Text: (Lk 16:1-15)
Luke presents us with a series of parables in chapters 15-16 of his gospel. Those in chapter 15 respond to criticism from the Pharisees and Scribes. In their opinion, Jesus should not spend time among tax-gatherers who were ‘sinners by occupation’ and attempting to redeem the unredeemable was a contradiction in terms. Yet in practice, it was those ‘furthest from the kingdom’ who were first to respond. On another occasion Jesus answered these same critics saying “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God!” (Matt 21:31)
How often is it the case that those who are ‘closest’ to the kingdom are the ones who resist entry the most? Those who are sinners and admit it, welcome a saviour and submit to his terms of salvation. Those who do not think that they need salvation, or that they are already saved, do not. This is still true. There are many who think that they have entered God’s kingdom on earth, but have yet to do so.
Thus, in Luke 15, we find 3 parables directed at those who think that they are already saved. They are the parables of: a. “The Lost Sheep” – Lk 15:1-7 b. “The Lost Coin” – Lk 15:8-10 c. “The Lost Son” – Lk 15:11-32
The order in which these were told is important, for no one blames a lost sheep or a misplaced coin. The focus is on the one who has lost them and efforts to get them back. That is remains true in the story of the wayward son. The love of our heavenly Father is the focus of the story and Jesus wanted his critics to see God’s love at work in his own ministry.
While Jesus related these parables, the disciples that Jesus had converted from among the tax-gatherers listened in.
Then, at the beginning of Luke 16, Jesus turns to his new disciples…and tells a parable with which we struggle. Our text breaks down into three parts:
a. The parable of “The Unrighteous Steward” – Lk 16:1-8a
b. The application of the parable – Lk 16:8b-13
c. The derision of the Pharisees and Jesus response Lk 16:14-15
Lk 16:1-15
1 Jesus also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who was informed of accusations that his manager was wasting his assets.
2 So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?Turn in the account of your administration, because you can no longer be my manager.’
3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg.
4 I know what to do so that when I am put out of management, people will welcome me into their homes.’
5 So he contacted his master’s debtors one by one. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 The man replied, ‘100 measures of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man replied, ‘100 measures of wheat.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write 80.’
8 The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than the peopleof light.
9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.
10 “The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
11 If then you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches?
12 And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you your own ?
13 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.”
14 The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him.
15 But Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.
Many consider this text to be one of the most difficult of Jesus’ parables to interpret. There are aspects of it that we may even find embarrassing1. There are aspects of it that make us wonder why Jesus used this illustration. Was the master in the parable commending the unjust steward for Dishonesty? Was Jesus suggesting that there are circumstances under which we may also be dishonest and have God’s approval?
Since it is the nature of parables to have only one main point, let’s take a closer look to see what that point is.
The setting for the Parable.
Chapter 15 is addressed directly to the Pharisees while the disciples of Jesus listen in. At the beginning of chapter 16, Jesus turns to his disciples while the Pharisees listen. At the end of the parable, the Pharisees scoff at the teaching, so Jesus follows this parable with the story of the rich man and Lazarus – which is again directed at the Pharisees.
The disciples on this occasion were probably the very same tax gatherers and sinners mentioned earlier who had come to believe in Jesus. They are not the 12 who are often identified as a group separate from the other disciples. So in this first parable, Jesus pointed out what a convert (a new disciple) might learn and apply from his previous life of sin.
The parable is about a business manager who was wasting or mismanaging his masters property. This has become public knowledge, forcing the owner to put an end to the damage. He calls the man ‘on the carpet’ and demands a final accounting. He wants the books audited, along with an up-to-date record of all transactions, assets and receivables before firing the man.
The text calls the man shrewd, indicating keen awareness, sharp intellect, an eye for the practical application and/or cunning practices. The word for shrewd does not always denote evil, but as Jesus observes, it is more often practiced by the ungodly than it is by the righteous.
