Okay, right up front, I’m going to tell you that this can be a tricky little parable that we read a few minutes ago. Maybe you noticed that. There a few things that will be helpful to know before we start taking a close look at it.
First, there’s the word mammon. Odd word and not one we use. It had a good run through the Middle Ages and even into the 1800s, but ask people on the street today, and unless they know certain translations of the Bible, they’re not going to know. That may be the same with many of us. It’s a word that often just gets translated money, but it actually means worldly wealth, which can include money and possessions.
Then there’s the word shrewd. It has a negative connotation sometimes, but what it really means is to have this sharp mind, a keen intellect that finds clever ways to achieve a goal. It can be used to do something bad (the dishonest manager) or something very good, which is how Jesus wants us to be.
So, the huge thing to keep in mind about this parable is that what it is applauded by the master and also by Jesus is not the manager’s dishonesty. It’s his cleverness in getting himself out a jam and providing for his future. When Jesus uses him as an example, he’s not talking about the cheating; he’s talking about the shrewdness.
Now we’re set up to think about Jesus’ parable that teaches us a very simple truth that can be really tough for us to apply to our lives:
YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS
The Shrewd Man’s Laser Focus
This manager was in trouble. He had misused and wasted his master’s wealth, and he was about to get fired. He was facing a future with no income, no safety net, no retirement plan. He was totally unprepared to be out of a job and not equipped or trained to do anything else. And there was no way he was getting a letter of recommendation from his employer for his next job!
Minus the dishonesty part, what would you do? You’d have to look at what you had available to you and get creative, right? If you’ve ever lost a job or been without work, you know what this is like. It’s tough and scary and the uncertainty is terrible.
He was feeling that, so he started scheming. He reduced debts people owed his master. But it was a totally selfish move, right? He gives them big discounts to get them to pay off their account. He planned to go to those people when he needed help. Here’s something to notice about that guy—his laser focus. Without hesitation, he used the resources that were still in his control for a short time to secure his future.
And then…Jesus delivers the stinging indictment on us: “For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of the light are.” In other words, worldly people often put more energy and strategy into chasing temporary things than God’s children put into pursuing eternal treasures and using what they have to share the gospel so that others will come to know their Savior.
You can learn from the dishonest manager focus, drive, and resourcefulness. You don’t admire the dishonesty, but you do admire his urgency and creativity. Do you and I show the same urgency about eternal things? Or do we sometimes live selfishly, thinking primarily of our happiness instead of pleasing God with the money and things he gives us to help others to come to know the Parable Teller?
The Christian’s Kingdom Focus
Attention turns from the manager to us when Jesus says: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings.” The dishonest manager used resources to secure a future in this world. God’s people are to use their earthly resources—money and things in ways that serve the kingdom of God.
Jesus is saying: spend your earthly wealth on eternal investments—missions, churches, Bibles, charity in Christ’s name so that when you arrive in glory, there will be people there who say, “Because of you and your generosity, I heard about Jesus.”
In heaven, someone may tap you on the shoulder and say, “We’ve never met, but you gave an offering that sent a missionary to my village. I’m here because of that.”
Someone else may come up to you and say, “I want to thank you. You faithfully gave offerings to your church—and yours was the church that shared Jesus with me and other college students. That’s why I’m here. ”
Someone else could say, “Do you remember when you gave me rides to church when I was new? That’s why I’m here.”
That’s what Jesus is talking about when he says. make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. Use your things like your car, or like making dinner for someone or whatever shrewd (in a good way) use you can make of your stuff to reach people who don’t know God. And use your wealth give offerings the way God says he expects: joyful, generous, regular, proportionate. So that we can bring the gospel to people who don’t know their Savior. That’s using earthly stuff—unrighteous mammon for the kingdom of God.
A man once said, “I finally figured out how to get rich quick just buy lottery tickets until you win!” That’s not a strategy—and a terrible idea—and wishful thinking. We laugh because it’s absurd to make the lottery your plan to survive and thrive.
