What can we learn from the dishonest but shrewd manager?

There is a common mistake made about parables, and the mistake is that we often assume that parables are a simple story, made to illustrate a point. Parables are obvious, they are made to be obvious. They are sort of like a sermon illustration, and most of us could list parables and say exactly what they mean, or what we think they mean.

What we forget is that when we are told parables, by people like me standing in the pulpit, we are often ‘told’ what the parable means at the same time. That means we don’t have to think about them as much. We forget that those parables were once heard for the first time, and people had to ponder what they meant and often didn’t understand them.

We forget that people disagree what parables mean, even today. We forget that it matters who the parable is told to. Is it told to the disciples or the pharisees, because Jesus is saying different things to those groups. We forget that Jesus himself explained that part of the reason he spoke in parables was that, “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.” () In some ways, parables are more like riddles that need to be worked out, than simple stories which are easily understood

We forget too that the context in which parables are told is also important. Todays parable comes immediately after one of the most familiar and most loved parables in the bible; the parable of the prodigal son, and immediately before the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. That influences how we understand it. All of these stories were told on the same occasion, some of them directed to the pharisees and others to the disciples, but all as part of the same dialogue.

And its interesting, because today’s parable is much less familiar than both the parable of the lost son and the rich man and Lazarus. Part of the reason for this, I think, is that it’s much less obvious what Jesus means when he tells it.

Let’s remind ourselves of the parable. A rich man has a steward who has been squandering his money. He tells the steward that he is to be dismissed, but first he has to produce the books. The manager, realizing his days are numbered, because he won’t be able to talk his way out of this, quickly comes up with a cunning plan. One by calls in the people who owe his master money at harvest time, gets them to tear up the existing bills, and gets them to make out new bills for a lesser amount.

Amazingly his master commends his dishonest servant for his shrewdness. Even more amazingly Jesus seems to commend him too, saying For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. () That’s why this is a difficult passage. Jesus appears to be commending dishonest practice. What’s it all about?

Well first of all its worth being clear what the manager is and isn’t doing. He’s not steeling, quite. There is no suggestion that he’s pocketing the difference and taking money belonging to his master. The manager knows he will be thrown out on the street with his good name lost. What is he to do? He’s not strong enough to be a labourer and he’s too proud to beg. What he needs is to be taken into somebody else’s household. To do this he needs a favour and by reducing people’s debts to his existing master, in the few moments before he loses his job, other people will be indebted to him. His master will lose some money owed to him, but he will also earn a reputation for generosity, because it will be assumed that the manager speaks for his master when he lowers the debts.

But it’s still a tricky passage, because why is Jesus commending this man? Is he commending this man? Is the master God, because in many of Jesus parables he is? Is Jesus saying God condones this behavior? Surely not. I think you can see why this tricky passage isn’t preached on as often as the parable of the prodigal son which came just before it.

It’s also made tricky by the comments that Jesus makes after it, which don’t seem to make sense? Why does Jesus tell people to use their worldly wealth to make friends for themselves? Why does he talk about people being trusted with very little before they can be trusted with much, and why does he end the passage saying you can’t serve two masters; you can’t serve God and money?

I think to understand this parable we need to recognise the three circumstances that we, sitting here this morning, share with the dishonest but shrewd manager, and we need to understand two contrasts Jesus is making.

I want to briefly talk about the two contrasts first. The first contrast that Jesus makes in this parable is between the ‘people of this world’ and the ‘people of light’. The people of this world are those whose hearts and values are in this world rather than with God; the people of light are those whose hearts and values are with God. Jesus is saying that as ‘people of light’ we can learn some things from looking at people of the world. That’s what’s happening here. Jesus isn’t saying we should be people of the world, just that we can learn somethings from them.

The second contrast is between ‘worldly wealth’ and ‘eternal dwellings’, true riches. “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” ()

By ‘eternal dwellings’ Jesus it talking about treasure in heaven, as he puts it elsewhere. Worldly wealth is our wealth we have here on earth. Our money, our resources, our possessions, even our status. It’s not intrinsically wrong, but it can corrupt us, and we can end up worshipping it rather than God. ‘Worldly wealth is all those things we can’t take with us. As my wife says, “shrouds have no pockets”.

