In the audience listening to the Lord Jesus were very religious Pharisees and Scribes, Luke 15:1-2. When some ‘tax collectors’ and ‘sinners’ joined the crowd, they criticised Him for having anything to do with them.
They regarded such people as beyond reach, beyond the reach of salvation, not worth bothering with, to be kept at more than arm’s length. So, following on from the previous chapter, the Lord told the crowd the parables of ‘the lost sheep’, ‘the lost coin’ and ‘the lost son’.
Note how in this third parable, ‘the prodigal son’, ‘The older brother became angry and refused to go in’, Luke 15:28. The other brother was angry at how excitedly the father had welcomed back his long-absent brother. A more suitable title for this parable might be ‘The Unforgiving Brother’.
The Lord Jesus then told his disciples the parable of the shrewd manager. This parable was targeted at the self-righteous ones who were in the crowd. He was reasoning with them at their level of understanding. Like Solomon said, ‘answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes,’ Proverbs 26:5.
Jesus accuses a worker of wasting his master’s possessions, Luke 16:1. The manager calls him in to ask for an account of his management because he’s about to get sacked, Luke 16:2. In other words, he’s incompetent; he’s not capable of doing the job. He was probably pocketing his manager’s wealth for his own advantage.
He knows he’s about to get sacked, he knows he’s not strong enough for manual labour and to embarrassed to beg, Luke 16:3. So he comes up with a scheming plan for when he looses his job, and that is people will welcome him into their homes, Luke 16:4.
He was worried about what he could do to secure his future. So, he craftily sweetens the favour of those whose friendship he would need when he became unemployed.
When we read of his plan, it’s clear that his plan was really dishonest. He called in each one of his master’s debtors and asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ Luke 16:5.
The debtor replies, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil, and so, the manager tells him to ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty,’ Luke 16:6. The manager now asks the seconded debtor how much he owes and the debtor tells him, ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ and so, the manager tells him to ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred, Luke 16:7.
Basically, he drops the first debt by fifty per cent and drops the second debt by twenty per cent. The two debtors were quid’s in, but now they owed the manager a favour. He’s trying to make friends quickly in the hope that they will help him out later when he’s unemployed.
Note an important point here, despite the man being legally and morally corrupt, He wasn’t commended for being dishonest, he was commended for his shrewdness, Luke 16:8. Note the word lord used here isn’t referring to Jesus, but the master of the unjust manager.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The master of this unjust steward spoke highly of the address and cunning of his iniquitous servant. He had, on his own principles, made a very prudent provision for his support, but his master no more approved of his conduct in this than he did in his wasting his substance before. From the ambiguous and improper manner in which this is expressed in the common English translation, it has been supposed that our blessed Lord commended the conduct of this wicked man, but the word κυριος, there translated lord, simply means the master of the unjust steward.’
Jesus isn’t teaching us to lie, cheat, or steal; he is commending the shrewdness, the urgency, and the foresight of the manager. The Lord’s critics were far from whiter than white. They saw themselves as ‘the people of the light’, Luke 16:8. Yet it was they who had abused the privilege they enjoyed as servants of the Lord God.
The Lord Jesus isn’t recommending that the children of God should copy the corrupt manager’s tactics, Luke 16:9. He was answering the self-righteous people present according to their own hypocrisy. So, when called to account on the day of judgement, they would be cast out, Luke 16:9 / James 5:1-5 / Matthew 25:41-43. They would finish up spending eternity with many of those they had alienated.
These self-styled ‘people of the light’ anticipated the coming of the Messiah to restore the kingdom to Israel and expected to have prominent roles in that kingdom.
Since they were incapable of handling their dubiously acquired wealth wisely, so as to make friends of those with whom they would spend eternity, how could they expect to be entrusted with the spiritual wealth to be had in that anticipated kingdom? Luke 16:10-11.
The self-styled ‘people of the light’ are expected to inherit wealth and privilege in the Messiah’s kingdom as theirs by Divine right. If they couldn’t be trusted with the property they have extorted from others, how could they expect to be given wealth and privilege in the Messiah’s kingdom? Luke 16:12.
Notice how Jesus personifies wealth, saying, ‘you cannot serve both God and money,’ Luke 16:13. The traditional word ‘Mammon’ means wealth, property, and possessions that have been personified as a master over your life.
They claimed they were devoted servants of God, whilst really, they were devoted to the god of wealth. Yet they alienated those whom they regarded as worldly-wise, the basest of folk, only fit for hell, whom they disparagingly called ‘tax collectors and sinners’, Luke 15:1-2. They were quick to criticise their failings whilst ignoring their own.
In this parable, Jesus targets another hypocritical trait they had, they coveted riches whilst claiming to be spiritually minded, Luke 16:14-15. They were obsessed with acquiring riches, whilst at the same time putting on a show of being very religious. The energy which should have been directed to God was directed to acquiring wealth. Almost as though wealth was a god, Matthew 6:19-21.
I see this as being one of those occasions when the Lord Jesus answered blatant hypocrites with irony so as to try and bring them to their senses. They regarded the outcasts as the type of people who would stoop as low as the corrupt manager did.
They couldn’t see that fault in themselves. But since they were at risk of spending eternity with them, they needed to sweeten their favour so that they would be welcomed by them into eternity, Luke 16:8-13.
The manager is a symbol for the Pharisees in this parable; Jesus is telling the Pharisees how they should behave, rather than just commenting on their behaviour. The Pharisees refused to have anything to do with sinners.
Jesus is simply saying this: the debt that sinners hold is their sin against God, God is the creditor, and you are just the manager. If God can forgive their debt, you should be able to, Matthew 6:12 / Luke 11:4 / Ephesians 4:32.
It would be better for you to forgive their sin on this earth and welcome them to God now than it would be for you to hold them accountable for a debt that isn’t even yours to collect. It costs you nothing and shows the love that God expects. I think the last point of pleasing ‘the master’ is when the manager repents and changes, and rectifies his cheating ways, Luke 16:5-8.
1. We need to prepare for our eternal future.
As Christians, we need to invest our time in things which have eternal value, not waste our time focusing on money. Otherwise, we may be in endanger of losing our eternal salvation, 1 Timothy 6:8-9.
2. We need to use wisdom when dealing with material things.
Everything we have comes from God because He is the owner of all things, Exodus 19:5, and so, we need to use all our material blessings for the good and glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10:31.
3. We need to be faithful even with the little things we have.
Everything we have, even the smallest things we have, should be used for God’s service in His kingdom. Helping the poor and vulnerable, James 1:27, and encouraging the saints, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, every act of kindness should be used to build up God’s kingdom.
4. We need to use our money to bless others.
If we use our money just to satisfy our own needs, then our money can very easily become more important to us than God. When we use our money wisely to bless other people, then we store up treasures in heaven, Matthew 6:20.