Principles From A Parable We Don't Like Series

JUST JESUS: CHAPTER BY CHAPTER THRU LUKE

Principles from a Parable We Don’t Like

LUKE 16:1-13

#justJesus

INTRODUCTION… Shrewd Sailor-King (source unknown)

Once upon a time there was a sailor who was washed ashore on a remote Pacific Island. The natives he met made him king over the island. However, as he came to understand their language and customs, he found that he was to be king for a year and then left by himself to starve to death on another nearby island and then the next king would be chosen. This sailor-become-king sent some of his servants over to the second island to till the soil. Later he commanded them to take seeds and put them in the ground. Still later, he ordered his favorite items taken to the island and stored. As a result, when his fateful day came—instead of going to a place of starvation and death, it was a place of prosperity because of his investment.

We hear a story like that and immediately we have a reaction. Maybe we want to email it or post it out to everyone we know and tell people if they don’t share it with others, then a tragedy will befall them. Maybe we also hear a story like that and we think… what a wise man for preparing well and being slick and thinking ahead. In our world today, we also think… the sailor must have been an entitled jerk because he went in there and trashed their native culture and made himself king and worked the system for his benefit. We shake our heads and wonder at some people.

Stories can have positive impacts on us and also can have negative impacts on us. For the most part, the parables of Jesus are positive and help us spiritually. There is one or two we are not so sure about and are very challenging. The one we will look at today is one of those we have deep questions on. Let’s read from the beginning of Luke 16.

READ LUKE 16:1-15 (ESV)

“He also 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. 2 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.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”

TRANSITION

This parable is one of those that we do not often understand because of a misreading or misinterpretation in verses 8-9. We think we read something that we really do not. Let’s take a look at this parable of Jesus and get His point correct in our minds and apply it to our hearts.

THE SITUATION

I think that this parable is one of those Jesus told to make a very specific point. In fact, I don’t even think that Jesus had to make this story up because it is plausible that it could have happened. It could be that Jesus was telling His disciples about some events between a rich man and his manager to help drive home a lesson for them and for us about priorities. It would almost have to be based on real events because in the story the rich man commends his manager for being dishonest which feels like something a person might actually do. We know that’s not something Jesus would have in a story of His own, but He is using this story for a very specific reason. Whether or not Jesus made up the parable or describes something that actually happened, the point remains the same.