For the past three weeks we have been looking at
what the Bible has to say about the subject of money and finances. Last week,
we discovered that when it comes to the money, possessions and treasure we have
here on earth, God is the owner and we are the managers. This week, I would
like for us to address a natural question that arises out of last week. And
that natural question is this: If God is the owner and we are the managers,
then how are we supposed to manage all that God owns? What does the Bible teach
when it comes to how we are to manage the money, possessions, and treasure we
have on earth? Will we be held accountable for how we manage all that God owns?
And if that is that case; if we will be held accountable, then what is the
standard we will be held to? How will God measure and judge our management?
So,
to answer these questions, I would like for us to spend our time together
looking at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in our
Bibles, called the gospel of Luke. In this section of this letter, we see Jesus
telling a series of parables. And it is in the explanation of one of these
parable that we discover the timeless standard that God will use to measure and
judge how we manage the money, possessions, and treasure we have been given. So
let’s look at this parable together, beginning in Luke 16:1:
Now He was
also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and
this manager was reported to
him as squandering his possessions. "And he called him and said to him,
'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you
can no longer be manager.'
To understand what Jesus is communicating here, we first
need to understand what a parable is and how parables function. A
parable is an earthly story that reveals a deeper spiritual truth. In this
parable, there are two characters. The first character is a rich man, who
represents God. The second character is a manager, who represents us. Jesus
explains that word came back to the rich man that his manager was squandering
his possessions.
In other words, the manager was wasting all that the rich man
had given him responsibility to manage. After receiving the report that the
money, possessions, and treasure that he owned was being wasted by the manager,
the rich man called the manager in for a meeting. The owner confronts the manager
in a very direct manner: “What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of
your management, for you can no longer be manager.”
In other words, the owner is saying
to the manager “I have received a report that you are wasting my money,
possessions, and treasure. I have seen the evidence in the report and believe
that it is true. So, I want to know what you have to say for yourself. You were
under obligation as the manager of my finances to manage my finances. But what
I am hearing and seeing is that you are not fulfilling your obligation to
responsibly manage my finances. And, because of that reality, you are going to
have to give an account for why you have failed to fulfill your obligation to
manage my finances. In addition, you are no longer going to be in a position to
have access to or manage my finances. I am no longer going to enable your
irresponsibility by continuing to provide for you financially. Jesus then tells
us how the manager responded as He continues this parable in verse 3:
"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; I am ashamed
to beg. 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management
people will welcome me into their homes.'
Now the manager’s response, if communicated in the
language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this:
“Uh oh, I am about to lose my job because I have wasted my boss’s treasure; my
irresponsibility is going to result in a loss of my job and income. What am I
going to do? How am I going to support myself financially? I am too weak to
work a job that requires manual labor. And I am too proud to beg. How am I
going to survive?”
Jesus
then explains that the manager comes up with a plan; a plan that would result
in the people around him being receptive enough of him that they would provide
hospitality and support him financially until he is able to find work. Jesus
then reveals the wasteful managers plan in verse 5:
"And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much
do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he
said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much
do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take
your bill, and write eighty.'
Jesus tells us that the wasteful manager contacted each
person who owed money to his master and renegotiated the terms of their debt.
The manager negotiated what we would call in our culture today a series of
short sales. In these short sales, the manager would collect what he could on
the outstanding debt instead of risking never receiving any money from the debt
that was owed. Now, as you might imagine, these short sales were a great deal
for those who owed money to the rich man.
And the great deals that would come
about as a result of these short sales would earn the wasteful manager favor in
the eyes of those whose debt to his master was being eliminated from the short
sale. However, these short sales were not a great deal for the rich man. The
rich man would end up losing money. Which is why what Jesus says next, in verse
8, is so surprising.
Tomorrow, we will see what Jesus had to say about this
plan...
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