Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 October 2025; Swift Current Corps, 21 March 2010 and 30 November 2014; Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 29 July 2007 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay
This is the 2025 version.
To read the 2014 version, click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/11/luke-161-13-sudden-death-overtime-2014.html
To read the 2007 version, click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/08/luke-161-13-sudden-death-overtime.html
I enjoy the Bulldogs games. It is
neat going to see local hockey games. I remember watching the Victoria Cougars
play when I was a kid with my dad and it was always a good time too. When we
lived in Swift Current my older girls and I would often go the Broncos games –
they were great supporters of the Army. Hockey at the local rink can be a lot
of fun. When we were in Toronto… too bad they didn’t have a real hockey team (:
When Rebecca was just born, I used to
listen to hockey every Friday night. I worked almost every other night (and
day, I owned my own business) and Friday night was my night to be home with
Rebecca and clean the house; so I would listen to the junior hockey games on
the radio after I put her to bed as I was doing the dishes and other things
around the home.
I remember this one game. I caught
the 3rd period. The home team had just dominated the game. It was three or even
four to nothing coming into the last minute of play. These players had worked
really hard; completely controlling the game and they started celebrating the
winning of the last game of their season… with one minute left to go. Then the
other team scored. Then again. 30 seconds left. Then again. 10 seconds left. It
was four nothing less than a minute ago – they were celebrating – now they are
up 4-3 with only 5 seconds left and they aren’t so confident – and now there’s
a face-off in their own zone. And you know what happens? The away team scores
with less than a second left to force sudden-death overtime. Our team squanders
their lead and as a result they face sudden death.
If you’ll turn with me back to Luke
Chapter 16, the manager we read about also squanders from his position, and now
he faces sudden death – or sudden unemployment anyway: he is fired.
Jesus tells this parable directly to
his disciples right after he tells the story of the prodigal son which we spoke
about 2 weeks ago. Remember, the point of that parable? What happens when the
son squanders what (the) God (figure) gives him? He is forgiven. The parable of
the prodigal is about God’s forgiveness of the son who squanders everything on
wild (NIV) or dissolute (NRSV) living. As we return to God, He will forgive us
- whatever we have done.
But this parable raises another
question then…can we just keep sinning and it doesn’t matter?[1] If we are
members of God’s family, His household, can we just squander everything on
‘wild living’ and sin, like the son? After all, the father not only forgave him
but he also threw a big party for him. So, why not just keep sinning?
And this is a question that Jesus
answers right away in the next parable:[2] God (the father) in the prodigal
story forgives the one that squanders what he is given but God (the owner) at
the commencement of the manager story does not.
Jesus says, Luke 16:1-2, “There was a
rich man whose manager was accused of SQUANDERING (NRSV) his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘what is
this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot
be manager any longer.' You face sudden death – sudden unemployment.
The prodigal son is forgiven but the
wicked manager is fired. Jesus is right away stopping any thoughts people might
be having that we can just keep sinning when we work for God. If there are any
who think that they can go out and waste everything that God has given us,
Jesus answers us emphatically… No – No – No, He says, give me an account.
The manager is working for (the) God
(figure) in this story –just like the disciples are and just like we are
working for God - and now the manager, he is fired and he never saw this
coming.
Verse 3, he asks: “what shall I do
now… I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m too proud to beg.” He’s being fired for
squandering what God has given him and he probably didn’t see it coming.
Well, how are we doing with what God
has given us? We know, of course, that our jobs, our businesses, car, home,
family, and all the gifts and talents we have really all belong to God and we
are just managing them until Jesus returns; so, how have we been doing with
that?
Are we using them for the Kingdom and
God or are we squandering them on ourselves? At anytime, Jesus will come back.
At anytime the owner will ask us for an account of what we’ve done with his
possessions: are we using them for what he wants us to use them or are we
squandering them on ourselves and on ‘wild living’?