In his shrewdness, the man takes stock of his future. Having been ‘found out’, he will soon be unemployed. Since his mismanagement is publicly known, he is probably also unemployable. No one is going to trust him with their assets or business affairs. So he is stuck…or is he? He knows enough about himself to admit that he is unfit for manual labour and ashamed to beg.He is used to being a manager and not disposed to losing his social status. With time running out, he takes steps that leave a portion of his masters wealth in the hands of his master’s debtors, so that he himself can draw on it in the days to come. He places these debtors in his own debt with the implicit understanding that he will be back, to collect.
He does this by calling the debtors, and one by one has them ‘write-down‘ their debts. He seals these agreements to make them legally binding. His gain is his master’s loss. He is able to report that the master’s debts have all been paid in full. Having the ancient equivalent of ‘power of attorney’, he is within his legal rights to do so, leaving his master with no recourse at law.
In its own way, this was ingenious. Had he collected the full debt and kept a portion for himself, the stolen goods could have been recovered and he would be obligated to replace them four-fold. By not collecting them…by leaving them in the debtors possession, it is as if they never existed. Should the debtors fail to give him a share, he could ‘sharpen his pencil’, correct the clerical error and revise his report. They become complicit in his deception and will pay for his silence.
Other Details:
Now the nature of the debts suggests that the debtors may have leased land in return for a set share in the crops. The manager was supposed to keep track of the harvest to ensure that his master received his fair share. The fact that he has to ask the debtors to report on their own harvest suggests that he has not been doing his job.
Some commentators suggest that the steward might simply have removed the interest that had accrued on top of these debts as payment appears to have been delayed for some reason. This could also be mismanagement on the steward’s part. But if this was true, it adds an interesting twist to the story. You will remember that the law of Moses made it illegal for Israelites to charge interest on loans made to their own countrymen.
The law was plain: “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.” (Ex 22:25)
You shall not charge interest to your countrymen; interest on money, food or anything that may be loaned at interest. (Deut 23:19),
Some had found several ways to get around the law, one of which was to have a manager do it, and then deny knowledge of it if came to light. So if this manager was only removing interest that had accrued, he not only pleased the debtors, but could claim that he was bringing his master’s practices into compliance with Moses. Not something that the master could complain about or publicize.2
Under another scenario, the manager might claim that the debts which he re-negotiated were un-collectable – that the debtors were too far in debt. By agreeing to a lower number, he salvaged bad debts and recovered anywhere from 50-80% for his master.
In any event, he acted within his legal authority and in a way that he could ‘explain away’. He was shrewd. Some would say that he had ‘moxie’. On a moral level, he was unfaithful as a manager who broke trust entirely on his way to the unemployment line.
Having read other parables by Jesus, it comes then as a complete surprise that the unjust steward is commended by his master for acting shrewdly. It is not what we would expect nor is the implication that by telling this story, Jesus also approved.
In the parable, it is the master who approved. He did not approve of bad management, the damage to his own reputation, or the unethical transfer of wealth. What he commended was shrewdness and especially the application of it for the purpose of ensuring the manager’s own future. He used money to do it, since the future he was preparing for was life on earth.
That is the point…and the only point.
It is the one that Jesus takes and applies to life in the Kingdom of God and preparations for life in eternity. Jesus makes two statements. The first is (observational) descriptive while the second prescriptive.
He observed that “… the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.” Lk 16:8b
And then he prescribed: “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it is all gone, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.. Luke 16:9
Jesus encouraged us to actively pursue our entry into the eternal dwellings. As the shrewd manager took measures to provide for his future, so should we.
Self interest is at the heart of the Gospel. God has acted in our eternal best interests…and so should we. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers salvation on God’s terms and at his own expense. It cannot be bought with money nor can it be merited or earned. It can be accepted by obedient faith and held onto the same way. On this level, God alone is the one who may welcome us into the eternal dwellings – that Jesus called ‘my father’s house’.
Having said all of that, there is also a role that money can play. As this parable applies to us, the money in this story belongs to our master. We are managers or stewards who will one day give an account of it and of all that we have done in the flesh (Rom 14:11-12).
