Sermon Tone Analysis

Money Matters

Scripture Reading

​Luke 16:1–13

NIV84

1 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 “ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

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.

10“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters.

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 both God and Money.”

Introduction

We come to a passage this morning that is very much misunderstood.

Or at least, people read the passage, and try their utmost to understand it, but fail.

Those who are honest with themselves, and have a reasonably good broad knowledge of Scripture, will say that something seems a little off, and doesn’t make sense.

Thus, as we begin this morning, I would like to begin by giving a lay of the land.

I would like to just briefly point out what is being taught through this passage, and then we’ll delve into the details.

The first thing that I would like to point out, is that Christ is teaching through this parable that a person is driven by what is important to Him.

A person is driven by what is important to him.

Secondly, a person’s wisdom, effort and personal resources are applied to gaining or attaining to that which is important to them.

Thirdly, similar to the manner in which people of the world apply their resources to gaining that which is important to them in the world, so much more so should the Children of God should apply themselves and their resources to gaining the things of eternal value.

Fourthly, how you use your money and possessions will be a good indicator of what is important to you.

1.

Money Matters to the World (vv.1-8)

We’ve just come out of the context of Jesus addressing the Pharisees.

At this point, Luke records that he turns his attention to his disciples.

This may even have included the tax collectors that were present at the time.

But the point is that he is now addressing them specifically.

Notice how we are introduced by Jesus to this important topic.

1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

Here is the simple scenario that Jesus paints in the form of a parable to his disciples.

There is a man that is very wealthy and has a lot of money, and he has entrusted the care of his financial matters to a particular manager.

In other words, the manager would have been the one that was tasked with ensuring the debts were collected appropriately, and that the books were kept properly in terms of this man’s finances.

We read, however, that he was accused of wasting his possessions.

The details aren’t given as to how that is happening, but evidently the report comes to the rich man that his manager is failing in his responsibilities, and perhaps even involved in some form of corruption or extortion, subjects that we are not unfamiliar with today.

The rich man is not about to allow this to continue…

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.’

The rich man rightly calls his manager to account, but also provides him with this news that he can no longer be his manager.

After all, he’s wasted and wrongly handled his finances, and thus needs to take the appropriate action, which in this case is going to be what we call a dismissal.

Before we move on to our second sub-point, I do want to point out the fact that this manager was unwise in his dealings with his manager’s money.

As we go in this parable, we will find that it was not due to a lack ingenuity or ideas.

Later on, he will be labelled a dishonest manager.

So probably his failure was due to a lack of integrity rather than a lack ability.

1.1.

A Concerning Predicament (v.3)

Notice the predicament that this manager now finds himself in.

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—

As he sits down to consider his current situation in light of this news from his rich master, he sees that there are serious problems facing him.

He’s a man that is used to an office job, or a white-collar job.

He’s not used to working out in the lands farming or digging.

He knows that if he loses his work in this arena, he is going to be faced with serious consequences.

In addition to that, he has a sense of pride as a person, and doesn’t like the idea of having to beg for money.

His pride will prevent him from going to sit at the city gates, or on the road to the temple, in order to beg the passers-by for money.

It is his situation and his predicament that leads this man to respond in a particular way.

Now, the point of this parable of Jesus is not to over-emphasize the small scenario of this manager, but rather to teach important principles about discipleship and following Christ, in contrast to the world.

In the particular scenario, this man is driven to do things based on his situation.

What is important to him (and let’s be sure, it is important) is his ability to feed himself, and to do so in an honourable way.

This leads us to consider what the man does in response to his predicament.

As he recognises and perceives that which is of great importance to him, he makes decisions and takes actions in order to secure that which is important.

What is the decision made?

1.2.

A Cunning Plan (vv.4-7)

4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

This man senses the urgency of the situation, and immediately he develops a plan that he believes will help him when he finds himself in this impending predicament.

We must recognise that this man has diligently thought through the situation, and considered a strategy to ensure that he is going to be looked after when he loses his job.

Proverbs 16:26 (NIV84)

26 The laborer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him on.

Well, it seems that the white-collar worker’s appetite and pride also work for him, and lead him to come up with an urgent plan.

His plan is for him to in some way impress certain people so that they will welcome him into their houses.

What we will find is that he comes up with a plan that will cause them to look favourably upon him so that they will feel compelled to return the favour that he will grant to them.

Notice how this plan unfolds:

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors.

He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

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.’

I do want to just remind us of the second principle that Jesus was teaching through this parable, and that is that a person of this world will use their wisdom, effort and personal resources to gaining or attaining to that which is important to them in this life.

And that is precisely what we find this manager doing.

What we find, in simple terms, is that the manager is reducing the debts of the people that owe his master, so that he will be able to use this to his advantage in due course.

He wants to save them a significant amount of money so that they are pleased with him, so that when he loses his job, they will then repay him for the favour.

So, he goes to the first debtor, and asks how much he owes.

The amount comes back to about 2600 litres of olive oil.

Immediately, he says that this man should scrap that amount, and instead write an amount of half of that as due and owing.

Similarly, with the second debtor that owed a thousand bushels of wheat (The precise unit of measurement is not known) was told to write that he owed 800 bushels, effectively reducing the amount owed by 200 bushels.

Now, there is much speculation about why and how the manager was getting this right.

I will not claim to give a definitive answer, and I don’t think it’s necessary to give one for the purpose of our study.

But I will present to you what some of the prevailing thoughts are.

The first is quite simple – the man was using his power as the manager of a rich man to suit himself.