Everything about this story is wrong. It’s as worldly as worldly gets. There’s greed and deceit and selfishness and corruption. And Jesus says, “Be like that.”
This has to be one of the strangest parables Jesus eer told, and the strangest part is that it doen’t seem like there’s anything here worth emulating. The shrewd manager in Luke 16 seems like the last person we’d want to be like. Jesus told this story to his disciples:
There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. 2The rich man called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be manager.’
It’s been a common practice in history that wealthy people will hire someone to manage their household and their wealth. This manager or steward was someone who had a lot of authority and a lot of trust. He was a servant to the owner of the house, but he was like a lord himself, in charge of other servants, in charge of much business, in charge of all the material goods of the house.
This particular man, however, abused that trust. How he did so is not important. He wasted his master’s possessions, perhaps using them recklessly for his own enjoyment. There was no question about it, no doubt that the accusations were false. He had been unfaithful, and he had been caught.
“Give an account of your management,” the rich man told him, “You’re out. You’re fired. You can no longer be my manager.” He might have told him, “Those books, those records better all be in order. I want them on my desk first thing tomorrow, and if there’s a single thing that’s missing I’m hauling you to court and you’re going to be paying for it yourself!”
The manager knew that he was caught. He didn’t try to argue against the accusations. He was out of a job, and that was that. But now what? He hadn’t prepared for this. He might have been wasteful, but he hadn’t been storing up any riches. How was he going to continue living this comfortable life he had gotten so used to? He said to himself,
What will I do, since my master is taking away the management position from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position as manager, people will receive me into their houses.’
5“He called each one of his master’s debtors to him. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write three hundred.’ 7Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and write four hundred and eighty.’
“I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m ashamed to beg.” Manual labor was out of the question. He was used to a sedentary life, and he wasn’t about to give up his fine clothes and his soft cushions. And he certainly wasn’t going to degrade himself by begging. No, a man like him was far too proud for that.
So he came up with a different plan. With his last hours in his position as manager, with his last instructions to get the books in order, he decided to make himself some new friends. As manager of the house he had been in charge of investments, loans, and interest. Guess what, we’re having a sale! He called in everyone who owed his master something, and one at a time he slashed their debts. To some more, to others less, as much as he thought he could get away with.
And you would think that his master, the rich man, would be furious with him. “First, you waste my wealth. Then, when you’re caught with that, you give away the things that are owed to me, all to ingratiate my debtors to you?” But not at all. That’s not how he reacted. Instead, Jesus said,
The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.
This doesn’t mean that the master was happy with what the manager had done. But you might imagine this master hearing of what the manager had done and shaking his head in surprise and saying, “Why, you clever crook. I’m not even mad. I’m impressed.”
It’s a story as worldly as worldly gets, with greed and deceit and selfishness and corruption. And Jesus says, “Be like that.” Jesus ended this story by saying,
The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of the light are. 9I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings.
How is this man a lesson to us? In what way is he an example we should follow? Isn’t this the opposite of how we should be in every possible way?
It’s true that this manager is a bad example in nearly every way. Certainly Jesus does not want us to learn from him to be wasteful. Certainly his attitude, “I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m ashamed to beg.” is one that is not something we should copy. There’s no humility there, no remorse. And the way that he gives away his master’s wealth in order to make friends who will welcome him in is also dishonest and not at all God-pleasing. The only thing left of this man to consider is that he is shrewd.
What does it mean to be shrewd? The word here is really the same as to be wise or clever. The English word “shrewd” is especially appropriate because it includes the idea of being crafty, or Merriam-Webster says, “marked by clever discerning awareness and hardheaded acumen.”
To understand, just look at what this man did. He knew what he wanted. He knew what was important to him. He didn’t give up, but he used every resource he had available to achieve his goal, a dogged pursuit of comfort and temporal dwellings. His means were not good. His goal was not good. He was not good.
But then why is it that those who have a good goal, those who have good means, those who are children of light rather than children of this world—why is it that they are so often so much less driven, so much less wise, so much less shrewd than those who chase with wickedness after wicked goals?
There is a picture of us here in this dishonest manager. As human beings we are created to be the crown of God’s creation and stewards of all God has made. We are managers of nature, managers of our possessions, managers of our own bodies and lives. And how have we used them? Have we faithfully guarded these things for the sake of the one who put us here? Have we invested them wisely? Have we taken responsibility for them? Have we remembered always that we are only humble servants who are managing things that are not our own, but belong to our Lord and Master?
Do we think we’re going to get away with it? Satan is the accuser, but is God caught off-guard by Satan’s accusations? Is he surprised to learn that we have been unfaithful stewards, wasting what he has entrusted to us?
And should we be surprised when God’s law tells us what is coming as the result? “Be ready to give an account. You cannot be manager anymore.” Will we be welcome to dwell in God’s house? Perhaps unlike the manager in Jesus’ story, we think we can solve our problem by digging or by begging. “Some hard work will balance out my crimes, some good works to pay for my sins.” “Please God, please, don’t be angry with me. I’ve tried to be good. My sins aren’t really so great. Will you really condemn me when others are so much worse than I?”
But the real lesson here is that the manager saw worldly wealth as the tool that it is and shrewdly pursued his goal. And this is where we who ought to know so much better than the world around us often make fools of ourselves. To paraphrase something Martin Luther said, “Look at how doggedly the ungodly pursue their wicked goals! Why is it that when it comes to doing good I’m so sleepy and lazy that God must pull me by the hair? Why is that they run full-speed to hell while I creep along to heaven?”
Jesus uses the term “unrighteous mammon.” Mammon is the Aramaic word for worldly wealth. It’s not just money. It’s all worldly goods. And it’s not unrighteous in and of itself, but it’s unrighteous because of how it is used.
In fact the only people who can use mammon in a righteous way are those who have been made righteous by being baptized into Christ. You can’t dig or beg your way out of hell. You can’t buy salvation. But Jesus has already purchased and won heaven for you. The blood he shed has canceled all your debts. He didn’t secure heaven so that you can creep and crawl your way there when you have the spare time. No, he’s opened the doors wide. He’s laid out a rich table of his grace. He’s prepared for you mansions of gold far beyond all the mammon of this world put together.
With these riches from your Savior, things paid for by his blood, don’t spend your time and your mammon worrying about yourself or pursuing unrighteous ends. Fix your eyes on heaven. Pursue that goal with all your heart. Use your unrighteous mammon in the righeousness of Christ. Use it in love to gain friends for yourself, friends who will welcome you into those eternal dwellings. Let us put the world to shame by how doggedly we pursue heaven. With all shrewdness, with all determination, with all love, Christ pursued us. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson