Luke 16:1-15
15th Sunday after Pentecost (20C) • Sermon • Submitted
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This is an odd parable. Jesus gives us a worldly example to follow. We are given an incredibly selfish man as a model for how we are to use our possessions. Jesus isn't commending the sins of this dishonest manager, though. He isn't providing a "how-to" guide for us when our boss is going to fire us for misusing his money. No. Jesus commends the prudence of this dishonest manager. He praises what the dishonest manager uses his limited time to do. Not how or why the manager does what he does. The dishonest manager uses possessions that don't belong to him to show mercy to others. This parable is about spending possessions on others rather than wasting them on yourself.
A. The dishonest manager WASTES his master’s possessions on himself.
This dishonest manager has wasted his master’s possessions on selfish living. This wastefulness should call to mind the behavior of the Prodigal Son in the previous chapter of Luke. The Prodigal Son wasted his father's possessions to satisfy his own desires. The dishonest manager has done the same thing with his master's belongings, and his master is going to fire him for it.
Everyone here has, at one time or another, used their possessions for selfish reasons. We have been irresponsible when it comes to how we spend our money. It isn't wrong to rent movies, buy beer (if you're 21), buy football tickets, and so on. The question is whether or not you are intentional in using that money to support this church, your family, and your neighbor as well. Are you using more of your money for your good or the good of others?
The same could be said of time. How much of your time outside of work do you spend watching cable, Netflix, Youtube, scrolling social media, or surfing the web? How much of that time do you spend praying privately and with your family, studying Scripture, playing with your children, talking with your spouse and children, visiting our shut-ins and members at the Manor or just visiting people that you think might like the company, volunteering to help for Christ Academy I & 2, LYF, or Sunday School? The truth is we aren’t very different from the dishonest manager when it comes to how we use the possessions that God has given us. We waste our Master’s possessions.
The dishonest manager decides to steal more from his master because he is too ashamed to beg his master for forgiveness. If you remember the Prodigal Son, when he realizes his terrible situation, he decides to go back to his father, beg for mercy, and ask to be made one of his father's hired servants. This won't do for our dishonest manager. No. He is too ashamed to beg and unable to dig.
Rather than quitting while ahead, after all the master could've thrown the manager into prison for what he did, he decides to use his last few hours as manager showing mercy to others, by forgiving their debt. To be sure, he is only doing this to serve himself. It isn't even his own money. The manager is hedging his bets by making friends with other shady figures who owe the master money. He hopes that if he forgives the debts of these people, they will receive him into their homes when the master finally fires him. He doesn't use his possessions to help these people. He uses more of the master's money!
B. The dishonest manager SPENDS his master’s possessions on others.
The dishonest manager is not commended as an example to us because of his wastefulness, thievery, or selfishness. The dishonest manager is commended as an example to us because of the prudent way he uses the possessions that were entrusted to him. Like the dishonest manager, we must realize that nothing we possess belongs to us. It all belongs to God. He has given us our body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives us clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all we have. None of this belongs to us. Our body doesn't belong to us. Our life doesn't belong to us. Our time doesn't belong to us. Our love doesn't belong to us. Our forgiveness doesn't belong to us. These all belong to God.
So how does God want us to use these possessions? What does it look like to be faithful in very little? Jesus doesn’t want you to waste the possessions entrusted to you by using them in self-serving ways. He doesn’t want you to use your possessions to line yourself up for success like the dishonest manager. He doesn't want you to use these possessions like the Pharisees who use the possessions God has entrusted to them to justify themselves before men. To be exalted among men and becoming abominations before God in the process. God doesn't want you to waste what you are, and what you have. He wants you to spend it. He wants you to spend everything you are and everything you have on your neighbor.
We can’t take our possessions with us when this life is over. Jesus says for us to make friends for ourselves through unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. What you have in life will fail. Your body will turn to dust. All the wealth you accumulate for yourself will turn to dust.
So give while the giving’s good. These things cost you nothing. Everything you have has been given to you out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in you. It costs you nothing to pray with your family, teach your children God's Word, play with your children, work with your children. It costs you nothing to turn off the TV and call a member who has lost their husband or wife and lives alone, visit a shut-in or a member at the Manor. It costs you nothing to volunteer to help with Christ Academy, LYF, Sunday School, or anything else at the Church. It costs you nothing to give more to the Church. IT COSTS YOU NOTHING. It costs you nothing to spend your time, money, love, forgiveness, mercy or anything that you have. It isn't yours, to begin with. You have these gifts because someone else has won them for you.
All the unrighteous wealth in the entire world could not have paid the debt we owe for our sins. We cannot even begin to pay off the debt we owe for neglecting to teach our children the faith, neglecting to pray with them, neglecting to love and serve those around us. We cannot begin to pay for the selfish ways that we have wasted our time, money, and all our other possessions. It won't do any good to try and reduce this debt like the dishonest manager. That is why God paid this debt for us. Our gracious Father sent His only Son, our beloved Lord, Master, and Savior into the world to settle our debt. Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all of us. He paid the price for all your sins. God has given us grace and mercy beyond measure. He hasn't given this to us to waste on ourselves. He has given us such wonderful gifts for us to spend every last penny on our neighbor.
Giving all that you are and possess to those around you is what it means to be faithful regarding unrighteous wealth. The possessions you have in this life will fail because they belong to a fallen world doomed to destruction. Give while the giving's good because your possessions aren't going to last! They will fail. They are insignificant. Be faithful with these petty possessions so that God will entrust you with true riches. Give it away like you're allergic to it. Spend every last thing you are and have. Don't waste it on yourself. Spend it all on your neighbor. Spend your love, forgiveness, time, money, and life as if these things are a massive tub of ice cream that you don't have room for in your freezer. You can't eat it all, and you shouldn't even try. You don't have a place to store it up, so give it away to those around you before it all melts! You may feel like you're wasting these things on people that don't deserve them. Who don't seem sorry for what they've done to you. People who might've gotten in their tough situation by their own mistakes in life. You may think it is a waste of time to come to Church every Sunday. Or go to Bible Study. Forget all that. These are the things on which Jesus wants His riches spent. He wants you to spend all of it on others. Not waste it on yourself. Spend it on your neighbor. Spend your money. Spend your time. Spend your love. Spend your forgiveness. Spend every last bit. This costs you nothing. It cost Jesus everything.