The Hardest Parable (actually, it's not that hard) ~ Luke 16:1-13

16 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 accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 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.’ ⁸ 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. 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.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.” ~ Luke 16:1-13

Pay careful attention:

A seashore is a better place than the street because you need lots of room. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Birds seldom get too close. If there are no snags it can be very peaceful. But if it breaks loose, you won't get another chance.

Confused? Without any context to frame the sentences, this paragraph doesn't make much sense. Now let me read it again, but this time let me provide some context—a one-word frame or interpretive key. The one word is kite. Now see if it makes sense:

A seashore is a better place than the street because you need lots of room. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Birds seldom get too close. If there are no snags it can be very peaceful. But if it breaks loose, you won't get another chance.

Just as the context of the kite helps the paragraph make sense. In the same way, when it comes to the difficult parable of the dishonest manager of Luke 16, if you don’t understand the context you will miss important details and the overall intent. So what’s the kite of this parable about the dishonest manager? What’s the context? What’s the point?

The first point in reading this parable (or any parable for that matter) is to remember that it’s not that hard. The context is key. It’s about the gracious welcome of God and grumbling Pharisees.

The background for our text is all the way back in chapter 14 – Jesus’ regular habit of eating and fellowshiping with “tax collectors and sinners” to demonstrate God’s gracious, disarming welcome, with no strings attached. This concrete ministry sparked outrage from the religious authorities leading Jesus to offer three bombastic parables (chapter 15) about a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost boy (so to speak).  The specific context for the parable of the dishonest manager is Jesus’ response to criticism from the religious teachers and authorities about this welcome (15:2). Part of the reason that we miss these connections is that we are hurt by that which aims to help us – chapters and verse numbers. I know they’re helpful but never forget that they were added much later and not original to scripture. Chapter headings first appeared around the ninth century and verses in the sixteenth century. 

They can help us in many ways but they can also keep us from making broader connections that Gospel writers intended. Chapter headings and verses are themselves, in other words, interpretations. Don’t even get me started on “subtitles” which I believe might have been created by the Devil himself. So when studying the Bible always ask yourself, “What is the broader context?”

 Alongside the setting, however, is Luke’s attention to the audience. In 15:1 we’re told that “tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him” but we’ve already noted that the Pharisees were also there. In 15:2, Luke tells us, “And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” In the beginning of today’s parable it says that “Jesus told his disciples” (16:1) but guess what the Pharisees are still there. How do we know? Well, jump to verse 16:14 and bam! there they are – mocking Jesus – “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.” In other words, Luke warns, when Jesus is teaching the Pharisees are always present. You may think you’re alone, you imagine it’s just you and Jesus, you believe you belong to a community of like-minded, faithful believers where everyone gets along and no one says anything hurtful or harmful or hateful. But friends, listen to Luke, the Pharisees are always there.

So there are two contexts in this parable. One is the contextual theme that Jesus wishes to discuss – the welcome that God/Jesus/and we offer to the marginal (sinners, the outcast, the poor). A welcome that is generous and open, disarming and extravagant, and one that has everything to do with money with no strings attached (go back beginning in chapter 14 and see how money plays a part in all these stories and actions of grace). So the setting for this parable is a context in which grace and economics meet. Where discipleship, welcome, and our wallets are the critical context. 

The other context is audience. In the presence of sinners or saints, outcasts or disciples, the Pharisees are always there – always listening, always grumbling, always undermining. And they aren’t simply curmudgeonly people but a constant presence is Luke’s Gospel insinuating that they exist in all of us - a Pharisaical spirit that seeks to grumble at Jesus’ grace toward sinners and ridicule Jesus’ extravagance for the poor. Ouch! And we haven’t even gotten to the parable yet.

The second point we need to remember is that it’s not that hard. When we understand the context, the meaning is plain. It’s about how we use our money to bless others and secure a welcome for ourselves.

So we’ve already learned that the context relates to hospitality and the lavish welcome of sinners. The meaning then, or theme of the parable, is to further connect with Jesus’ message of welcome and grace. 

