Readings:
Jeremiah 8.18-9.1; Ps 79.1-9; 1 Timothy 2.1-7; Luke 16.1-13
May I speak in the name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
I’ve read many commentaries on this parable and none of them agree on the main points.
Here is what they do agree on:
1. The parable ends at verse 8a, with the “rich man” praising the shrewdness of the manager, and
2. That this is the most difficult parable that Jesus told, and that it contains the most difficult verse in the whole of the New Testament, verse 8.
Which says: 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.
Most commentators want to save the parable.
Or rather, they want to save Jesus’ reputation for telling it and the confusion we have in the application that Luke gives it. But do you remember the quote I gave you last week about parables?
Brandon Scott: Parables are not answers, they are provocations.
So what does this parable provoke in you?
I’m going to read through the parable again, stopping at various points and I want you to think about what arises in you. If you have a pen and some paper you might like to jot the questions down. Or maybe you can use the notes app on your phone or send yourself a message.
1 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.
2 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.”
What questions pop up for you at this point?
To me it seems the rich man has believed the report and dismissed the manager without any evidence.
Has this ever happened to you? I remember this happening to my sister with even threats to get the police involved before a proper accounting had taken place.
3 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.
4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.”
5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?”
6 He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.”
7 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.”
What’s being provoked at the point?
I know that some of you have had your own businesses. How would you feel if your manager did something like this?
8a And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly;
This is where the parable ends according to the commentators. What is being provoked in you at the end of the parable? At what point had the manager become dishonest? Is it in the beginning with the accusations? Is it in the dealing with his employer’s debtors?
Now for “the most confusing verse in the whole New Testament…
8b for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
9 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.
What? Now we’re being advised to be dishonest for our own gain? What?
10 ‘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.
11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
13 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.
Provocations? At least now we’re on more even ground. This part we’ve heard before!
While I think it is helpful to sit in the uncertainty of it, I am going to offer what little I can so that you at least have something to go away with. And I am happy to share the articles and direct you to the books that I used.
If all of this is about wealth and faithfulness with money – which it seems the whole of chapter 16 is about – then there is room in me for the Spirit to move and speak. And apologies in advance: you’re going to get a bit of a word study, but I hope not a boring one.
Manager: οἰκονόμον Oikonomon (Oikos – home; nomos – law)
Home in v4: οἴκους Oikous
Home in v9: σκηνάς Skenas - tents
Verse 13: No servant (οἰκέτης oiketes) can be enslaved (δουλεύειν douleuein) to two masters… You cannot be enslaved (δουλεύειν douleuein) to God and wealth.
A manager has to do with the household, just as a servant has to do with the household;
Oikonomos and oiketes. Although we might also associate ‘slave’ – in terms of their work – with the household in a similar way to a servant, the word for slave is derived from the Greek deo which means to bind.
I don’t think there is a redeemable character within the parable. “Rich man” is code in the gospels and in parables that this person is not a hero, definitely not the good guy. So right at the outset we are disposed not to be on the side of the rich man. But how the manager and the debtors behave is also not ok. The manager seeks to beholden the debtors to him so that they will give him either shelter in their homes – their oikos – or bring him on as their own managers (oikonomon). The manager can only see his pride and his tethering to households.
I’m not strong enough to dig… I couldn’t possibly beg… icky.
He is enslaved, bound, to providing his own security. His possessions, his position.
So, when Luke tells us Jesus says in verse 9: make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes, I think he is being ironic.
Firstly, what we have translated as homes here is actually ‘tents’. The Greek says αἰωνίους σκηνάς: eternal tents!
What tent is eternal?
It exposes how “making friends” by dishonest means will not lead to security; either of friendship or of dwellings. Eternal tents!
And so from there, I can understand the connection to verse 13.
No servant (οἰκέτης oiketes) can be enslaved (δουλεύειν douleuein) to two masters; You cannot be enslaved (δουλεύειν douleuein) to God and wealth.
We cannot be bound to both wealth and God. If we are to be faithful to God, we cannot chase wealth in the dishonest way the manager in our parable has. While the debtors might be in a welcoming mood toward the manager in the short term, there will be little trust in the future. Their tents which might shelter the manager in the short term will not be eternal. Their welcome will not be eternal because they have schemed together and been dishonest together.
Finally, in verse 8a, the rich man praises the manager for his shrewdness, or wisdom, not his dishonesty. And that is a very important point. Even though the manager was cooking the books, the rich man could see how he had smoothed things over for himself in a clever way. It is the cleverness that is commended.
Wisdom, shrewdness, cleverness, are all gifts from God. It is how we use those gifts, and indeed any gifts of wealth, that is important.
If we are bound (enslaved) to wealth, then we will put those gifts to preserving that wealth as our god and that can lead to all kinds of dishonest practices.
If we are bound (enslaved) to God, then we will put those gifts to the service of God and God’s creation.
To whom are you bound?