Luke 16:1-15

Can God Trust You?

The story is told about a third grade class in which the students were telling about their parent’s jobs. One little boy shocked the class by saying, “My dad is an exotic dancer.” After class, the teacher took the boy aside and said, “Now, son, is your dad really an exotic dancer?” He said, “No ma’am, he really works for Arthur Andersen, but I was too embarrassed to say that.” [i] If you recall, Arthur Andersen is the once prestigious accounting firm that cooked the financial books for the Enron Corporation. The real culprit of course is Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron. Mr. Lay was not always a super-rich executive, however. He was born into poverty in Tyrone, Missouri and was the son of a Baptist preacher. Lay was charged with 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false and misleading statements. Lay’s trial started last month and if convicted on all counts, he faces a sentence of 175 years in prison. [ii]

When you get right down to it, Kenneth Lay’s real crime is that he horribly mismanaged what was entrusted to him. This was the same crime charged against the manager in Jesus’ parable. The rich man who employed him accused the manager of wasting his possessions. The word for ‘accused’ is a strong word not unlike a criminal indictment. The rich man asked his manager, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.” The rich man assumed his manager was guilty of the crime.

When Kenneth Lay was charged with his crimes, he responded with pleas of innocence. He wrote a personal letter on his website which reads, “As you are probably aware, I have been indicted on 11 charges and my trial begins January 30. I am innocent of all charges against me.”[iii] You have to give the manager in Jesus’ parable credit, for he did not try to deny the charges against him. He knew they were true. He knew he was in deep trouble and so he began to devise a plan to save his own neck. Here is where the parable gets tricky, because the manager does something which appears to be completely self-serving, yet he is commended by the rich man and by Jesus. Every commentary I consulted agreed that this is not an easy parable to interpret. They used descriptions like “notoriously difficult” and “one of the most difficult parables to understand.” But if you look at the full story in its context, I think you will agree it’s not all that tricky.

In v. 3, the manager began to assess his options: “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.” The manager had what we would call a white-collar office job pushing papers and he was not willing to resort to digging ditches. He was too weak for manual labor and he was too proud to ask for a handout. We don’t know how long it took him to devise his plan, but it was the perfect scheme to keep him from either begging or digging. 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.’

How did this strange plan win him future friends as well as the admiration of his former boss and commendation from Jesus? What he was most likely doing was writing off the interest on the loans. In today’s category, his boss was a multi-millionaire who had dealings with other successful businessman. For such people, it was not uncommon to charge exorbitant interest on loans which was known as usury. Usury was forbidden by OT law, so the outstanding loans were significantly reduced by eliminating the high interest rates leaving only the loan principal.

His former boss commended him for being shrewd. Now usually we think of being shrewd as the same thing as being tricky and underhanded, but it can also simply mean clever and practical. The rich man was smart enough to see all of the various implications of the manager’s plan. First, the rich man would be well liked for his generosity in eliminating interest. These were large outstanding loans. The oil would be approximately equivalent to $100,000 with an interest rate of 100% and the wheat was equal to $300,000 with an interest rate of 25%. By comparison, our home mortgages are under 7%. If your mortgage lender suddenly forgave all future interest on your home loan, how would you feel toward them? You would be ecstatic! You would tell all your friends about your generous and kind mortgage lender which in the end, would bring in a lot more business for them. The rich man could also see the benefit for his former manager. Being the one who brokered the deal, the manager would have won many new friends in the business world. What do you think his chances were of being offered a job by one of the businessmen he helped? His chances were very high! That’s why his plan was so shrewd and clever—everyone came out a winner. The rich man came off looking generous, the ones with outstanding loans saved huge sums of money and the manager practically guaranteed himself future employment. He would not have to dig ditches or beg for money on the streets. If you want an explanation for the word shrewd, then the manager’s plan is the perfect fit.

The key for understanding this parable is found in the second half of v. 8. Jesus ended the parable in the first half of v. 8 and began the explanation of the parable in the second half of v. 8. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.  ^ Ultimately the manager was very selfish and self-serving. He didn’t care about his former boss and he had no love for the other businessman—he was looking out for number one—himself. Is this what Jesus is telling us to imitate—unabandoned self-preservation? Jesus could not be condoning selfishness, but what did he mean? Right at this point we can understand why commentators call this a “notoriously difficult” parable! ^9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Did the manager possess an unhealthy love for money? No, actually he had an unhealthy love for himself. He did not love money, rather he used money as a tool to get what he really wanted, which was a comfortable future for himself.

Here is the key to the whole parable: we are not to worship money, but rather use money as a tool to gain something in the future. In other words, the way we use money now directly effects how we will spend eternity. This is not an optional thing for the Christian—Jesus commands all believers to lay up treasures in heaven. We are promised more reward for using our money wisely and yes, even shrewdly. This is a difficult concept for most Christians. We want to believe that Heaven will be a level playing field. We mistakenly think that our lives in Heaven will all be the same, because it would be unfair of God to hand out different levels of reward. But this completely misses huge amounts of NT teaching which says the very opposite. Some people will enter Heaven with virtually no reward and others will have amassed tremendous heavenly treasure. Heaven is not a level paying field. The way you use your money today directly affects your level of reward in eternity. Good stewards have great rewards—poor stewards have no reward.

