Sermon on the Parable of the Wasteful Manager
Text: Luke 16:1-13
I’ve got to admit, this parable is uncomfortable in many ways. Whenever I read it the first time I get the itch of thinking, is Jesus really asking us to be dishonest with money? What’s going on here, why does the rich man want to get rid of the manager and then turn around and say he’s been shrewd?
The biggest question though is simply, how does this impact us here?
So, we’re just going to walk through it, there’s no other real way to figure it out.
So, there’s a rich man with a manager. Since money is mentioned the image I get in my head at first is a bank CEO or financial CEO and one of the bankers or financial managers. But, those things don’t exist in Jesus’ time. What we have is a rich man, probably a roman, and probably does not even live in the Galilee region. He lives in Ceasarea, the Roman capitol on the coast where all the other rich people live, and he owns a whole bunch of farm land in Galilee which he allows the poor farmers there to farm for a fee, specifically a bunch of their harvest. Not a percentage, a set amount. If they harvest a lot, they still pay the same, if they harvest a little, they’d better be able to get enough to pay the full amount, or someone else will be farming that field the next season. And since he lives on the coast, he doesn’t really care about how it all works as long as he gets his profits. And that’s why he’s hired this manager. This manager settles the contracts and collects the proceeds for the rich man. And he adds some more on top for himself. So, you can imagine what the poor farmers think of him. Well, they probably hate his guts, and he probably doesn’t think about them at all, he only cares about getting money out of them and getting it to the rich man so maybe he can at some point become part of the rich man society. At the beginning of the parable, the manager only cares what the rich man thinks of him, not what the poor think of him.
Then something happens, the rich man hears that the manager is doing something. Our translation says charges were brought against him that he was squandering the money. Charges here do not mean legal charges, the word means more closer to slander. Someone came and told lies or exaggerations about the manager that he was being wasteful. And then what does wasteful mean? In our return on investment culture we think it means he’s not investing the money right to get the largest profits. But, there’s no investment going on, it’s charging the poor people, the rich man is instead incensed because the manager is not wringing the farmers dry enough for his liking. Why is he not taking even more from them? Maybe it was a good year, why didn’t he break the contract and demand more from them. Or maybe it was a bad year, why didn’t he demand they pay their part instead of giving them some kind of break. We don’t know. All we know is that he is suddenly on the bad side of the rich man.
Here’s the literal turning point of the parable. We remember that the last few weeks of teachings from Jesus have all been about turnings. Don’t invite the rich and wealthy but invite the poor on the streets. Parables of going from lost to found, forgiveness at the core, the parable directly proceeding this one is the story of the prodigal son. Where a son disowns his father, asks for his inheritance before his dad is even dead, and heads out, wastes it (same word as how the manager was wasteful by the way), a famine comes and he decides maybe he could be a servant or slave in his fathers house, and yet his Father runs to welcome him back home. All the texts are about how God is different than we think, and how God seeks for us to repent and change. To start seeing the world through God’s eyes. To care how God cares, not how the world cares.
The shift happens when the manager is told he will not be in charge of the work anymore. He then understands that the rich man never cared for him, he did not matter one iota to the rich man, all the rich man cared about was the money, not the people.
And he changes. He sees that what he needs to do is care about people, not money. So, he does some things. It’s honestly hard to tell if he is actually being dishonest here when he shifts accounts. He tells the poor farmers, reduce what you owe, from 100 make it 50, from 100 make it 80. Is he therefore reducing what the rich man will get? Or is he taking the amount he increased it for himself off? Not quite sure. But, the effect for the poor is sure. They in one moment get a 20% increase and a 50% increase in what they get to keep for themselves. That could be the difference between destitute and comfortable. It changes their lives.
So, what do we get out of this. Jesus ends with You cannot serve God and wealth.
Is money bad then? Are all rich people doomed and evil?
I don’t believe so. It’s not the money that’s the issue, it’s whether you serve it or not. Is money more important to you than people. Do you treat money as useful for people? Or people useful for money? Is money a tool to help those God loves or are you a tool to money?
I’m getting to the age where I am starting to think I need to look more into my retirement stuffs. To this point I get a letter about my pension fund and retirement savings info and I take it look at it and go, neato, that’s cool, and throw it in my file drawer. One of the other pastors at text study is in his 60’s and so really, really looking at this and he was wondering. Is that serving money though? Is putting money in retirement, or Roth IRA’s is that all serving money versus serving God? We could take that same money and give it away couldn’t we? But, what happens when we get to the point of not being able to work? Will be able to make impact to those in need like we could? Could we support ourselves like we would want to? At one point there was no pastor pension plan. And you would end up with pastor’s at the end of their ministry being pretty much destitute, to the point that the ELCA when it formed created a special fund to support pastors like that.
I think the key to all to all of this is to see where our cares lie. It’s not about whether you have money or not, it’s about how you focus. Do you focus on the money and yourself? Or do you focus on God and all of God’s beloved children?
Yes, you should work to make sure that you are financially secure, for yourself and your family, but you do so for the needs of those around us. That doesn’t mean just giving those poorer than you money, it’s doing thinks like making sure people that may work for you have good living wages, it means not creating dishonest contracts with others, it’s not cheating or slandering others to get your way with them. It’s all using your wealth to further how you serve God.
The goal of all life, wealth included, is to try to be as close to God and Jesus as we can. To live our lives as close to how Christ lived his. Which he did by going to death for us, by telling each and everyone of you, you matter, who you are is important, you are useful.
May we always know that, may we live life with the knowledge that we have a God who loves us so much, so truly values who we are, who knows who we are and says, you are good. May we know that, and live like that. Amen.
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