‘Treasure in Heaven’ is the exact opposite. It is our true wealth, waiting for us in heaven. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ().” Jesus tells us in Matthew’s gospel. We don’t have it now, but its there waiting for us when we go to be with Jesus.

So those are two contrasts in this story; a contrast between the people of this world and people of the light, and a contrast between worldly wealth and treasures in heaven. Let’s look at the parallels between us and the shrewd manager?

The first parallel is that although the manager appears to be wealthy, isn’t really his wealth it is his master’s. He has been living as if the money is his, but has been squandering it, using it for his own benefit, rather than that of his master whose wealth it really is. In the same way our money isn’t really ours. We hold it in stewardship from God. Whether we are rich or not so rich, we are not really free to use it as we want, because its not ours its entrusted to us by God, and a time will come when we have to account for how we have spent it. Have we spent it selfishly on ourselves, or have we used it as God would have us use it? In a world of hurting, starving people, have we used our wealth, however small, to help others.

And this brings us to the second parallel; A time will come when the use of that wealth must be accounted for to ‘the master’. For the steward this comes when the master finds out the steward has been squandering his money. For us this comes when we stand before the throne of God after death. If you doubt this will happen, look at the next parable, told to exactly the same people on exactly the same occasion; but aimed at the Pharisees; the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This is a story where a rich man, who has ignored the needs of the poor ends up in agony in Hell. It is a story about the consequence of not considering judgement and eternity.

So, like the dishonest but shrewd manager, our wealth isn’t really ours but our master’s, and, like the dishonest but shrewd manager, we will come to face judgement on how we use it. What is the third parallel.

The third parallel is that like the manager, we must plan for when we no longer have access to that ‘worldly wealth’. For the shrewd steward this was when he had faced the judgement of the master. He had a few moments to think up something to prevent himself from being ruined, and he thought up this clever ruse (and quite funny one, even the master was quite impressed, and wasn’t quite the loser that the story might imply). We will no longer have access to worldly wealth when we die. You can’t take it with you.

It’s as if there are two currencies; worldly wealth and heavenly treasure. You can’t take the worldly wealth with you. It’s the wrong currency, just like you can’t use pounds in America, you have to use dollars. When you travel you have to convert your currency. Worldly wealth isn’t legal currency in Heaven. These days it’s easy to convert currency. You can use your bank cards abroad, or an app on your phone, and it’s all done automatically, but it used to be much more complicated.

I can just remember it, and there will be people here who will remember it well, but it’s not that long since we had to use Travellers Cheques. You had to go into the bank here to pick them up, you had to sign them here and abroad, you had to go into a bank or bureau de change abroad to cash them. There were even restrictions on how much you could take out of the country. It was time consuming and a little hard, but it was what you had to do. In exactly the same way as the dishonest but shrewd manager converted his master’s wealth into goodwill for him, Jesus tells us to use worldly wealth to gain friends for ourselves, so that when it is gone, when it is gone, we will be welcomed into eternal dwellings (). For the manager these friends were rich, influential people who would look after him once he lost his job. For us those friends are the people that Jesus talks about in the next parable; the poor, and vulnerable and abused like Lazarus. Those are the friends Jesus wants us to gain, those are the people whose good will towards us will matter on the day of Judgement.

So there you have it, two contrasts and three parallels, but just before I finish I want to give a warning, correct a possible misinterpretation. Its possible to interpret this story as ‘we get into heaven by giving our money away’, as if somehow, if we are good enough, generous enough, noble enough we will be rewarded by God. Nothing, my friends, could be further from the truth.

Because ultimately the shrewd manager is saved by the generosity of the master, not by his own cleverness, just as the prodigal son in the story before him is forgiven by the incredible grace of his father. Because the master in this story is generous. The story could have begun with the master casting his squandering, dishonest manager into prison for fraud, with no opportunity to devise a plan to save himself, and the story could have ended with the manager being imprisoned, rather than being commended by his master. The plan only works because it depends on people believing it’s the master who is reducing the debts, and it’s the master who gets the public credit for that generosity. The manager knows his master; that’s what saved him.

Let’s respond to the grace and generosity of our master, by resolving to spend our money and lives as he would have us do. Let’s build up treasure for ourselves in heaven by caring for the world and the people in it, let’s show we are trustworthy with a little, so that the father might trust us with much.