Luke 16:1-31 "No Servant Can Serve Two Masters" What do you love? Whom do you serve? Psalm 119:113 says it about as bluntly as you can say it, I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. What does it mean to be double-minded? Our evening series on the book of Kings is providing a clear answer to that question. Jeroboam, the first King of Israel after the division of the kingdom, tried to worship Yahweh through golden calves in Bethel and Dan. In 1 Kings 18, when Israel was torn between worshiping Baal and worshiping Yahweh: How long will you go limping between two different opinions? And in 2 Kings 17 we read a few minutes ago that the mixed population in Israel after the Exile (later called "Samaritans") feared the LORD but also served their own gods. To be double-minded means to love the LORD your God with part of your heart, and to love something else with the rest of your heart. To be double-minded means that you are serving two masters. And Jesus says, No servant can serve two masters. This should have been a popular message among the Pharisees. After all, the Pharisees agreed! Because while the Samaritans were "mixed up" and double-minded, the Pharisees only worshiped the one true God! Indeed, after the restoration it is rare to hear of the Jews turning aside to idolatry; and in the rare instances where it happened, the authorities dealt with it promptly! Monotheism was central to Jewish identity. Shema, Yisrael, Yehvah elohenu, yehvah echad Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. The Pharisees were convinced that as far as idolatry was concerned, they were single-minded in their devotion to Yahweh! But Jesus makes it clear that idolatry is not just a matter of worshiping idols. Idolatry includes anything that competes with God for your love and service. 1. You Cannot Serve God and Money (16:1-13) Often, we approach the parables in very self-centered ways. We think the parable is about Jesus and me! When in fact, the parable is about God and Israel. You might say, but isn't the Holy Spirit saying this to the church? Of course! But if you would understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church, then it would be wise to understand first what Jesus was saying to Israel. Because what God is saying to us is rooted in what Jesus said to Israel. There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Pretty much any time you have a master and a servant, you may be quite sure that the master is God, and the servant is Israel. The charge has been levied against Israel, that they are wasting God's possessions. Israel was supposed to be God's servant, mediating the blessings of God to the nations. But instead, Israel is wasting God's blessings, and the nations are not coming in and bringing their glory to Jerusalem as the prophets had said. And so the master called his manager and said, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager! Israel's days are numbered as steward of God's household. What should the steward do? What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. In other words, if I can no longer be God's steward, I must find a way to serve other households. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying that the Pharisees have stopped listening to God (that is the point of the second parable they do not heed Moses or the Prophets) and they are now more concerned with saving their own behinds. Listen to the steward: He goes to his master's debtors and reduces their debts thereby making them indebted to himself! He used mammon (a Greek word of semitic origin meaning "money" or "possessions") in order to make friends. He is also not being faithful to his master, but he is serving another master he is using his master's wealth for his own benefit. (Another way of saying this is that the Pharisees have sold out to the Romans indeed, they will betray the Kingdom of God and hand Jesus over to Rome to be crucified) And Jesus says that the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. (v8) Note that Jesus calls him "dishonest." The master does not commend him for his theft or dishonesty, but for his shrewdness. What does this mean? The point of the parable is explained clearly in verse 9: I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. The point of the parable is not that you should be dishonest nor that you should cheat or steal! Rather, the point of the parable is that you should use wealth and possessions (mammon) in the service of the kingdom of God. And as that was true for Israel in Jesus' day, so it is true today! The sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Don't you understand what money is for? Don't you understand what possessions are for? The only reason why you have 'stuff' is so that you might use it in the service of the kingdom of God! How are you using your house? Most of the time it just sits there. How can you use it in Christ's service? How about your computer? How are you using it to serve God? One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much. Maybe God has only given you a small thing to do so far. Maybe you are looking ahead and dreaming of what God will have you do "someday." It can be easy to ignore the "little things" right now. It's the little things that count. You husbands already know this! Your wife isn't very impressed at how good you are at the big things. But she loves and appreciates your faithfulness in the little things. Because in the end, your faithfulness in the little things demonstrates a pattern that results in faithfulness in the big things. