Reflection on Luke 16:1-13

 

Luke 16:1-13

1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position 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 dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

  10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

 

Reflection

“Always look for the good news.  Always look first for the good things that God is up to.  Always look for the good news.”

That was the advice my preaching professor gave us future pastors whenever we encounter a confusing or tough Bible text.  It is hard to move forward on writing a sermon if you have no idea what you are supposed to be talking about.  Some Bible texts are just so inaccessible.  But the moment on Sunday morning where a pastor opens their mouth in the pulpit comes whether you understand the Bible text or not.

The preacher needs to have some way to crack open an impossible Bible text.  “Always look for the good news.”

I think this is sound advice in general.  Sometimes we find ourselves in a spot in life that is confusing and tough.  Sometimes we have no idea how to move forward, yet we have to move forward anyway.  And, this past week where tempers are flaring on the national stage in response to horrible shootings and the fallout from those shootings, mixed in with the normal stresses of daily life in this world of hurt people lashing out in the most inappropriate of places and lash out in the most inappropriate of ways; all I wanted to do was just shut it all off.  Early this week I refused to log into social media.  I refused to watch the news.  I refused to participate in conversations.  I hesitated to answer the phone.  I just refused because it was all a little too much.  Ever been there?  Are you there right now?

And that is not all.  On top of it all I was given this incomprehensible parable from Jesus to preach on about a rich guy and his terrible manager who is fired because he was “squandering” the rich guy’s “property” (Luke 16:1).  But before the terrible manager packs the coffee mug, picture frames, office pens (which he intends to keep), and the little dancing cactus from the top of his desk and takes the walk of shame through the office and out the door, in one last act of defiance, the guy goes out and manages the rich guy’s wealth even worse than before.  He just up and gives the guy’s wealth away.  He forgives people’s debts that they owe to the rich guy.  All this so that he might have a place to bunk for the night after he has no income.  “I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes” (Luke 16:4).  “I’ll just make myself look great!”

This is the kind of sneaky, sleezy politicking and managing that I am trying to get away from this week, and here it is right in my face.

And on top of it, the rich guy in the story “commend(s) the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8).  I am so confused.  He commends the sleazeball?  Who does that?  Jesus, this is so unrealistic!  It is just more of the same garbage that we see on the news every single day.  No more.  I am out.  I am sick and tired of all this shrewdness and deception and self-centeredness and dishonesty.  I am out!

And yet, here I am.  Standing in the pulpit, because you pay me to say something.  And you prefer that what I say be smart, which is asking a lot from me.  And you prefer it to be deeply biblical.  And if possible, you prefer it not to be boring.  I do not think I can do all three.  But even if I could, where do I even start?

And in the stillness of that question, the voice of my seminary professor says, “Always look for the good news.  Always look first for the good things that God is up to.  Always look for the good news.”

So, we look for the good news in the parable and in life, but first the parable.  And the only good news that I saw was given to those men who were in debt.  Now just understand, they do not know what is going on between the rich man and the manager.  All the first guy knows is that he owes a hundred jugs of olive oil to the rich guy.  Just in case you wonder stupid stuff like, “How much was a jug of olive oil back then?” just like I do; I will tell you that a single jug was a gallon and a half worth of oil, and that at today’s prices for cheap olive oil, the guy would have owed about $7500.  That is outlandish!  How is he going to pay that back?  And out of nowhere his debt is slashed in half (Luke 16:6).  I am telling you what, that guy had a good day.  That was unexpected grace.  That was a run to the house and tell your wife what happened, sort of good news.

And the guy who owed wheat to the rich man, I am certain that the grace shown him when his debt was slashed from “a hundred containers of wheat” to “eighty” was just as gracious and wonderful.  I would have done the math for that one too but, I am just not a math guy.  I would rather stand up here, not knowing what to say, than try to do another math problem that is a sentence problem.

What I do know is that these guys were given a moment of grace, forgiveness, and joy, and they did not care if it was because of upper management problems.  They were given relief from their burdens, and that is always good news.

Apparently, God can take the most convoluted and deceptive of situations and transform them into moments of grace.  God can take deceptive and shrewd hearts and move them to act in ways of forgiveness.  And God can take fed up bosses and make them impressed.  The Bible says that the “master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8).

I still do not buy it.  I do not believe that this rich man character would ever exist.  If you squander my money and then squander it some more, I am going to need to go on some blood pressure medication.  I am just saying.

But maybe that is Jesus’ point, because though we may not have a heart like that, God does.  God’s ultimate desire is that all creation might get a taste of divine grace.  And, when we are generous with what God has given to us, when we do that, we are finally acting with a heart that matches God’s own heart.

God wants us to be generous with God’s money.  All of it belongs to God people.  We just manage it.  God wants us to show grace using all that God has provided.  All that we have belongs to God, and when we use what God has given us for good, I imagine that God’s heart becomes so full that it almost bursts with pride.  Finally, they get it!  Finally, they understand!

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10). 

Just recently I heard a story that talked about this sort of faithful generosity.  It was on an episode of the Bible Project Podcast.  And it was about a pastor in Nigeria who was in the middle of the chaos and destruction caused by a civil war.  One of the most heartbreaking things that happened during the war was the destruction of his village’s school.  Looking at all the rubble around him, he could not even figure out where to begin.  It was all a little too much.  But he could not do nothing.  The children needed a school.

He had been taught in seminary about how God has a heart of generosity, and he had been taught that God provides.  We are the ones who despair.  We are the ones who cannot see the way forward.  But God is the one who can bring back from the dead.  God is a God of abundance.  Jesus rose from the dead and gave us a new way forward through the power of the Holy Spirit.  God has a heart of generosity and God provides.  Through God’s Spirit led people, God provides.  We just need to be able to open our eyes and see what God is up to.  Always look for the good news.  It is there. 

So, the pastor started going through the village, declaring that God has given them everything they need to get this school built again for the sake of their children.  “Everyone has been given something by God.  Anyone can give what they have been given by God to make this happen.”

He kept preaching that same message up and down the streets.  And this is where the story gets good.

In the village there was this woman with no home and no legs.  She had to drag herself by her hands everywhere she went.  And one place she dragged herself was to church.  During the service this poor woman dragged herself to the front of the church, with a chicken tucked in one arm, and told the pastor that he should sell her chicken to help build the school.

Of course, the pastor was horrified at the idea of taking the only wealth that this poor woman had to help build the school.  The chicken would only pay for one block.  He refused the gift, but the woman was indignant and said, “You said that anyone could give of what they have been given by God. I have this chicken.”

Jump ahead to the ceremony where they laid the first block.  The very first block laid was paid for by selling her chicken.  She was right there to help lay the block.  The pastor made a big deal about her extraordinary gift.  And the children of that school saw what that crippled woman was willing to do so that they might have a future.

The children were so moved by her generosity, by her grace, that they worked for the next few weeks to raise money to buy that Godly woman a wheelchair, and then later they raised money to then build her a home. So taken by her commitment to them, the children made sure she got to church every Sunday, taking turns to push her to church in her brand-new set of wheels.

Generosity did not only built a school in Nigeria.  Generosity built a community. 

Jesus said to “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth (or this earthly wealth given to us) so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9).  Generosity does not just build houses; it builds homes where people gather.  Generosity builds community.  Generosity shares God’s grace with neighbors.  Generosity is the way of God. 

So, when faced with the choice between two masters, wealth and God, I think I will choose God.  It is God who provides us abundantly with good news to share.  “Always look for the good news.”