Luke 16:1-13, The fourth week of Creation, September 22, 2019
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 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.’3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 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. 10 “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. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 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.”
The analogy of Jesus in the content of today's sermon, "Luke 16:1-13," is a little tricky to understand. Because the story doesn't go well with our common sense. Here comes the rich landowner and the manager who manages his property. The rich man decided to fire the manager after hearing that he was wasting his property. The landlord asked the manager to settle his duties until a certain point in time. When the settlement is finished, the manager has to leave the workplace. The action of the manager was strange. The manager summoned each of the people who owed the owner and rewritten the contract. For nine hundred gallons of olive oil, the manager made it four hundred and fifty. For a thousand bushels of wheat, he lowered it to eight hundred. This behavior of the manager was to make the owner's anger. He can put them in jail, not just firing them. But the owner complimented him on his wisdom. That's the metaphor, followed by the interpretation of Jesus.
The unjust manager was complimented
First of all, why do you think the owner complimented the manager? If you look at the story that's been going on, it's not something to be praised, but something to be kicked out right away without a severance pay. This manager was originally a waste of owner's property. In this sense, it's a really bad person. But if you look at this from a different angle, it's a different story. The fact that the manager wasted his owner's possession also means that he was conscientious in his work. Rent was expensive at the time. Even with farming, the share of landlords and peasants has gone disproportionately. In the bad harvest, the peasants had to borrow money or grain from the landlords for high prices. The manager is usually not stingy with the peasants. He would have lowered the interest rate or calculated the date on which it should be paid. If the manager takes care of things like this, his or her share will naturally be reduced.
Getting laid-off notice and signing new contracts with debtors can be viewed in a slightly different angle. A debtor who owes Nine hundred gallons of oil may have been in increasing debt because he has not been able to repay it for a long time, and a significant portion of it has been earmarked for the manager. That's why he lowered it to Four hundred fifty gallons of oil. This will not actually hurt the owner. It's just a small profit. What I mean is, you can't necessarily see him as an immoral human being. He helped the needy in a wise way, and he found a way to live in the difficult situation of unemployment. The rich owner also wisely praised the manager at the last minute because he knew what was going on.
Jesus explains in many ways the reason for judging this man to be a wise man. The explanation is a little complicated. Jesus first gives a brief account of the analogy of the manager and then explains the meaning of the metaphor from verse 9. First, I'll read verse 9. Think about whether this makes sense or not. "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." In this sentence, the meaning of the word "worldly wealth" is more secular than evil. Here's how to change verse 9 to make it easier to understand. "Make a good friend with the things you use in the world. And they will help you in an emergency when your wealth is gone." And again, from a Christian point of view, here's what it looks like. "Use the money you need while you live in the world. Then you will be saved at the end of the world when money becomes meaningless." In the following verse 10, Jesus spoke more accurately the meaning of verse 9.
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.
Here, the 'very little' refers to the wealth of the world. There are two reasons why it's very little. One is that we are only ruled by money when we are alive. The other thing is that even when you're alive, you don't get life-filled just by money, or by health or by having happy conditions.
very little
The term "very little" does not mean that wealth is meaningless. People need wealth to live with their bodies. But only passively, or in part, it means something to us. We need wealth to get our daily bread. If you take these passive values as absolute values, life will be destroyed. As the Lord's prayer teaches, you need to get some daily bread. If the daily bread is available, the rest of the property should be used in good or wise ways. This is the image of a man who is loyal to the small things. Those who do not know how to use their wealth wisely will be stingy about getting absolute life. It's the exact words of our lives. If we are serious about what Jesus says, we should think about how we are loyal to using our wealth while we are alive. It's not just for Christian individuals, it's for the whole church. How is the use of church finances a good and loyal church figure?
It is not easy for Christians to answer these questions honestly. Because they've grown accustomed to the ways of the world. The way of the world works is that money is power. They think money will save them and their family. They're not going to be so outspoken, but their thoughts are already so fixed. We have no other choice, especially in the 21st-century capitalist system. Another reason why we don't really think about using wealth is that, as the content says, we're not loyal to the smallest is that we have different standards of how much wealth we need to ensure our survival. Some people think it's enough to live three meals a day without being indebted to others, but others only care about making money until they die. It's complicated, and the more I think about it, the more I hate it, the less people want to think about it. After all, you live as an injustice to something very little. I am not confident in answering 'yes' to the question of whether you are really loyal or not. But I can tell you that I'm trying to live as a loyalist.
I'm not suggesting that you give up everything except your daily bread, or that you should choose voluntary poverty. It's important to know where to put the direction throughout Christian life. This is exactly what verse 13 says.
“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.”