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. It is said that one who cheats at golf will also cheat on his taxes. This is because sin is not an occasional problem that pops up here or there. Sin is a systemic problem that reveals itself in all sorts of ways. One who is dishonest in a small thing is revealing a problem that will also appear in the big things of life. In other words, you cannot contain sin. You cannot compartmentalize your life. "Well, I've got a problem with my tongue when I'm at work, but at home and at church I've got it under control!" It doesn't work that way. Sometimes we think, "if only I weren't so busy I'd have time to deal with that issue..." But that isn't true. Because then the day arrives when you have the time and you discover that the problem hasn't gone away! Sin is a systemic problem. It reveals itself in little things and big things. If you have a hard time exercising self-control in the little things, you will have a hard time exercising self-control in the big things. The only way to deal with sin is to deal with it systemically. Because if you have not been faithful in mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? If you can't handle money and possessions in a godly way, then what makes you think that you will handle true riches well? Israel had been entrusted with the promises, the covenants, the law. Now it was time for Israel to enter its inheritance but it had failed to handle even wealth and possessions righteously. 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. 2. You Should Have Known Better! (16:14-31) The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. This takes some explaining. Because on the surface this makes no sense! The Pharisees would have agreed with Jesus entirely! You cannot serve God and mammon. This is standard rabbinic teaching. Indeed, some scholars have accused Luke of misrepresenting the Pharisees, because the Pharisees agreed entirely that Israel needed to serve God wholeheartedly. Their whole point was that Israel was double-minded, and so they should have been Jesus' loudest cheering section. And if you take verses 10-13 by themselves, they would have cheered Jesus! The Pharisees agreed that Israel needed to be faithful in the little things as well as the big things! What angered the Pharisees was not the statement that no servant can serve two masters; what angered the Pharisees was that they thought of themselves as God's steward, and they understood perfectly that Jesus was calling them dishonest stewards! They understood that Jesus was claiming that they were fudging the accounts. This is why Luke calls them "lovers of money." not because they were any worse than the Romans or any other group indeed, the Pharisees were very faithful in using their money in the service of God! They tithed, they sought to use their resources to further the kingdom of God at least, the kingdom as they understood it! But Jesus says that the Pharisees are double-minded they think that they love God and they think that they are serving him, but in reality they are trying to serve two masters. And this is the point of verses 15-31. You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Men look at the Pharisees and see the cream of the crop, the best of the best but God looks at the heart. And he sees their self-justification for what it is: an abomination. This is the language of idolatry. You Pharisees think that you are monotheists. You think that you worship and serve only one God. But in reality? You are double-minded! With the same tongue you bless God and yet curse your brother who was made in the image of God! With the same eyes you read the scriptures and yet lust after women who are not your wife! These things ought not be! Verses 16-17 seem quite difficult at first: The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. (This either means that everyone is using violence against the kingdom; or possibly that everyone is suffering violence for the kingdom). Luke appears to present us with the former option. The gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, but everyone is resisting it using violence against it. Does this pit the Law and Prophets against the Gospel of the Kingdom? It might appear that way at first, but verse 17 makes it clear that this is not what Jesus means: it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void Jesus point is that the Law and the Prophets point to him. They point to the Gospel of the Kingdom. Indeed, if you understand the Law and the Prophets properly, you would understand they speak of Jesus. Verse 18 seems to appear out of nowhere: Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. What does this have to do with the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom? Jerusalem was the bride of Yahweh. The people of God were supposed to be faithful to their God. The prophets regularly spoke of the parallel between adultery and idolatry, so Jesus' hearers would have easily seen the connection. Marriage is the reflection of God and his people and so when a man divorces his wife and marries another, he commits adultery. A man who divorces his wife and marries another is "double-minded"-- he has two masters, you might say. Likewise a man who marries a divorced woman is also double-minded, because she has had two