Please read the scripture first: Luke 16:1-13
Herman and Henrietta were touring their brand-new house, a house that Henrietta had paid for with her money, a fact of which she often reminded Herman. In each room of the house, she said to her husband, “Herman, if it were not for my money, we wouldn’t be here.” Herman didn’t say a word.
That afternoon a truck delivered to the house a load of furniture, furniture that Henrietta paid for with her money. After the furniture was in place, the couple toured the house again. As they observed each room, beautifully appointed and magnificently decorated, Henrietta reminded her husband, “Herman, if it were not for my money, this furniture would not be here.” Again, Herman was silent.
Late in the afternoon a truck came with a special piece of furniture which was to be the focal point of the den, a combination stereo-television-computer all wrapped into one gorgeous piece of furniture which Henrietta paid for with her money. When it was in place, Henrietta again addressed her husband, “If it were not for my money, that piece of furniture would not be here.” Finally, Herman spoke, “Honey, I don’t want to make you feel bad, but if it were not for your money, I wouldn’t be here!” (Harbour, Rising Above the Crowd, 7)
The word of God that we are meditating on is from Luke 16:1-13. This is one of the most difficult parables to interpret, and most commentators admit that they have had a hard time with this passage. I belief the “linier” thinking tendency in our dominant culture makes difficult to understand the “relational” thoughts of the East.
The struggle with today’s passage is that on one hand Jesus is telling us the story of a ‘dishonest’ manager, and on the other hand, he wants us to learn from him. So today we will unfold the hidden treasure of wisdom from this parable and look at what he is really trying to teach us.
As you have heard the story from the scripture, (please read Luke 16:1-13 if you haven’t yet done so), it is about a dishonest steward that was about to be fired by his boss because he has squandered the boss’s property, and he tried to find a way to save his future.
In the first century Middle East, there were clear class distinctions between rich and poor. The rich would try to avoid direct communication with the poor even when they had business to transact. They usually hire a manger to manage all the business transactions on behalf of them, so that they wouldn’t have to deal with the poor face to face. Therefore, just like the tax collectors that worked for the Roman government that were not favored by the general public, these property managers were not favored by the farmers either.
A description of he context will help us make sense of this parable. The poor would borrow money from the rich, usually paying a high interest, to buy seeds, tools, and things they need to tend the crops. After harvest, they return the loan with what their crops. But, because of the high interest rates, they often end up having to borrow again for another year of farming, and of course, they also need money for their daily living before the next harvest.
If in a certain year the harvest was poor and they couldn’t produce enough to pay back the loan, the lender would seize their lands because it was usually in the contract when they borrow the money. Eventually, many of those farmers lost their land to the money lenders. Then they had to borrow both money and the land to make a living. So the farmers were farming on a land that they used to own, with a large amount of debts. All these transaction of lending the money and collecting the interest; and leasing the land and collecting the rent is handled by a manager. And the landlord must be living in a big city, like Jerusalem, and having a party everyday.
It is in this context that Jesus told the story of a manager that was found squandering the owner’s property. The landlord brought him in and asked him to go back to the village and bring back his books because he is no longer the manager anymore. He went home saying to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.” So he tried to come up with an idea to save his future from becoming a homeless.
The solution he came up is recorded in v.5, “... summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’”
In ancient Israel, commodities like olive oil and wheat were their staple food. Many farmers ended up not having enough for their own use after paying debts. To reduce their debts to a half, or even eighty percent, is a huge relieve for them. On the other hand, one of the important cultural values of the first century society is the reciprocal hospitality, meaning since this manager has done them a favor, they owe him a favor for life and when there is an opportunity they are obliged return the favor. For example if this manager becomes a homeless they would definitely take care of him because they culturally practice the virtue of gratefulness.
Jesus told this parable to his followers for the following lessons:
1 – Exercise Your Awareness
The manager, who squandered the boss’s property, is suddenly awakened into the reality. ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?’ (v.3) But this awareness came too late. He said, “I am not strong enough to dig,” which means he is probably old and, after a life time of management job, he has no muscle and strength to start life all over in a labor intensive job, which seems the only kind available for someone of a bad reputation.
One of the greatest awakenings of life is to know the fact that we possess nothing. We live on a borrowed time, with the things that God has entrusted us. We cannot make ourselves live any longer than we are permitted to live, and when we die we cannot take our wealth with us. At any moment, God can call us in and ask us to return the books. Many people wait until the last minute to realize this fact. That’s why we need to be awakened before it is too late.
Brian Tracey tells this story about John D. Rockefeller, a robber baron capitalist that some might also call a dishonest manager.
"John D. Rockefeller, who became the richest man in the world, started as a clerk at $43.75 per week. Even at that small salary, he gave as much as 50 percent of his salary to his church every week to contribute to the betterment of others. Years passed. When he was fifty-two years old, he was extraordinarily wealthy, perhaps the richest man in the world. He was also extremely sick, and his doctors told him that he would die within a year. He thought back on his early years and the pleasure he got from contributing to his church, he resolved that he would spend his last year giving his money away. He sold half of his stock in the Standard Oil Company. He then began financing worthy causes around the country. Something incredible happened. The more money he gave away, the better he felt. His health improved. His illnesses went away. He recovered completely. He went on to live to age 91, in excellent health. By the time he died, he had given away millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the value of the Standard Oil Stock he had kept had increased so much that he died with more money than he had when he was on his deathbed many years before." (Brian Tracey, Focal Point (New York: AMACOM, 2002), 182-83.
