"The friend who may receive you into an everlasting home"

 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you 
fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.  (Luke 16:9) 

  We have a lot of phrases we cannot understand.  This is one of such phrases.  Did 

Jesus Christ advise us to use unrighteous mammon?  Are friends so important that we 

have to make by using unrighteous mammon?  What is an everlasting home?

  I interpret this passage in the following manner;  

  The phrase"by unrighteous mammon"is a skillful rhetoric Jesus often used.  He meant

that friends are thus important.   Why?   Why must they not be someone else?    Are 

friends more important than any member of our own family?  The phrase "when you fail" 

means "when you lose a means of leading your life in this world" that is "when you are 

going to that world."  Then the important persons who may receive you into an ever-

lasting home are FRIENDS.  Why aren't they your family members?  Why isn't the most 

important person your beloved spouse you must have promised to live together in the 

world after death?  Here I remember the  following text.  

  While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood 
outside, seeking to speak with Him.  Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your
brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You."  But He answered and said 
to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"  And He stretched
out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  "For
whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."  
(Matthew 12:46-50)

  Jesus seems to be cold to the relationship of a married couple.

  And Jesus answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in 
marriage.  "But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection 
from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;  (Luke 20:34-35) 

  Why is the relationship between parents and children or between husband and wife taken

so lightly?  Why is the relationship whith friends, especially with friends having the 

same faith attached so much importance? 

  Considering the matter, however, it isn't strange to take relationship with friends

more important than that between blood relations or married couples. We cannot be parents,

children,or brethren at our own choice. We cannot break off the blood relations.  Some 

mystics say that blood relations used to be stragers in our previous life.

  We can choose our spouse and divorce, but there are many cases in which the couples are 

compelled to remain married because of some unavoidable circumstances, i.e. livelihood, 

raising children etc.    

  To the contrary, the relationship between friends are based on our own free will.  We 

can choose a certain person as our true friend quite freely. The relationship whith  

friends is much more valuable than that of kinsfolk.  But you don't have to be sad.  You 

may be members of family, and at the same time you have only to remain friends who trust 

in one another. Such relationship is superior to anything else.

  So those who may receive you into an everlasting home can be your father, mother, or 

your beloved spouse.  In connection with this word "everlasting home" let's read another  

text;

  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.    "In My 
Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to 
prepare a place for you.  "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. （John14:1）

  In this text Jesus said he himself would be our friend that would receive us into an 

everlasting home when we die.  He actually meant that he is our friend.

  "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made 
known to you.(John15:15) 

  So when you leave this world, you are received into an everlasting home by Jesus Christ 

together with your kinsfolk, particularly your beloved husband or wife and your trust-

worthy friends.

  By the way, what kind of place is the everlasting home?  In Buddhism, they believe in  

Amitabha's reception into Paradise.  Is this the same thing?  Is it the universal truth 

beyond the difference among religions about the world after death?

  Above all, is it a reality?  Some people say that "Those who can believe in that 

are happy, but I cannot.  When we come to think of this kind of matter, we can get useful 

informations from the near death experiences (N.D.E.)

  Dr.Elisabeth Kubler-Ross said "I know the life after death as a scientist rather than 

believe.  I know!"

  If we only hope for something without knowing it, we are  pitiable.  Apostle Paul said:

  Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you
say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the 
dead, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty
and your faith is also empty.  Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we 
have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up-if in fact the 
dead do not rise.  For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ 
is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  Then also those who have 
fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 
are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians15:12-19)

  The whole 15th chapter  of 1 Corinthians(1-58) is the most important part of Paul's 

message about the eternal life, and we have to study.   But now let me return to our 

subject.  Dr.Kubler-Ross says that the idea of the life after death is not a credulity 

or a superstition but a truthful knowledge.

  In an academic research book on NDE "At the Hour of Death", written by Karlis Osis, 

PH.D.and Erlendur Haraldsson, PH.D. the authors say that the conviction in life after 

death must be based on a reasonable demonstration and scientific verification.  And 

actually they reported the next data through the interviews with a great number of 

medical doctors, and nurses in India and U.S.A.  This is the data of spiritual figures 

who receive the persons dying.