Luke 16:1-15 A Good Lesson From a Bad Example
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 16, verses 1-15, and that’s on page 875 in the pew Bibles.
You may remember from last week we looked at the two prodigal sons in chapter fifteen. The word, “prodigal,” means, “squanderer.” This week we are going to look at another prodigal, the prodigal manager in Luke 16, and hopefully get a good lesson out of a bad example.
Let’s pray.
So our text for this morning is a continuation of the lessons that Jesus has been giving to this crowd of followers and Pharisees. The followers were made up both of the twelve disciples as well as the tax collectors and sinners that we were introduced to back in the opening verses of chapter fifteen. The Pharisees were those religious leaders whose power over the people was in jeopardy, threatened by Jesus.
So to His followers and in the hearing of the Pharisees Jesus tells this parable.
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.
Now I want to stop there and take a look at this. It’s really important for us to remember that this is a parable, an illustration used by Jesus to make a point and that point is not, how to be a greedy dirt bag.
The rich man had a manager, a steward of his property. This manager had charge over the rich man’s possessions and had been caught prodigaling it, wasting it and he got called to account for it.
This fellow may not have been a great money manager but he was no dummy. He knew that he had been caught and that he would be fired so he came up with a plan to keep him from digging ditches or begging on the street.
In verse three he has this funny little conversation with himself… ’ 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.’
Before this, this guy had been busted for wasting the master’s possessions but now he decides to straight up steal from the master.
He sits down with some of the people who owed his master and starts cooking the books. With one debtor he cancelled half of his debt and with another twenty percent. His hope was that by discounting their bills these debtors would now be in debt to him for doing them a favor and they would give him a job and a place to live.
Now by my math this manager cost his master over four hundred gallons of oil, and five to six hundred bushels of wheat. He didn’t do that just because he was a jerk but to secure his future with one of these debtors.
And in First Century Judea one might expect that the manager would be thrown in prison for this treachery but that’s not how this story goes.
8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
He praised his cleverness, he made friends for himself by giving deep discounts and the master was impressed by his ability to deal with his potential incoming hardships by redistributing resources.
Both of these businessmen sound a little greasy to me.
But Jesus says, 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.
Jesus isn’t praising the manager’s dishonesty, but rather his shrewdness, his cleverness. Not only that but he encourages his followers to be shrewd in the same way making friends by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails those friends may receive them into eternal dwellings.
Is Jesus teaching His followers to be shady businessmen? No.
Is Jesus suggesting here that people can buy their way into heaven? No.
Jesus is instructing His followers on the beneficent use of wealth as a powerful means of grace.
Martin Luther wrote, “It is not works that win us to heaven, but Christ bestows eternal blessedness out of grace on those who believe and have proved their faith in works of love and right use of earthly good.”
Earthly wealth can’t buy us a place in God’s eternal kingdom but if we use earthly wealth shrewdly for God’s purposes we can ensure a good reception there by those who came to faith as a result.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” Meaning, that there is a strong link between money and spirituality.
When Jesus said in verse nine make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings, He is telling His followers to use money while it still has value. It is a temporary tool that can do some eternal good and it can be a powerful motivator.
Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17-19,
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
What we have been entrusted with, be it a little or a lot, has been entrusted to us by God as His stewards and we should use it to help people enter His kingdom through faith in Jesus.
Verse ten also shows us that we can view the use of money and wealth as an indicator of hidden character.
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.
Not being a lover of money or greedy for gain, but hospitable and a good manager of his own household are some of the requirements the Bible gives us for eldership, it’s a standard we all should aspire to.
When we regard what we have as belonging to the Lord, when we realize that what I call mine is really His, we will be faithful with what the Lord has given whether it’s a little or a lot.
Verses 11-12 also give us a potential explanation of the lack of spiritual power in our own lives.
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?
I’m not saying this is you, I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m also not looking for a raise. I have no idea what the Lord has put in front of you to do with the resources that He has entrusted you with. I do know that he is calling us all to faithfulness and submission to Him as master, to recognize all that we have is His to will and to do with whatever he desires. And when we are faithful with what He has entrusted to us, He may just entrust us with more.
Verses 13-15 get to the heart of the matter of the connection between money and spirituality.
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.”
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Warren Wiersbe said, “If God is our Master, then money will be our servant, and we will use our resources in the will of God.” Use it don’t serve it. As the songwriter said, “We weren’t born to just pay bills and die.”
One of the most often misquoted verses in the Bible is 1 Timothy 6:10. People say that money is the root of all evil, but that’s not what the Bible actually says. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Riches deceive, they make people think that they are something that they aren’t. Money, power, and influence was what the Pharisees were after and that pursuit hasn’t changed much over two thousand years. But no matter how much money, power, or influence anyone has in this life we are all equal at the foot of the cross.
The evaluation of God will come when we act not out of what we want others to see, but out of what we have actually become.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 25,
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Children of Light, let us be shrewd in dealing with our generation and use what we have been given to expand God’s eternal kingdom through the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