Don’t wait until you are on your deathbed to realize that you are living on borrowed time and you are living on the resources that you can’t take away with you. So don’t squander your time and resources on yourself. Use your time and recourses to do what I am going to talk about in the next point, which is the most important point Jesus was trying to make with this parable.
2 – Invest in Relationship
Verse 8 says, “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” Notice the word “dishonest;” that means Jesus disapproves of his dubious conduct. But he says, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Jesus calls those who are not his followers, the children of this age, and his followers, the children of light. He is saying that the outsiders and non-believer are doing something smarter than his followers.
What does this really mean? If Jesus disapproves this manager’s conduct, then what does he want us to learn from this guy? This parable is a reflection of what Jesus said in Matthew 10:16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (NIV) What he is saying is that his followers are as innocent as doves, but not as shrewd as snakes. He wants to see both in us. In fact that is the quality of a warrior—you need to be both innocent and smart, otherwise you will be crashed quickly by the enemies.
In this particular parable, Jesus was actually focusing on the effective and efficient use of worldly wealth, not for money-making, but for relationship-building and hospitality. Jesus reminds his followers that the kingdom isn’t about bean-counting, but the kingdom is about recreating our relationship with God and recreating our relationships with each other. If you remember the previous parables in the context, in chapter 14, Jesus asked the party throwers to invite the poor, the lame, and the outcast to the table, feeding those who cannot pay you back; in chapter 15, Jesus talks about the lost sheep and the lost coin, and then the lost son that eventually rebuild his relationship with the father.
Right after the parable of the lost son, or the prodigal son, which illustrated the important relationship between God and people, he talks about this parable of the dishonest manager, to illustrate the importance of relationship among one other. Because this is all life is about, to have a right relationship with God and with one other—nothing more, nothing less. Unless you look through the lens of relationship, you will never understand this parable.
Again, the kind of friendship Jesus is talking about is not about fair-weather friendship, like those the prodigal son made with his money, whom didn’t even recognize him when he was in trouble. Jesus was talking about eternal relationship, which leads to our third point.
3 – Do Things of Lasting Values
If you exercise awareness and notice what you do everyday. How many of your tasks do you see have lasting values? It is not easy to determine what is important and prioritize on doing what matters most, if your concept is that there is always a tomorrow to take care of the weeds in life, or that there is always tomorrow to express your love to your wife or children or parents or dearest friends. But, everyone on their deathbed knows what they should have been doing with their lost time. Like this manager, only when suddenly we realize that our time and job is about resources are be taken away, we start to ask “What will I do” questions.
Jesus was commending this manager for coming up with doing something of lasting values using his last minute opportunity. The keyword for this point is “eternal” in verse 9 where Jesus said, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
Let me use a Chinese Buddhists concept for an example. They believe that in the after life you still have to make deals. You have to bribe the hell’s gatekeeper, or the devil, to treat you better. You still can be rich or poor in the eternity based on what you have done in this life. According to Jesus, that’s the place where children of this age is going, meaning those who don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ would spend their eternity without him. In the parable following this, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what it is like. Yet some of these people, like this manager, are smart enough to build some eternal relationships, so that when in hell, they can help each other out to ease each other’s pain.
Jesus is complaining that the children of light, who are going to heaven, want to go there alone. They are not making eternal friends. They want a big house in heaven, but never urgently think about sharing that opportunity with others. The best thing you can do in life is to know Jesus Christ, and the second best thing you can do is to win some friends to go to heaven with you, to play golf with your up there. Such friends are eternal friends because they will be saying in heave, as they walk with you on the heavenly golf course, and say, “if it is not because of you, I wouldn’t be here.”
The Children of this age are shrewd enough to make eternal friends because they need them in the next life for help. But the children of light should make eternal friends not because you need them in heaven, but because they need you.
Jesus is saying that, not doing things of eternal values is not a smart way to spend your life here. Even though you end up in heaven because of God’s grace, some people will be left behind if you squandered your opportunity God has given you. Some of them could be your beloved ones.
You might say, “Sam, I know these things already; I just keep sidetracked by the worldly matters.” Jesus knows it and that’s why he taught us how to focus on the lasting values. The secret is that you...
4 – Serve God Only, but Nothing Else
Jesus said you cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus is not talking about that you should not have wealth, but he is warning you that it can become your idol by placing it at the top of your priorities. John D. Rockefeller started out serving God by donating 50% of his income, but he became greedy as he became wealthy and he lost focus on what matters most. He woke up on his deathbed and realized that money has replaced the God he loved. Fortunately, God prolonged his life for returning to do what is right for the rest of his life.
Some people might think that they maybe able to serve both God and money, and get the best of both world. Jesus says that human beings are not wired to serve two masters because only one of them would take the top priority.
However, serving God does not leave you without meeting your needs. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.” All these things will be given to you. John Rockefeller ended up having more, not only wealth, but also health and time.
The reason we seek to serve both God and wealth is because we lack the courage and faith. We fear what would happen if we give everything up and step out to walk with God and God alone. So we want to accumulate wealth as our backup plan in case God didn’t come through. But, very often, this backup plan ends up in the front-end of our life to distract us from what maters most, and we wait until we are in our deathbed to realize that we have squandered the time and resources God has entrusted in us.
So make a decision today to exercise your awareness that we live in a borrowed time and resources, to make friends that will last forever, and to do things that are of eternal values, and in order to keep us focus, commit to serve God and God alone, and nothing else. You will find your life much more fulfilled and blessed!
