Jesus on Money Management
Luke 16:1-13
Does anyone get a little nervous when Jesus talks about money? This morning we’re going to look at a passage whose primary focus is on money, but before you get too nervous about the subject, let me ask you some other questions that might help put you at ease, while also at the same time hopefully stir up your appetite to learn from what Jesus has to teach us this morning. In a job loss situation, would you want to be confident that you will be provided for financially afterwards? Does anyone enjoy spending someone else’s money? Does anyone like the idea of, over time, increasing your wealth? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then I think you are going to enjoy and benefit from what Jesus has to say to us today. Let’s look at Luke 16, verses 1-13.
Ok, let’s look a little closer at the illustration Jesus is giving us. Here we have a very rich man, who has entrusted to a manager, the management of his possessions- money, tools, assets, accounts, etc. And the manager was reported to have been squandering (wasting foolishly and recklessly), the rich man’s possessions. The rich man calls the manager in and confronts him, fires him, and asks him to give full account of all that he has done while being in the management role- he wants to see the books, he wants to know what went where, when, how, and to who. Surely this would take a little bit of time to gather all the records, and so during this time the manager comes to his senses and realizes he has very limited time and needs to provide for himself very quickly. So far, this story sounds a lot like the previous parable of the lost son. The lost son also squandered the possessions he was given by his rich father, and the time came when he realized he wasn’t going to survive much longer living the way he had been living, so he came to his senses and devised a plan to provide for himself very quickly- and he returned to his father.
Obviously, the lost son returning to his father was a good move, not only did the son save himself from starvation, but he was provided for, restored, and celebrated in ways that he never would have even imagined possible. In contrast, the way this manager provided for himself sounds a little scandalous. He’s cooking the books before he turns in his full report to the rich man. Verse 5 says he went to “each one” of his master’s debtors- not just the two mentioned, but to all of them. The two mentioned only serve as examples of the discount he was giving to everyone. Some 50%, others 20%, either way- you take whatever help someone is willing to give you. His goal was to endear himself to all the debtors, and once he was fully removed from his job title, these debtors would fondly remember that he was the guy who, had for no apparent reason, given them a hefty discount in the money they owed.
How would you feel if your bank, credit union, credit card company, or car loan company called you up one day and said, “Hey, listen- I talked to the powers that be and personally put in a good word for you. You know, I think you’re a really good person who deserves a break. I worked out a deal for you on that payment you’ve been making- we’re going to cut that payment in half.” You’d be thinking, “Wow- I can’t believe they did that for me. What am I going to do with that extra money each month? I know- we’re going to Disney World! Hey Banker Bob- want to come with us? I mean, you’re the one who worked this out and made it possible!”
And the rich man is able to see the wisely devised scheme, and appreciate the manager’s craftiness. I am always amazed at some of the crafty schemes people come up with nowadays to dishonestly benefit themselves. Craigslist, the classified online sales website, is full of scammers. Most are out attempting to collect individual’s email addresses, so that they can then sell large email lists to companies that send out mass advertisement emails. And there’s all kinds of creative ways, computer programs, and stories told in order to gather email addresses. Then there’s the age-old Ponzi scheme. Named after an Italian swindler, who would lure investors to “invest” money with him, and he would pay off first investors with a nice profit gain using other later investor’s money. The Ponzi scheme idea is that more and more people invest after seeing investors gaining profits, but eventually it collapses as the schemer takes more and more money from later investors who never get their investment back. There was a guy in Asheville just recently arrested for defrauding investors of $13.5 million. He had a fake company- that he told investors- was doing business with several media giant companies. He went to great efforts in creating websites, fake documents, fake bank statements, fake business transactions, fake Fortune 500 business meeting statements - now that he has been caught and investigated, it is easy to admire the really elaborate endeavor he created, and the sharp and wise mind it took to keep all the stories straight. What he did was wrong, completely morally unacceptable, but it is admirable all the intricacies of his plan and the effort he put into his work. Here we have a similar scenario, what the manager did was wrong, completely morally unacceptable- and his master praised not his immoral act, nor his dishonesty, but he praised his foresight, his wisdom, and his thought process to change his destiny.
