HG117a Luke 16:1-18

Luke 16:1–18 ESV

1 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. 2 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.’ 3 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. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 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.’ 8 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. 9 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. 10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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.” 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. 18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

1-8

Today we come across a steward. A steward is someone who takes care of things on behalf of a business or a person normally in the running of a household and would include its finances- the NIV says manager which doesn’t quite cover it. It was a very responsible job and came with status in society. And your reputation is all that you have.

An accusation is made against this man that he had been wasting his master’s goods. And I’ve already said your reputation is all you have. An accusation sticks whether it is true or false. There’s no smoke without fire is a common saying, which, along with sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt me, is completely false. An accusation can be made by someone who is simply jealous of you or wants your job or is bitter about something completely unrelated to you or is simply a trouble maker. I cannot stress enough that just because an accusation has been made it does not mean that there is anything about it that is true. A lot of lies are told and often a lot of exaggeration and then it is someone’s reputation that is destroyed. The smoke is a smokescreen to hide whoever made the accusation in the first place.

Speaking if this whilst a certain Carl Beech is before the courts right now accused of perverting the cause of justice and fraud by making accusation against those who have been in power of paedophilia and murder. He himself is a convicted paedophile. He created the smoke but there was no fire. The reputations of people he tried to destroy including one who died whilst under investigation - and then what of Cliff Richard and others that either find there is no case to answer or found not guilty. The problem with making accusations is that there is always left an element of doubt in the person being accused.

I do say that I am overjoyed that the Jeremy Kyle Show has been axed for this show ruined reputations and with the lie detector tests that are not used in our courts because of their unreliability. What was the purpose of this but for us to be voyeurs and judges of others. Well, what other people get up to, right? But our own hearts condemn us for none of us are sinless.

Well, we are not told whether the accusation against this steward was true or false. All we know is that it cost him his job. And he had to give an account but either way he will not be able to hold on to his position for, as I’ve said, accusations ruin reputations whether true or false and this would reflect back on the master - so he had to go. He is told that he has to clear his desk out.

Now imagine that this man is in his 50s. He is an office worker. He has done no manual labour; he has no callouses on his soft hands. Who is going to give him a job? Especially as he has just been sacked on the suspicion of fraud or theft. And is he going to beg? No, he is too ashamed. In a book written more than 2000 years ago it says: It is better to die than to beg!

So, he embarked on a plan in his notice period to get into the good books of all those who owed money one way or another to his master. He reduced each of their debts substantially. Then each of them will see how hard done by the steward has been and give him help when he needed it. If his reputation was to be ruined then he can at least salvage it among others. If he was to be accused of being underhanded he might as well be underhanded to gain the upper hand. Was he dishonest before or not? Well, the weight of verse 8 seems to indicate that the accusation in his case was true. He used his intelligence and canniness as he had before for his own gain.

Here is where it gets clever: In this time, as today among Orthodox Jews, you were not allowed to charge interest, in fact it was illegal in Jesus’ day. But that did not mean that they did not charge it. In fact, a charge would be added to the cost of the loan as if it was the price of the goods originally. Sometimes they would charge twice as much sometimes just a fifth depending on the item. This was simple common practice. It was a way to bend the rules.

Why is this important? Well, if you must know the Master is never actually out of pocket when the steward calls in the debtors. He wrote off the part of the debt that was originally added. The master would get back what was his though without interest and the steward wrote off debt that made the debtors now indebted to him in the future. These were not small write-downs by the way. They were substantial. For instance for the one who owed a hundred measures of oil he then owed 50. Originally 800 gallons of oil became 400 gallons. Originally it was 146 olive trees now it was 73. And you would need a very large olive grove to pay back that debt. Now when the unemployed man did his rounds he would have a seat at the table and maybe a bed for the night. He would be treated very well. This is how grateful the debtors would have been.

And what do you know? The Master congratulated the steward for his behaviour for it was with foresight and intelligence that he had looked out for number one. Was he offered his job back? Well, that would be too fairy tale wouldn’t it!

This steward had faced up to reality. He had to do something quickly or he would be destitute and didn’t bury his head in the sand. He used all his faculties to ensure that he was going to come out of this well. He knew how desperate the situation was and through sheer strength of will, energy and thought he was going to be better than OK.

Jesus then contrasts the people of the light with this steward. The steward stood on the edge of disaster humanly speaking but Christians stand on the edge of eternity knowing the disaster humanity is heading towards. If only Christians gave as much will, energy and thought to eternal things as they do to the things of this world then perhaps, as this man was earthly shrewd in having comfort in the here and now we would be spiritually shrewd to ensure our reward in Heaven and bringing others who were on the brink of eternal disaster.

