Here or Hereafter?

Scripture: Luke 16:1-13

When you hear a story like that. It almost makes me think that maybe the disciples invented the phrase that goes: “Wait! What?” Did Jesus just tell us to cheat on our taxes or something? No, wait, that can’t be what he meant! What is he talking about? And you have to remember, some of his disciples used to be tax collectors! Guys like Zacchaeus, tax collectors, who knew how to pad the bill and make sure they got a hefty commission. I’m sure sometimes those tax collectors cheated the Romans just as much as they cheated their own countrymen and got even richer for it. Then sometimes the Romans caught on and that was the end of their job!  Is that what Jesus was talking about?

But when we get to the end of the passage we realize that Jesus is talking about the difference between life here and life hereafter, and how life here can help you prepare for life hereafter. We need to learn three things from this text. 1. We are all shrewd managers who waste our master’s resources. 2. We are all going to be removed from our current positions here. But we have opportunity now to prepare for our transition to the hereafter. 3.We tend to conceive of that preparation in line with the teachings of all other religions. But Christ is telling us that there is really only one way open to us to resolve this crisis. So, you could say this message is about managers, management, and managing.

As we get into this, I first want us to realize that Jesus was using the economic realities of that day to speak their language and teach them, and us about God’s economy. So, what is really going on here? Out of all the various readings in this last week, I decided to take on the challenge of the shrewd manager. It is about one aspect of discipleship, namely, the wise stewardship of our resources. Now I have preached plenty of sermons about good stewardship in my 20 odd years. But in going back over my records I noticed that I never picked this passage before as the lens through which we would look at the issue. There are easier passages!

This passage occurs near the beginning of a longer section of the gospel of Luke, in which the author is now presenting Jesus’ challenges to those disciples who have gladly received the gospel message. They are the ones who have been found after having been lost. There were tax collectors and others, hated by the Pharisees. They were a whole lot of prodigal sons! The celebration is grand! Jesus is so happy for them to follow him and they are happy too because Jesus says God loves them.

But in this section on discipleship, Jesus is asking his disciples, what will you do in response to all that God has done for you? In this discipleship section Jesus talks about laying down your life, taking up you cross, counting the cost and being fully devoted to the mission. When he tells the parable of the shrewd manager then, He is using it as a way of teaching how we should really count the cost. He is trying to teach his disciples a shrewd lesson in living by godly wisdom.

This parable comes with additional interpretive challenges. It doesn’t look as if Jesus picked a good example of a good steward. He starts right out with the report that the manager was wasting his employer’s money! And the manager doesn’t prepare to defend himself. He seems to know that he is caught and will be fired, so instead of trying to protect his current job, he plans for his own future. And again, it doesn’t look like he’s using his own resources. He’s just being resourceful with his master’s money, in a way that seems dishonest to us, because now he’s cheating his master, by giving the debtors a break on their bills!

Admittedly, it doesn’t translate well into our reality. We have sort of been culturally trained to always expect Jesus to use good examples of squeaky-clean Sunday School quality role models so it’s easy for us to understand him. It seems that Jesus, when you read his words, preferred stories that really required people to think past the obvious. So first, we must affirm that Jesus is certainly not advocating any kind of unethical behavior.

I mean right after the parable, he goes on to say, if you can’t be trusted with a little, you won’t be trusted with true riches. And this wasteful manager was about to be “untrusted” by his employer for exactly that reason! But, Jesus did prove his point, that people of the world can be admirably shrewd about looking out for their own interests, while on the other hand, many people who think they are spiritual and ethical show that they fail to look out for their own best interests!

Now let’s talk about managers. We are all managers. All of us are given certain amounts of resources from a loving God. And all of them can be divided into three main categories. Time, talents, and money. We don’t all get the same amounts. Some live longer than others. Some are more talented than others. And, we’re not all born rich. But we are all going to be held responsible for the ways we handle the resources that God gives us. He is the master, and we are his managers of that portion of this world’s goods entrusted to our care.

As managers, we are all trying to be shrewd managers. By that, I mean that we all try our best to employ our resources to our greatest advantage. Now here’s where it gets interesting. The Pharisees, who, as Jesus said, loved money, were doing the best they could to get rich. They were trying to be shrewd managers. They believed in a version of the prosperity gospel, “God blesses those he loves.” Or, “God helps those who help themselves.” So, they served money, all the while thinking they were serving God. But Jesus said you can’t do both! Money tends to get us caught up in the blessings of this world, the here, and it makes us lose sight of the much more important next world, the hereafter.

Jesus notes that the people of this world are more shrewd than are the people of the light. That is, people in the world give more thought to their physical well-being than the righteous do to their spiritual well-being. Monetary resources which possess the power to support Christian values should be put to generous and serving use so that heaven will be pleased to accept the one who has been so generous. Since you can't take it with you it is best to do with it what honors God here so that you are rewarded for it in heaven, the hereafter.

Much of the world around us today has lost sight of the importance of being ready for the hereafter. Or, if they think about the hereafter at all, they work at it the way the Pharisees did, trying to be shrewd but too focused on earthly prosperity as the indicator of personal success. They think they’re managing just fine is they can get a successful career going so they can afford a bigger house, a better car, or a good reputation. Fame and fortune speak loudly in the worldly mind. Most of aren’t even that ambitious. All we really want is enough to be comfortable in this world.

