NOTES for Luk 16:15-18
The Pharisees who mocked Jesus when He said that it is impossible to serve God and wealth think about the Kingdom of God the way we usually do. Only when someone dies do we say, "May the Kingdom of Heaven be his"; to wish the "Kingdom of Heaven" to a living person is psychologically impossible for us. A stereotype formed over the centuries places the Kingdom "afterward," beyond the bounds of this life. The Pharisees thought the same way, hoping for the resurrection of the dead and expecting the Kingdom in a historical but distant future. The Pharisees regarded wealth, honor among those around them, and family well-being as the only, or in any case the chief, manifestation of God's favor in this life. Our stereotyped religiosity matches the Pharisaic one here too. This is visible when we reproach God for injustice, seeing swindlers prosper and the righteous suffer.
But the Lord tells the Pharisees, and us who think as they do, that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God as something belonging to a distant future was valid only until the time of John the Baptist. From the moment his witness to the Lamb of God sounded, to the beloved Son in whom the Father's favor was given to people, from that moment the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed as a present reality. And therefore, the Lord says, to enter it only effort is required: the effort of faith and resolve. The Pharisees do not want this nearness and openness of the Kingdom; for them it has come too unexpectedly and too early. Alas, here too we do not differ from them. To His disciples, however, the Lord speaks of the need to forgive people without limit, as God forgives. This is an essential mark of the Kingdom, into which we are called to enter here and now.