9

We are then told a curious thing by Jesus. People of the world make friends with others with money. This is not news. Find me a rich man with no friends. People simply come out of the woodwork when there is someone with money.

This is not the curious thing Jesus said. No. The curious thing is that Jesus said that we should make friends with others with money. How do we use the money we have? It is mostly spent on ourselves would you not agree? How much of what we have do we use for mission? But I am not talking about what we give to the Church or BMS but about our own personal mission with the people that we come into contact with. Do we buy them a coffee? Invite for dinner? How else can we use what we have to make friends?

Because one day money will fail. When will that be? Indeed, it could fail any day as history can teach us. But there will be a day when money will fail altogether and that is when Jesus returns. So, what is Jesus talking about here? Is He not speaking of using our money to make friends so that we can introduce them to God? After all that is what Jesus says: when money fails then we will be received into eternal homes along with them. So, now, again I ask: How do we use our money?

10-12

Maybe the steward was skimming off the top for himself in small ways that were barely noticeable but then he went large for his own benefit by the big deductions of debt owed. Why do I repeat this? If you are unfaithful in small things then you will be in big. I think about corruption that is done on a grand scale but I reckon it must have started out small. The more one gets away with it the bolder one gets. When I hear about Financial Controllers stealing money from companies because the temptation is too great and they steal in the tens of thousands a pattern can be found when they were dealing in the tens of pounds and before that you could trace back whether they would take stationery like pens or paper home. If you are not responsible with small things you will not be responsible with large. It is not always so obvious that this would be the case but the principle is true.

I find it interesting that certain people are always in debt. They had debt when they worked in a supermarket as a stacker when they were on the minimum wage. Then they also had debt when they were a manager earning more than twice the amount. They would always spend beyond their means. If they earned five times as much then they would still supersede their salary. This is a principle. It is why when people win big on the lottery many are bankrupt within a short period of time.

If you are faithful in little you will be faithful in much. Those who were givers with little before would also be givers with much.

This life is training for the next. We must get it right and get it right now. God wants to give us responsibilities in Heaven but if He sees we squander our gifts and abilities now He will not entrust us with true riches. We, every now and again, get glimpses of life after death and it would appear to be quite an active death, if you see what I mean. There’s plenty to do when we have left here to go to the next place. And we prove our worth in the here and now.

Martin Luther said:

Therefore we must use all these things upon earth in no other way than as a guest who travels through the land and comes to a hotel where he must lodge overnight. He takes only food and lodging from the host, and he says not that the property of the host belongs to him. Just so should we also treat our temporal possessions, as if they were not ours, and enjoy only so much of them as we need to nourish the body and then help our neighbours with the balance. Thus the life of the Christian is only a lodging for the night, since we have here no continuing city, but must journey on to heaven, where the Father is.

13

This also proves where our allegiances lay: is it more towards this world or towards the next? In fact, Jesus seems to be more pointed: you can only serve one master: God or money. This is radical; no middle ground. Which is it to be? Our allegiance should be completely heavenward. Use your money to serve Him. Yes, we live in a material world which requires our attention but it is about where our treasure is and where our hearts are as a result.

Conclusion

The last three sermons I have preached have been about us going and making disciples, making Christ known and praying for the harvest. Today’s sermon is how we can also practically help the work go forward for it is needed to spread the Gospel. There are necessary bills to pay for the upkeep of this building and rightly so but we also need to use our money deliberately to make friends of people in this world so that they can come to Christ and for them to welcome us to our eternal home. Whom shall we serve?

Joshua 24:15b As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.

Communion

Jesus showed us where His priorities lay. He left the full riches of Heaven to become poor. He gave completely of Himself and His resources to bring us to Him. He found in us a treasure that He set His heart upon, incredible as this sounds. Jesus told a parable of the pearl of great price where a man sold all he had to get it in Matthew 13. Many interpret this as us finding in Jesus the pearl of great price and we giving everything to have Him. But this is wrong. It was Jesus who sold all He had, became a slave, died on a cross, literally giving all He had to gain a pearl and that pearl is us, the Church, it is for us He came to save.

Jesus came to die so at the Last Supper Jesus knew what was to happen and got His disciples ready:

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NKJV

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20–21 NKJV

20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Bibliography

Hughes, R. K. (1998). Luke: that you may know the truth. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Evans, C. A. (2017). Messianic Expectations. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1618). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.