The text for this meditation is our Gospel reading is written in the 16th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 13. (King James Version.)
He also said to His
disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a
steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his
goods.” So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give
an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' "Then
the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the
stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 'I have resolved
what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into
their houses.' "So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and
said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'
So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much
do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him,
'Take your bill, and write eighty.'
"So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt
shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than
the sons of light. "And I say to
you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail,
they may receive you into an everlasting home.
"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and
he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. "Therefore if
you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your
trust the true riches? "And if you
have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your
own? "No servant can serve two
masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be
loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
If we were to take an inventory of the things we have in our home, we
would find things of various levels of value. At the bottom of the scale there
would be things of no value at all, things we would immediately decide to throw
away. Then there would be things we would decide to keep because we might find
them useful someday, but we probably wouldn’t miss them if we were deprived of
them. There would be things we would not want to lose, things we use, things
that are valuable to us but which we could replace. Then finally at the top of
the scale there would be the things that we value most highly, things we would
most hate to lose, things we could not replace.
Whilst it is useful for us to take such an inventory, it is even more
useful and important to include in such an inventory our spiritual possessions. We
need to remind ourselves that what we have consists of more than a house, a
car, stocks, bonds, or a bank balance. We have blessings from the Lord that are
immeasurable and eternal.
On the basis of what the Lord says in our text, It is just this kind of
inventory and appraisal of the things we have, that He encourages us to make. Jesus
is instructing us to properly judge the value of what we have; that is to learn
what is most valuable and what is less valuable.
It is this spiritual understanding that keeps our sinful human nature in
an ongoing battle with the temptation to make earthly abundance our god. It is
against this temptation that the Lord warns us in the last verse of our text:
“We cannot serve God and mammon.” It isn’t that we should despise the material
things that we have. It isn’t that we should treat them as if they were of no
value at all. For the material things that we have are gifts of God. The
employment that we have whereby we earn our daily bread is a gift of God. The
roof over our head that shelters us from heat and cold and rain, the car that
provides us with transportation, the food that we eat that provides nourishment
to sustain our body and life--all these things, and many more, are gifts of
God, for which we ought to give thanks. We also ask our Lord for these things;
He Himself taught us to pray for them in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” It
would be ungrateful of us and sinful to despise these things and treat them as
worthless.
The Lord teaches us the lesser value of material blessings so that we do
not abuse them by setting our heart on them and by making them our god. When we
set our heart on material things and place our trust in them we are treating
those things as if they were above God. God wants us to set our heart on Him in
good times and bad, whether we are rich or poor and ask of Him the best that He
has to give.
In our text, Jesus is also teaching us to make that which is less
valuable serve what is most valuable, and then, knowing the comparative value
of material gifts and spiritual gifts we are to use the lesser gifts to serve
the greater ones. This is the lesson of the parable of the Unjust Steward. This
is one of the strangest and most striking of the parables of Jesus. It is
strange because in it He teaches a positive lesson by pointing us to a man who
is dishonest.
He was a steward, with the delegated authority to manage his master’s
wealth. It was common for rich men to be illiterate and therefore ignorant in
the ways of management, and so, as in this case, they handed over full power of
attorney to a Steward or ‘Business Manager’ – undoubtedly to be a Steward one
held a position of trust and integrity. This particular Steward was accused of
wasting and squandering his master’s wealth and of course when the master learned
of his conduct he gave him an immediate dismissal notice - he was about to be
out of a job. Suddenly finding himself in this position, the man shrewdly
lowered the debts of the master’s debtors, thereby putting them in his debt, so
that they would help him out when he lost his position as steward. It was quick
thinking on his part. He was just about to lose his position, so in the
blinking of an eye, he allowed his masters debtors to illegally cheat the
master by reducing the amount on their bill. He had it over them, they would
have to support him when he was out of a job. Even the master himself had to
hand it to the rascal that he was a shrewd one.
Jesus encourages us to do just this. It doesn’t matter how much we have.
What matters is how we use it. What can I do with my money, during this short
time I am on this earth, to gain eternal friends? What can I do, to help
someone else find out about the greatest donation ever made?
Many years ago a woman was preparing a box to be sent to some missionaries in Asia. A child gave her ten cents, which she used to purchase a Christian tract for the box. Eventually, this tract reached a Burmese chief and was used to lead him to a saving faith in Christ. That chief told the story of his conversion to his friends, many of whom believed. Eventually, a church was established there, and over 1500 people were baptised into Christ’s fellowship of believers, His Christian church on earth. No gift is too small for God to use.
Many years ago a woman was preparing a box to be sent to some missionaries in Asia. A child gave her ten cents, which she used to purchase a Christian tract for the box. Eventually, this tract reached a Burmese chief and was used to lead him to a saving faith in Christ. That chief told the story of his conversion to his friends, many of whom believed. Eventually, a church was established there, and over 1500 people were baptised into Christ’s fellowship of believers, His Christian church on earth. No gift is too small for God to use.
Friends, please be sure here,
Jesus doesn’t say that we are able to buy a place in heaven with our offerings.
No, Jesus bought that place for us in His shameful and innocent death on a
cross and in His glorious resurrection; our gift of forgiveness and eternal
life is a demonstration of God’s incomprehensible gift of grace for us and for
all. He only calls us to respond to His grace with free-will offerings and
service, that we will surely receive blessings and reward beyond measure when
His will be done freely from a thankful heart.
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