And in verse 8 Jesus commends the “sons of this age”- the people of this world who don’t know Him, not for their morality, but for their shrewd effort to get by and get a leg up in life. I believe Jesus is saying that the people of this world are better at living for this world, than the people of God are in living for His coming Kingdom. They are often more serious and motivated about gaining in this temporary world than believers are in gaining for the eternal world to come. People will spend years, hours each day, planning an elaborate Ponzi scheme in order to secure a future of millions of temporary earthly dollars. Yet many believers won’t spend even 5 minutes a day in concentrated effort to invest in their future eternal dwelling place in Heaven. College students will invest tens of thousands of dollars for a 4-year college training. Athletes will spend countless hours training and practicing for a sport career that on average lasts 5 years, yet many of us as Christians get a little uneasy about giving towards efforts that have impact for all eternity. The point is that non-believers generally do a better job of investing for their world, than we as believers do in investing for our world- the Kingdom of God. Non-believers spend far more time, focus, persistence, and energy in following worldly desires than Christians spend making themselves better followers of Jesus.
So, what is the intended lesson? Jesus gives it in verse 9… This is a heavy, full verse that requires some wisdom to unpack. Is Jesus saying we should buy our friends? I once saw a TV show where a guy is pretending to have a birthday party, and he has one friend who goes out into the streets and tells people that the birthday guy doesn’t have any friends, and he offers them $50 to come to the birthday party and be his friends. They all had fun at the party, but it was even more fun when they were told it was all a set up that was being filmed as a comedic experiment. Are we to do like this? I don’t think so, the key to understanding this verse is realizing that Jesus is talking about eternal friends, as the verse says at the end, that “they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
So, Jesus is referring to Heavenly friends, but not Heavenly money or riches. The verse specifically says the “wealth of unrighteousness,” in other words- not eternal wealth rewards for the righteous, but earthly-unrighteous-common-dollar-bills that are temporary. And He doesn’t say “if” this temporary earthly wealth fails, He says “when it fails.” Here’s the correlation, there is coming a day when we will all give account for all that we have done with our master’s money, and in that day the money we have used will cease to have value, but we will then operate under a new economic system. It will be like the day the Euro was introduced and suddenly the Austrian schilling, the Belgian franc, the Italian lira and the Spanish peseta all became obsolete. And it was according to how you had managed your schillings, francs, liras, and pesetas- that determined how many of the more valuable Euros you received at the bank in exchange.
Jesus is alluding to the idea that we can somehow purchase friends for our enjoyment in Heaven, friends that will welcome us into His coming Kingdom. And the money we are to use to do that, is earthly common money, that has been entrusted to us by God. And we only have that money for a temporary, finite amount of time. All of us could probably be called into account by God for in some way, squandering His possessions. If there’s any doubt concerning whose money and possessions you have, listen to Psalm 24:1. It says “The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” Everything we have is a temporary gift from God. Our house, car, money, kids, parents, church- everything is His- and we are just merely managers.
Notice this whole passage isn’t directed to the religious leaders as was the previous parable. Verse 1 tells us he was teaching this to the disciples. Here in the last few months of Jesus’ life on earth, He had an important lesson of stewardship to teach His disciples. The lesson is that all of our possessions belong to God, we are each managers of these possessions, these possessions are only temporary, and the way to benefit ourselves with God’s possessions is by eternally investing them in other people. Jesus was saying that each of us, like this manager, will one day lose our jobs- our means of financial gain will one day come to an end- and we will each be called in to give an account. With this day in mind, we need to get busy in order to use the master’s money while we still have access to it, in order to pull others into the Kingdom. How do we do this? There are all kinds of creative answers. Sure, supporting missions agencies and organizations whose primary objective is to lead people into the Kingdom. But surely there are more ways for us to use the resources God has given us, to build His Kingdom and draw more people into it, and thus create eternal friends for us.
Recently I heard a pastor on the radio speak on Godly stewardship. He mentioned that the world (including Christians) is so often caught up in building wealth for retirement, 401Ks, increasing personal assets, building profitable businesses- that all can one day be passed on to heirs. He stated that probably what’s going to happen is that the wealth passed on will probably mess up the heir receiving it. He made the case that, shouldn’t we as Christians, rather be attempting to use up all the money before we die, rather than save it all? The goal should be to die having invested all our passing earthly wealth into eternal kingdom wealth. We should be taking all our currency that is being phased out, and should be exchanging it for currency that we can actually use in the place where we are going.
