Luke 16:1-13 for Sunday, September 23, 2007

Translation:
(1)And he said to the disciples, "A certain man was rich who had a manager, and he brought charges against him that he was squandering his property. (2)And summoning him he said to him, "What is this I heard about you? Give an account of your management for you are no longer able to manage." (3)And the manager said to himself, "What will I do? Because my master is taking away the management job from me. I am not able to dig and Iam ashamed to beg. (4)I know what I will do so that when I lose my job as manager I may be welcomed into people's homes. (5)And summoning each one of the debtors of his master he said to the first "How much do you owe my Lord? (6)And he said, "One hundred measures of olive oil." And he said to him, "Take your bill and sit down and quickly write fifty." (7)Then to another he said, "And how much do you owe?" And he said "One hundred measures of wheat." He said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." (8)And his master commended the dishonest manager because he acted prudently, for the children of this age are more prudent with their own generation than the children of light. (9)And I say to you, make for yourself friends by means of dishonest riches so that when it fails they will receive you into the eternal dwelling. (10)One who is faithful in little is also faithful in much and one who is dishonest in little is also dishonest in much. (11) If then you have not been faithful in dishonest riches, who will have faith in you with true riches? (12)And if you are not faithful with another's possessionwho will give you what is yours? (13)No slave is able to serve two masters, for he will hate one and love the other or he will be loyal to one and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and money.

So what is going on with this parable? The fact of the matter is that from the earliest times, people have been confused by this parable. A good commentary will present you with several options for what is really happening in this verse. If you're interested in reading about all the possibilities, stop by my office sometime or drop me an email and we can look at them further. For now, I would like to tell you what I think is going on.

First, a "manager" is someone who takes care of his master's accounts. It might be like hiring a financial adviser today. In any case, the manager is in charge of keeping all of his masters accounts in good order. We know that the dishonest manager is about to be fired and his master wants to see the receipts from all the accounts the manger has been in charge of. This would be like a massive audit.

Here's the tricky part: why is the manager going to get fired? What did he do? I think this is a case of usury. The Bible strictly prohibits any kind of usury. In other words, the manager was charging interest on his master's accounts without telling the master. That way, his master was still getting the amount due to him and the manager could keep the interest for himself. When the manager learned that he was about to get fired, he knew that if his clients learned of his dishonest dealings, he would never find another job.

So, the manager does the thing that seems obvious. He reduces his client's accounts so that there is no interest charged. They change the receipts (the same ones his master is looking for). This way, he is looked on with favor by his clients who are now less burdened with a large bill. His master commends him for his "shrewd," or maybe more accurately "prudent," behavior. Why? Because now all of the master's clients think of him as a kind person, willing to give a break every now and then. Everyone wins!

Verse 9 is maybe the most cryptic because it seems that Jesus is telling the disciples to act shrewdly like the manager. What Jesus is saying is that we should also act prudently with our material wealth so that when it is gone we will still be welcome in the eternal home. In other words, do not make a friend of unrighteous riches, but by means of it (the Greek preposition could be translated either way--its an interesting Greek nuance and a little play on words).

Jesus knew that it was impossible to live life without having some contact with money. What he is telling the disciples is to use money prudently in order to make friends and to help others because one day they may run out of money and it will be their friends that they turn toward. You can't have it both ways. You can't be in love with your money and also love your friends. If you love your friends, giving them your money won't be so bad. If you love your money, you'll be willing to sacrifice your friends for it. One or the other--not both. In the end, I think Jesus was trying to say that being wealthy is not a sin in and of itself. It is what you do with the wealth that is important. In the long run, it will always be better to run out of money than to run out of friends.