I can think of a time when I was a
pre-teen and I was in the living room when my dad was watching some telethon to
help the needy kids. He was talking to me about it for a while. Trying to
instil in me the values of helping others – or something like that – and then
right when they are asking for money –on purpose – he says, "thanks Mike
for all the help you’ve given me working around the yard this summer"
...and he gives me five bucks... while he’s picking up the telephone. He says,
"now you can spend this on anything you want"…while he
dials…"anything at all…Hello telethon"…and he hands me the
phone…immediately, I’m thinking about giving the telethon $2.50 (or less), but
I know what my father is saying that I should do with this money and I do it.
Are we doing what our Heavenly Father
wants with what He gives us? What are we doing with His money, yes, but also –
can you teach? Are you teaching others about Jesus? Are you organised? Are you
using your administration skills for the Kingdom? Are you a social person? Are
you telling people about Jesus and visiting them when they are sick? All of
this is included in the first question Jesus is addressing with the parable of
the manager but he doesn’t stop there.
Look at Verses 4-7. These are
controversial verses for some scholars but let’s see what we can make of them,
shall we?[3]
The manager says to himself, ‘What
shall I do now? — I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people
will welcome me into their houses.’ “So
he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do
you owe my master?’
“‘Eight hundred gallons of olive
oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your
bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how
much do you owe?’”
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he
replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and
make it eight hundred.’
So do you see what the manager is
doing here? Now this isn’t his money, remember. This is his bosses’, the
master’s [4] – this is the master’s money and the manager’s plan is to give it
away; isn’t this what he got in trouble for in the first place – wasting his
master’s money?! Isn’t that what he was fired for in the first place?
And now he is out on his ear, this is
his idea: he slashes what people owe his master and he makes a lot of friends
in the process. No kidding… can you imagine? And these are not just small
personal loans. This is big business, these amounts, by the way. This isn’t
just a family operation. Can you imagine if the CEO of RBC –faced sudden death,
sudden unemployment- can you imagine if he just got his pink slip and went out
and cancelled everybody’s mortgage or student loans…no kidding people would
like him and offer him jobs. Or like a politician, who looks like he’ll lose an
election, bails out big business or privatizes something, selling it to his
friends. No kidding someone will offer him a job.
So then, what is Jesus saying here?
Is he saying that it is okay to cheat God like the manager cheats the owner?
This is another question inherent to the parable…and look at Verse 8. When all
this happens and the owner potentially loses the equivalent of millions of
dollars in the process, it says “the master commended [praised] the dishonest
manager because he acted shrewdly.” He commended him for wasting his money,
which is what he fired him for in the first place. What?!?
What is Jesus saying? …Is Jesus
saying that we can be tricky and waste God’s possessions? Well…no. And this is
where the first part of this parable comes into play. No, the Bible says you
cannot waste that which God has given you and Jesus is pretty clear about this.
If we can’t be trusted, if we squander what God has given us, we will be fired.
We will lose. It is the same as stopping playing hockey in the last minute. We
will face sudden death overtime and - if we stop playing - we will lose.
Further, if we have any doubts about
this, in Verses 10-12 Jesus is explicit. There is no ambiguity. He says,
“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. So if
you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you
with true riches?
Do you see that? Jesus is saying it
is not the untrustworthiness, the shrewdness, the trickiness that is being
applauded in this parable. It is not the fact that the manager has -without
permission- reduced all these debts for his own personal gain; it is not this
that Jesus is applauding. He says if you are dishonest with a little, you will
be dishonest with a lot. And if you do squander -waste the talents and other
things God gives you- you will not be eternally employed.
So then, if it is not the manager’s
untrustworthiness that is being applauded? Why is the owner happy with the
manager who wastes and squanders his things after he has already been fired for
wasting and squandering his things? Is it that he put profit first? He cut a
deal with big business to get a new job like a corrupt politician about to be
kicked out the door selling off a country’s possessions. The manager doesn’t
want to do any physical work but he still wants to make big bucks. Is this what
the parable is talking about?[5] Is this what is being applauded: planning for
his own financial security?
No. Jesus answers this in Verses 13
and 15. He says emphatically, “No servant can serve two masters. 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 Money.” ...What is highly valued among
men is detestable in God’s sight.” And Jesus goes even further earlier in Luke
when he says (14:33) that one should be willing to give up all one’s
possessions to follow him…
So why does he commend, why does he
praise the manager? What’s he talking about? What is he really talking about?
