Luke 16:1-9 (NIV)

¹ 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 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 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.

Reflection:

For those who have ever been faced with the question, “You gonna eat that?” there are 2 responses that we can have; either we can hoard what we have for ourselves or we can generously give it away.  Our simple response to this question can be a reflection of how we can worry so much about our security and “wealth” and how we can squander it just on ourselves.  But from the parable above, where the manager is called out for squandering the rich man’s possessions, what we learn is that since we already have been welcomed into eternal homes, we have been freed through God’s provision to not to have to worry about ourselves so much.  We can instead use our wealth as a means, rather than an end, to make friends, not to save our own lives but for their benefit.

Response:

Let’s take some time to reflect on the parable above and ask for God’s help to trust Him again with the whole of our lives.  Let’s pray that as Jesus/His Spirit calls us out on areas where we have been squandering, that we would be like the shrewd manager who responds quickly and uses these “means” shrewdly to benefit “friends” instead of shoring up security/”ends” for ourselves.