Jesus, The One Who Did Not Waste His Life

I’m going to talk about Christian stewardship today by looking at the teaching of one who gave all he was – his very lifeblood – in order to bring about our salvation. He thought this was good stewardship! It’s a rather amazing thought, isn’t it? And, the teaching we look at takes place as Jesus heads toward a cross where he intentionally and knowingly will make this gift. He tells a story that has forever changed the way God’s people have looked at giving and I pray God will use it in our lives this weekend.

Jesus’ teaching deepened the idea of stewardship that previously been found in the Old Testament. Jesus teaches that good stewardship is a way of life. In the OT, God gave his people rules directing their material giving. We usually call those regulations “tithing”. Many people think the Israelites gave 10% to God. But, in reality, much more was required than 10%. In fact, there were three tithes in ancient Israel:

1. Tithe to God ‑‑ In Leviticus 27, 10% is to be set apart to support the priesthood, the Levities, who had no land inheritance given to them by God. In other religions, priests had to be beggars (e.g., Buddhists today). But not the priests of Jehovah.

2. Tithe for spiritual and community life ‑‑ In the Deuteronomy 14, God's people were to give so the work of the temple and synagogue could be done by those set aside for that work. This was like our church's operational and ministry costs.

3. Tithe to the poor – Also in Deut. 14, every third year, yet another tithe was to be given to help the orphans, widows, and aliens. (Similar to our Benevolence Offering.)

Jesus reaffirmed the call to tithe in Luke 11 as something people should do. However, Jesus introduced a much deeper and more meaningful approach to giving. Jesus taught that our motivation to give should be our love of God and our desire to further His work. One of the most concise places to find Jesus’ teaching is in a parable he told in Luke 16. I find it significant that Jesus taught us about material giving as he went to the cross to give his physical life to bring about our eternal salvation. This was Jesus’ ultimate act of stewardship: the giving of his physical life for our eternal souls. The story he told has often been thought of as a rather strange parable. Most seem to ignore it. But when we remember that Jesus is teaching about giving on the way to the cross, then the key to this story is opened up a bit. From that parable, we get a razor-sharp view of Jesus’ perspective on all the resources of this world ‑‑ be they time, talents, or money.

Overarching Message: For a Christian, faithful and sacrificial giving is to be a way of life patterned after the life of Jesus. Christian giving flows directly from the “greatest commandment,” i.e., our love for God.

As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8:9, For you know the gracious giving of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

The Parable’s Meaning (Luke 16:1‑8a)

What Jesus did in Luke 16:1-13 was first to tell a story about a rich man and his shrewd manager (through verse 8a). He then followed the story up with four points of application. So, what we have here is Jesus delivering a sermon on giving. The parable itself has often been misunderstood because many make the mistake of saying the rich man represents God. If we do that, we are shocked that God seems to praise the steward for his dishonesty. But that isn't the point at all, as I hope to show you.

Some understanding of commercial and business practices of 1st C Palestine will help us. Jews were not supposed to take interest from fellow‑Jews when they loaned money so the economic system was very, very different from our own. But many of the Jewish merchants and businessmen weaseled around this by requiring loan payments in commodities such as wheat and oil. You see it, don’t you? They tried to ignore their own laws by saying “money” was not technically involved in the transaction. So, they argued that they could loan out 60 bushels of grain and collect 100 from the borrowers and stay within the letter of the law.

Now, a steward was one who was involved in running the owner's business affairs. He would administrate the transactions and make sure the owner made some profit. For his own compensation, the steward usually tacked on a surcharge as his own commission – sometimes an exorbitant surcharge. Apparently, sometimes stewards became quite wealthy at the expense of the poor.

In Jesus' parable, the steward is found to be dishonest (according to v. 8) for some reason by the master, and is told to finish his work and clean out his desk. So the man has to make some decisions. If he collects exorbitant interest from the debtors, he will not only be rejected by the master, but also by the people. He would, of course, have the last of the money coming from the surcharge he collected. But that would be it. When that money was gone, the steward would have been on his own: with no friends, no place to sleep, and no people to support him.

On the other hand, if he knocks off some or all of the interest charges, he would have less money for himself but he might have people grateful to him -- people who might stand with him when he is out of work. The choice he faced: Would he take as much money as he could at the moment or would he do something to make friends who would stand with him when his money was gone?

