In Luke 16, why does Jesus teach on divorce in between the story of the shrewd steward and the story of Lazarus and the Rich man?

Q: In Luke 16, right after the story of the shrewd businessman, and right before the story of Lazarus, the rich man, and their experiences after death Jesus makes a statement about divorce. Some people have tied Jesus' statements on divorce to these two stories. Can you explain how this teaching on divorce relates to these other two stories in their context?

A: You’ve asked the very question that I have in reading Luke 16. I believe that it is the question Jesus wants men (then, and now) to ask and to answer.

Notice the way Luke 16 lays out for us in the Bible.

Verses 1-13 The story of the shrewd steward (who used money shrewdly in a way that prepared for the future).

Verses 19-31 The story of the rich man and Lazarus (the rich man’s money didn’t get him to heaven, but in spite of his poverty, Lazarus gets there)

So, we can conclude that most of chapter 16 is about money -- what it can and what it cannot do.

But in between these two major sections we find the perplexing words of verses 14-18:

Luke 16:14-18 (NET)

14 The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him.

15 But Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.

16 ”The law and the prophets were in force until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urged to enter it.

17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of a letter in the law to become void.

18 ”Everyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Note that in verse 18 Jesus interjects the subject of divorce. That causes us to ask, “What does divorce have to do with verses 14-17 (the immediate context) and all of chapter 16, which focuses on money?” We can tell from verse 14 that verses 14-18 have something to do with money.

Here’s the way I currently understand Jesus’ words (though this might change with further study and thought):

Jesus had a very different view of money, so different that when Jesus spoke about money, the Pharisees scoffed at His teaching. The essence of what Jesus said in verses 1-13 is this: “Use money (which doesn’t last) now to prepare for what is eternal (heaven, for you and for others). Loving money as they did, the Pharisees did not like to hear Jesus speak on the subject. Remember that they did not even want to use money to care for their parents (see Mark 7:9-13).

Twisting the Old Testament Law as they did, the Pharisees believed that money was proof of one’s piety. After all, didn’t God promise to bless those who kept the law, and to bring trouble upon those who disobeyed it (see Deuteronomy 28)? [By the way, this was Asaph’s problem, as we see in the early verses of Psalm 73. It is also the reason why Job’s friends kept pressing him to confess that he had sinned, since he lost his wealth, health, and family.]

The Pharisees seem to have concluded that if they were wealthy they were in God’s favor, and thus they must be in compliance with the Law. The sad part was that they would do whatever it took to get rich (including avoiding their responsibility to their parents -- see Mark 7:9ff.), and they would then spend their wealth on themselves. They could thus justify neglecting all of God’s commands regarding the care of the poor: If men are poor, they reasoned, then it must be God’s judgment for their sin. If God is bringing suffering on these folks, how can I oppose His work by helping the poor? In effect, they sought to use their money to bypass the law (becoming, in their minds, righteous apart from the law).

I think what Jesus is saying in verse 15 is that they have made wealth (so acceptable in men’s eyes, and something based on mere appearance) the basis for justifying themselves: “If I’m rich then I’m o.k. with God, and letting others observe my wealth informs them of my righteousness.”

In this way (by getting rich, whatever the means) they were seeking to force their way into the kingdom, in a similar way to the man who slips a $100 bill into the hands of the maitre d’ when he tells them there are no tables available in the restaurant. He “forces his way in” through his money. The Pharisees are seeking to force their way into heaven through their wealth. And this, Jesus says, is detestable in God’s sight (even though men may be favorably impressed). Jesus says that it is not a matter of the outward appearance of wealth; it is a matter of the heart (and their hearts are impure).

In verse 16 Jesus takes on the Pharisees smug self-righteousness, supposing that they are law keepers because of the apparent evidence of “God’s blessing” (i.e. their wealth). Divorce is cited as one example of the hardness of their hearts (see Matthew 19:3-12, especially verse 8). We know from this text in Matthew that God’s ideal of the permanence of marriage was disregarded by most Jews (even the disciples, to some extent, did not take divorce seriously enough -- see Matt. 19:10), and thus divorce was common practice. No doubt the wealthy found divorce more easily accomplished than did the poor.

So, the Pharisees loved money and they looked to their bank accounts to assure themselves that they were law-keepers, in good standing with God. Jesus turns to divorce as just one indication of the hardness of their hearts.

In verses 19-31 Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and it overturns the thinking of the Pharisees and others about who gets to heaven and why. The rich man lives well (like the Pharisees). He ignores Lazarus and his needs (as the Pharisees neglected the poor). And he goes to hell! This poor man, Lazarus, goes to heaven. Money did not get the rich man into heaven, and the lack of it did not keep Lazarus from it. Money is not the key to heaven, and it is not the means whereby men may force their way into the kingdom. The issue is the heart, not to size of one’s bank account.