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.' – Luke 16:1-4
Now this is a parable. As I have discussed before, parables generally are not allegories – it is a misuse of Scripture to try to match up everything in a parable with things in real life. A parable is simply a story, and most parables have a single, main point to get across. With regards to this often misunderstood and misinterpreted parable, it is particularly important that we understand this. Let’s go through this slowly, to make sure we really get the picture.
Exhibit A: A rich man. He is probably active in a large number of ongoing business transactions at any time. In addition, he has many possessions – homes, goods, slaves, perhaps spread out over multiple cities or regions, perhaps even over multiple states/provinces/countries. It is an unthinkable and impossible job for him to manage everything down to all the details that are necessary to keep everything going, and so he has hired at least one (probably more than one) manager to oversee various parts of his affairs.
Exhibit B: A manager. Perhaps the rich man has set up a manager in each geographical region in which he does business – at any rate, this particular manager has a particular set of responsibilities that are not fully specified, but as we will see, includes overseeing business arrangements with a number of people who have borrowing arrangements with the master. The manager has a great deal of freedom in terms of the details of how he does business – the master is not “micromanaging” him, as long as no problems come up.
Exhibit C: One or more people who warn the rich man about this particular manager. What do they warn the rich man about? Apparently, they see the manager either living it up lavishly as if the possessions were his to waste, or they see him spending lavishly on others. Either way, the behavior is apparently so out of line that these person or people are moved beyond just thinking negatively about the manager into actually speaking with the rich man about it. I think it safe to assume that this manager’s actions were way over the top.
Now again, this is a parable, and it doesn’t go into these details. An equally possible situation is that he has been falsely accused – perhaps someone expected a bribe, and he didn’t give it, or perhaps he offended someone while drunk at a party – there are countless other ways this might have happened.
Either way, the rich man hears the accusations and decides they must be true. So what does he do? He calls the manager in, and fires him! He tells him to prepare a final report describing the results of his management (or mismanagement, as the case may be), and once finished, pack up his stuff and leave.
Now we are about to see that the manager is quite shrewd, but let me first point out that the rich man is most certainly not. In the modern corporate world, what happens when they fire someone? Normally, they meet with their boss, receive the bad news, and then from that second on, they have an escort: a guard who won’t let the person out of his sight for even a moment. The person, at most, gets a few minutes to empty out his desk of personal belongings, but then is immediately escorted off the corporate campus. He is certainly not given a chance to use his computer.
Why is this done in the corporate world? Simply because they are afraid of shrewd managers! They don’t want him to delete all his files, or sabotage the corporate computer network, or email files containing corporate secrets, or anything else. Frankly, it’s probably a good thing there are laws that say they can’t just kill you, because I am sure that would give them a lot less to worry about!
But this rich man apparently hasn’t thought these things through. He wants his final report, and so, although the manager is fired in principle, he still has authority to act as manager for a little while longer.
Now the manager is in a panic, because he realizes that as word gets out about this, he won’t be able to find a cushy job with another rich man – in other words, he’s actually going to have to work for a living! His thoughts about future job prospects are somewhat strange to our ears: digging or begging. Apparently anyone could get a job digging for the Romans – now whether he really couldn’t dig or instead had lived such a pampered life that he couldn’t imagine lowering himself to physical labor, the parable doesn’t say. And as for begging, unless he had some physical malady (which is possible – perhaps that is why he couldn’t dig), he probably wasn’t going to do very well as a beggar. “Alms for the fired, corrupt, former manager” doesn’t have a good ring to it!
But he has an idea. Apparently, it is a pretty grand idea, one so grand that he thinks he will be able to continue living the good life, going to parties, having his needs provided for, now without any job at all! Sort of like that Kato guy who used to live with O.J. Simpson. Let’s read on to see his plan.
"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.' – Luke 16:5-7
What’s going on here? The manager is being very shrewd, very clever. Not good, not by any stretch of the imagination. This is evil, black sin. But it is incredibly clever. Since his reputation is already assured of being ruined, he realizes that he might as well actually “do the crime” of mismanaging his master’s estate, whether he really had already mismanaged it or not.
He brings in his master’s debtors, one by one, and offers to cut a deal with them. What are the terms of this deal? Nothing is written down, but everything is perfectly understood. The manager is cutting what they owe, allowing them to not have to pay significant portions of the bills they truly owe, in exchange for future personal “favors.” The mafia had nothing on this guy!
Now, the debtors are just as guilty of this transaction as the steward. In fact, legally speaking, it is possible that they could be nailed for this, whereas the manager was relatively safe. The manager had legal right to set and change transactions, so really all that the rich man could do to him is what he had already done, fire him.
But after leaving the rich man, it is possible that the manager could actually blackmail the debtors if they didn’t repay with those future favors – all he would have to do is go back to the rich man and accuse the debtors of changing the bill. In the absence of a legal paper trail, it would be his word against theirs, and if he accused them of changing the bill with the intent of shortchanging the rich man, they could have their reputations hurt and perhaps even be sued under Roman law for fraud.
