When Everything Falls Apart, What Remains Series

Title: When Everything Falls Apart, What Remains

Intro: Jesus calls us to the same shrewdness, the same wisdom, and the same understanding that in a world where everything is temporary, only love endures.

Scripture: Luke 16:1-13

Reflection

Dear Friends,

There is something deeply unsettling about the story Jesus tells in Luke chapter sixteen. A manager gets caught stealing from his boss. He is about to lose everything—his job, his reputation, his future. But instead of falling into despair, he does something unexpected. He makes friends with his master’s debtors, reducing their bills dramatically. When the master finds out, he actually commends the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly.

What are we supposed to do with this story? Jesus seems to be praising a crook. At first glance, it feels like everything we have been taught about honesty and integrity has been turned upside down. But that is exactly the point. This parable is not about endorsing dishonesty. It is about recognising a crisis and responding with wisdom rather than panic.

The manager in this story faces what we might call an existential moment. Everything he has built his life on is crumbling. His security is gone. His identity as a successful businessman is about to vanish. He stands at the edge of a cliff, looking down into an uncertain future. Sound familiar? Most of us have stood in similar places, maybe not with our jobs on the line, but with our marriages failing, our health declining, our dreams dissolving, and our children walking away from everything we tried to teach them.

What strikes me most about this manager is that he does not waste time on regret. He does not sit in his office wallowing in self-pity or plotting revenge against those who exposed him. He does not spend his final days cursing his fate or drowning his sorrows. Instead, he asks himself a brutally honest question: “What am I going to do now?” This is the question that separates the wise from the foolish, the survivors from the victims.

The manager realises something profound. He is too proud to beg and too weak to do manual labour. But he has something else—relationships. He understands that in a world where everything can be taken away, the connections we build with other people might be the only thing that endures. So he uses his remaining authority to create a network of people who will remember his kindness when his power is gone.

This is where the story becomes less about a crooked businessman and more about all of us. Because every single one of us is a steward of something. We are managing time that is not really ours. We are caring for bodies that will eventually fail us. We are responsible for talents and opportunities that came to us as gifts. We are overseeing resources—money, influence, relationships—that we will one day have to give an account for.

The question Jesus is asking through this parable is simple but piercing: What kind of steward are you? When everything you think you control is stripped away, what will remain? When your health fails, when your savings disappear, when your status crumbles, when the things you have built your identity on prove to be temporary, what foundation will you be standing on?

The manager in the story understands something that escapes many of us. He recognises that his position is temporary. He knows he is going to lose his job, but he also knows this is not the end of his story. So he invests in relationships that will outlast his current circumstances. He uses his remaining time and authority to create connections that will serve him when his official power is gone.

Jesus commends the manager’s shrewdness because he acts with the future in mind. He does not cling desperately to a position he has already lost. Instead, he leverages what he has left to build something that will last beyond his current crisis. This is wisdom. This is what it means to be shrewd in the way Jesus wants us to be shrewd.

But Jesus does not stop there. He takes this story and applies it to our spiritual lives in ways that should make us all a little uncomfortable. “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves,” he says, “so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” This is not an endorsement of buying friendship or using money manipulatively. It is a call to understand that everything we have—our money, our time, our abilities, our influence—should be invested in relationships and purposes that will outlast our earthly lives.

Consider the friends this manager made. When his official authority ended, these people remembered his generosity. They welcomed him because he had shown them kindness when he had the power to do so. Jesus is teaching us that the investments we make in other people’s lives create a kind of eternal return. When we use our resources to bless others, to meet needs, and to show mercy, we are building friendships that transcend temporal circumstances.