Jesus is not very complementary in this passage. He said that the people of the world understand this principle of using money for future reward better than the people of light. The really awful thing about this comparison is that the people of the world are only thinking of their own, temporal future. The people of the world work hard, smart and shrewdly in order to assure themselves a comfortable future in this life, while Christians cannot seem to understand that we need to work even more shrewdly now to assure more reward in our eternal future. Unbelievers work harder for temporary rewards than believers do for eternal rewards. This should not be!

Have you ever heard of a company called BackRub? Let me give you one hint. This company was started in a garage in 1998 by two guys named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Now do you know which company I am referring to? Let me give you one more hint. By the time they officially launched, they had changed the company name to Google. You kind of have to feel sorry for these two guys, because in the past six weeks they have lost a combined wealth of $4 billion. I wonder what it feels like to lose $4 billion?! Don’t feel too badly for them though—they still have a net worth of $13 billion! Larry and Sergey are shrewd businessmen who have worked to gain a secure future—not only for themselves, but for all of the people they have made wealthy in the process.

A few weeks ago most of us watched the Seattle Seahawks play in the Super Bowl. Billionaire Paul Allen owns the Seahawks—and where did he get his billions? He made his money by riding on the coattails of Bill Gates. Microsoft created a few billionaires and a multitude of millionaires through shrewd business dealings. They have made many friends and have assured a good future for themselves by being shrewd. Now please note that I am not endorsing all of the business practices of companies like Google and Microsoft, any more than Jesus gave his stamp of approval on the unwise manager. After all, it was the manager’s poor management practices that forced him to act so shrewdly.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this; Can God trust us? We spend a lot of our lives trying to figure out how to better trust God, but we never ask the equally important question—can God trust us? This is the very question Jesus is posing in v. 10. ^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? If you made $500 last week and came to church this morning, how much of it belongs to God? All of it! Our first reaction is to quickly figure out a ten percent portion and say we owe God $50, but the fact is that he owns every last penny. Look again at the penetrating question in v. 12, if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? When Jesus said “someone else’s property, he meant HIS property. Everything you have belongs to him. Therefore, all of life is a test to see how you take care of God’s property.

One time we lent out a book and it was returned to us all mangled and with half of the pages falling out. What are the chances that we will lend another book to that same person? That’s actually a tricky question, isn’t it? Since the book belonged to God, then we should not be upset that someone ruined our book. In that sense, we should be willing to lend out more books despite their poor stewardship. But on the other hand, we need to be aware of this stewardship principle and not just throw away useful possessions by lending out more books. God is testing each or us. How are you using God’s property? Of course it matters how much you put in the collection plate, but it also matters what you do with the rest of God’s property. Can you be trusted with his things? Trust must be earned. Why should God hand out eternal rewards to you if you haven’t used his temporary rewards in this life? He won’t.

The real arrow through the heart comes at v. 13, ^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.” Most of us would not readily admit that we worship money instead of God, but there are only two options available. There is no middle ground here. You cannot worship both equally. There can only be one master. Can you confidently say that your master is God and not money?

We have bought all three of our kids these banks through Crown Financial Concepts as one of the tools we use to teach our children about stewardship. These banks are divided into ‘church’, ‘bank’ and ‘store’. The first ten percent of their allowance or other earnings goes into the ‘church’ section, 20% goes into the ‘bank’ section for long-term savings and the rest goes into the ‘store’ for their own use. Our kids don’t just buy candy and toys with this store portion, but also things like bikes and some of their clothes. Through the years we have seen that our kids are actually becoming better givers than Karen and I. We give a little more than 10% away, but they tend to give way more than 10%. I was thinking about this last week and wondering how this could be so. The it occurred to me that maybe they are better givers than us because they don’t have to worry about the nig things in life like food and shelter—they just know that it will be provided for them. That’s when I really had an ‘aha’ moment. Our kids trust that the basics will be provided, therefore they can be more generous with what they have. Do you see the application? We are not generous because we do not have that same level of trust. We worry and fret about the basics and our budgets are ruined by poor money management, so we decide we cannot give. The result is that we worship money and not God. The paradox is that we are waiting to see if we can trust God with our money and he is waiting to see if he can trust us with his money!

How do we know if we are worshiping money instead of God? Here are two applications I have come up with for helping us determine where our hearts lie. First, if we are not using worldly wealth to gain eternal rewards, then we are worshipping money. If God cannot trust is with his property, why should he give us more in eternity? Second, if we are not at least tithing our income, I believe we are worshipping money. Randy Alcorn says it so succinctly—“tithing is the training wheels of giving.” Most Christians believe that tithing is for super Christians or something they will do after they win the lottery. But tithing is the starting point of giving. Malachi chapter three says that anything less than a tithe is robbing God. Now I ask you, if we are robbing God, can we also be worshipping him? You are free to prove me wrong on this point of tithing, please let me know if you come to a different conclusion. But if agree with my application, then as a church, we would like to be able to help you start moving in the right direction.

I know this is going to be controversial, but I think it needs to be done. I have on the overhead the 2005 Giving Report for our church. Some people call this a Pharisee list, others call it blackmail, but we are at a point where I think we need to start publishing our giving report, starting right now. Here goes…So, I was just kidding about showing this report, but why do we care if our fellow church goers know how much we give, but we don’t care that God knows? I have no idea what anyone in this church gives and I never will, but God knows every last penny you have ever given. He has a perfect financial record in heaven which rates your generosity. This heavenly giving record will either cause you to gain “true riches” or lose them. Are you shrewd with all of the possessions entrusted to you, or are you more like the wasteful manager? In other words, can God trust you with his things?

Rich Maurer

March 5, 2006