Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (Rom 8:17).

In order to know what sufferings we need to share with Christ as heirs of God, we are now looking at the stories in Luke 16. Jesus had just finished telling his disciples the Parable of the Shrewd Manager and teaching them the importance of living for the benefits of other people. There among the listeners were the Pharisees, and:

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus (v. 14).

It is interesting to guess what the Pharisees thought about the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. They were mostly rich people, and were so eager to keep the Law. Therefore, it must have been almost impossible for them to identify themselves with the shrewd manager as the disciples did. They rather saw themselves as “the rich man,” “the master.” So, for them, what the shrewd manager did was very wrong, and they probably thought that if they were in the position as the master, they would demand the manager to pay for all the losses that were incurred by the reductions of the debts. They considered themselves as “the people of the light” looking down upon “the people of this world,” so, they could not, obviously, agree about the fact that master commended the manager. Needless to say, they could not follow the rest of Jesus’ teaching. So, Jesus said:

You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight (v. 15).

We Christians, too, need to meditate upon these words seriously. We are also in danger of having the same ideas, attitude and lifestyle that the Pharisees had. Try to see the difference between “in the eyes of men” and “in God’s sight.” Jesus said:

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it (v. 16).

John preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3).” According to the Old Testament, there is no forgiveness of sins unless a substitutive sacrifice is given. The wages of sin is death, and if our sin can be still forgiven, it must be completely by God in his grace that we can be forgiven. The attitude of self-righteousness “in the eyes of men” goes directly against this truth, and those who have this attitude are in danger of not receiving the righteousness of God—the righteousness given “in God’s sight.” Jesus came to die as this substitutive sacrifice for our sins, and our responsibility is to repent from our sins by believing in him. And this began with the preaching of John.

It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (vv. 17-18).

It was a well-known fact that many Pharisees divorced. They divorced in order to marry another women, to which the above words of Jesus referred. Yet, they thought they were doing nothing wrong because they legally divorced their wives by giving certificates of divorce as required by the Law. We know that the Law and the Prophets, which they were so familiar with, hang on two commandments: one is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart…” and the other is “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Keep this in mind, and go on to read:

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores (vv. 19ff) …