Luke 16 1-13
Pentecost 18
October 3, 2004
Luke 16:1–13
“The Shrewd Steward”
after C. MacKenzie
Introduction: Perhaps some of you remember the old radio and television comic Jack Benny. He cultivated a reputation for miserliness. In one of his skits, a robber holds Jack Benny up, brandishes a pistol in his face, and demands, “Your money or your life!” For the longest time, Benny says nothing but looks extremely pained. Finally, the robber demands, “Hurry up!” To which the comedian responds, “Don’t rush me. I’m thinking it over!”
“Your money or your life!” Of course, the skit is funny because nobody would choose money instead of life, but if we change the words to read, “Your money is your life!” none of us is laughing anymore. That’s precisely the way a lot of people live—as if life was all and only about money. Sometimes that is true of us too. We devote an enormous amount of our time, our talents, and our energy thinking about money, dreaming of what we would do if we had more of it. We also devote a lot of our time acquiring money—and not only acquiring it, but also saving it, investing it, and, yes, worrying about it.
Our text for today reminds us that money must never be the end or goal of our lives, however much we’re tempted, since as Christians we know that Jesus Christ, Not Money, Is the Source of Our Life. Jesus devoted much of His preaching at the topic of money, it’s right and wrong uses. In our text Jesus teaches us that the disciples of Jesus must be diligent and clever in their use of money.
Perhaps that doesn’t seem all that difficult, because, after all we live in a world that is extremely diligent and clever about money. And we should all recognize that it is a real blessing of the Lord to live in a society that knows how to make money! Even in bad times, our modern economic system produces the necessities of life in abundance, and most of us have more than enough to satisfy both our wants and many of our desires. And in good times, well, the sky’s the limit. It seems as though “everybody” can gain wealth for themselves if they try, thereby getting what they want out of life.
But it doesn’t happen by accident—and one of the advantages of living in a free enterprise system is that human beings are free to devote themselves to making money. So, boy, do we ever! We do devote ourselves to making money, and we’re good at it, very clever. Just like the shrewd manager in our text, “"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 measures1 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 measures1 of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.” He was very clever indeed! Only at the extremes of childhood and old age are we not heavily engaged in earning a living; but even in old age, we still pay a lot of attention to investments, taxes, Social Security, retirement plans, and so on. We continue to be concerned about money. As far as children are concerned, much of our educational system is designed to prepare them for making money—providing the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and habits for being successful in the workplace. Adults, too, are often encouraged to go back to school to enhance their abilities for work and earning a living. Even our politics often revolve around money. Politicians vie with one another to demonstrate their “cleverness” in economic matters by presenting to the voters their plans for prosperity.
Of course, not everybody is clever enough, not even in America, to make money all the time. The politicians’ plans don’t always work; many businesses fail and workers lose jobs; and some who think they are really clever, so clever that they can break the law to make money, get caught and pay the price, just like the manager in our text. In fact, if you think about it, no one is really ever clever enough—for the single-minded pursuit of money or devotion to the things that money can buy cannot solve the human dilemma that life leads only to death. On the contrary, the person who devotes himself to the acquisition of money, no matter how successfully has turned away from the one who is the source of all blessing, including money. Jesus warns in our text, “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.”
On account of the sinfulness that is the natural inheritance of all of us, we are always looking for substitutes for the true God and for many of us—poor as well as rich—that substitute is money. Forgetting God, the giver of all good things, we devote ourselves to wealth—getting it, spending it, and worrying about it when it’s gone. But to what end?
Jesus told another parable about a man we call the “Rich Fool.” “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”(Lk 12:16–21). Ironically, therefore, worldly cleverness with money turns out to be the height of foolishness, for money does not conquer death, does not forgive sin, does not reconcile us with God. In fact, by dependence on money, we run the risk of spending eternity cut off from all blessings—that’s death in hell.
II. To really live—both in this money-clever world and in the one to come—is the generous gift of Christ! Today’s Epistle reminds us that “God our Savior…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men”. By paying the price for us—not with money but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death—Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, freed us from sin and death and liberated us from the idolatries of life, including our enslavement to money. With the love of God guaranteed and the promise of heaven and resurrection certain, we need nothing more for ourselves either here or in eternity.
But God has given us more, much more. He has given us time, talents, opportunities, and, yes, money. He has made us His stewards and He wants us to be shrewd. Everywhere we look there are needs to respond to with God’s gifts. The church and her agencies are crying out for the resources to help, but often they’re stymied by the lack of funds. Today’s parable teaches us that God wants us to be as clever with our resources for his purposes. He wants us to be as clever like the shrewd steward. Like the Good Samaritan, then, who stopped to help a stranger in need, even at the cost of his time, his safety, and his money, we, too, should respond to opportunities to show love toward our neighbor by helping him in every need, temporal and spiritual. In this way, we use what God has first given us to carry out God’s work in God’s way for God’s people. And we’re no poorer for the giving, because we still have the one who gave it to us in the first place—to say nothing of a treasure in heaven beyond our wildest dreams. A Christian must use money (and everything else) in accordance with God’s purposes, not his own. Therefore, in this verse, the purpose singled out, “to gain friends for yourselves,” should be interpreted in accordance with what God wants for people—their temporal well-being and eternal salvation. Christians should use their material resources to supply the earthly and spiritual needs of their fellowmen, especially fellow Christians who will be with them in heaven. Unbelievers devote much time and talent to the management of money for the accomplishment of their goals. Christians should do the same for the accomplishment of God’s. In this text, the parable of the shrewd manager, the obvious jarring note in the story is the reaction of the owner who, instead of reacting with rage against his servant, “commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” Clearly, Jesus is pointing out how important it is that his disciples use money wisely. The wicked do so to accomplish their purposes. How much more so should the people of God do it to accomplish God’s! The “bottom line,” You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Conclusion: Because we are still sinners, this Word of Jesus about serving God and not worldly wealth may strike us as difficult, maybe even impossible, to obey. And it is—on our own. But we are not on our own. Ransomed by Jesus, we belong forever to him—and so does our money. We have life, eternal life, which is infinitely richer than what even our most clever financial schemes and diligent labors can earn. And we didn’t earn it; we were given it, freely, by the forgiving death and resurrection of Jesus. So as forgiven sinners, we can respond to this Word of our Lord not with dread but with joy, because Jesus—and nothing else, not even money—is the source of our life
