Luke 16.1-13
Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” 6He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’
Every now and again, the bible sends us a curve ball. I remember the first or second sermon I ever preached, it must be about nine or ten years ago now, it was on this passage. Talk about a baptism of fire.
This passage certainly is a minefield, and is a parable that has confused commentators for generations. So, let’s have a go at it and see where we end up.
I’ve entitled this sermon, ‘How to win friends and influence this people.’ This is the title of a very famous book written in the early twentieth century that, to the publishers and author Dale Carnegie’s great surprise, enjoyed overnight success.
Now, I confess that I haven’t yet read it, but bought it yesterday so I could have a look. Here is what the Amazon review of the book says.
“This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated.”
Here are some of the chapter titles;
‘Do this and you’ll be welcome anywhere.’
‘A simple way to make a good first impression’
‘How to make people like you instantly.’
Why am I saying all this? I’m saying all this because I think this parable is a 1st century Palestine version of how to win friends and influence people. We see a shrewd manager, about to be fired, making friends with his master’s debtors by reducing their debts, so that when he loses his position, he will be welcomed into their homes.
This passage, though, has all sorts of problems. After all, it looks like the master has been cheated out of what was rightfully his. If that’s the case, why does the master commend him? Worse than that, why does Jesus commend him?
And also what about Jesus here saying make friends with the dishonest wealth that you have?
Here is one interpretation of the passage, I quote:
‘The first thing to do is to understand how the story works. It looks as though the master in the story had himself been acting in a somewhat underhand manner. Jews were forbidden to lend money at interest, but many people got round this by lending in kind, with oil and wheat being easy commodities to use for this purpose. It is likely that what the steward deducted from the bill was the interest that the master had been charging, with a higher rate on oil than on wheat. If he reduced the bill in each case to the principal, the simple amount that had been lent, the debtors would be delighted, but the master couldn’t lay a charge against the steward without owning up to his own shady business practices. Thus, when the master heard about it (I think ‘the master’ in verse 9 is certainly the master in the story, not Jesus), he could only admire the man’s clever approach.’
Ok that’s one approach, one that ‘solves the problem’ so to speak. But other commentators suggest that the master is indeed entitled to the full payment, and what the steward does is clearly wrong.
Here’s what I think is going on, I think Jesus here is applauding the skills and the savviness of the steward, he is saying that this kind of awareness and action is necessary, even in the kingdom of God.
‘for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.’
Another commentary says this:
“The conduct of the unrighteous manager, when he received notice to give up his place, was undeniably shrewd and skilful. Dishonest as he was in striking off from the bills of debtors anything that was due to his master, he certainly by so doing made friends for himself. As wicked as he was, he had an eye to the future. As disgraceful as his measures were, he provided well for himself. He did not sit still in idleness and see himself reduced to poverty without a struggle. He schemed, and planned, and contrived, and boldly carried his plans into execution. And the result was that when he lost one home, he secured another.”
When we come through the doors of church, there is the temptation to think that all the ways of the world are left behind and we just sit and be all pious and naïve have no sense of ‘the way of the world.’ This is nonsense. This is to forget that Christianity has always been immensely practical, after all the church pretty much created the modern world, double entry bookkeeping and modern accounting methods for example were created by a Franciscan Friar. Christianity is immensely practical and wise. But it’s the use we put that practicality to, that matters.
Now, here me correctly, I’m not saying that the unjust thing that the steward did was justifiable. After all that would turn Christian ethics on its head. Rather, as it says elsewhere in the bible, we need to be ‘wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.’ Whatever the interpretation of the passage, and whichever of the two interpretations I’ve mentioned above is correct, (you’ll have to decide for yourselves) all of our actions, all of our ways of doing things, are of interest to God. I think this is possibly why at the end of our passage Jesus says:
“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’ In other words, make sure you use your skills and talents, your shrewdness, to serve God and not for your own gain.
I remember watching a film, I think it was in the early 2000s about the abolition of the slave trade. William Wilberforce and his partners worked tirelessly to abolish the slave trade.
But Wilberforce wasn’t naiive in his quest; he knew that just having impassioned speeches and campaigning wouldn’t abolish the slave trade. He had a few tricks up his sleeve. In one scene in the film he somehow gets parliamentarians in favour of the slave trade (or at least indifferent to it), to walk passed slave ships in the Thames and see the squalor and the stink so that they would see the suffering they were endorsing. They used parliament’s procedures to their advantage. They targeted other laws that indirectly result in the reduction of the slave trade. They made sure that many MPs were away being entertained when crucial votes happened this is the shrewdness that Jesus is talking about here.
They didn’t just appeal to the moral sensibilities of people, they used all their wiles to get what they wanted to happen, what was right and just to happen. We don’t leave our worldly ways at the door of the church, and so by the same token, we don’t leave our Christianity behind when we leave church, it goes with us out into the world, informing everything that we do.
Let us ensure that all we do, whether simple or shrewd like Wilberforce, done for the glory of god and in service to His kingdom, where justice and peace abide.
Amen.