We Are Managers, Not Owners
Luke 16:1-15 ·March 17, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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Imagine it's getting close to dinner time, but the problem is there's no food in the house. Either you haven't had time in a busy week to go to the grocery store, or maybe you've had some surprise bills come in, and you just haven't had the money to go do it.
While you're still thinking about, what am I going to do? Maybe I'll just drink some more water and go to bed. You hear a knock on the door, and you open it, and it's your neighbor from down the road. And she's holding a casserole dish, and it smells delicious. And before you can even say something to her, she says to you, you know, I know this is unexpected, but I was going through my pantry and my fridge, and this morning, and I found a bunch of stuff that was going to expire in a few weeks.
So I decided just to take it all out and just start cooking. And wouldn't you know, I just had so much that I thought you'd like some. Now, that would be incredibly kind, wouldn't it? Incredibly kind and thoughtful. But it also would be incredibly wise, wouldn't it? It'd be very good thinking on her part. All this stuff is about to expire. Let me cook it, and who can use it? Right? Now, if that makes sense, that is basically what this parable is trying to get us to do.
Okay? So hold on to that as we examine a parable where it seems like Jesus is endorsing someone that you shouldn't want to endorse. Okay? This is exactly what Jesus is trying to teach us in Luke 16. And he's not talking about just our food. He's talking about all of our resources, especially our money. Especially our money. So turn with me to Luke 16, verses 1 through 15. Let's pay attention to God's word. God's holy, infallible, perfect word. He speaks through it.
He works in us through it. So let's receive it with the reverence and awe and listening ear that we should. 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 he 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 away, since my master is taking the management away from me. I'm 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. 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 very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If you then have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to 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. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 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. Pray with me.
Lord God, help us to kneel in our hearts towards you and before your word. Lord, we pray that you would do work on us today. You would help us to see idols that we have that we are trying to avoid, we're trying to deny. And Lord, show us how great you are, how great of a master you are. Will you compel us to follow you with everything we've got? Because we love you. Because you've saved us. Because you've changed us. Because you're at work in us.
And because your promises are always reliable. Because you never change. Do this, Jesus, for your glory. And we pray it in your name. Okay. We are managers, not owners.
We are managers, not owners. Be shrewd with your resources to seek God's coming kingdom. That's what this passage tells us. So this, as you can see now, this is, without a doubt, one of Jesus' most surprising parables.
Every time I read it, I'm thinking, did he just say that? So let's unpack the parable. Let's start with the parable itself. Let's see what the lesson is of the parable. So the lesson, the parable's lesson. It starts out simply enough. A rich man has a manager who works for him. He's rich. He needs a manager to run his estate. This estate is, I mean, I'm imagining, based on the context here of the ancient Near East, it's probably many acres of fields and olive groves.
It's more than one person can do. So he hires a manager to run it. The manager oversees the staff, communicates with suppliers, with buyers, handles the books. This manager's the number two. He's running everything. He's just reporting to one guy, the rich man. But now this guy is in hot water. Word gets back to the rich man that the manager was wasting his possessions. We don't know what he was doing, but it wasn't right. The boss says, turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.
The manager knows the jig is up. He's about to be fired. He has no other work to fall back on. He's honest with himself. I can't dig. I'm not cut out for that. And I don't want to beg. So he hatches a plan. He calls in people that owes his boss money. These might be buyers. They might be suppliers. Somebody owes the rich man money, and he calls them in. And he starts writing down their debt. For one, instead of 100 measures of oil, he makes it 50.
Now, a measure of oil is not a small amount of oil. 50 measures of oil is definitely not a small amount of oil. 50 measures was the yield of about 75 olive trees. It's a lot of oil. And it's worth about a year and a half's salary for a laborer. Okay? It's a lot. Another person he calls in, he takes his debt down from 100 measures of wheat to 80 measures of wheat with the stroke of a pen. Simple as that. The 20 measure reduction of wheat is worth about two years' salary.
So these are not small discounts. These are huge discounts. And he's doing it so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. Now, he's not thinking of, like, a couch to sleep on. He's thinking of a job. Maybe these people will hire me. Maybe I'll get another job from these other people. Right?
Here's the point. He has got a small window of opportunity. Right? It's about to close. His authority is ending. His access to the manager's, sorry, to the master's resources are about to end. He's got a small window. He's using the resources in that window while he can to have a better future. I've got to do it now. Time's running out. I heard about a friend of mine one time was working at Motorola back when it was operating. And they were having layoffs.