So the manager has managed to buy his way into the good life with the rich man’s money! The debtors are going to be friendly to him for a long time, either because they are happy they saved so much money or because they are fearful of reprisal. That’s not to say that they like this guy – he probably gives everyone the creeps – but they will treat him as if he were a friend.
"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. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. – Luke 16:8-9
Did you catch that first sentence? To conclude this parable, Jesus doesn’t explain how, but somehow or another – perhaps the brazen manager simply told the truth in his final report – the master learns what the manager has done, using his boss’ money to buy himself a good future, and although the master is probably quite angry, he is also quite impressed. The shrewd master concedes that he has been “outshrewded” by his former manager.
So now we get to the point of the parable, and again, it is important not to read more into it than is actually there. The Greek word for shrewdly in this passage is adikia, which means unjustly, unrighteously, whereas the Greek word for shrewd in this passage is phronimos, which means prudently, wisely. The word is used of the wise man who built his house upon a rock and in the passage where Jesus sends His disciples as sheep among wolves, where He tells them to be as wise as servants and as harmless as doves (Matthew 7:24 and 10:16).
The point of this story is that Jesus says that people of this world are more prudent about dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. What is it exactly that the manager was so prudent about? Listen carefully here:
The manager was about to lose access to “his” money. He couldn’t take it with him. But he found a way to use it while he still “had” it to benefit him after he lost access to it.
Jesus says, do the same! Don’t be shrewd and evil, but use your money in a similarly prudent way. What does this mean?
Well, here is how to be imprudent with your money: Spend it all on yourself, buying yourself expensive toys, fancy vacations, fancy meals, etc. When you die, your toys won’t go with you, your vacations won’t go with you, and of course, your meals will be long gone. You’ll be penniless in Heaven, so to speak. What will you do? Now, you’ll be in Heaven, so I don’t think you’ll have to dig ditches or beg, but you never know!
By the way, it is equally imprudent to simply let your money grow and grow and grow in a bank account. Again, when you die, your bank account won’t go with you either. You’ll still be penniless in Heaven.
So if you can’t get your money to Heaven by spending it all on yourself while you are here, or by saving it all in a bank, what are you supposed to do? Be wise! Be prudent!
If you spend your money generously on things that impact and further the Kingdom of God, you will be laying up treasure in Heaven. This is the way to be prudent, to be wise. This is the only way you can, in effect, “take it with you.”
People say money can’t buy happiness, but I am not so sure, after thinking about this parable.
How does this work out in practice? By being generous with your giving to the church and to other people, especially those who don’t yet know the Lord. I don’t know if you realize it, but this is exactly what we all did as a church a week ago last Saturday: we used money to make those back-to-school gift bags that we used during our outreach to people in the Clemson and Pendelton areas! Next week is a sharing time by the way, and I can’t wait to hear more about how that went. I believe it was Renee who first suggested we bring gifts on our outreach times. This was an excellent, and as we see here, totally Biblical idea! Knocking on doors empty-handed is a much more difficult way to bring people the good news of the gospel. And I’ll say this too – as we keep going back to the same areas, we are becoming more and more accepted. We are slowly gaining a reputation as the church that doesn’t ask for anything but simply wants to give. As time goes on this reputation will continue to grow, and people will be more and more willing to hear what we have to say. I believe this living out exactly what Jesus is telling us to do.
Here is one other rather obvious suggestions for how to live out Jesus’ instructions. Have people over for dinner. Multiple times. Yes, feeding people is work, and as the prices of food continue to rise, costs more and more money. But that is the point. People are appreciative of this – when they see that you are a generous giving family, and they compare it to their own more selfish ways, they will see you as “different,” and at some point will want to know why or how you are different. In this way you use money to have eternal impact. The corollary to this is of course to take people out for a meal. Sometimes this backfires, though, because your guests may pay before you get a chance to do it. The really neat thing about meals at home is that there is no socially acceptable way to try to pay you back for it.
These principles also apply to giving to Christian ministry, Christians giving to Christians. The apostle Paul makes a very interesting comment in Philippians 4:
Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. – Phil. 4:17-18
The phrase “not that I am looking for a gift” can be equally well translated as “not that I particularly needed a gift.” What is Paul saying? He says that he is happy to receive the gift because he knows that God will count it as “credit” to their eternal account.
Back to our account in Luke: Jesus says,
"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. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? – Luke 16:10-12
I believe this fits right in with the previous parable. We are stewards, managers of money here in this world. We don’t own anything – everything is the Lord’s. How we handle our jobs as managers here will impact our lives in eternity, Jesus says. He makes two comparisons between life here and now and life in Heaven.
