The scriptures read are Deuteronomy 16-18, Psalm 58, and Luke 16.
Deuteronomy 16. The basics of Passover, Pentecost and Succoth are gone over. The importance of impartial justice being carried out by judges is emphasized.
Deuteronomy 17. No one is to be executed on the testimony of just one witness. 2 or 3 witnesses are necessary and the witnesses throw the first stones.
Provision is made for the eventual choosing of a king. No harems and no building up a huge war machine! And he should have and study a copy of God's law.
Deuteronomy 18. Provision is made for the Levites, who act like local priests. Don't deal in the occult.
God promises to send a prophet like Moses. But don't fall for false prophets.
Psalm 58. Very severe denunciation of evildoers.
Luke 16. The parable of the dishonest manager. Every commentator twists himself in knots trying to justify Jesus' commendation of this sleezeball. I think I am alone in saying Jesus is being sarcastic here as he was in 13:32, 33. I think this is another parable against the Pharisees. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, right before this one, the older, righteous, faithful son obviously represents the Pharisees. But were they as good as all that? Not according to Jesus in chapter 11. So here they are represented by a dishonest manager, who tries to buy the favor of those who can do him good by diminishing their debts to his master, ie, God. The Pharisees get the point (v. 14). The moral which says the end justifies the means and we should do whatever it takes, including bribery, to be popular doesn't sound like Jesus because he is being ironic. He really means what follows: that people who are scrupulous in little things are also scrupulous with big things.
This also ties in Jesus' otherwise unrelated tirade about how God law lasts down to the smallest detail and his denouncing laxity towards divorce and adultery..
Another great parable: the rich man and Lazarus. As in Matthew 25, the rich man's sin is one of omission, that of neglecting his neighbor, Lazarus, one of the least of Christ's siblings, who was hungry but he didn't feed him. He was right outside the guy's gate. He'd have to step over Lazarus to get into his house. So he gets dropped in the cosmic trash dump, where the fire never goes out.
I don't think we need to get too obsessed with all the details of this parable's depiction of the afterlife. It is a parable, a truth in the form of a tale. The point is the moral: people who won't respond to the moral wisdom of God's word will ignore miracles, including resurrection. Was Jesus teasing his friend Lazarus by casting him as the sore-covered beggar whose resurrection wouldn't convince the wicked?
No comments:
Post a Comment