He decides to do the latter. In the story, Jesus wasn’t pretending this man was honest. No, Jesus wanted us to envision a man who has no idea about God’s values. This man had no interest in God – only in himself. The steward only had the ability to make a decision between two temporary things (in his understanding of the world). So, he could not make a truly informed decision because he had a limited worldview. But, given that limitation, he made a shrewd decision. The man gave up some money to make friends. In verse 8 the rich man commended him, not because of his dishonesty, but because in his last act as a manager, he was right in seeing the relative value of relationships over money.

The Story’s Point:

Any sensible person, even the one dead to God, should be able to see that it is wise to use more-temporary resources (e.g., material things) of this world to strengthen more-lasting resources (e.g., friends).

The Parable’s Application

Lesson 1: Invest for the longer-haul – not in immediate gratification (16:8b-9a)

The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves… (16:8-9a).

In v. 8, Jesus gives the most direct application of the parable. Jesus says that even those in darkness, "the people of this world" are wise enough to know that things like grain, oil, and money will not last. At the same time, He indicates that the "people of the light," believers, often live as if we have never come to grips with this self-evident truth and, by implication, that a lot of his followers had not! What Jesus is getting at is that when we come to faith in Jesus, we come to life to eternal things. We know that this world and its “stuff” won't last. And, we know that there is an eternity to be gained. Yet, so often, knowing those things, we who are alive to God seem to focus our lives on temporary things.

So, Jesus’ first application is one anyone should be able to grasp – it’s just good common sense. People are always drawn toward wanting to have something “right now” – without thought about lasting consequences. In our own world, people still have the strong tug toward wanting something right now. That’s what a consumers’ society is always about – making us feel we cannot be happy unless we have a certain fashion, or drive a certain car, or get a certain piece of jewelry – and then providing opportunities to go into debt by borrowing or through credit cards. I’m sure we all need to listen carefully to Jesus’ first application of his parable.

Jesus is saying, “Look. Even pagans who have no idea about eternal things — and don’t grasp the eternal value of each human being made in God’s image — and who live for themselves, etc. etc. -- sometimes seem to make better decisions than you do as my followers.

Of course, we miss Jesus’ point if we simply apply the parable by saying, “Now you go out and do as the steward did.” We’ll see in just a moment that Jesus wants us to know that God might call on us to give our physical lives — or anything else — to bring about eternal things. But this first lesson is clear:

The Lesson Restated: Good stewardship is using what doesn’t last long to bring about what lasts longer.

Question #1: Will I resist the “spirit of our age that pushes me toward immediate gratification? Will I pray daily about how temporary resources might be given or used in the most effective ways?

Lesson 2: Invest the way Jesus did, i.e., in people (16:9).

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings (16:9).

In Jesus' second point, the striking element is that He calls wealth "unrighteous." (NIV "worldly wealth” is literally "unrighteous mammon”.) This phrase could mean one of two things:

1) That all wealth is evil, or

2) That there is usually an element of unrighteousness (something that is “bent”) in the wealth of this world.

The second option is unquestionably preferable because in the parable as well as in the command in verse 9, wealth can be used positively. It can even be used, according to Jesus, to "gain friends”. However, in our world, wealth often becomes the object of our love and takes the place of God (see vv.13‑14). The drive to have wealth can tempt us to give up our Christian priorities such as neglecting our families and friends. Even if we get a lot of wealth, we may find it does satisfy for a while but still has an allure that makes us think wrongly, “If only I had a little more…” Then, throughout history, we see stories of people who, trying to fill a void, buy more and more stuff, spend more and more on leisure, and often are left financially trapped – and still empty.

Jesus called wealth "unrighteous mammon". It’s weighty language. We need to know our weakness, i.e., that most human beings have a tendency to like to build our own kingdoms rather than God's. We tend to consume what has been entrusted to us on our own pleasures rather than investing in eternity.

"Don't let that happen!" Jesus commands. "Use the resources of this world for righteous and eternal ends. Use it to make friends who will meet you in heaven." Jesus invested his life in us! It’s mind-boggling for me to realize that he said this is wise stewardship of his life. And, he will have joy as we have the privilege of being with him in heaven. On the way to the cross to do this, he taught us this invaluable lesson. In other words, use your time, talents and treasure to build relationships, to reach the lost, to care for those who are poor and hurting... The applications of this are unending: time invested in mentoring kids in our community so they can stay off the streets and out of gangs… is time well invested. Talents invested in teaching or encouraging in church or in prison or anywhere… is talent well invested. Money invested in sending people to proclaim the gospel or to rescue people from trafficking… is money well invested.

