Thoughts From Luke - Day 71

                                             Luke 16:1-9

16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

³ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
⁵ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
⁶ “‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
⁷ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
⁸ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.


          This is one of those parables that makes you scratch your head and say, "huh"? Jesus is actually commending a guy for being dishonest, lazy, stealing, unrepentant, a poor worker, prideful, weak, and un-hireable. He is the hero of the story! I recently had to fire someone at my office for some of these qualities, and believe me, if I use her as a character in a bed time story to my grandchildren, she will be the bad example, not the good example. However, parables are usually designed to make one central point despite our desire to analyze, scrutinize, exegete every single word. I believe that the point of this one is how we, who are in the Kingdom of God, should view money.

          First of all, it is necessary. There is no denying that. We need it to survive. To say, "Now that I am a Christian, money no longer matters to me", is wrong. It does. It pays the bills. It pays for our daily needs and without it we would die.

         Second, it is universal. Every society has it. It is the tie that binds us all together. Even though you might meet someone that you think you have nothing in common with - you do, it's this. Even Christians and non-Christians have a common denominator. We all need money.

         Third, it is a commodity. In other words, money in itself is useless. It's the implied value to purchase other useful things that makes it valuable. It needs to be exchanged for it to be valuable. Of course there are exceptions. You could use gold to make a filling or in the old days, if you blew a fuse you could use a coin in the fusebox but these are exceptions.

        So, with these three things in mind, Jesus tells us this parable of how we should view money and it is this - use it to further the Kingdom.  First of all, God is the giver of wealth. David says in 1Chron. 29

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power    to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.

¹⁴ “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

 

       In other words, you might think that you are a self made person. Despite all the bios we see on the "Sharks" on "Shark Tank" who take credit for their rags to riches stories, who gives us the brain to make money. Who gives you the arms and legs to use to earn money. Who determined your birth to be in a country and to a family that gives you an opportunity. God is the giver of wealth so what we have, He is responsible for.

 

       Secondly, it belongs to Him, we are managing it. The Parable is entitled "The Unjust Steward". What is a "steward"? It's like our financial planner. We let him manage our money in hopes that he will invest it wisely and earn a profit for us making investments that are consistant with our world view. Now if, when we meet with him, he would get excited when we wrote a check and said, "great, I needed a new fishing boat", I would be concerned that he was viewing our money as his. Unfortunately isn't this how we treat God's money?

 

        Thirdly, use it to further God's kingdom. There are so many ministries that are bringing people into the kingdom of God that need money to continue. Open your clutched fists and surrender that commodity that is worthless unless spent. There are poor people that are short the basic needs for life that God has commanded us to meet. And as we meet those, they will care what we know when they know that we care. There are creative ways to evangelize that take money, lots of money. We shouldn't think, wow, that's too expensive - what better use is there for money?

 

      Lord, help me use your money in a way that pleases you. Help me use it to bring people into eternal dwellings. Amen.