The manager analogy shown earlier is a little complicated to understand, but the conclusion of verse 13 can be immediately understood by elementary school students. There is also a saying that God and riches cannot be served at the same in Matt. 6:24 too. If you're a Christian, you're going to argue that no one else serves property. Of course it has to be. But the New Testament is repeating this because it's very hard not to serve wealth. In a materialistic age, no amount of emphasis on not serving money doesn't work. If you say this, it's not enough to make the faithful feel uncomfortable, but it's just that. The Korean Church teaches us that we can even receive material blessings through our religious life. There's an underlying belief for blessing. It's hard to tell Christians who live in good faith based on the belief that they shouldn't live like that. Because the whole world we live in now serves money. How can we solve this problem?
The moment of seriously life-threatening situations
Review the situation in the today's content in which the manager faces. He received a notice of dismissal. His life is about to fall into the abyss. His lament comes out like this on verse 3. "The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg." Once we read this sentence only it makes him a little strange. If he is fired, he'll get unemployment benefits for a while, and he'll find a job slowly. He seems he is making way too much. The key to this metaphor is the fact that he gets into a desperately dangerous situation. At that moment, he used the wealth of the world to do the debtors good.
For us, the moment of a desperately dangerous situation is death. If you die in a month, no one will live the way you do to serve things. Even if you're going to die in a year it would be the same. Ten years from now, you're going to change your mind a little bit. If you die in 30 years, the pattern of life that puts wealth at the center will not change. The difference in time is not absolute, either after a year or after 30 years. If you repeat it thirty times a year, it's thirty years. If a year goes by like a shot, 30 years goes by like a shot. This explanation may not be realistic because it is theoretical. It can sound too far, especially for young people. For most people, young or old, death is still a long story. I admit that the moment is near, but I live by ignoring it as much as possible. We believe that tomorrow is guaranteed. Every moment is driven by the power of a certain world, with the idea that the life you've designed so far will continue. It's not because you don't believe it or because you're frivolous or selfish, but because you haven't experienced the existence of an amputation, it's a general phenomenon because you've experienced it.
It's clear that we're going to die, but we can't always think about it. Christian faith believes that death has already been overcome, so we should not let our thoughts rest on it. Death is a lot more powerful. The great power is the God of Life. The experience of the God of Life is an absolute event. Death is the end of our lives, but God's experience goes beyond it to absolute life. Jesus' first message is, "Repent, the kingdom of God is near." It means change direction towards God. Yes, the experience of the kingdom of God is absolute. Why? Why is the experience of God's kingdom, the experience of God, absolute?
I'll explain it a little bit. The experience of God is like a situation in which we are naked. I mean I can't hide anything. We usually wear neat clothes, have our hair trimmed, and women wear makeup. Go a little further and name yourself a teacher, doctor, pastor, prosecutor, lawyer, self-employed, etc. For the rest of our lives, we live on something. It's kind of a mask. You think that mask is yourself. The higher the social status, the harder the mask becomes. He's not the one with the clothes and the status and the money. So is the relationship between a husband or wife, or a child and a parent, which is the most intimate relationship. At the ultimate level, family relationships are a mask. Of course, it's a mask in a good sense. So is your relationship with your friend. Human nature or identity is not in a relationship with a husband, wife, or friend. The fact that you experience God is to take off all these masks that surround you. This is the moment when I first came out of my mother's womb. And if you put it in words that we're used to, you're going back to 'God's creation'.
We are all God's creatures. If you admit it, it doesn't mean anything if you're successful or not. There is no difference between a person who gets 100 million won a year and a person who gets 20 million won a year In this world, you would say the difference is absolute. It's because we don't really know that we're all God's creatures. The difference is that it's "very little" as it has been repeated in today's content. Only when you accept this ultimate fact can you see what it means to be a man who cannot serve both wealth and God.
Not just the term "God's creation" but many similar expressions are in Christian faith. One of them is the expression, "Man is a sinner" and "the saved one." Those who can concentrate on the fact that they are saved are separated from the various relationships and conditions of the world. For example, let's say the ferry sank. Some of them were rescued. There's no point in what he's wearing at the moment he's rescued, or what his job is. It's just a very little thing. The fact that you've been saved fills your soul. The reason why we're upset about our performance in the church is that we don't take it very seriously that we're God's creatures and that we're saved. It's proof that you don't have any experience with God I'm not much different, either. But I know clearly that I have to focus my mind completely on the identity before God, not on the slightest thing, and I try to live like that.
Today's sermon is titled "Selection between one or the other." We think we can take this and that not choose between one or the other. You may say you can be a good believer, and you can be a successful person in the world. On the surface, there are Christians who live like that. There are also rich Christians. As a homeroom minister, I want you to live as much as possible. On the surface, that's possible, but not at the depth of the soul. Figuratively, I can't concentrate on classical music and at the same time on reading philosophy books. Because our souls can only focus on one thing. You have to judge for yourself what serves God and what serves wealth in your specific life. It won't be easy. Pray to our Lord that you will allow such judgment.