The Lesson Restated: Use what is has been entrusted to you to further what is important to God in the world, i.e., those made in his image.

Question #2: How much of my time, talents and treasure am I intentionally investing in the souls and lives of people?

Lesson 3: Make Wise Stewardship a Way of Life (16:10‑12)

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much… (16:10ff).

In his third application, Jesus declared that stewardship of what God has entrusted to us is not just a one-time decision to give something made out of an emotional response to a sermon or a moment of guilt. The kind of stewardship that God has demonstrated and that Jesus advocated is a way of life. His words could not be clearer: What we do with little will reveal what we would with much. This point makes Jesus’ lesson applicable to each of us here today. If we have little money or time and use them foolishly, why should we think we would do things differently if God entrusted more to us? Christian stewardship is a way of life; not a one time exception to our usual way of life. This is why we should teach our children early about giving as Jesus gave. This is why we should begin today to imbed a life of wise stewardship into our decision-making (even if we have little).

How many times have I heard something like this: If only I would win the lottery, I would give a lot to the church or to the poor or… What is Jesus saying to us about that? As I have traveled to many places in my life, I have often discovered that the most generous people are those who seem to have little. And, those happiest in their giving are often those who have little. The starting point for all this is the theme we have be reinforcing throughout this series, i.e., all of our time, talents, and treasures are gifts from God given to us to steward. They are not rights but gifts of grace. Our perspective, therefore, should never be: how much of my resources should I give to God. Instead, a Christian perspective is: How would God have me use the resources He has entrusted to me?

In v. 11, Jesus lets us know that many of us miss abundant blessings, both spiritually and financially, because we fail to be wise stewards of what we have now. God cannot trust us with more because we handle the little we have so poorly. We are His stewards. Are you wise or foolish in how you use day-by-day your time, treasures and talents?

Lesson Restated: Good stewardship is no accident. It is an intentional, prayer-filled way of life.

Question #3: Am I careful on a daily basis about my use of all God has given me? Is wise stewardship my way of life?

Lesson 4: Be guided by your love for God -- more than for anyone/anything in this world (16:13).

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (16:13).

Jesus' final point teaches what many of us have learned through experience, i.e.: Wealth commonly enslaves its possessor and becomes the god of its possessor's life. In v. 13, Jesus goes to the heart of the matter, i.e., the first command. Is God first? Do you love God more than you love anything he might give you? If God called you today to sell everything to give up possessions to go to the mission field, would you do it? Could you do it? Even if you feel a tug to support some part of God’s work in the church or community, is it your desire to say, “Yes, Lord. If that is what you want, here it is!” Most of us are so bound by our retirement plans, our house payments, and our fiscal responsibilities that, even if we were willing, it would take ages to obey. When that is true, Jesus' words have hit home.

It may be that poor decisions in the past have gotten you into a financial mess. Or, it may be that injustices and evils in this world have hit you – as they did so many believers in Jesus’ day too. Many of the early church members were trapped by slavery. God knows your situation. And, the church has always been a place to begin to find help. We want to be that for you here too. We will be providing training in stewardship beginning Thursdays, March 1 – 8 weeks of training that will provide counsel for financial distress for those who desire it and instruction for good stewardship for you whether you have much or little.

Let me stop here with this point: It’s possible to read Jesus’ parable in Luke 16 and say, “Well, I’m smart enough to use what doesn’t last long to bring about what lasts longer. I invest in my education – or my child’s. That lasts longer. I’m OK.” But Jesus is saying much more than that, isn’t he. He’s saying that even the unbeliever should be wise enough to do that! Even an unjust steward should know that! We who know and love God – who are alive to God – should invest all we are and have in ways that honor God. Each day we should wake up saying, “Lord, all I am and have is from you. You gave your all for me. Now, how would you have me spend my time today? How would you have me support your work today? How would you have me show the world your love today?

The Lesson Restated: Wise giving ultimately is a matter of our first love. Jesus says, “God first or else something else will be your god.”

Question #4: Is God my God or has something else in this world taken his place?

For you know the gracious giving of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

To His glory alone,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor

Don't Waste Your Life - Week 4 - Study Notes

Jesus, The One Who Did Not Waste His Life