The Shrewd Manager vs. True Friendship

September 22, 2013


GOSPEL LESSON: Luke 16:1-13
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 ”‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
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.
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 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.”

Today let’s talk about friends. We have different kinds of friends. Some are just acquaintances that we say “hello” to. Some are members of the same group or class, but outside of class we never do anything with them. Some are buddies that we do things together with: club activities, co-workers, church members. There are a couple of old sayings. “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” which means that someone who helps us when we are in trouble is a true friend. Proverbs 27:10 says “Better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.” In other words, “A friend at hand who can help us in our need is better than family afar.”

A good friend is someone who will help us when we have problems. They give advice, loan money, help in an emergency, and give a sympathetic ear. A good friend does not desert us when we need help. There is a certain bond between friends. This friendship is a type of love. When a couple gets married, they promise to be friends till death. “I, {name,} take you, {name,} to be my wedded wife/ husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy will; and I pledge to you my faithfulness.” In the same way, a good friend does not desert us when we need help. There is trust. A good friend is loyal. A good friend sticks up for their friend even when their friend has made a mistake or has been a fool, and maybe even fights for the friend. And if you lose the fight, the friend still thinks the fight was worthwhile, because it was for the friend.

So it is important to make good friends. I suppose the best way to make a friend is to be a friend yourself. You can try to buy friends, but when the money is gone, so are the friends. But money can help you meet people who might later become friends, I suppose. You have to build trust through shared experiences. And when danger or an emergency comes, the friend will be with you, because in their heart they know that you would do the same for them in the same spot.

In today’s Gospel reading, there is a man who is making friends. There is a shrewd manager who was about to get fired because he was a crook. And being the crook that he was, he used dishonest ways to make friends who would take care of him later, perhaps hire him as a manager. In this story everyone is crooked. First the manager of course, then the creditors who went along with the fraud, and the landowner who complemented the shred dealing of the dishonest manager.

Then Jesus said, 8 “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.”

Jesus seems to be criticizing Christians. Christians just refuse to be dishonest, and so it seems that they are not very smart in dealing with things financial or interpersonal, even. We keep the Eighth Commandment and do not lie to people just to make them our friends. We do not cheat people or use people just for our own personal benefit.

It is not always easy to find and make good friends. Sometimes they do not want to be friends with us! They do not want to have friends like us! Perhaps the biggest reason people do not want to be our friend is because we are not a good friend to them. We cannot be trusted, we are not loyal, and we are not faithful to them. And so when a crisis arises, we might be all alone.

Will Jesus be our friend when we need him? Will he forsake us? Have we been faithful to Jesus? The Gospel Good News is that Jesus is our Friend no matter what. We might not be faithful, but he is. We cannot be trusted with a little, but Jesus was entrusted with the Sin of the World. That debt was placed on him. He forgave it. It was not like the shrewd manager in the parable. The debt was not made smaller, but cancelled. He paid for it with his blood on the cross. He opens the account books on judgment day and it is written there: “Paid in Full.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus talked to his disciples about what true friendship is. John 15:12-15. “12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus made this comment: “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.” Jesus might be telling us to invest in evangelism. Some forms of evangelism, like radio and television and tracts and sending missionaries, can be very expensive. But if people come to know Jesus, then they will become our eternal friends. [Just as a side note, my commentary book made a comment that I thought was interesting and witty. The Jews believed that charity was an important religious work and duty. Now I am paraphrasing: You cannot take your earthly money to heaven by yourself, so you have to put it in the pockets of the poor and needy. If you want a dwelling place in heaven, you have to provide for widows and orphans here on earth.]

Jesus does not want us to be like the dishonest manager. But he wants us to make friends, and especially, Jesus himself wants to be our Friend. He is the One we can always rely on. He is always with us. He is always ready to hear our prayers.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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