And he knew that his number was about to be called. And he was at a workstation. And the phone rang. And somebody else picked it up and was like, hey, it's for you. It's your boss. And he's like, I'm not here. And then he, like, he left the room. And then, like, his boss found out the other place that he went. And so he called that other room. And he, like, yeah, I think he avoided it for about half a day. He's just, like, running from room to room trying to avoid that phone call.
The manager knows he does not have much time. So he's like, I've got to use the time that I have, the power, the authority that I have right now to have something for the future.
Now, the surprise is how the boss reacts, right? That's the first surprise. Now, remember, this is a parable. Jesus is inventing these characters and the situation to make a point. So you don't have to be like, is that really realistic? That's not the point. Jesus is telling you this story so that you can get the point that he's making, not evaluate how realistic the characters are. And here's the point that Jesus is making. The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
The point that Jesus is making is this is what people do. This is what they do. They are crafty. They are cunning. They are strategic in using their resources and their power for their own advantage. And they are unashamed about doing it. That's why the rich man commends the manager. I actually think it's not that unrealistic to imagine the rich man commending the manager. It's one shrewd man seeing shrewdness in another person, right? Game respects game.
Game recognizes game. He's like, okay, I see you. I got to hand it to you. That was good. I didn't see that coming. Now, get out of here. Give me those books.
Now, why in the world is Jesus teaching this to his disciples? Because God's people are managers. All of you, all of us, you are managers. Everyone, everyone has an allotment of resources, money, time, authority, gifts, goods. We don't own them. They are given to us temporarily from God, the one that they actually belong to.
God gives them for us for a time to manage them well. A short time. Jesus is saying, you are a manager, you are a steward. You should be shrewd with your resources too. Look at the sons of this world. They're shrewd. Be shrewd like them. You sons of light are not too good at this. The world is. Do you see how good they are at it? Be shrewd like them. Be crafty. Be cunning. But, and this is really important, you have to have different goals.
Be shrewd. Be cunning. But with entirely different goals. The world's goals are all about self-indulgence, right? I'm going to get it while I can. He who dies with the most toys wins. You only live once, right? You know the things that the world says. You know the thing that your heart says from time to time, right? Our goals as God's people must align with what disciples should seek, and that is the kingdom of God.
Here's what author and speaker Melissa Kruger has to say. I don't own anything. God has given me good things to steward. Seeing them as good gifts from him that I am given for the time being helps me approach them in a very different way.
Be shrewd with your resources, but have different goals. That's the point of the parable. It's, yeah, it's surprising, isn't it, that Jesus uses a fictitious person of the world, unscrupulous, selfish, and says be like that, right? It's surprising, but let's pay attention to it. Be shrewd. Be cunning. Be crafty. Be clever with the resources you have, but have different goals. Have different goals. The rest of this passage is just expanding on that, expanding on that one point, to be crafty but have different goals.
How should God's people be shrewd managers with different goals? What does that even mean? Well, that's what we're going to talk about from here on out, okay? There's three things for us. The first one is this. Be generous. Be generous. In verse 9, Jesus says, Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. The wealth we have is unrighteous. It doesn't mean that you should or that you ought to try to get it dishonestly.
Don't do that. It just means that it has no goodness inherent to it. It's not righteous. There's no goodness to be found in it. It's just stuff. And ultimately, it is valueless.
Here's a coin. I've had this coin for a long time, and now I know why I kept it. It looks pretty special, doesn't it? Kids, it looks pretty cool, huh? It's big. It's kind of shiny. It's gold. This is from, and I got a picture. Go ahead and show the picture. This is it. It's from Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf.
It's a mini-golf place in Myrtle Beach. This is good for one free game. Ooh, right? Lots of establishments have things like this. Fake money. You go in and you give your real money to get their fake money, and you can use their fake money while you're there on the premises, right? It only has you there. Once you leave, it is worthless. I can't walk into any place with this and get anything. A stick of gum, a cup of coffee, nothing. Do you realize everything you own is like this coin?
Your most precious possession is like this coin. Look, that guitar over there, I love that guitar. It's like this coin. It has no value outside this world. Zero. I kept this. I didn't get the game, and now I got nothing to do with it. It gets me nothing.
The truth is, all of our possessions, everything we have is like this coin. It has value here in this life, in this world, but beyond it, it's worthless.
