Luke 16:1–13 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 “ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 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? ¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.”

This past Sunday the Pastor of the church we attended was leading a children’s message on the parable above. When I was growing up it was referred to as”The Parable of the Unjust Steward.” The ESV calls it “The Parable of the Dishonest Manager.” So the Pastor asked the children what it means to be dishonest. He didn’t get a lot of responses, so he asked, “What does it mean to be honest?”  That brought a couple of responses. Then he asked “Have you ever got in trouble?” and one little boy said, “Oh yeah!” And then it started.

This young man became a wealth of honesty. He told on himself, saying that two Fridays in a row he got the worst color you can get on the chart next to your name. The pastor asked him, “Was God happy about that?” This honest little fellow said, “Probably not.” The Pastor affirmed his answer, then asked each child if they had ever done anything wrong. Most of them admitted that they had. One little girl steadfastly insisted she had never done anything wrong.

The Pastor went back to the parable, saying how the Dishonest manager lied and stole from his boss. The honest little man from earlier volunteered how a coworker of his dad lied about doing some work that he hadn’t done. When the pastor went back to how the man in the parable stole, the honest little man said he steals things from his sister. Later he told how he got a spanking for stealing somone’s Halloween candy. The funniest part is this young man’s parents and grandparents were sitting right behind us, mortified by all the revelations he was making. The pastor did a good job of talking about sin and forgiveness, but he had his hands full.

It reminded me of when Cheryl was teaching preschool, and she would share some of the things kids told her in class, things that their parents would be horrified to know they had said. But they were being honest.

Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.

We know that even the most honest of children soon learn to be dishonest. It is not a God-pleasing thing, but it happens in this fallen world. And we deal with dishonesty every day. Often times the dishonesty is an effort to protect yourself from harm or having to pay for you wrong deeds. While that may work with other people, it doesn’t work with God.

God knows exactly who you are. He knows every sin, even the ones you manage to hide from other people. And He knows you deserve to be punished. But out of His amazing love, He let Jesus take your punishment. When you trust in Him, you get the forgiveness you don’t deserve. You have a place in heaven reserved for you for Jesus’ sake. We need to be truthful and honest in sharing that message.

Heavenly Father, help us to be as bold and honest as little children in telling the people we encounter the Good News of Jesus as our Savior. Amen.