First, He compares worldly wealth to true riches in Heaven. What are “true riches”? I’m not sure, but whatever they are, they will make the finest gold and jewels here look like plastic toys in comparison. Most of you know we homeschool our children, and our oldest son Isaac is doing biology this year. We bought a pretty nice microscope recently, and part of biology for us is using that microscope. We have looked at some pretty interesting things, from rancid pond water to fungus on rotting fruit. But recently we found in the carpet a very small stone that looked just like a diamond. Someone (probably Hannah, our youngest daughter) had been exploring a small purse that contained some jewelry given by an extended family member, so we thought that perhaps the diamond was genuine and had fallen out of this purse. To try to tell what this stone really was, I put it under the microscope. It was suddenly very clear that that this was a piece of plastic or glass – it was most certainly not a diamond! It looked absolutely horrible under the microscope. Well, as for these “true riches” Jesus is talking about, I am sure that anything this world offers will look like that so-called diamond when examined under the “microscope” of a heavenly perspective.
Second, Jesus calls the wealth of this world “someone else’s property” and compares it to “property of your own.” If you really own something, you can take it with you wherever you go. This world’s wealth is not in that category, because we can’t take it with us. But in contrast, the riches of heaven are ours to keep forever. It is only these that we will ever truly own.
Do you see how similar our situation is to that of the parable? Just like the manager, we cannot take a penny of the rich man’s wealth with us. Jesus now says that if we don’t do a good job with this wealth, we won’t be entrusted with wealth in the world to come. So let us be wise, prudent in how we use “our” money in this world. Let us imitate the manager in this one way: let us take advantage of our present, temporary position to arrange as good a future as we can.
And like the manager, no one among us would be able to refute the charge that we have squandered our Master’s resources. Like the manager, we will suddenly be “fired,” and be called on to give an account. But unlike the manager, when that happens it will be too late for us to change the situation. If we want to change the situation, the time to do this is now! We should not presume to think that we will have another chance.
"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." The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. – Luke 16:13-15
There are plenty of people today who sneer at Christians because of statements like this. Like the Pharisees, they believe that money makes the world go around, and that everyone and everything has a price. God also knows their hearts.
Notice that this doesn’t say you cannot have both money and God, but that you cannot serve both. Whether you serve money or not is not a function of your wealth or your income – there are plenty of people with very little money who nevertheless are slaves to money, and there are those who are rich who wholeheartedly serve God. How can you tell which master you serve? Consider these verses:
Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. – Eccl. 5:10
Even Socrates figured this out! “He who is not content with what he has would not be content with what he would like to have.” – Socrates
I love the comment on this issue in the Veggietales videos:
“How much stuff do you want?” – Bob
”I don’t know – how much stuff is there?” – Larry
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But godliness with contentment is great gain. – I Timothy 6:9-10a, 6
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." – Hebr. 13:5
Contentment is the key indicator of where your heart lies with regards to money. These verses really serve as an acid test – ask yourself, how do these verses make you feel? Are you honestly content with what you have? When God says, in this passage, that He will never leave nor forsake you, does that sink in? Does it make you feel content and able to trust in His provision, or do the words bounce off and you still feel discontent?
Here are some practical suggestions for overcoming the love of money:
1.Become the master of your money, not its slave. Tell your money where to go. To do this requires that you learn how you are spending your money. You can track your spending (down to the penny) for a while to learn this. Then you start telling every penny where to go (a budget). If you don’t have enough income to make ends meet, you need to either reduce your spending or increase your income. I would look first at reducing my spending. Then work at reducing or eliminating your debt. The borrower is slave to the lender! – Prov. 22:7 By the way, Hebrew word used for borrower in this passage is lavah which also means to cleave, or entwine, or join. It implies intimacy; for example, in Genesis 29:34, Leah desired Jacob to be joined with her. There are some good Christian financial resources for this – Dave Ramsey and Crown Ministries have good programs. Please talk to me after the message if you want to know more about these. Note however, that getting your financial house in order in and of itself will probably not overcome your love of money – it will simply change its nature. But it is difficult if not impossible to find contentment when your finances are out of control.
2. Pursue Christ. Don’t do finances without Him anymore. Spend and save and give prayerfully. Asking “Lord, should I buy this?” “Lord, am I generous?” “Lord, is my heart focused on you or on my possessions?” is a powerful way to turn your heart around.
3. Avoid advertising. Advertising has one and only one purpose – to get you to purchase something you did not want to purchase previously. The purpose of advertising is to make you discontent. Companies spend fortunes on advertising because it works. By the way, I Tim. 6:20 says to turn away from godless chatter; I cannot think of a better definition of advertising than “godless chatter.”
4. Obey today’s passage. Use your money for Kingdom business. Paul says something similar to Timothy also in I Tim. 6::
Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. – I Tim. 6:18-19
So what are you going to do with today’s message? I would challenge you to be very specific about an application for yourself and write it down, and then commit it to prayer.
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