Look, everyone is looking for something to invest in that will give a good return. Ultimately, the wealth of this world is a really bad investment. It's the worst investment.
People say a boat is the worst investment ever. People talk about that. Sorry, Jordan, I know you like boats. It's like a hole that you pour your money down into the water in. But listen, that's not the worst investment. Your money is in this life. That's the worst investment ever. However, holding on to it is like holding on to dot-com stocks in the early 2000s. Those who held on to it, it was worth nothing. It had value, and then poof, it was gone.
Jesus says, when it fails. Not if it fails, but when it fails. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. So act now. Do something with it while you can. I should have spent this coin. Although now I'm glad I didn't, because I've got this great illustration for this sermon. Use it while you can. Be generous with it. Use it to serve people and to make friends, and what you get will persist into eternity. The manager was selfish and unscrupulous, but at least he had the foresight to see that his time was running out.
Right? He had that foresight. Do we have that foresight? Right? There's an expiration date on everything we have. How much more should we, more than him, be thinking about the future? And how we should use what we have in the present? How much more should we be serving other people? That's why in my opening illustration, the woman takes out all the stuff and says, this is too much for me. I've got to use it now. It's about to expire. Who can I give this to?
Who can I serve with this? What does God want me to do with this? How can I manage this with kingdom goals in mind? This is what Jesus said back in Luke 12. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. Friends, time is short and eternity is ahead. Get those things out of your cabinet. Find people that you can serve with them because they're going to expire.
The second is this. Be faithful. Let's be honest here. Being a good manager takes effort. It takes effort. It's hard. There is no getting around that. Sometimes we tell ourselves that if we just buy less stuff, that that will be enough. That will satisfy what Jesus wants me to do for stewardship, if I just buy less. You might have heard the saying, live simply that others may simply live. Now that's a really pithy thing. It makes for a great bumper sticker.
But there's more to stewardship than just living simply. Think again about the kind and wise woman in the opening story. To use her resources to serve her neighbor, she had to actually take the food out and actually get to work and prepare it. Right? If you live simply, you still have something. You're still supposed to manage something.
This is what Jesus says in verses 10 through 12. Be faithful. He says faithful, the word faithful four times. No matter how much or how little resources you have, even though these things have no eternal value, even though they will fail and they'll be as worthless as this coin, God calls us all to do our best in managing them. There's no opting out of this. Opt in. There's something to be learned. There's a savior to trust, to grow in, as you try hard and be faithful to manage your resources.
And here's why. For one thing, it reveals our character. Money is like a stress test of the doctor's office. Except instead of a treadmill, it's a paycheck and a car. Instead of testing the strength of our body, it tests the strength of our character. It has got it work in me.
Money also shows how we're going to handle future resources. That's what Jesus says. If you're faithful in a little, you'll be faithful in much. My dad and mom have a, my dad and stepmom have a golf cart at their house and they take Cadence and Brie for rides. And five years ago or so, the girl started to ask, can I drive? Can I drive? And we eventually let them drive. And Nikki and I, meanwhile, were carefully observing how they drove. Would they goof off and take risks?
Would they be responsible? Would they be cautious? Why? Because how they handle that golf cart, it's probably going to indicate how they handle a real car someday. So it was a moment of seeing what's going to happen right now when they get behind a wheel. It's a small wheel. It doesn't go very fast. But what's going to happen?
What we have now is little. But Jesus says that what's ahead is much. He says that what we have now is unrighteous, but what is coming is true riches. What we have now doesn't even belong to us, but what is coming, Jesus says, will be your own. Your own. These are all promises of what's ahead for those who belong to Christ. And so our resources now, they reveal the faith that's operating in our hearts. The faith that God put there and is nurturing and growing.
Step into stewardship so your faith can grow so that you can see how great of a Savior you have. You're not going to do it perfectly. That's okay. Just keep at it.
Faithfulness is not about perfection. It's about wanting to be obedient and saying yes, Jesus, and giving it a try. Okay? All right, the last thing. This is maybe the most important one. Jesus is kind of building up. He's stepping up with each one. The last one is this. Be unattached.
This is a warning. It comes in verse 13. There's a choice to be made. No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money. Now this language ought to make you pay attention. We might have expected Jesus to say you cannot worship God and money, and that would have been true. But instead, he uses the words master and slave. The stakes become clear. If you don't yield your resources to God, you don't really own your money. It owns you.
That's the choice. You yield it to God, or it is your master. And it is a harsh master that does not want good things for you, does not lead to good things in your life.
