Jesus Used a Crook to Teach About Priorities

I’ve been a youth director for over a decade. One of the things I love about working with teenagers is seeing all the seeds of potential within them.

I had one student who would absolutely never sit still. He was always talking when he wasn’t supposed to be. He was always asking the most annoying questions. He did and said things all to get a laugh from whatever audience he had. This was the kid I’d have to keep an eye on during trips and retreats to make sure the mischief that was for sure happening, didn’t get out of hand.

The thing I noticed about him, though, is that when he spoke, his peers listened. The younger students gravitated toward him as well as his friends. Prior to youth group, the students would hang out in the fellowship hall playing games and socializing. At one point, he gathered a group of kids and created a game they named, Wesley Ball. It was chaotic and had too many rules—so many rules that they created a printed manual for reference! And yes, that manual did feature the face of John Wesley! I had to give them points for creativity and for paying homage to the founder of the Methodist movement!

I remember making a comment to this kid that I could see him being a youth director one day. He scoffed at the apparent absurdity of the thought, but I saw how he cared about including kids in activities. I saw how quickly his brain could come up with a fun game. I saw how underneath the annoying questions was a curiosity for how church leaders created a safe space for kids to be silly and serious. I saw how the constant talking, storytelling, and captive audience meant that he would always have opportunities for leadership and to leverage his influence.

At the time, he wasn’t using his wit, humor, empathy, and creativity for ministry purposes. But the seeds were all there.

In Luke 16:1-15 Jesus shares a parable about a clever crook whose main concern was self-preservation. While he used his cleverness to embezzle money from his boss, Jesus made a point to his audience that the same imagination and creativity used to swindle his boss could have been used for good instead. We have every opportunity to use our personality, gifts, intelligence, possessions, and all that’s been entrusted to us, to glorify God.

My favorite comic book hero’s story said it differently: “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” After all, Spider-man had to learn how to use all that he had been entrusted with for good as well—wit, cleverness, and intelligence all included! One of the last events I took the student I mentioned earlier to was an opening night screening of a Spider-man movie some years ago. He was excited because he could see a little bit of himself in that character. I, on the other hand, still saw a bit of a youth director in him.

Sure enough, he became a youth director for a year or so, before he became the summer camp and ministry coordinator at the local camp that the youth group attended annually. Now, he’s funneling all that wit, humor, empathy, and creativity for ministry purposes!

I hope and pray that today, you’ll pause for a moment and take stock of all that’s been entrusted to you and discover how you can creatively utilize what you have to share the love of Christ with others today!