So, besides God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who else might join in welcoming us into the eternal dwellings…based on our use of money?
May there be those who otherwise might never have heard the gospel? A group of wealthy women supported Jesus and his disciples as they went about preaching about the kingdom of heaven (luke 8:1-3) The church at Philippi began to send money to the apostle Paul on a regular basis, starting as soon as his work at Thessalonica. Their financial support made it possible for Paul to travel and evangelize ‘fulltime’ for extended periods and to reach many who otherwise would not have been saved (Phil 4:15-20). When thanking them for these gifts, he wrote: “I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account. (Phil 4:13).
Perhaps church members will honour those in whose homes they found refuge in times of persecution (Acts 12:12) Patrons who housed the sick, fed the poor and opened their homes for the church to assemble, might surely be among those welcomed. People like Priscilla and Aquila, Lydia, Philemon, Nympha, Gaius, Titius Justus, Crispis and Stephanus in whose homes the church met.
And then there were those who sold assets and donated the money so that new members of the church might stay on in Jerusalem and become grounded in the faith before returning home (Acts 4:32-37).
An unknown number of Gentile Christians gave money for famine relief in Judea. It is first mentioned in Acts 11 during the reign of Claudius. And when famine struck again, the apostle Paul appealed to Christians in Europe and Asia…many of whom gave beyond their means to relieve victims in the church, in Judea (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9). Paul connects the dots. Money given to keep brethren alive is also an offering to God. It multiplies thanksgiving to God who is honoured. He both sees and rewards those who share.
Jesus follows this parable with a further observation about faithfulness, and what it means for eternity, saying: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. (Lk 16:10)
Jesus has not changed the subject. He is still talking about how we use the wealth that God has given us. We are faithful to the will of God when we use it for the progress of the gospel, to relieve poverty, to promote the worship of God or to bestow some blessing to others to the glory of God. Faithfulness is about the quality of our inner being. It is not about how much we have been entrusted with, but what we do with what we have. So Jesus said: “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much”, and “He who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much”.
And then he drew an important conclusion: “If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you. And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:11-12
Jesus reminds us that whatever riches we have are not our own. They belong to God who has entrusted them to us. Our use of God’s things is a test, the outcome of which remains to be seen. If we handle God’s things to accomplish his work on earth, then God will give us something that we can possess for all eternity. It will be our own…and ours to keep.
In this life, we enter with nothing and go out with less. As job puts it, ‘naked I came from my mother’s worm, and naked I will return…” (1:21). We arrived in the world with body and soul and unless our Lord arrives first, we will leave our bodies behind. Wealth will fail, but treasure laid up in heaven will not. To safeguard that treasure, Jesus went on to say: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money”Lk 16:13
When God is our master, money is our servant and can be put to work for God. But we cannot serve both at the same time. Jesus takes direct aim at the insidious side of wealth. It can created a false sense of self-reliance and enable us to have ‘our own will done’, instead of God’s will. We can only master money when God is our master.
When the Pharisees heard this they scoffed, because, they were lovers of money. They were sure that they could love God and money without being mastered by wealth. They were wrong, and so are those scoff at what Jesus said.
Looking into their hearts, Jesus answered:”You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” Lk 16:15
“In the sight of men” is a key phrase. Scoffing at the word of God is the easiest way out, when we want to look good ‘in the sight of men’. And to the degree that the church elevates public approval over God’s approval, it will be molded into the ‘cultural church’.
CONCLUSION
The parable of the unjust steward is not an easy one. It reminds us that we are stewards of God’s wealth and directs us to use it in His service. May we give ourselves first to the Lord along with all that we have. And may we put God’s possession to work with eternity in mind.
Barrie, ON
1This parable is one of three In Luke’s gospel that deals with different aspects of unrighteousness. There is the unrighteous steward Luke 16:1-15. The unrighteous owner (rich man & Lazarus) Luke 16:19-31. The unrighteous judge. Luke 18: 1-9.
2 This suggestion comes from Simon Kistemaker, in a book entitled The Parables Of Jesus p. 228-229