Plan "B" ...

 

How many backup plans do you have?  What kind of things might they cover?  Perhaps you are looking for some kind of car, with a certain set of features, and a certain color.  You go to the dealership and find the combination you are looking for is just not on the lot.  You could keep looking.  You could search until you find exactly what you want, but then you might pay quite the premium for that.  So perhaps instead of going with your first plan, you settle for your second plan, for plan “B”.  But let’s face it, our second choice is second for a reason.  The first choice is first by the same token, because we want it more, because we envision ourselves happier in our first choice.  Our second choice is only for backup purposes, in the event we cannot easily get what we first envisioned wanting.  Where this comes to automobiles, we can probably live with it.  Where this happens with spouses, perhaps not so much?  Whoever wants to feel like the second choice, like the booby prize at the fair?  No woman wants that.  Rest assured no man does either.  When love is involved, everyone likes or dreams, of thinking they will find that special someone who will always pick them ahead of everyone else, forever and ever.  So can you imagine what this idea is like for the heart of God?  Can you imagine God settling to be our plan “B”?  You know, in case the whole righteousness thing has merit, and/or if we find ourselves in times of desperation, we come back to good old plan “B”; and call Him God.

To picture this kind of thinking in church just seems so foreign.  How could some folks treat the church, the body of Christ, as a “maybe” in the course of their lives.  To keep flirting with worldly backup plans seems about as tolerable to God, as it would be to your spouse.  Imagine the pain that causes.  Imagine how stupid it is.  If you are married, you have made your choice, to rethink it is an entertainment in stupidity and a golden invitation to pain all around.  If you are a Christian, you too have made your choice.  You have chosen salvation over desperation, a real life, over an existence of pain all around.  But when the heart is not fixed, the devil tries to convince us that something “else” is what we are looking for, in nearly all of our relationships, and the most intimate one with our God is not immune for that thinking either.  Even Jesus knows it happens.  You would hope your spouse is unaware if you are engaged in plan “B” thinking, but rest assured your God is always keenly aware of it.  And the pain you cause Him, is every bit as real, and damaging as the pain you would cause any mortal person you can see.

Luke writes about these ideas in his gospel letter to his friend Theophilus about what we believe and why starting out in the sixteenth chapter picking up in verse 1 it reads … “And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. [verse 2] And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”  Busted.  So many things to unpack here, let us begin with the idea that this story does not happen in poverty but in wealth.  This story is about a steward, about a person put in charge of managing the wealth, the assets, the liabilities, of another, of a very rich man.  That is an awesome job if you can get it.  Not everyone would carry that kind of trust.  Not everyone would be considered for it.  You have to have a head for what is important.  Could that be you?  Do you know what is truly important in your own life, and what God may have entrusted to you to manage.  Your wealth is not your own, it is God’s.  It is His gift to you.  And it comes in more flavors than simple currency.  Your kids who adore you, need you, and see you with love in their eyes.  That my friend is wealth of the best variety.  But as good as that gets, that special someone, who gives their heart to you without reserve, that is worth more than anything too.  All of it your wealth to manage, gifts from our very rich Father God.

But as good as life gets, the story begins with a calling to account for what we have done with the wealth we have been entrusted to manage?  Have we been embezzling from our employer, or enriching ourselves at his expense?  Entirely possible this steward was, and now that his evil was possibly catching up with him, he faced losing everything.  After all the wealth was entrusted to him, and it could be entrusted to another.  The pain we sometimes cause with what we have been given happens, because we forget it was never truly ours, but instead a gift as well from the Father God in heaven.  We are entrusted with our families, not granted ownership of anything.  Our kids are God’s.  Our spouse belongs to God.  Their hearts, their love comes from God, and if we drive them away by how we manage those precious entrusted treasures we stand to risk losing everything.  If that strikes fear into you, it probably should.  I am certain it terrified this steward, as you usually don’t get called into account, if everything was going smoothly with no wrinkles.

