1. Luke 16:1-2; Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
The manager was likely a trusted slave. Slavery in this time was very different than
what we think of today. Three types of
slavery were present in the Greco-Roman world.
1. The helot was a
citizen of a city that had been conquered by another city and had to serve that
conquering city.
2. The indentured
servant was someone who became a slave because of debt. They could usually work off the debt and gain
their freedom.
3. The chattel
slave was someone who was owned by another person.
2. Luke 16:3-7; 3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.[
To protect the manager’s future he began discounting the
debts of his master. Interpreters have
disagreed as to if the manager was being dishonest by discounting the
debts. It is possible that the manager
had been overcharging these people and by changing the bills to the correct
amounts he was setting things right. His
master may have also been getting interest on these debts that he was not
entitled to. Mosaic Law says that Jews
cannot charge fellow Jews interest. Either way the manager was doing all this to protect his
own future. He was using the resources
he had to obtain an outcome that would be in his favor.
3. Luke 16:8-9; 8 “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
This parable is one of the hardest to understand, because
Jesus seems to praise the shrewd manager.
But there are three points that Jesus was making. First is our honesty when it comes to
money. Second we must choose who we are
going to sever God or money. Third are
we using the resources and money we have been given by God as shrewdly as the
manager, but as to serve God and not ourselves?
4. Luke 16:10-12; 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
Our integrity is often tested when it comes to matters of
money. Are you a person of your
word? Do you deal with other people in
matters with money in an honest way?
I have an example from my life where I dealt honestly with money. When I was in high school I ate at a restaurant one day and paid with cash the cashier gave me back too much money. I didn't notice right away until I left the restaurant. When I was counting my cash I noticed the mistake. I had paid with a $20 bill and the cashier not only gave me my $20 bill back, but also my change which was another $15. An extra $20 was a lot to me back in high school, but I knew it would be wrong to keep the money. So I drove back into town and gave the $20 back to the restaurant.
5. Luke 16:13; 13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Money is not evil, but the love of money is evil. How can we tell if we are a slave to
money?
1. Do you think or
worry about money too often?
2. Do you give up
time with family, friends, and God to make more money?
3. Do you care
more about money and possessions, than you do about people?
4. Do you give
less (in money, time, and talents) than you can to God and others?
5. Are you in
debt?
6. Luke 16:14-15; 14 The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. 15 Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.
We must be careful not to be like the Pharisees and
ignore Jesus’ warning about money. We
can lie to others and ourselves, but God knows our hearts.
We should use our money, talents, and time to serve God. Here are three principles to remember.
1. We must be good
stewards of money, because it is God’s money and not ours.
2. Money can be
used to do good things or evil things.
We must do good with it. Giving
to the church, charities, investing for your families’ future, growing a
business and hiring more employees are all good things. Those are all good things. On the other side with could choose not to
give to the church or charities. We
could hoard all our money or spend it on things we don’t need. We could buy things we can't afford. We could cheat our
employees and customers for a fast buck.
3. We must use
money in a way that will lead to faith and obedience.
7. Mother Teresa and the Gofer
It’s like when Mother Teresa visited Australia. A new recruit to the monastery in Australia was assigned to be her guide and “gofer” during her stay. The young man was so thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this woman. He dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, he never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.
Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the friar had his opportunity ... to speak to Mother Teresa. He said to her, “If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you?” Mother Teresa looked at him. “You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?” she asked. “Oh, yes,” he replied eagerly. “Then give that money to the poor,” she said. “You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.”
References: Archaeological Study Bible form Zondervan, Life
Application Study Bible NLT from Tyndale House, Sermon Central; Martin Dale,
Sermon Central; David Simmons, www.biblegateway.com; NLT
