Luke 16:1-9

Luke 16:1-9

This is clearly Jesus’ most confusing parable. It appears that He is praising dishonesty and corruption. It may be helpful to understand this story not so much as a parable but more of a news report. This may have been the talk of the area, the telling of some real event that Jesus used to demonstrate a point. Jesus is certainly not advocating dishonesty. But the effort, hard work, and creativity of people trying to avoid work is astonishing. The trouble and risk that people will go to for a big, though dishonest, score is huge.

What if our efforts to accomplish kingdom goals were as passionate and driven? If you look at the highly successful in any field you will find tireless effort. Less than 1 in 1000 high school seniors make it to the NFL. Of those who do, everyone worked ridiculously hard. They have sacrificed without measure and most will have little or nothing to show for it. To succeed you must become a mono-maniac on a mission. Everything is used to create the opportunity to achieve the goal. It is interesting that a high school senior football player is more likely to earn a college scholarship (5.8%) than a Christian is to lead someone to Christ (5.0%).

But Jesus is not strictly talking about evangelism and disciple making. He is mainly talking about all our efforts and opportunities being used for the Kingdom. Jesus concludes this story with a bit of great advice to sum up the story. In verse 9 Jesus tells us to use even something as corrupting and corruptible as money to prepare our place in Heaven. Doing for eternity what the unfaithful steward did for life. This teaching challenges us to reorder everything with the singular purpose and focus of and preparation of Heaven. Warren Buffett is noted for his long term perspective in investing. Jesus advocates the same, but not in terms of 25 or 50 or 100 years. but in terms where 100 years is merely a blink of an eye.

“Lord, guide me as I pour all of my life into eternity. AMEN”