Luke 16:1-13 - Dirty Money And Kingdom Purposes

Last week, we were going through the parable of the prodigal son—prodigal meaning somebody who squanders resources. Today, we're going to be talking about the prodigal manager, another person who is squandering resources. Jesus is going to use this illustration to prove one main point, but he's going to give us a lot of principles as he proves out this point. That’s what we'll get into today. Let's pray, and then we'll dive into the scripture. Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to come together to worship you, to hear your word proclaimed. And Father, I pray that we would be open to receive what you are going to impart today. That we would grab hold of those things that are important for us, and not lose sight of what it is you want to communicate. Father, I pray that we would put our cares to the side today so we can listen clearly for you, and Father, I just ask that you speak through me today, that your word would just come forth with clarity and Father, that your will be done during our time together, in Jesus' name, amen.

So, we're dealing with this idea of stewardship, and we're talking in the context of a wealthy man and his business manager. And so, just to put things in context for this time in history, when a government would hire a tax collector or a businessman would hire a business manager, part of that arrangement was, "Here's what's owed; now you go collect whatever you want to collect, and you get to keep the remainder." That was your commission, if you will, for doing that work. And so, that's the setting for this story.

He said to the disciples—and the thing we also want to understand, because we're going to see this next week, he's not just speaking to the disciples. The Pharisees are in earshot as well, because they are looking to set him up to entrap him. So, it's a broader audience he's really laying the table for where we're gonna go next week as well.

He said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions." And he called him and said to him, "What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager." So the picture of this is a very wealthy owner. He has hired this businessman, or this business manager, to follow up with his desires, his goals, his agenda, and to do things in a manner that would reflect the owner's heart. But he gets word that what the manager is doing is he's being unfaithful in his job. And so, as he hears this, he calls the manager in to give an account, and then he adds these words to it: "You're fired."

Now, the thing we want to understand with this is the whole problem was that the manager wasn't being faithful with what's been entrusted to him. And what that really comes down to is, "You're not keeping my heart in the matter. You're not doing what I would do in the matter. What you're doing is you're looking out for yourself." And that's what I'm hearing. And because of that, you're fired.

Now, hearing this—and this is one of my favorite parts of this story—the manager said to himself, "What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg." Well, give the guy credit, at least he's willing to say, "I'm lazy, and I'm not willing to stand at the intersection with a sign that says 'Need Help.'" What am I going to do? My way of life is being disrupted. If you're in any type of business role where you're trying to hire people these days, don't you wish people would just be honest about some of that too? "I'm lazy, I'm going to sit and take up oxygen in space and not do my work, and you're still going to have to fire me." Wouldn't that be nice, to where you could just say, "Great, move on"? But that's not what happens. That's the challenge that we sometimes face.

But here's the key to this: he realizes, "I'm not going to be able to make it if I don't do something because the meal ticket has come to an end, the gravy train has moved on." And so, he begins to think about what should his options be, and he says, "Aha!" Verse 4: "I've decided what to do so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses." So he's beginning to think about what's the future going to look like. "Well, wait a minute, I know what I can do, so at least when I'm out of work, have no money, people will still bring me in, feed me, and take care of me."