Pentecost 13 Parables of Jesus Series Luke 16:1-13
August 13, 2016
Buying home insurance can be a real eye opener. As you try to figure out how much insurance you need, you take mental inventory and come up with a ballpark figure. But when you talk it over with your agent he suggests a much higher value than you had in mind. “No way. That’s way too high!” you protest. But when you start listing out your belongings, you discover that his figure is more realistic than yours.
Times like that are humbling. God has blessed us more than we realize…blessings over which He has called us to be good managers. In the parable I just read Jesus teaches us a lesson in managing our earthly blessings. He reminds us of our responsibility to God and urges us to rethink the way we use His abundant gifts. But this is an unusual lesson. In most of Jesus’ parables the main character is a good role model. In this parable our role model is a crooked little thief. Jesus gives us a lesson in Christian stewardship from an unbeliever – a smart unbeliever. In the same way, GOD HAS CALLED US TO BE SMART in how we use his blessings.
1.Smart about keeping inventory of our blessings
The servant in Jesus’ parable had been employed as a business manager for a rich landowner. He dealt personally with all his business contacts and had total control of keeping the books. Large sums of money and merchandise passed through his hands all the time. One day, however, his boss caught wind of the fact that this guy wasn’t doing a very good job. He was getting sloppy and squandering the money and goods entrusted to him, maybe even skimming a little off the top for himself. “Give an account of your management,” his boss told him, “because you cannot be manager any longer.”
It’s humbling and frightening to be fired. Without a job you have no income. Soon you have no place to live and nothing to live on. The manager couldn’t deny the charges but for the moment he still had a job and some authority, so he used it to his advantage. He went to work preparing for his future. He called his master’s debtors in one by one. “How much do you owe?” he asked them. Much to their surprise he gave each of them a whopping discount, had them write up a new bill, and signed each bill to make it official. Once he was out on the streets, these customers would remember his favor and feel obligated to return the favor.
We have to give this guy credit for his resourcefulness.As wrong and deceitful as he was,even his boss had to admit it was a clever move. He made the most of the money at his disposal…even if it wasn’t his own. And the landowner had to honor the discounts. If he tried to rewrite any of the bills, he’d face angry customers, court action, the risk of losing his reputation and going out of business.
What could a Christian possibly learn from these shady dealings? We can learn to be smart with what we have and make the most of our opportunities. Jesus explained: “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light.” The Christian’s priorities are totally different from the unbeliever’s. Their mind is set on worldly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. We know that on this earth we are only passing through. Unbelievers think they’re here to stay. They use theirheads to make the most of their limited resources as they plan for a very temporary earthly future. How much more determined can God’s people be to use our limited resources to plan for a heavenly future that will never end?
We’ve already learned a lot about using money in our day to day lives. We know how to be smart shoppers who cut coupons, check ads for the best prices, and get the most for our money. We have budgets to help us organize and prioritize our spending. We keep careful records and check bills to make sure we haven’t been overcharged. We do all this so we can keep as much of our money as we can to use for other things. For the unbeliever those “other things” are more things for this life. What are the “other things” for a child of God?
Here’s Jesus’ answer: “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Paul said it this way to the Colossians, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”When the people of the world plan for their future, they prepare for only a few years of earthly life and then it’s over. They die and go to hell. God’s children plan an eternal future by putting their blessings to work for the Lord. The offerings we give are wise investments as we use them to save people from going to hell by sharing with them the gift of God’s forgiveness and eternal life in Christ . No other investment on earth can return so much! That is why we sing in one of our hymns: “We lose what on ourselves we spend, we have treasures without end whatever, Lord, to you we lend who gives us all.” (CW 487:7)
God calls us to be smart with his blessings. Be wise in making the most of what you have while you have it. But there’s an even better reason. It’s because God has invested so much in us. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Christ Jesus redeemed us from a horrific future in hell at a price. With his blood he’s written “paid in full” across our debt to God. He used every resource at his disposal to give us eternal life. And that same attitude now lives in the grateful hearts of those he redeemed.
2. Smart about using them best for him
But we still live in a sinful world and struggle with a sinful nature that listens to the world. This is why Jesus sounds the warning, “No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.” There are only two masters in life: either God or the devil. If money is our master, so is the devil. You and I struggle with Master Money like everyone else. Corporations spend millions on commercials to convince us that we need what they’re selling. The subtle message of our culture is that we are what we have, that our worth is measured by what we wear, what we drive, what we live in, and even how cutting edge our cell phone is! Money is a ruthless master because we’ll never have enough. Money is a heartless master because putting it first in our hearts is rebellion against God.
So God calls us to be smart. Remember whose you are. Remember where you are going. Remember whose blessings you are managing. We have been set free from the control of money to serve another Master, free to manage his blessings for him.
There’s something else we can learn from the shrewd manager in Jesus’ parable: we have only so much time to make the most of our resources. The shrewd manager in Jesus’ parable knew that his schedule was shrinking. He was pressed for time to prepare for his future. Seeing the deadline before him, he poured himself into his plan and worked deliberately to feather his earthly nest. He made the most of his time and effort.
All too soon our earthly life will be over, too, and our management of God’s blessings will come to an end. On that day we will have no more say in how they are used. The time to ask how well our moneybest serves our Savior’s purposes is now. If we take inventory of our blessings we see how generous our God has been to us. We have more than we realize. We have so much to use for him. Amen