Something like this happens a lot and maybe you’re guilty of it. Christians approach stewardship that way—no plan or strategy, maybe no giving at all, just thinking that somehow the church will just be taken care of and always be there…and pastors will just magically be supported so that they’re always there to preach and counsel them and visit them in the hospital and all the other things they do to serve them…and that missions will somehow get funded.
We can do better. Jesus calls us to do better. If worldly people show such focus and zeal in chasing things that fade away, shouldn’t God’s people show even more focus and zeal in living for him and people who need to know him?
The Master We Serve
Jesus ends the parable with some other words that might hit our hearts hard: “No servant can serve two masters. For 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 mammon.”
No one can serve two masters.
Our sinful nature tries to make us think that this is the balance: “I’ll serve God on Sundays and serve mammon the rest of the week.” “I’ll live almost entirely for myself, but give God a little bit in my offering.” Jesus says it doesn’t work that way. Sooner or later, there is one master who will win your heart.
If mammon—money, wealth, possessions—is your master, then you will serve it. You will sacrifice time, relationships, even your integrity to gain it. You’ll bring God out when you need him, but he will largely be set aside. After all, you’re busy with money and things. And in the end, those things cannot save you.
Can you imagine you spend your life living for all the things and travel and experiences and saving and you neglect what God is telling you he wants? What an absolute waste of your life…and a lack of love for your Savior…and a lack of faith in him…and a complete disregard for God’s kingdom. Keep that up and I probably don’t have to tell you how that turns out, because you’ve made worldly things your master— and God says if that’s the case, he is not your Master.
But if God is your Master, then everything else falls into its proper place. Money becomes a tool, not a tyrant. Wealth becomes your servant, and not your god. Then you’re living your life with an eternal purpose as you invest in God’s kingdom. You may even become quite shrewd! You might figure out interesting and inventive ways of using worldly wealth and stuff to further God’s kingdom, to bring people to see Jesus as their Savior, to gather disciples who will welcome you in heaven! They’ll be there to do that because you loved God…and you paid attention to what he said…and you did what he said as a tribute to his grace and blessings to you.
To be very real with you, we seem to be having some trouble with this lately. It seems that we may not be doing great at being faithful and shrewd with what we have to share Jesus. One way a pastor can tell is when offerings aren’t supporting the ministry we all planned and said we’d support. I don’t like telling you that we’ve hit one of those times. It would be good for each of us to take a close look at for ourselves this week.
Here’s the truth: YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS. When it comes to your use of wealth and possessions, if you are not serving God with them, you know that you are serving those things themselves instead. Not a good place to be spiritually.
I wonder if this caught your attention: the manager didn’t argue with the owner of the business! He knew he should lose his job! He had to admit that he mismanaged and wasted money. His solution to the problem was more sketchy behavior.
Are you seeing a parallel here? We aren’t going to argue with the Creator and Owner of everything in the world, right? Don’t we have to admit that none of us has perfectly managed all that God has given us. This sounds like a joke, but it’s not:
What’s the difference between a dishonest manager who’s losing his job and a person who is unfaithful in managing what God has entrusted to them?
The type of firing.
It’s one thing to get fired and lose your job, it’s another to lose your eternal life to the fires of hell.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking I am overplaying this or that you don’t need to take this seriously; mismanagement of what God has given you can get you fired because you didn’t listen you didn’t care and you didn’t use the stuff he gave you to help others end up in heaven.
The manager’s hope was in his shrewd dealings and the financial future he could finagle through friends he essentially bought. Our hope is not in doing all the right things. Good thing it isn’t, right?! The beauty is that no matter how much we may have messed this up, it doesn’t take our shrewdness to handle the debt we owe God.
Jesus handled that. He paid the debt. He took what you owed and what I owed and put it all on the cross with him. The Father didn’t look down at Jesus dying for us and say, “Shrewd move, Son.” There was nothing clever about the cross. It was pretty straightforward: Jesus marched there with the riches of his perfection and laid them down with his life. For you and for me and for a world that needs his love.
So, we’re back around to it. Be shrewd with your mammon or use your money and use your stuff to share Christ because you’re grateful for his forgiveness, and you want people to go to heaven
Well, the parable might not be that tricky after all. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.