It will dictate what you do and don't do. It will control the decisions that you make. It will control you. It will be your master. It doesn't matter how much you have. If you don't yield it to God, it will be your master.
And then God cannot be your master. The position's already filled. We're not taking applications today, God, for the role of master in my life. That position has been filled. It's my checkbook. It's my home. It's my car. It's my stuff. You cannot go two different directions at the same time, no matter how hard you try. This can happen to anyone, to rich and to poor, to those who spend freely and those who watch every dime, to those who practice no religion and those who practice religion.
It can happen to anyone. It happened to the Pharisees. We see that at the end of this passage. They knew the scriptures so well, backwards and forwards, but they were still lovers of money. When they heard Jesus talking about money, they thought he sounded completely foolish, so ridiculous. They laughed at him. They ridiculed him. So be forewarned. This is how the sons of the world are going to respond to you when you manage your resources in a Godward direction, in a kingdom direction.
You may very well be laughed at, but here's why you should, and here's how you can. The call of stewardship is actually God's mercy to us. He is calling us to himself and he's calling us to do it by disentangling ourselves from the mastery that money has over us.
At our previous home, we had a big old pine tree in the middle of the house, and I got lazy, and vines had grown on it. They grew up. They were all over the bottom. They were probably 30 or 40 feet high. I knew that if I left it much longer, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. And that the life of that tree would be choked out.
But I dreaded the work. I did not want to do the work. One day, I finally bit the bullet and decided to start, and let me tell you, it was even harder than I thought it was. Every few inches, the vine had a little tendril. You couldn't even see it from far away that had gone out and had glued itself to the bark of the tree. Every few inches. I thought it would be like, well, if I just grab it at the bottom and give it some good hard tugs, it'll all come falling down.
No. No, no. Those little tendrils were even stronger than the vine itself at points. It was glued on. It took me hours and hours and hours. I had to get creative to find the leverage to get those really high vines off the tree. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort, but finally, I got the vines off that tree. It looked better and it was out of danger.
And the vines were still in the ground, poking up every now and then. I had to stay on top of it, yank them out. That's what God's calling you to today. Money and possessions are entanglements for our hearts.
You're going to look much better and you're going to be far healthier as you do the work to disentangle the love of money from your heart. Pull at it. Pull at it hard. Do what you need to do to separate the love of money from your heart. Otherwise, it will engulf you.
Stewardship is working with the Spirit to pull down those vines and then to keep the ones that keep coming up out of the ground at bay. The good news is when you trust in Christ, you have a better master. You have a better master. All of the ways that the mastery of money harms you, keeps you bound, keeps you jealous of other people, envious, keeps you chasing after the next thing that never ever satisfies. As bad as that is, the mirror image of that is how good it is to be under the mastery of Christ.
For him to be your master. He is a master that he's given himself to redeem us. He's done the work himself to redeem us. 1 Corinthians 6 says, you have been bought with a price. He's not talking about money. He's talking about the price of his only son given for us so that we can be redeemed from the power of sin.
He paid that price willingly and lovingly because he loves us and he wants us to be free. For freedom, Christ has set you free so do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Money rules you harshly and keeps you enslaved but Jesus sets you free. There's no other master on earth, no other master in heaven or on earth that will actually set you free when you come under their control. That's what Jesus does and he is a master that is getting a better place for us ready even now. The eternal dwellings that he talked about, he is getting them ready right now. John 14, I go and prepare a place for you and I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.
If Jesus is your savior, that's a promise for you today. It's a motivating promise to get you to work to pull down those vines and say, you know what, I got a better master. I don't need this anymore. Let's use our freedom in Christ to be generous, to be faithful and to be unattached with everything that God has given us to manage. Let's seek the kingdom and let's look ahead to the eternal dwelling that we have. Pray with me. Lord, thank you, Jesus.
Thank you that you have set us free by your blood. Not by our works, Lord, through faith in you. According to your grace, sinners like me can have a new master, a good master, a master that brings flourishing to our hearts and our lives, a master that goes ahead to prepare a place for us and a master that gave his own life to save ours.
You are the one that we were meant to worship. Will you help us to be good stewards, true stewards and managers of the things that you've given for the goal of the furthering of your kingdom in our hearts and around us. Lord, do more of your redeeming work among your people and call more people into your kingdom and away from the harsh, brutal master of money. Jesus, we love you and we pray this in your holy and precious name.