HOW TO INVEST YOUR ONE AND ONLY LIFE

English Standard Version Chapter 16

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

Luke 16:1–13 ESV

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. 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.’ 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. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ 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?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 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. 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. “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. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 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.”

HOW TO INVEST YOUR ONE AND ONLY LIFE |

Anyone who has raised more than one child knows that, because each of them has a unique temperament and motivational style, you often speak differently to one child than to the other.

Anyone who has been part of a group knows that there are times when you speak differently to those inside the group than to those outside the group. In fact, even within a group, because there are often the curious and the casual, as well as the committed, often the way a person talks to the various types inside the group differs.

Know what I’m saying?

Well, over the past three weeks, we’ve been listening to Jesus tell stories to one type of people. In and 15, he’s surrounded by highly trained and highly (but falsely) confident religious types. The Bible calls them Pharisees.

In and 15, Jesus has all sorts of stories to tell these people; stories so good they’ve been recorded, read, and learned countless times in the last two thousand years. If you’ve been here the past three weeks, you know that those stories are the stories of the great banquet, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the wayward son.

A New Audience

While Jesus is telling those stories, he’s aware of another group that’s listening in. A group, not that opposed him, like the Pharisees, but a group supporting him. A group of insiders. A group so committed to him that they had bet the farm that following him was the best decision for their lives and eternities.

So in Jesus’ typical fashion, when he gets through talking with the outsiders, he turns to these close followers, and talks to them awhile. He tells them a very intriguing story about a scoundrel who’d bet the farm on a person he had offended. A person he had mistreated. But because of the character of the mistreated one, the scoundrel won the bet and secured his prosperous future.

That’s the story I want to tell you today.

If you’re a seeker here today, wondering whether God can be trusted and whether you’d ever want to trust your life to him, you’re going to like the way this story turns out.

If you’re a believer, and you’ve made a mild commitment to Christ, but wonder if you should commit everything to him, you’re going to want to take that step after you hear this.

If you’re a spiritual soldier, fully invested, committing everything to him–your time, your talents, and your treasures–then when this story is done, you are just going to say, “I am so glad, I am so glad.”

Palestinian Culture

I think there’s something here for everybody. Like last week, I’m going to pretend that you know virtually nothing about first century Palestinian culture, and give you all sorts of brain candy to chew on so that you can see this story in the way the original hearer saw it.

So take notes and write small.

Ready? Turn to . When he finishes addressing the Pharisees, Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them the story of the shrewd manager.

It’s a story about a rich guy, a nobleman, who finds out that he’s being cheated by one of his employees. He fires the employee, who then does something very creative and unethical to ensure his future. The twist to the story is, instead of being outraged at this, the nobleman praises the manager for being a shrewd operator.

For centuries, this story has confounded logical, right-brained Western thinkers, because, for the life of them, they can’t understand why Jesus or the character that represents God in the story would praise someone for doing something unethical. They’ve come up with a lot of theories of how this might work or what’s wrong with the story. But all of them miss the mark unless they know something about Middle Eastern culture. Thirty minutes from now, you all are going to be experts on this. With what we’re going to cover, you’ll be able to walk out of here and act like a Pharisee, knowing more than everybody else at the office, secretly feeling just a little superior because you do.