The parable begins with a rich man and a manager who is accused of “wasting his possessions.” That manager is called to account and realizes that he is in trouble because the loss of a job would also be the loss of a roof over his head. That’s why his solution, in vs. 4, is to secure a “welcome” for himself in other people’s homes. So he sneakily reduces the financial obligations of his master’s debtors who agree to the ruse as willing participants.

But in a shocking turn of events, rather than being upset by the clear dishonesty, the rich man, who himself seems a bit shady, commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness because he kept the end game in mind and secured for himself a place to go. After that, in vs. 8, Jesus jumps in to offer his own assessment. “Children of this age understand how the world works and use it to their benefit; why do children of light not understand the ways of the kingdom of God? 

Jesus’ use of “this age” in vs. 8 (BTW NOT “world” as the NIV translates) draws on a division of time between the present and the age (or kingdom) to come. So Jesus speaks of the dishonest manager as having prudently taken advantage of the system at this time while stressing that children of light should take their directives from the next age. If they did understand the ways of the new age, how would this be made manifest in their practices? Simply put, in vs. 9 he says that they would use “dishonest wealth” or money of this age to “make friends” in order that they might be welcomed into eternal homes. 

An underlying reality in the first-century world is that “making friends” was a cultural and economic reality. The exchange of money, created and solidified various forms of friendship.  It wasn’t Facebook that maintained friendships but patronage and responsibility. Both money and the manager are characterized as “dishonest” because they both belong to this age and thus have no place in the age to come. Yet, money and remembering the end-game, being mindful of the end, do have a critical role this side of heaven. Use your wealth, Jesus urges, with the end in mind because the poor are the ones who will welcome you. What kind of welcome will you receive?

Jesus then goes on to round out the parable with a few thoughts on money which I would summarize in the form of a question, “If you can’t be trustworthy with money. How can your spirituality be trusted?”  By the way, friends, as far as I’m aware of, Jesus never talks this way about Bible reading or prayer! When the kingdom is our treasure, we switch from hoarding to giving. When we elevate kingdom priorities and keep our end in mind we liberally share our wealth. And in the process we not only restore and liberate the poor but also ourselves. We begin to realize that the enemy of grace might not be works but greed.

Jesus is saying, “I’m not really interested in your story of faith. I want to know about your story with money. Your checkbook will show me what you believe about grace, who you worship, and what you truly believe about salvation.”

Finally, don’t be fooled. This parable is hard. You can wrestle with it. Just don’t laugh. 

I don’t believe that this parable is difficult to understand – that grace, money, and our belief about the next life work and flow from the same place. This parable is hard for one reason. I don’t want to do it. I’m not even sure what to do. I certainly don’t want to connect my spending to my spirituality. I want my Christianity to be about my Bible not my wallet, my worship on Sunday and not my budget on Monday.
 But this is still a parable. It’s okay to be troubled, perplexed, off-kilter, even a bit fearful. Jesus does not offer us a rule, a guideline or even policies that we can either follow slavishly or utterly dismiss. He tells us story that reveals how interconnected and complicated following God can be. Wrestling is a proper response of anyone who would wish to live such a story. But this is neither an excuse to do nothing or to laugh dismissively. Laughter or ridicule is the Pharisaical spirit at work. It seeks to undermine Jesus’ teaching by not taking it seriously.

Pastor Ian has reminded us repeatedly that parables are not really moral fables. They are apocalyptic stories that aim to help us see. It’s not simply about welcoming the poor and the outcast and giving a few dollars. It’s about trusting God’s story of how the world works and God’s declared end for our lives.

But what can you do? What’s one thing that you might engage as a disciple who believes that money and theology connect?  Do something each month or each week that shows you don’t love money. That you don’t serve it. Do something on a regular basis that surprises people with money as an act of grace. Sacrifice something of yours that helps another out. Each week. Can you imagine what our world would be like, think of us, if the church acted like that? So be a disciple. Be like an Austin Perine. 



This is my parable for you. 

(Click on the link and watch the following video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFlO9-poJ8 

Friends, show love with the end in mind. Why is it a four year old of this age is more shrewd in dealing with his own than are the children of light? If we live as apocalyptic people we will surprise our city with the grace of God regularly in ways that show true sacrifice and real love. No one, not even a Pharisee, can truly scoff at that.