Jesus continues in verse 3 saying … “Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.”  Fear will now drive the brainstorming.  The steward recognizes his limitations.  He is not a very physical kind of person, not someone who could work at a physically demanding job.  Digging ditches would kill him.  Working out in the hot sun might just as easily kill him.  He knows it.  The fear deepens.  This was such a great gig, why would I mess that up, for mere scraps the rich man might have given me if I had but asked.  But no, it was more “fun” to take what I wanted, to give myself an illusion of self-control, when there really was none.  So physical alternatives are out.  As for begging, there is too much pride.  Think of that for a moment.  This situation might have been resolved, if the steward had the humility to beg the rich man for forgiveness, even if no one else, at least beg him.  But the steward “would” not, he could not bear the shame of that humiliation.  And so pride, the original sin, just keeps right on ticking, and destroying lives that may not have ever needed to suffer at all.  Mismanagement cannot be undone.  But we can.  If we are willing to humble ourselves before God, there is nothing He cannot restore, forgive, and move us past.  He can maintain His gifts with us, even when we have thrown them away.  But that does not happen with the proud, too ashamed to seek it.  It can only happen with the humble who know there is no other way.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. [verse 5] So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? [verse 6] And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. [verse 7] Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.”  Enter Plan “B”.  The rich man’s trust will now be abused one final time, while at the same time, creating a climate of very grateful debtors who will “owe” this steward their gratitude in very tangible ways.  At the time of this parable telling, debtor’s prison was a very real thing.  If you owed someone something, and could not pay it, they could have you put into prison until your family paid the debt on your behalf.  And the interest may have been no small thing, because the jailors would want their cut as well.  If your family could not pay either, an entire family might be cast into slavery for the years it takes to pay the debt.  Very bad outcomes.  Very real.

So the plan “B” the steward devises makes debtor’s prison far less likely, while at the same time, a backdoor for him to stay with these now grateful debtors whose debts he has erased off the books of the rich man.  You will note this plan does not involve any humility at all, but it does further prove the case against the steward, that he thinks of himself, ahead of the interests of the rich man, or anyone else.  And God becomes the booby prize once again.  Serve Him if it does not cost you anything, even simple obedience.  But if it looks like that is no longer “fun”, or profitable, then find another way to make you happy, even if it is at His expense, and ironically even if happiness is the last thing you will ever find.  Walking a path away from God never leads to “fun” or happiness.  It only leads to causing more pain to everyone, even to you, and especially to God, who wishes so bad you would give up this choice and come back home again.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. [verse 9] And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.”  The rich man, even Jesus in this case, sees the worldly wisdom of making friends, or close associations with money to preserve us in the hard times.  It is a craftier strategy than those sheep who serve the Lord.  For the sheep are utterly dependent upon the Shepherd to lead them to places to eat and drink, and keep them safe.  This steward was no sheep.  He wanted self-control.  He wanted to find his own places to eat and drink.  He was not content to be led, to be dependent on anyone including God.  Is that what your “faith” is like?  Do you serve God on your terms, content to take care of everything yourself, have need of no one, or nothing?  If it is, then you will need money, a lot of it.  Money will give you the band-aide you think you need.  But the wisdom of the wicked is not wisdom at all, it is simply a strategy to avoid humiliation, while they throw their lives away.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”  And this is the text we tend to remember the most in this passage, but it only comes as part of the story of the seemingly crafty, but unfaithful, and proud steward who was caught, yet refused to yield, or beg, or carry the shame of admitting he needed grace.  Our whole lives require grace.  That is fact, non-optional, if we are to live that is.  Grasping that gift of grace may require the humility of us admitting we need it, and do not deserve it, but that price of admission is nothing next to what it took to offer Grace to us.  Our Savior paid it all on our behalf, so we would never need to pay any of it ourselves.  That is the God we serve.  That is how His love for us is defined for all to see.  Is it really so hard to say “I’m sorry”, is it really so hard to mean it?

Jesus concludes picking up in verse 11 saying … “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? [verse 12] And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? [verse 13] No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  If we mess up our money, how can we ever know what is true wealth?  If we mess up other people’s wealth, how can we ever be entrusted with our own, or come to know what real wealth is made up of.  It is not money.  Money is nothing.  Love is everything.  If we throw away our love for stupidity, how can we ever be truly loved?  For we cannot serve the wealth of this world, and at the same time, the wealth of the next.  The wealth of the next world is all that will ever transcend the one we live in.  And that wealth is made of love and nothing more or less.  Money has no part in the equation.  Money only serves as a distraction from what was ever truly important.  And even in that distraction we find ourselves unfaithful.

To find restoration, we must be willing to be made humble.  We must embrace the cost of what it took to offer us Grace.  We must divorce ourselves from pride of any kind.  Come to know what is truly important.  There should be no plan “B” in any of our relationships, only one plan, God’s plan, we wish to never let go of.  And least of all, there should be no plan “B” where God is concerned.  No attempts to make half-hearted service of any kind – but instead to be content to be the sheep who is led to everything, to food, to water, to the protection of the Shepherd.  The sheep may be dim-witted, it may be fully dependent, but it is never unfulfilled.  Trust brings the contentment that nothing else can.  Let trust in our God begin to bring us commitment, restoration, and a passion for His kingdom that nothing else dare try to replace.