.
So if all this is right, then what does this mean: 9 And 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. [Luk 16:9 ESV]
Looked up "dwellings". In Greek, it means tent, or tabernacle. And eternal tent. Sarcasm? Eternal tents? Note that the verse is very clear that unrighteous wealth WILL fail. And these Pharisees, by crediting the bills of the debtors, make friends by these favors. That's the worldly thing. But spiritually, it is about the Pharisees trying to run an end around the Law, put themselves in God's place, and make "converts to themselves" by lowering the standard of the Law. But they are still missing the point of the Law, which is that they are corrupt and can never pay that bill, and the converts - the friends - that they make by undermining the Law, will be waiting for them in hell when their corruptions comes to light. Ok. If this explains vs 9, then I think I have it. )
So...are we still on self-aggrandizement, or is this now a separate and further failure of the Pharisees. They love themselves, when they should instead love others, and thy love money, when they should instead love others. This might be the better way to understand it. We will see where it goes from here....this verse comes soon after:
15 And he said to them, "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. [Luk 16:15 ESV] Still about hearts. Their view of what is important is abomination. They have the law upside down, completely corrupted.
Verse 16 comes after this parable about worldly focus and before the story of the rich man and Lazarus. I have never been able to see the connection. 2020 - Maybe this is about the revelation in the NT of the whole point of the law and the prophets. They pointed at Jesus. And these things - only darkly understood previously - will now be fulfilled, as in not one single prophecy will be wrong. This fulfillment is being proclaimed loudly, backed up with miracles never seen or imagined, that people might be saved. The Law is not being thrown out, but fulfilled, now, and the time of the Pharisees will be gone. They won't be needed at all anymore.
2021 - Or is Jesus making the Law equivalent to the unrighteous wealth, and the true riches of the New Covenant? The Law was given to condemn men for their innate corruption and sin. The Pharisees have "made a way" to be perfect before that law. And the proof of it is their wealth. They have made a way to stand before the Law as righteous perfect men. They have therefore not been faithful in unrighteous wealth. If the heart is right, one can obey the Law in an acceptable way. But if the heart is wrong - as with Pharisees - the righteousness can be "given away" by the Dishonest Managers (Pharisees!!!) who are overseeing their master's wealth - the Law - by corrupting the rules, doing favors for the undeserving who are most like themselves in the condition of their hearts, and so tying them all to the lesser fortunes instead of seeing the better thing - the New Covenant. This may finally be the key!!!! This is who is who in the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. The Pharisees are the corrupt serving the corrupt.
18 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. [Luk 16:18 ESV]
Maybe vss 16 and 17 should be moved down here to the section on divorce. Jesus says in 16 that the law and prophets were until John. John the Baptist is in view. The old covenant, the old way of doing things, was in force until John. But since John, the kingdom is preached. A radical new covenant violently overturning the old covenant. And yet, the rules of the old covenant do not go away. Just because the sacrificial and Levitical laws were part of the old covenant, and sacrifices had to be made to get forgiveness - or at least to extend the debt sin incurred under that covenant - doesn't mean the new covenant changes what constitutes sin, nor does it release anyone of the consequences of that sin. The law doesn't change, even the law about divorce! 2020 - This still seems like a very odd place to put this verse.
Then the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Hmm...the prodigal, the manager, and now the rich man. One character in each is very wealthy. In the first, one obtains wealth from the wealthy, squanders it, and repents after seeing the error he has made. In the second, the one who is not wealthy comes up with a deceitful way to live as if he is wealthy. And now, in the third, the one who is not wealthy has not rebelled, has not connived, and dies in his poverty. But in the hereafter, where it all really matters, this last man of the three is wealthiest of all, and for eternity.
I do hope that the part about those who get good things on earth are doomed to bad ones in eternity and vice versa is a bit less than literal. Jesus was buried in a rich man's tomb. A rich man who loved Jesus. The divider between those who have easy lives here and bad there, or easy here, yet a place in heaven, might be the works. The works tell what is on the inside. The works are symptoms either of a good heart or a bad, a future in heaven or in hell. Kings of Israel will be in heaven. Surely they had plenty on earth, position and power both, and that did not preclude them from heaven.