But if that is your reality, then you fail to use earthly resources to secure treasures in Heaven. And in that case, you are really not serving your own best interests at all. You may be gaining the world but at the expense of losing your soul! You’re not shrewd enough if you don’t see this truth.

Worse yet, we are all wasteful managers! The Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means that all of us are wasteful managers! Jesus didn’t really pick a bad example! He gave an example of a normal human being! All of us are going to get fired one day and lose our position on this earth. So, in the same manner as the parable, one thing that is certain is everyone's future dismissal from the earthly sphere of influence or employment, and into the unknown regions of eternity. We’re moving from the here to the hereafter, and, just as the shrewd manager prepared for his transition out of the master’s employment, only one means is available to us for ensuring now that he will have any eternal home to go then. So, the right use of the opportunities of daily life is what counts.

Now we’re talking about management. “Worldly wealth” means all your material goods. It’s all the stuff you can’t take with you to the hereafter. Though we can’t take it with us, it can still be used to prepare for the next life. Although all these things belong to this life only, yet what will happen to you then, when you pass into the next life will depend on what you were doing with things here and now. Not to earn a place in heaven, but to show that we already believe in all that Jesus promises through our faith in the gospel. Make sure that your use of things brings you into a fellowship of friends which will survive beyond death. That would be good management.

In reference to the verse that you cannot serve both God and money, here is a good paraphrase. If you serve God, you cannot at the same time serve money. On the contrary you must make money serve you. In mastering the use of the things of this world you are developing a responsible attitude which will stand you in good stead with regard to the true riches, the things of God! That would be good management.

Someday, God will evaluate our management of resources, and see whether we have handled them in a way that anticipates his desires and values. If we have, his commendation will follow, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” Just as the unrighteous manager was prudent in considering what the future required, so we must be prudent in considering how God desires us to handle his resources. Money and the other material resources we possess are not ours to be used in whatever way we please. Rather they have been placed into our care in order to meet the needs of those around us. We are stewards. We are managers, not owners. 

So, the question is, how are you managing? Can you be trusted with much more of God’s resources because you are being faithful with what little He has given you thus far? The issue that Jesus is addressing here is, when it comes to money, we can all easily become shrewd in our dealings when it serves us. Yet, in spiritual matters, which will ultimately benefit us most, we are too often sloppy and complacent. We have a take it or leave it mentality, presuming on the grace of God, “I don’t have to do anything to get saved, so I’m not going to do anything,” rather than being diligent to obtain as much as we can in our relationship with God. We are usually quite willing to wheel and deal with our physical resources to our material advantage. But the point of the parable is, don’t forget the importance of your spiritual advantage!

It could be that Jesus was commending the shrewd manager for deferring immediate gain for the sake of future benefit.  That is also what He calls us to do.  Jesus often taught, “deny yourself.”  Why? For future benefit. For spiritual gain, to lay up treasure in heaven.

So, how are you managing this reality? Can God trust you to use, for His glory, the resources and talents with which He has blessed you? If He has blessed you with much, but you have squandered it on yourself, can you really be trusted with more?

We are all sinful, wasteful managers, but through faith in Jesus we are forgiven and granted a heavenly inheritance with him. We are forgiven I say, and that leads me to a point about how the shrewd manager secured his own worldly future. That was also through forgiveness! Remember? Sit down and change your bill from 1,000 gallons to only 500. He gave them a big break. Half of the great debt was forgiven!

Probably the single most important thing to manage in this life is how we love others by forgiving them the debts they owe us. That is even in the great prayer that Jesus taught us to pray where we say Father forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Can we give people a break when they offend us or hurt us? Can we forgive? That is an important spiritual management issue!

I include another word about the resources God gives us. The worldly person has only time, talents, and money. But the Christian disciple also receives spiritual resources! First, by believing the gospel we receive the truth that sets us free from worldly thinking! It is only by faith in God’s grace that we can escape the futile thinking that leads us to be wasteful stewards, and also escape the consequences of our wasteful and self-serving management of God’s resources. God’s wisdom, that comes by the Spirit to those who trust in Jesus, makes us more shrewd than any others.

Second, as believers baptized by the Holy Spirit we receive spiritual gifts that we can and ought to use to support the body of Christ and further the mission of Christ. No matter what you’re occupation, even if you were just a janitor scrubbing floors, you’re spiritual gifs can be put to good use, either on the job or in the fellowship of believers, or both, and if you’re doing it for the glory of God, you will be commended in heaven even if you never get rich and famous on earth! The important thing is for you to know that you are of great value to God as his beloved child.

So, in closing, I know that I am talking to a group of mangers today. Are you as shrewd as the manager in Jesus’ story? Are you willing to forgive offenses and forego present satisfaction here, in order to gain a greater inheritance in the hereafter by using all your earthly goods to bring in the Kingdom of God? I pray that you are! And then as we deal with the worldly people, who do not yet believe the gospel, may our management of earthly and spiritual resources lead them into the same joy that you and I enjoy so that they will gladly put this sign on the doors of their hearts, “under new management!” Amen.