Investing In What Lasts

Luke 16:1–13 is another one of those strange passages in the Gospels. Jesus tells a story about a manager who mishandles his boss’s money, gets caught, and then cuts secret deals to secure his own future. And at the end of the story, the master actually praises him! This is not the kind of hero you expect in a parable.

But Jesus often uses the unexpected to shake us awake. He’s not saying, “Be dishonest.” He’s saying, “Look at the urgency and foresight this man showed. What if you lived your life with that kind of intentionality, but for God’s purposes?”

So today we’re not talking about money as much as we’re talking about how to manage your life. Your time, your relationships, your influence, your character; these are treasures God has put in your care. Jesus is asking, “How are you managing them?”

Let’s reimagine the story. Picture a wealthy landowner whose fields roll across the hills of Galilee. Tenant farmers grow olives, figs, wheat, and barley. This landowner has a manager, someone we might call a CFO or estate overseer, responsible for collecting rent and keeping the books.

But word gets back that this manager is wasting the landowner’s resources. Maybe he’s careless, maybe he’s corrupt. Either way, he’s in trouble. The landowner calls him in: “What’s this I hear? You’re done. Turn in the books.”

The manager panics. He’s been living comfortably, but now the bottom has fallen out. He says to himself, “I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg.” Then he hatches a daring plan. Before the news spreads, he calls in each of the landowner’s debtors one by one and secretly cuts their bills. A hundred jugs of olive oil? Make it fifty. A hundred measures of wheat? Make it eighty. By reducing their debts, he wins their gratitude and builds a network of people who’ll owe him favors once he’s out of work.

When the landowner finds out, instead of exploding, he smiles and says, “Well played.” He’s not praising dishonesty. He’s admiring quick thinking, foresight, and strategic action.

Jesus turns to his followers and says, “Do you see this? People in the world sometimes show more urgency about their temporary future than my disciples show about their eternal one.”

In the first-century Middle East, wealthy landowners were absentee landlords. They relied on managers to act in their name. Corruption was common; debts were often inflated with hidden interest or commissions. A manager could take a cut for himself without the landowner ever knowing.

Jesus’ listeners would have recognized the dynamics. This was their world. And because they understood it, they also understood the point: the dishonest manager was thinking ahead. He was willing to take bold action in the present to secure his future. Jesus is saying, “Why aren’t my people living with the same kind of holy urgency?”

The hinge of the parable is Luke 16:10: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” This principle reaches far beyond bank accounts. It’s about your integrity, your character, your use of opportunities.

Think of how God works all through Scripture:

• Moses was tending sheep when he encountered the burning bush.

• David was delivering bread and cheese when he heard Goliath’s taunts.

• Mary was an obscure village girl when Gabriel greeted her.

God delights to take ordinary people, faithful in ordinary tasks, and do extraordinary things through them.

Every choice you make: how you speak to a coworker, how you spend a free hour, how you handle a mistake, is shaping who you’re becoming. These aren’t throwaway moments. They’re the very arena where God is shaping your soul.

Most of us underestimate the small. We think, “If I ever get a big platform or a major break, then I’ll do something significant for God.” But Jesus says the opposite: if you’re not faithful in the small, you won’t be faithful in the big. Faithfulness isn’t a switch you flip when circumstances change, it’s a habit you build one choice at a time.

Think about people you admire. Usually they’re not famous; they’re trustworthy. They keep their word. They do what’s right when no one’s looking. They’re the kind of people you’d give your house keys to without a second thought.

That’s what Jesus is talking about. Faithfulness is the currency of influence in God’s kingdom.

This applies in every arena:

• At work: showing up prepared, treating coworkers with respect, following through on commitments.

• At home: being present with your kids or spouse, listening more than you speak, keeping your promises.

• In the community: volunteering faithfully, helping a neighbor, praying for your city.

None of this is glamorous, but all of it matters. In God’s kingdom, nothing done with love is small.