Guile, God, and Gold

Series on Luke

IV The Imperatives of the Kingdom

B Instruction in Rejection

16 Shrewd Manager

Text: 16:1-13

Introduction

Notice here that Jesus speaks this parable to his disciples, that is, to us, not to the world! We read in verse 14, And the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they scoffed at him. The wisdom here is good for the world, but the world is not listening. Therefore it is pointed at us. It is intended to save us from the greatest peril. It is not without reason that the word miserable comes from miser, a man that hoards money, for as Samuel Johnson wrote, “To have it is to be in fear and to want it is to be in sorrow.” It is the world’s greatest idol, for which every virtue is betrayed and by which every vice is motivated. The love of money is the root of all evil. It is the world’s most powerful idol because it is worshiped everywhere without a single temple, and by everybody without a single hypocrite. That is why Jesus had so much to say about it, and why he speaks this parable to his disciples. Notice three attributes here; greed, generosity, and Godliness.

I Greed

The story of the parable in verses 1-8 is about a greedy man, Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ”‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ”‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. It is difficult to reconstruct exactly what he was doing because we don’t have much information, however we do know the following things. He was just as irresponsible as the prodigal son in the preceding parable who wasted his substance in riotous living. The word used to describe the steward in verse 1 is the same. He wasted his master’s substance. If not in the same way certainly with the same reckless abandon. He was a proud man according to verse 3, a perfect picture of a white collar criminal. In this he was like the Pharisees who might have sat in the pew every Sunday but on Monday business was business. So when faced with dismissal he hatched a scheme to reduce all the amounts owed by the creditors. He altered the accounts and thus earned their gratitude and friendship as well as the praise of his boss who couldn’t help but admire his cleverness and was happier with some accounting than none at all. He was a practical man, and that unfortunately suggests that neither one was very moral when it came to business. Jesus does not approve this conduct at all. In fact Jesus opinion is reflected in verse 8. He does not say the dishonest steward was to be admired for his wisdom. He says he was wiser in his generation which distinctly implies that he was clever at succeeding here and now, but foolish when it came to his eternal destiny. The incredible irony of this parable is that this man brilliantly anticipates his future on this earth and manages a measure of security out of a disastrous situation, but he makes no provision for the world to come. This is what greed will do to you. To lay up treasure in heaven you must, you must give it away. In a strange way this reminded me of a comment by one politician about another. He said, “Well, if my opponent would take the hundred million of his own money which he is using for his campaign, give it to charity and insist on individual contributions limited to 100.00 I’d be impressed.” This is not intended to be a criticism or an endorsement of one or the other, it’s just a great illustration of putting principle ahead of money.

II Generosity

And so the greed of the steward becomes a lesson on generosity for Jesus’ disciples in verse 9, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The conduct of the steward in the parable was clever, but reprehensible. Jesus teaches His disciples that the principle the steward used for illicit gain can be transformed by the grace of the kingdom of God into a useful principle of stewardship. They are to use the money the world abuses to make friends in heaven by helping people, and thus God will be their friend, for as He says, Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me. We are to do this by being faithful stewards. Look at what Jesus says in verse 10, Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. It’s not a promise, it’s a principle, and the little and much are explained in the next verse, 11, which is parallel, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? The little is the paltry wealth of this world. The much is the true riches of the kingdom of God, love, joy, peace and the like. The principle is that right now there is a direct ratio between our spiritual life and our use of money. One cannot be better or worse than the other. If we truly grow in the Spirit we will grow in generosity, and if we are growing in generosity this is the proof that we are truly growing in the Spirit. Real provision for the future is found in sacrifice.

III Godliness

The Bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain. Dear friends, I am not talking about yachts and penthouses here which are of little concern to us. It is to our credit that most of us probably don’t want to be very rich. but then neither do we want to be very poor. We are still locked into that myth that if we are not comfortable we are not being blessed, but to be content when rich is a breeze. It’s when we have to do without that true contentment is a challenge. We still try to serve God and money, but serving God is freedom and serving money is bondage. Jesus makes clear that to the extent we cling to earthly riches we are missing out on the true riches both now and in the future. Notice how Jesus describes this choice in verses 12 and 13, And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” This is not a meaningless repetition. The words hate and love describe our emotional commitment. The words hold to and despise refer to our intellectual commitment. it is, in effect, a way of saying that there has to be a total commitment to God as in the great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Without that total commitment we are always going to be sitting on the fence.

Conclusion

In our society moonlighting is common, taking an extra job aside from your regular 40 hour week in order to earn extra money. In some cases it has been forbidden because the primary employer was concerned that he would not get a good performance from a tired employee. Sometimes that’s what God gets from us, a tired performance, because we’re moonlighting, unwilling to devote ourselves to Him as Lord, always keeping something on the side. Our society has truly made a God out of money. It is hard to see it as Jesus does, as the smallest of things, compared to spiritual blessings. It’s hard to hate it and despise it even though it is getting in the way of loving Him more. Jesus really mocks money here, almost as if you can’t be faithful in anything that trivial, then you can’t be faithful in anything. We cannot get that perspective until we see his Calvary love afresh. As Paul says, he was rich but he became poor for our sakes, but the riches were trivial to him. He wanted us to share in the true riches. As Peter says, You were redeemed (saved, forgiven) not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as a a lamb without blemish and spot. Therefore he says we are to live our lives here in reverent fear, to see ourselves as strangers and aliens in the world. Dollar bills cannot make true riches. And since Christ suffered, arm yourselves with the same mind. Lay up treasure in heaven.