The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

The Incentive

Though Jesus has presented His solution in clear, unmistakable terms, the lesson is by no means over. A problem still remains, and it is arguably a tougher to solve than the first, because, while the solution Jesus has given us sounds all well and good in theory, its practice is an entirely different matter. To use our worldly resources to provide for others is costly. It is a sacrifice. It is taking those things which we naturally see as being ours, and giving them away to others - maybe even to others we do not especially like. This problem leads to the unfortunate reality that most of us, while we might agree with Jesus’ call to serve those in need, fail to put it into practice in any meaningful and lasting way.

Jesus, of course, was well away that this would be the case, and so in the next few verses He gives us our incentive for engaging in this sacrificial lifestyle. In a series of contrasts, He compares our worldly resources with those we will receive if we follow His solution. “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? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” (Luke 16:10-12)

Note the contrasts here: on the one hand we have what is called, ‘very little’, ‘unrighteous wealth’ and ‘that which is another’s’. ‘Unrighteous wealth’, as we’ve seen, is the term used to describe our worldly resources - the stuff we are supposed be using for the benefit of others and thus for our eternal future. And regardless of how great or small your resources might be, Jesus calls them ‘very little’. Not only that, but they are ‘another’s’ - our worldly resources do not even belong to us!

Take a house for example. You might have bought yourself a house and even paid off your mortgage so that, legally, on paper, that house fully belongs to you. But in reality this is merely an illusion of ownership. Unless it was a new build, it belonged to someone else before you bought it. And, unless it falls down first, that house will belong to someone else after you. No matter what you do, you cannot own that house forever. You no more own it  than you might own a hotel room you happen to stay in for the night.

Even the little things we do not own. Skills we develop will eventually fade. Money we save will eventually run out or pass on to someone else. Even something as simple as a slice of cake is not your own, because either it will spoil in time or it will be eaten, at which point it ceases to be yours - you really cannot have your cake and eat it. There is nothing we can claim in this world as truly our own. The ‘very little’ we have at our disposal belongs ultimately to God.

By contrast, if we prove faithful with the worldly resources He have given us, then in return we are promised ‘much’, where before we had very little, ‘true riches’, where before we had only the temporary resources that run out, and ‘that which is our own’, rather than merely the illusion of ownership.

Back in Luke 12, as Jesus first starts to build up the teaching on the cost of being His disciple, He says, “Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” (Luke 12:33) This is the good stuff, the real treasure, the everlasting reward for our shrewd and faithful management of the temporary, worldly resources God has given us. And it will be ours to keep forever.

Having taught on the topic of heavenly treasure and eternal rewards on a number of occasions I have come across many Christians who see serving God in order to receive a reward as somewhat mercenary, and therefore clearly unspiritual. “Oh, I don’t want treasure when I get to heaven, I just want to be with Jesus.” While such a statement sounds all good and spiritual on the face of it, actually such thinking is foolishness - the very opposite of being shrewd. This promise of heavenly treasure is not some optional extra that Jesus slipped in as an afterthought, but appears over and over again throughout the Bible:

* “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven” (Matt 6:20)

* “Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt 5:12)

* “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matt 6:6)

* “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” (Matt 16:27)

* “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Mark 10:21)

* “Lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great.” (Luke 6:35)

* “Run in such a way as to get the prize… They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor 9:24, 25)

* “(Moses) regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (Heb 11:26)

* “Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.” (2 John 8)

* And in the closing chapter of the Bible, Jesus declares, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” (Rev 22:12)

While our salvation is a free gift from God, these rewards have to be earned, and whether we feel this is unspiritual or not, it is God’s idea - He suggested we earn rewards and store up treasure in heaven.

Imagine you reached a point in your live where you ended up having to live on the streets - cold, starving and all alone. And one day someone took pity on you and invited you to come and live in their house as one of their own, freely giving you lodging, food and friendship. And then, once you were settled in enjoying the comforts and the company, this person asked you if you would help out with a few things around the house - the gardening maybe or the washing up - with the promise of generous payment for your work. To turn to this person and say, ‘No thank you. I don’t want to get paid or do any jobs, I just want to hang around and enjoy just being with you.’ It is an inconceivable response.

God Himself has welcomed us into His family, made us His children at the cost of His own Son. He has given us a hope and a future, and has promised to provide for us. And yet, when He asks us to use what we have been given to provide for others in return for an everlasting reward, we discard this idea as being somehow unspiritual. It is God who has called us to serve Him in this way, and it is He who has offered us a rich reward in return - how can it be anything but spiritual?

The way we use the resources we have - our money, our time, our possessions, our relationships, our skills, our abilities, our bodies - during our few years in this age, makes a difference to the quality of our lives and no doubt the lives of others in the eternal age to come. So while we know it is going to be a wonderful existence, full of joy, without sadness or sorrow or sin or death, still somehow the way manage our worldly resources has the potential to make it even better. This is the incentive Jesus gives us: By using our worldly resources to provide for those in need we are providing for ourselves eternal treasure in heaven.