2020 - I think these three are all about the heart. And...about this world view the Pharisees had that success indicates God's favor, and worldly failure indicates God's disdain.
(2021 - This previous sentence tells me I was on the right track last year, but didn't clearly see it. All three of these parables could be showing the error, the abomination, of judging ones spiritual condition by the bottom line of one's bank account. Total complete error.)
The Pharisees would have seen Lazarus as a terrible sinner - else why would he be poor and have sores on him and have dogs tongues for medicine? That rich man, dining sumptuously, would have been their role model. God was truly blessing the rich man. But it does not turn out to be so. Jesus tells them they are 180 degrees in the wrong. Hmm...their role model in the dishonest manager was the dishonest manager. Their role model in the Prodigal would probably have been the son who stayed home. This contrast that I have never seen before, this indictment of the Pharisees as worldly-centered while espousing Moses and the Prophets...this permeating hypocrisy that characterized all aspects of their lives...even to divorcing on a whim... How have I missed that before? Is this all in here so we may see the righteousness of God in blinding the Jews from recognizing Jesus?
2022 Addendum - Rummage preached on this today. I think maybe I have a better idea of what it means...though it is not at all what Rummage said.
Let's start here - at the end:
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? [Luk 16:11-12 ESV].
Jesus uses "money" to represent the Old Covenant in the Law. The true riches are the New Covenant - not obtained by sacrifice, ritual, and feast days, but into the heart. The New Covenant is individual, not deriving from any priesthood - any "master". The Jewish religious elite are the "caretakers" of the old money - the Law that was handed down to them from Moses. The Pharisees, specifically, have corrupted/perverted/polluted that "money" they were invested with and used it to increase the indebtedness of the people they are supposed to serve to the point that only the very special Pharisees can have any real hope of heaven. ALL are indebted to the Pharisees. All the rank and file Jews are burdened down with their debts. In the story, the bad manager corresponds to the disciples to whom Jesus is speaking. The New Covenant removes the old indebtedness of the Law in great measure. This endears those who were indebted to the Old Covenant to the preachers of the New Covenant. By preaching the freedom found in the gospel, in the New Covenant, and releasing the debtors to the Law, the disciples lay up for themselves friends in heaven, who forever "owe" them for their freedom in Christ.
The Pharisees in particular, and the Jewish religious elite in general have not been faithful in the older, less perfect way. They have messed that up. Why in the world would the new covenant be entrusted to them for distribution.
It is only with this kind of interpretation that this verse makes sense:
9 And 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. [Luk 16:9 ESV]. Unrighteous wealth is favor gained by "releasing" people from their debt to the old covenant. As Judaism fails over that next 40 years or so until 70 AD, more and more would/could/should turn with favor to those who preach the new covenant.
2023 - So...I like the 2022 addendum above. I think I am on the right track. In the parable, to be faithful in little could mean being faithful in the things of the world - in money. If you cannot be trusted to deal with the things of this world, how can you be in charge of what it truly important - which is the Law first, and now the New Covenant. The Pharisees, who love money as we are told in vs 14, cheat, steal and lie with money. And they are so in love with it that they admire those who by hook or crook obtain more of it...or the trappings of it. Since the Pharisees are doing such a poor job of "preaching" the Law, they are not about to be trusted with the New Covenant. There will be no priests in the New Covenant, but every man will need to provide for himself and not be in any way dependent on "masters", because poor masters, as corrupt as they themselves are, can kick you out for their own reasons at any time, they can "promote" the biggest cheaters instead of the most honest managers - it is all arbitrary. All that sounds fine...but then I need to know what is meant by this: 9 And 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. [Luk 16:9 ESV]. As I am interpreting, it means we ought to make friends of those who are "skilled" at the less important things of this world, of those who control those things, so that if something takes away your little piece of the pie, you still an "in" that will keep food on your table. And I have a real hard time thinking Jesus is saying that. Play their game so that you never lose so badly you get kicked out of their game? Doesn't seem right. This is a truly difficult parable.
2023 - Vs 15 says that being successful in the things of this world is being successful in things that are an abomination to God. Gaining the respect of men because you are a great and learned and very rich Pharisee - with a dark heart - makes you abominable to God.