Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Mark 8:36 (MSG)
Don’t Run From Suffering – Small Things Series – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
I wanted to write a sweet, light-hearted series on how the small things are the big things. But when I looked up the verse everyone thinks of when we talk about this, I found it to be no small thing at all.
Many have preached:
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” (Luke 16:10-11.)
But I’ve rarely heard it in its context. And I completely understand why. Jesus said these words as part of the conclusion to a weird and confusing parable he told where he praised the efforts of a guy we wouldn’t think were praiseworthy.
And then he followed that verse (the one above) up with:
“And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is 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 16:12-13.)
So, was the dishonest manager whom Jesus praised serving God or money when he carried out his plan to land on his feet after he wasted his master's money and honor?
In the original text, Verse 13 doesn’t say, “You cannot serve God and money,” but “God and Mammon.”
Mammon doesn’t directly translate to the word money.
It was the worship of greed and the motivation for profit above community. Perhaps you could say it was the worship of the darkest form of capitalism: fortune for a few at the expense of many.
As Jesus said about the dishonest manager, there's nothing wrong with working hard, trying to make ends meet, providing for your family, and for yourself. And sometimes we have to get creative to do that. Sometimes, to restore honor to those we love, and to those we owe, and to those who owe us, we have to step outside the box. We have to do something. We have to get involved, take responsibility. And that’s what the manager did. Unexpectedly, after he made many mistakes, he was faithful to the honor of his master. He owned it.
In the end, he didn’t value ultimate profit at the expense of his community or soul.
He was faithful in the little. And perhaps, in the days after, he would prove faithful with much.
Jesus said:
“Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Mark 8:36-37 MSG.)
In one of the only and most dualistic statements Jesus ever made, he said: “You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
At some point in your life – perhaps many along the way – you’re going to have to choose divinity or greed? Holiness or profit?
Cos what would it profit you, what would you end up with if you gained the whole entire world, but lost your soul in the process?
Brene Brown said: “Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.”
Carl Jung said: “Shame is a soul eating emotion.”
Perhaps shame drives a person, community, nation, government, empire to overcompensate for its eaten soul by devouring those around them. A love-hate relationship with life and love and power.
What Jesus praised in the dishonest manager is that he didn’t allow shame to keep him in a loop of self-destruction.
There’s much for me to learn from someone like that.
Go to Part 5 – Light and Heavy »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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