From the Pastor’s Heart OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
The ongoing discussion concerning the $750 that the President of the United States paid in cooperate taxes for two consecutive years (2016, 2017) has gotten extensive media attention. It has caught my interest, too. The taxes became a part of the latest presidential debate, with the president touting himself as being “smart” for making use of tax loopholes, as provided within the tax code.
Other individuals have substituted other words for the word “smart,” that I am not using here. But the word “smart” caused me to think of one of Jesus’ great parables on how the people of this world often think themselves “smart” by the ways in which they deal with their wealth. Allow me to crave your indulgence in quoting the whole parable as it is told in Luke 16, using the New International Version of the Bible.
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 “‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ 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? “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”
Wow! What a parable? Every time I read it, I pause to observe all of the connivings that the servant used to accumulate wealth. His schemes remind me of what many individuals are doing in public and private spheres to secure wealth. Forgive my thought; there are only a few individuals, I think, who are working a fair day’s pay or paying a fair share of their taxes according to the requirements. I have heard many, too many, commending the president for his “smartness” because they say they would behave exactly that way if they had the wealth.
For me, the most striking issue in the parable is how the manager commended the servant for his “smartness.” By reading on, I saw that what Jesus was offering was not so much a commendation, but contempt. Notice what he said, “For the people of this world are more shrewd (smart) in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”
Hear further what Jesus said: 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?
This discussion has pushed me to raise the following questions: How do we handle wealth? How do we handle our possessions? How do we use what is allowed to us by God? Are we practicing all kinds of scheming to give the world the impression that we are “smart?”
I do not wish to go into word definition here, but what does it mean to be smart? Is it to be dishonest? Is it a way to trick people into believing that we have what we do not have? Or does smart mean using my wisdom to practice decency, honesty, and integrity toward God? Does smart not mean thinking in the long term that I must not only give account to the tax collectors or the government or the people who one serves, but that a person is responsible to God, for all their actions? Does it not mean that one’s character must be able to pass the test at the judgment bar of God?
Friend, let me trust that you understand what it means to be “smart.” I have come to learn that being smart means preparing how to live in this world and as well as in the world to come. I trust that you will also come to this realization.
