The parable of the cunning manager
1Jesus said to his disciples:
‘There was a rich man who had a manager. The manager had to look after all the money and workers of the rich man. But the workers told the rich man that the manager had wasted the rich man's money. 2Then the rich man called his manager and said to him: “They told me bad things about you. Bring all the books to me so that I can see what you have done with my money. You can not be my manager any longer.”
3The manager then said to himself: “What will I do? The owner will chase me away. I can not work with my hands and I am too ashamed to beg. 4But now I know what I will do so that, when I have lost my work, people will invite me to their homes.”
5Then the manager called all the people who had to pay money to the owner. He asked the first man: “How much oil do you have to pay my owner?” 6The man answered him: “I must give your owner 100 barrels of olive oil.” The manager said to him: “Take the paper with your debt written on it and change it quickly to 50 barrels.”
7Then the manager asked another man: “How much do you have to pay my owner?” The man answered: “I must give him 100 bags of wheat.” The manager said: “Take the paper with your debt written on it and change it to 80 bags.”
8-9When someone told the owner what the manager had done, he said the manager was very clever because later on those people would be friendly to him and help him.’
Then Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The cunning people in the world know better how to care for each other. They know it better than the people who serve God. I tell you: The people of this world sometimes use their money wrongly. But you must use your money to help poor people. Then, when you die one day, you will be welcome in God's house in heaven, when the time on earth has stopped. 10If you can trust a person with a very small thing, then you can also trust him with bigger things. But if you can not trust him with a very small thing, then you can not trust him with big things. 11If God can not trust you with money in this world, then He will not trust you with the treasures of eternal_life. 12And if God can not trust you with the things that belong to other people, do you think He will give you something for yourself? No, He will not. 13A slave can not work for 2 masters, because he will love one master more than the other master. Or he will work hard for one master and he will do nothing for the other master. You can not serve God and think that money is as important as God.’
The books_of_Moses are important
14When the Pharisees heard the things that Jesus said, they did not want to believe Him. They laughed at Him because they loved money. 15Then Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘When people look at you, you want them to think that you are good people. But God sees inside of you. He knows what you are thinking. There are things that people think are very good and important, but God does not like those things.
16The books_of_Moses and the books of the prophets of the Old_Testament were important until the time when John the Baptist came. But from the time of John the Baptist, I have started to bring you the Good_News about God who is King. Everyone is trying very hard to go in where God is King. 17You must remember: Heaven and earth will disappear, but nothing that is written in the books_of_Moses will disappear or stop being true. Not one small part of a word will disappear.
18That is why it is a very bad sin when a man divorces his wife and marries another woman. That is adultery. It is also adultery when a man marries a woman who was married to another man, but they were divorced.’
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus
19Jesus said:
‘There was a rich man who had beautiful clothes. He had the best and most expensive things in the world. 20At his gate was a poor beggar who lay there. His name was Lazarus. He was full of sores. 21Lazarus wished that he could eat the food that the rich man did not eat. The dogs always came and they licked Lazarus' sores. 22When the poor beggar died, the angels took him to be with Abraham in heaven.
The rich man also died and they buried him. 23When the rich man opened his eyes in hell, he suffered with a lot of pain. He saw Lazarus far away. Lazarus was with Abraham. 24The rich man cried and said: “Father Abraham, please feel sorry for me and send Lazarus so that he can put his finger in water and touch my tongue, because I am suffering a lot with pain in this fire.”
25But Abraham said: “My friend, you must remember that in your life on earth you had all the good things and Lazarus had the bad things. Now God is good to Lazarus and you have a lot of pain. 26There is a very deep hole between you and us. We can not go to you and you can not come to us.”
27The rich man said: “Please send Lazarus to my father's house. 28I have 5 brothers and he must warn them so that they do not come to this place of pain.” 29Abraham said to the rich man: “Your brothers have the books_of_Moses and the books of the prophets. Your brothers must read them and listen to them.”
30But the rich man answered and said: “No, father Abraham, one of the people who have died must go to my brothers, then they will turn their lives to God and start doing what He wants.”
31But Abraham said: “If they don't want to do what the books_of_Moses and the prophets say, then they will never listen to anyone who has died and comes back to them.” ’
