Parables About Misplaced Priorities

Thoughts From a Bible Reader

We looked the last time at Jesus’ parables about shepherds and lost things, and in it looked at the three parables saved for us in Luke 15. That chapter started with scribes and Pharisees being upset that Jesus mingled and dined with tax collectors and sinners, and Jesus responded by telling them about a shepherd searching for and finding his sheep that had wandered off and got lost. He then shared a parable about a widow losing a coin, finding it, and being filled with joy. And then He told of a prodigal son, taking off and wasting his life before finally humbly returning home to his father’s joy, as well as to his brother’s anger. And then Jesus immediately goes into sharing the following parable.

The Parable of the Shrewd Steward

Jesus also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who was informed of accusations that his manager was wasting his assets. So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your administration, because you can no longer be my manager.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg. I know what to do so that when I am put out of management, people will welcome me into their homes.’ So he contacted his master’s debtors one by one. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ The man replied, ‘100 measures of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man replied, ‘100 measures of wheat.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write 80.’ The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than the people of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes. The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.” (Luke 16:1-13)

I will be honest, I have struggled for decades with this parable every time I read it. And, sitting down to share it with you, I have really had to wrestle with it again. And my struggle always comes down to this: Is Jesus telling us here that He wants us to deal dishonestly, that this is a commendable trait? And if so, why?

The parable starts with a steward, a manager, who wasn’t taking good care of his master’s assets. And so he is going to be called in to account for where his master’s funds are, and then to be fired. Not wanting to live a life of hard, manual labor nor of begging, the steward comes up with a plan to make his master’s debtors indebted to him by decreasing their account balances. But does the master find out what the steward had done, and commend him out of admiration for his slick move, or does he not know about that and commend him because the accounts weren’t as bad as he had expected, thanks to the steward’s shrewdness? I’m still not sure, but I finally don’t think that it matters, because I now see that the commendation is not the heart of what He is sharing. Jesus does say that yes, people who belong to the world and not to God’s kingdom will deal with each other dishonestly in the same way that this steward did. But whether you’re part of the world or a child of the kingdom of God, Jesus says that it’s smart to use the resources that are at your disposal here today to make friends for, to prepare for, the eternity that’s ahead of you. That, I can finally see, is the true heart of this story. And He isn’t telling us to be dishonest. He’s telling us to not avoid using what we have here today to improve our eternal destiny. We’ll look later at how we do that.

But where will that eternity be spent? Jesus doesn't answer that here directly. But He does go on to tell us that people who can be trusted with a little can also be trusted with a lot, but anyone willing to be dishonest even in little things simply cannot be trusted with anything like heaven’s riches. And, peeling back one more layer, Jesus says that at the heart of that lies the fact that you and I, at our cores, can only have one true master. We can’t love and serve both God and money. We have to choose which one we will serve.

And then Luke shares, “The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him. But Jesus said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight’” (Luke 16:14-15). Your lives are based on misplaced priorities, He tells them, valuing that which God detests. And then, a few verses later, Jesus starts telling the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’ Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31)

So is this a parable, or is Jesus recounting actual events? I wonder that because it is the only parable that we have where one of the characters is given a name. Lazarus. Lazarus who the rich man ignored day after day as he went out of his gate, probably purposefully looking away from the sores covering Lazarus’ body, never once being moved by Lazarus’ plight to do anything to help him. Both men die, but whereas Lazarus is taken to heaven by the angels, the rich man ends up in torment in Hades. Ironically the rich man cries out to Abraham to make Lazarus do for him what he was never once willing to do for Lazarus: have pity on him and relieve his suffering. And Abraham gives him a two-fold answer. First, consider both of your lives on earth and how that led to where you find yourself now. Secondly, there is no way that Lazarus could come to minister to you, even if he wanted to. And then the rich man finally has a moment of compassion, for his brothers. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to them to warn them of the danger facing them, but Abraham responds that they already have all that they need for that warning in the writings of Moses and the prophets. The rich man responds that a dead person coming back to life would convince them much better than Moses and the prophets could, but Abraham responds that even the dead coming back to life won’t be enough if they already ignore what has been written for them.

So right after sharing the parable of the shrewd steward, where He tells the listeners to make friends now for the eternity that they will share, Jesus contrasts two different eternities for us. Lazarus, being comforted by Abraham, and the rich man in agony and torment. How might this have ended up differently if the rich man had simply had compassion on those in need while he was alive? Once again, you cannot serve both God and money. You will only love one of them, and will hate the other. And those choices will affect your eternal home. Where are you going to place your priorities?

The Parable of the Rich Landowner

Then he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21)

Here again is a man who has misplaced his priorities. He thinks that his portfolio’s future will be nothing but gains, gains, gains. He could have decided to give away to those in need the excess that he could not store or use. Instead, he decides to find a way to keep it all for himself, and pats himself on the back for that decision. And then he learns that God has a very different plan for him. He will die that night, and none of what he has been saving for himself will bring him joy.

Jesus has told us that the secret to having treasures in heaven, to being rich towards God, is to give things away here. When the rich young man came to ask Him how to gain eternal life, Jesus told him to obey the commandments concerning how we treat one another. The young man responded that he always had, and then “As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, ‘You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ But at this statement, the man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich” (Mark 10:21-22). Going back to our first parable, this is how you use your possessions today to improve your eternal destiny. You give them away to those in need. So which is your greater priority, God and His kingdom, or your possessions?

The Parable of Places of Honor

Then when Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. He said to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, because a person more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. So the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then, ashamed, you will begin to move to the least important place. But when you are invited, go and take the least important place, so that when your host approaches he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up here to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who share the meal with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid. But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:7-14)

When we prioritize ourselves over others, we may find out that we have overvalued our own worth in the eyes of those around us. It is far better, says Jesus, to humble ourselves, to willingly take the worst available spot. That way our host may feel that we deserve a much better spot, and will honor us by elevating us. And that, says Jesus, is far better than being sent away from a nice seat to a much less desirable one. And then Jesus gives His host a bonus lesson. I can only guess that the people sitting around Jesus were his host’s friends, his family, and his rich neighbors. Jesus tells him that these people will probably invite him to dine with them as well, and in the end no one will be indebted to another. And so Jesus tells him that he should invite people to dine with him who have no means to repay him. Why? Because when the righteous are resurrected, God will settle all of the debts owed to the righteous. And so giving to those who can’t give back is really an investment in our own eternity.

There are still quite a few parables to go! I hope that you are seeing the ones that we have looked at in a somewhat different light (even as I am!). Next time we’ll look at Jesus’ parables about settling accounts.

Do you have questions or comments that you would like to share with me? Feel free to drop me an email (stevesuterfaithandfruit@gmail.com).

My posts come from my observations in reading the Bible literally dozens of times, always hoping to understand it a little bit better. If you want to go back and read more of what I’ve observed in my reading, click here.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® https://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved