Luk 12:59---what does it mean?

Luk 12:59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

This is from matthew Henry:

Christ, to whom all judgment is committed, is the magistrate before whom we are hastening to appear: if we stand a trial before him, and insist upon our own justification, the cause will certainly go against us, the Judge will deliver us to the officer, the ministers of his justice, and we shall be cast into the prison of hell, and the debt will be exacted to the utmost; [b]though we cannot make a full satisfaction for it, it will be continually demanded, till the last mite be paid, which will not be to all eternity. Christ’s sufferings were short, yet the value of them made them fully satisfactory. In the sufferings of damned sinners what is wanting in value must be made up in an endless duration.[/b]

! That is strong. What a fearful thing it is to be found "wanting" on the day of Judgement. May we all trim our wicks now and prepare for that awful day of reckoning.

Something you might want to consider also is that the passage your reading is a story that Jesus is telling. It wouldn't be wise to build a doctrine like that off of this verse. Remember Jesus was telling a story and that is simply what it was. You cannot interpret His parables as Paul's epistle to the Romans, if you know what I mean. :-(