Luke 16:1-9 “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.

“Use worldly wealth to gain friends.” That is not where the manager in the parable began. He used the money he was managing to goof around. When you are spending someone else’s money, you tend not to be so careful with it. You aren’t so motivated to try to preserve it.

Former 20/20 journalist John Stossel once did a feature on a public restroom built by the New York City Parks and Rec department. The little building featured two or three stalls in each bathroom and a couple of sinks. It cost over 2 million dollars. That was much more than most of the upscale homes in the area cost–for just a bathroom. City officials explained that superior materials had to be used because of all the traffic. Stossel pointed out that a nearby city built a better looking facility of comparable materials for about one tenth the price. When the official explained that New York City pays workers a fair wage, Stossel discovered that meant about 100 dollars an hour. New York City is pricey, but even there those wages seem high. But when you are spending someone else’s money…

Sometimes God’s people forget that they are spending someone else’s money. We think that all this stuff is ours to do with as we please. We use God’s gifts like the manager in the parable. We manage and plan and spend as though our possessions have no higher purpose than to let us enjoy ourselves. It doesn’t cross our minds that we have to answer to the Owner someday, and that maybe he had some expectations for what the funds he placed into our keeping were going to accomplish. It would be a scary thing to hear him come and fire us from his service. “Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.” If we lose our relationship with our Lord, all is truly lost.

Let’s cut to the chase on the meaning of Jesus’ parable. He is not suggesting that Christians ought to be so self-serving in the way they manage God’s money for him. He is not condoning dishonesty, cheating, or fraud. These are all necessary components of the story to move the story along. They are needed to get to his point. They are not the point itself.

The point is this: the shrewd manager acquired a strong sense of mission and purpose when he heard he was going to be fired (twisted as that mission and purpose might be). He spent a long time thinking about how to use the time and resources he managed to accomplish that mission and purpose, and then he executed his plan. Central to that plan was using his master’s wealth to build relationships, to make friends who would take care of him later.

The manager in the parable was looking at a future which had suddenly become very uncertain for him. His career was over. His prospects were bleak. He didn’t know how he would eat or where he would live. His money decisions were driven by a need to bring some clarity and stability to his future.

We are looking at a future which has been made entirely secure for us. We don’t have to buy our spot in heaven’s courts. Jesus has paid all we owed at the cross. Forgiveness is full and free. We don’t have to scratch and claw to preserve our lives ourselves. Jesus has risen from the dead. His resurrection promises new life for these bodies on the other side of the grave. We don’t have to worry about our future. Eternal life is guaranteed.

Why not spend our money, why not invest ourselves, in the one thing we know is going to last, the one thing we know is going to be there in the end? One of my old teachers used to say, “What you invest in God’s kingdom is the only investment that will be worth a dime the day after judgment day.” We don’t have to purchase a place for ourselves there. But we can invest in ways that help others hear the gospel that secures their eternal future. Someday they will welcome us, as we will welcome them, into our eternal home.