Confronting irresponsibility...

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “Invite”. During this series we are looking at several events from history where Jesus engaged and invited those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover how Jesus said what He said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting those who are far from Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus.  

This week, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at an event from history that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it is in a section of the gospel of Luke that we see Luke give us a front row seat to a confrontation that reveals a timeless truth about how Jesus engaged and invited someone who was far from Him to follow Him. However, before we jump into this event from history, we first need to understand the context in which this event from history took place.

In Luke 15, as Jesus was traveling toward the city of Jerusalem, large crowds were accompanying Him. And part of these large crowds consisted of tax collectors and sinners. These tax collectors and sinners were people who did not measure up to moral standards of the day in a way that resulted in them being viewed as outsiders. These were people who were far from God and who were viewed as outsiders by others.

And as these tax collectors and sinners who were far from God and who were viewed as outsiders were listening to the message and teachings of Jesus, both the Pharisees and the scribes who were the self righteous religious leaders of the day, responded to Jesus welcoming and engaging them by grumbling and complaining out loud. "How can this Jesus want to be around these outsiders" they grumbled out loud. "How can Jesus be friendly, engaging and teaching people like these who are far from God" they complained.  "How can Jesus go out to eat and hang out with such people".

Jesus responded to the grumbling of these self righteous religious leaders by telling a series of parables. Now a parable is an earthly story designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. Through this series of parables, Jesus exposed the reality that while the Pharisees and scribes thought that they were insiders with God the Father, while viewing those who were lost and far from God as outsiders, they themselves were also outsiders who were in danger of failing to enter the kingdom of God as well. Now, with that context in mind, let’s jump into this event from history 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.'

Luke begins to give us a front row seat to this event from history by revealing the reality that Jesus continued his previous confrontation by telling another parable. In this parable, there are two characters. The first character was a rich man, who represented God. The second character was a manager, who represented a member of the crowd, and us here today.

Jesus explained 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 confronted 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 explained how the manager responded as He continued the parable in verse 3-4:

"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 explained that the manager came up with a plan; a plan that would result in the people around him being receptive enough to him that they would provide hospitality and support him financially until he would be able to find work. Jesus then revealed the wasteful managers plan in verse 5-7:

"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 explained 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 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 look at what Jesus had to say about the manager’s plan…