Jesus makes it clear that he is NOT saying that we should aim for material gain
(v.15) and if we do we are not serving God (v.13) and Jesus makes it clear that
he is not applauding untrustworthiness for he says clearly that those who are
untrustworthy here are not worthy of trust in the Kingdom of God; so what is
Jesus talking about in this parable?
Jesus' point to his disciples in this
parable and Jesus' point to us is this, if even the people of this world (v.
8), who are not even wise enough to secure the ‘true riches’ for themselves
(v.11), if even the people who wickedly squander what they are entrusted with
on themselves, if even the people who don’t use God’s wealth for His purposes
(cf. Luke 12:13-21) – if even the people of this world are wise enough to
prepare for their future when they know it is near (v.8); so should not we, who
have been entrusted with so much more –the knowledge of the Kingdom of God –
should not we be even more wise than they?
In context this makes sense. The
prodigal son comes back. He returns to Father. He comes back to live with God.
Sure he strays but he comes back and, like the son, if we stray we can return.
We are welcome back and the story of the prodigal makes that clear. But don’t
leave it too late.
The story of the manager picks up
where the prodigal son leaves off. The manager did not return to doing what was
right until it was almost too late. He is on his metaphorical deathbed before
he realizes that it is just about too late. He, like the hockey players in our
earlier analogy has stopped playing the game well before it is over and he is
facing the natural and logical consequences.
We need to remember this. If we
assume that we are in God’s employ so we can stop being holy and just start
sinning because it doesn’t really matter then we will find that we are in the
same spot as the manager. We shouldn’t celebrate so much that we stop playing
before the game is over (cf. Lk 12:35-41,41-48), if we do we may find out that
we are not actually on the winning side.
On that note, how are we doing at
managing God’s time, money, and skills that He has given us? How are we doing?
Are we using our gifts for the Kingdom? If we are, this is what the Kingdom
looks like; this is what it is like when we have returned to the father and
when we are trustworthy managers: If our dad gives us five bucks and tells us
to give it to Jerry’s kids, we will give it to Jerry’s kids. If our Father lets
us have a good job with good pay and invites us to give some of that money back
in tithes, offerings or other ways, we will give it back. If He gives us the
skills to teach Sunday school, fix the church; if He nudges us to invite our
friends to church, we will do that and more. When we do this we will avoid
being in the same position as the manager. You see, we have already been
entrusted with the true riches of the Kingdom of God. It is not too late.
The third period’s not over. We can
play the full game, and we can experience the victory with Jesus. We can. No
matter if we’ve already started to squander our lead like the son or the
manager, it is not too late. We can come back. We can come back. We can return
and experience the victory with Jesus, we can. Praise the Lord. Halleluiah.
Let's avoid 'sudden death' and let us build on that lead playing for the Lord
for now and forever.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
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[1] This is one of the questions that is being
answered for his disciples (cf. Lk 8:8-10; Mt 13:10-17; Mk 4:10-12).
[2] This is not the only place where it can be argued
that Jesus answers a parable with a parable. One of Luke’s two references to
the parable `hiding your light under a jar` appears to be part of his
explanation to his disciples of the parable of the Soils (Luke 8).
[3] The scholars varied opinions are around things
such as whether or not the manager was acting honourably or dishonourably here,
whether or not this section is making a comment about the character of God, and
questions about if the manager's untrustworthiness and love of money were
actually rewarded; I argue alongside the majority opinion, based on the larger
context as I address later in this sermon, that it is not these things that are
being rewarded at all.
[4] R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX: Luke, John, 308-309 has
a good discussion of various theories around how the wealth was acquired and
why or why not the manager’s actions here are justifiable. This is a
contentious issue; I don’t think that it need be however. If even the ‘wicked’
are smart enough to prepare for the future in their wicked ways, how much more
should the trustworthy (faithful) (v. 11) prepare for the future and how much
more seriously should we take the true riches (v. 12) with which we have been
entrusted
[5] Some may suggest that we act this way; you’ve
heard the argument that you can only take care of others once you take care of
yourself. What good would we be to the poor, if we were broke ourselves?
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