C, Post-Pentecost 15, Proper 20 - Luke 16:1-13 "Management Mastery"
Luke 16:1–2 (ESV) Jesus 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 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.’”
We hear about mismanagement every day. We experience
mismanagement in every facet of life. We see mismanagement occurring everywhere
around us.
Fraudsters seem to have their fingers in every pie these
days—Internet scams, overpricing, double-dipping, half-truths, con artists
painting false pictures of the real situation, and political pork-barrelling to
get votes and seize power.
We only have to look at our roads, the debt governments
have incurred, and the increasing profits of multinational companies,
executives, and politicians. We don’t have to look too hard to hear, see, and
experience mismanagement in the Western world.
Managers not managing to manage!
Occasionally, we have the power to remove managers from
their positions—at the polls, through motions of no confidence at meetings, or
via legal proceedings. Despite this, there still seems to be a golden handshake
for those who’ve mismanaged their responsibilities. So, in the scheme of it
all, there’s a growing sense of helplessness in our society as “the rich get richer,
and the poor get the picture.”
Today and next week, we hear about two rich men from Luke
chapter sixteen. Today, the rich man is the master who removes his manager from
management. Next week, we will hear about the rich man and Lazarus, who die and
stand accountable before God.
So, I put this question to you: “What is being rich?” Or,
“How much does one need to have to be considered wealthy?” “Do you consider
yourself to be a rich person, a person of wealth?” In my experience, most
people look to someone else who is rich—or richer than them. Often, we think of
wealth in monetary terms or in one’s number of possessions.
Although we might consider someone else richer or wealthier
than ourselves, that doesn’t necessarily mean we see ourselves as poor. This
says much about the reality of our riches and how proud we have become of our
wealth and possessions.
But whose possessions are they? We only need to be reminded
of the rich fool and Jesus’ warning to us: “Take
care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not
consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15 ESV)
I don’t believe anyone would enjoy hearing God say to you,
“Fool! This night your soul is required
of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Jesus
concludes, “So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20–21 ESV)
This rich fool mismanaged the possessions and life given to
him. And when God required him to return the management of his life, he was
found foolishly short in being rich toward God.
In the parable before us today, the manager is not the rich
man, but only the manager of his master’s riches.
The master says, “What
is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you
can no longer be manager.” (Luke 16:2 ESV)
Just as we hear, see, and experience mismanagement by those
called to manage our society today, the master’s attention is turned to the
mismanagement of his dishonest manager in the parable. The master is about to
end his management.
Although the manager may not have thought of himself as
wealthy, he feared losing the management of his master’s wealth and becoming
poor. Like the rich fool who did not recognize he only managed the riches of a
greater master, the manager was about to lose his life and the riches of his
master.
Humanity, from the beginning until now, has been called to
manage the common wealth of God given to us in His creation. It’s always easy
for us to see and point out the potholes in others’ mismanagement. But every
one of us will be called upon to turn in our management and give an account.
How have you managed the riches God has given you?
In the parable, the dishonest manager takes the bill of one
debtor and cuts it in half. For another, he reduces the debt so that only
eighty percent needs repaying. And when Jesus tells us the master commends the
dishonest manager for doing this, it’s easy for us to see the injustice and
question: How can this be? Does the manager have the right to cut the master’s
debt when one hundred percent should be paid back? It’s understandable that our
sense of righteousness kicks in over the seeming injustice of the master’s
commendation and the dishonest manager’s continued mismanagement.
Again, we can ask ourselves: “How have I managed the riches and wealth that God has given me?”
These are not just the riches of money and possessions, but
the wealth of our time and our freedom too. Then there are the riches of
ourselves—our talents, our relationships, our communications, our sexuality,
our desires, and our deeds. Each of us can measure our management of God’s
gifts by looking within to see where the glory of our management is going!
Going by our own sense of justice, shocked by the parable
of the dishonest manager, one hundred percent should be given back to God for
all the things we’ve mismanaged. That means every mismanaged feeling, desire,
interaction with others, false witness, lustful glance, hateful thought, misuse
of authority, and failure to submit to authority, requires one hundred percent
repayment.
When God recalls your management at the end of this life,
He requires an account. And by our own judgment, fifty or eighty percent
repayment is not good enough. The debt of mismanagement must be repaid one
hundred percent.
We feel the sting of our own justice bite us when we begin
to contemplate the truth of our management. The reality that the removal of our
management occurs in death is enough to grab our full attention. But having to
give account of our management on judgement day, to receive a room in the house
of God causes all to cry out over our mismanagement: “What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.” (Luke 16:3 ESV)
More so, digging or begging our way out of death and judgement is not possible
either!
Unlike the dishonest manager who used unrighteous wealth to
make friends and be welcomed into their houses, we can also use the righteous
riches of God to receive others into his kingdom. We can cut the bill of others
by forgiving them their sins. We can take what they owe and clear their debt.
“Clear their debt! How can this be?” you say! The manager
in the parable only dropped the debt to eighty or fifty percent—not one hundred
percent! However, Jesus tells us to pray, “Forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12 ESV)
Jesus one hundred percent forgives you your sin as you’re called to forgive
other people one hundred percent of theirs.
Again, the sting of our own justice returns to bite us—or
better still, the reality of our own dishonest and unrighteous management haunts
us. Only having to be half-hearted or fifty percent repentant, or eighty
percent forgiving, now sounds not too bad when it is our mismanagement of
richness toward God at issue!
The gospel in this parable is not immediately apparent,
even though the master commends the dishonest manager. Therefore, the good news
for us is that Jesus takes our dishonest management and manages it in the
richness of God’s debt removal at the cross. Not fifty percent, not eighty
percent—but your management is one hundred percent shrewdly forgiven, despite
it being recalled in death.
God the Father commends Jesus as the shrewd manager of your
salvation and mine. You and I are received into the rooms of God’s eternal
house—one hundred percent guaranteed—only because of Jesus. Our efforts are
dishonest at best. Yet trusting in Jesus is the shrewdest thing any human can
ever do.
While we are called here to manage God’s riches, we
continually cry out to God in our mismanagement: “Forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me!”
If God the Father is great enough to forgive your debt
through the shrewdness of Jesus Christ at the cross, and the Holy Spirit rests
upon us as He did on Jesus, trust that the Holy Spirit is working the riches of
God’s wealth within the forgiven management of yourself—your talents, your
time, and your possessions—given by God, for you to shrewdly glorify him, repenting
of sin, forgiving others, and shrewdly managing the daily existence he has
given, as you wait for him to end this management. Amen.