husbands. Both Jesus and Paul will talk elsewhere about instances in which divorce may be permissible. But here, Jesus' point is that just as marriage is to be an undivided loyalty, so also your devotion to the Kingdom of God is to be undivided. There is no such thing as a "no-fault divorce" between God and his people. Jesus concludes his rebuke to the Pharisees by telling them a story about their recently deceased brother. How do I know he was their brother? Because of the description: There was a rich man . . . We have just heard that the Pharisees were lovers of money, so this rich man is supposed to be one of them! And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. Not surprisingly, 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, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. Now, this is not intended as a literal description of what happens when you die. It is a parable. It is highly unlikely that Abraham spends much time chatting with the wicked in Hades! The point of the parable has to do with what is happening on the ground in Jesus' day: and the rich man says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child [note that Abraham acknowledges the rich man as one of his biological descendants or, more precisely, Jesus acknowledges the Pharisees as Abraham's biological descendants] Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. In other words, you simply got what you deserved! And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. In other words, the warning to Jesus' hearers is that what they do in this life will have consequences in the life to come. The rich man accepts his fate. He acknowledges that he has received a just sentence. He does not dispute Abraham's claims. He had ignored Lazarus in life indeed, in his pride and insolence, he had allowed Lazarus to die at his gate. But he fears for his brothers: Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Please, Father Abraham, send Lazarus back from the grave so that he might warn my brothers of what will happen to them if they do not repent! But Abraham replies, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them! They have the scriptures. Moses taught them to love the LORD their God with all their heart Moses warned them against turning aside to follow after riches Moses taught them to show mercy to the poor. And the Prophets reinforced what Moses taught! Don't worry, rich man, your brothers have plenty of information about what is right. Yeah, you see, Father Abraham, that's what troubles me! Because I had Moses and the Prophets too and it wasn't enough. If someone goes to them from the dead they will repent! If someone came back from the dead and warned you about something, wouldn't that be enough to convince you to shape up? I heard the story the other day of a man who got into a terrible motorcycle accident. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and he nearly killed himself. Well, just a few weeks ago he apparently got into another terrible motorcycle accident. Do you suppose he was wearing a helmet? We don't seem to learn very easily. As Abraham replied, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is a remarkable event. But remarkable events in and of themselves do not change us. 9-11 was a remarkable event. We're told that church attendance spiked in the following weeks. And then it went back to normal. The only way 9-11 changed you was if it had some special significance some meaning that affected you. The resurrection is a far more remarkable event than 9-11, but the resurrection of Jesus only changes you if it has some meaning that affects you. It is the Word of God that gives meaning to the resurrection of Jesus. If you don't believe Moses and the Prophets, the resurrection of Jesus is just a strange, bizarre event. And so Jesus says to the Pharisees, the reason I know that you are double-minded that you are trying to serve two masters is because if you believe Moses and the Prophets, you would believe me. You claim to love Moses and the Prophets, but if you loved Moses and the Prophets, you'd be taking care of Lazarus. If you loved Moses and the Prophets, you wouldn't ridicule me, you'd follow me! Jesus is speaking to the "evangelicals" of his day he's speaking to us and saying that you are trying to serve two masters. You are trying to serve God, and you are trying to please yourselves. And it's not working! If you continue down the path you are on, you will wind up with the rich man. How can we grow in single-minded love for God? Repent and believe in Jesus. Listen to the Word of God. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. The reason why God has given you possessions, is so that you might use them in serving him. You must be single-minded in your devotion to Christ. What is getting in the way? What is your "second master"? What (or who) is competing for your devotion? And remember, you don't have to fight this battle alone. We are all fighting. We are all tempted lured away by the competition. So if you need help.... No, that's the wrong way to put it. There is no "if"! So, because you need help, let us walk together as we seek to develop that single-minded love for Christ! If you don't know what is getting in the way, or if you do know, but you need accountability, talk to each other; talk to me encourage each other Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24) This is our calling as we walk together in Christ.