On the recent Indonesian trip, when we landed in country, there was a money exchanger at the airport. From my previous overseas experiences, the airport doesn’t give the best exchange rate, so I only exchanged a small amount of money in order to keep me going for a few days in Indonesia until I could find the better rate money exchanger. Well, once we got to the town where we were staying, I couldn’t find a money exchanger anywhere. Every time I asked, no one knew of somewhere that did that and the particular banks we asked didn’t exchange US dollars either- it never worked out for me to exchange more money. I had $200 of US money in my pocket that I couldn’t use. I began to regret not having exchanged more money at the airport for money that I could actually spend. In the same way, don’t arrive to Heaven having not exchanged your currency for currency that is valuable there. You’ll regret it. Jesus presses His point further in verse 10… I used to primarily see this verse as referring to earthly stewardship principles, but if we look at the next verse I believe we’ll see that the “little thing” is what we have on earth and that the “much” is referring to what is coming in Heaven. Verse 11… This verse, beginning with “therefore,” clarifies the previous verse. The “little thing” is the “unrighteous wealth”- the passing, earthly, temporary, common dollar- and the “much” is the “true riches”- the reward of Heaven, wealth that won’t pass away or be lost, the prosperous economy of the coming Kingdom. There’s a really big movement across the world that has been termed as the “Prosperity Gospel.” The message they give draws thousands of people into giant mega churches. And their message is this- it is God’s will that all Christians should be blessed financially with material blessings and physical healings. They take passages like this, and others, and misconstrue them to say that if you give God or the church your money, then you will be given more money. God may give you more money on this earth, and I hope He does, but we are not promised to always financially prosper here in this life. We are not promised to always receive physical healing in this life. What we are promised though- for those who act upon Jesus’ teaching- is riches untold in the life to come and new healed bodies in the installment of His Kingdom world. The riches and healing He wants to give His followers is far greater than the riches and healing that can be experienced in this passing world. Verse 12…
Here’s another reminder that everything you have in your possession right now belongs to God- it’s His that you are spending. But if we spend it properly, we will get use of our own wealth! We use the same principle today- “Here son this is how you use a hammer, if you use it well- I’ll get you your own.” “Sure, my daughter, we’ll let you try some of mommy’s make-up. If you learn to use it well and we can trust you with it, we’ll get you your own.” But these analogies pale in comparison to “the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor. 2:9) Verse 13…
You cannot serve God and wealth. It doesn’t say you cannot serve God and be wealthy. I would encourage us all to pursue ways to prosper financially, but use that prosperity to benefit God’s Kingdom. 1 Timothy 6:10 says “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…” It doesn’t say, as is often quoted, “Money is the root of all evil.” Money is not the root of all evil, the LOVE of money is A root (one out of the many roots) of evil. So, have money- just don’t love it. Love God, and use His money that He gives you for His purposes.
Now coming back to our first questions asked- “In a job loss situation, would you want to be confident that you will be provided for financially afterwards?” If yes- then listen to the teaching of Jesus and invest now in His kingdom before you are no longer able to. If yes, you enjoy spending someone else’s money- then think of creative and prosperous ways that you can spend God’s money that you are managing, to build it and spend it on making disciples for His Kingdom. If yes, you like the idea of, over time, increasing your wealth- then listen to Jesus’ investment strategy here- spend your money on winning eternal friends for the Kingdom. That is the only way to increase your wealth, all other strategies will leave you at a loss.
I have to admit to you, I’ve wrestled with this concept a little bit. I’ve attempted to analyze how I spend God’s money, and I’ve realized that I want to be a better manager. I’m still working through what that looks like and how exactly to do things differently, but we as a family are making some steps towards investing better in the Kingdom. We’re attempting to multiply the resources we have been entrusted with, so that whatever gain we receive, it can be used strictly for Kingdom purposes. Our goal is to have some money each month, above our normal tithe and offerings, that can go into an account whose sole use will be for the Kingdom. An account like this could give be used to give more to the IMB, it could help support going on a yearly short-term mission trip overseas, it could contribute to Wycliffe and Associates who are doing Bible translations into languages that don’t yet have God’s word printed, it could help support the Jesus Film expanding into languages and territories who have yet to hear the name Jesus.
Hear me in this, I’m not saying that everyone should strive to do the same thing that God has led us to do. But, what I am saying is that according to Jesus’ teaching here in Luke 16, we all, as in individuals, as in families, as in a church family- we all need to consider how we are investing for our future in God’s Kingdom, we all need to consider who’s money we are spending, we all need to consider how short our time is here on earth that we have to invest in that which lasts for all eternity.