Trinity 9 August 14, 2022
Luke 16:1-9 (10-13)
Management 101
v.8 “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”
Beloved in Christ, I’ve never owned nor operated a business as some of you have. I’m definitely not someone whom you would call business savvy—indeed, I hire someone to file my taxes for me because I just don’t understand how it all works. Yet this parable Jesus tells His disciples strikes me as rather odd, especially from a business perspective.
The story goes that a lord discovers that his household manager—one who controlled and looked after all the business aspects for the lord—his very right-hand man as it were, is not doing a very good job. In fact charges were laid that this manager was actually wasting the lord’s possessions. What does the lord do? Does he fire the dishonest manager? Well, sort of, but not fully and completely—not yet. He tells the manager that he may no longer be manager, but does he immediately remove the man from office, at least until such a time as an investigation can be launched into the manager’s accounting skills, so as not to make a bad situation worse? No. Rather, the lord asks for an account of the manager’s activity—and leaves him in charge—with no other supervision in place!
Now that is odd enough. But in looking at the next verses, we veritably shudder at the results of what appears to be the poor wisdom of the lord. For what does the manager do? Does he go and get the books and simply lay them before the feet of his master? No, he starts messing with them. In fact, he acts very quickly to undermine the master’s possessions once again by calling in the man’s debtors and having them reduce their bills by significant amounts.
Now, at this point what would we expect? The fury of the lord against the manager? Perhaps some official criminal charges to be laid, resulting in some hefty punishments and prison terms? Well, that is what we would expect because that is what we would do, but we are astounded at the master’s response (as also Jesus’ disciples would have been as well—especially the businessmen of the group: Peter, Andrew, James, and John who owned and operated their own fishing business, not to mention Matthew who was himself an expert in financial matters as a former tax collector). No, indeed, rather the master actually commends the actions of the dishonest manager. And what’s even more shocking is that Jesus apparently endorses his actions as well and seems to be advocating that we act in a similar way.
That is one reason why this parable has always troubled me, as I’m sure it has many of you as well. Yet, let’s look more closely at the text. What does the manager actually do? When he is told by his lord and master that he is going to be fired he quickly searches out his options. Digging as a general labourer? No, too old—can’t do that. Begging? That’s even worse—it’s downright degrading for a man of his important status to be reduced to that!—not to mention leaving one with very poor prospects. So what then? What can he do? He finds that there is no answer to be found within himself—his own works—his own abilities and talents. Rather, he must search for a solution outside of himself.
Instead of looking to the actions of the dishonest, though shrewd, manager—we must look to what he looked to for his hope and help in time of need. Indeed, to make sense of this entire account there is only one way to look at this parable—through the mercy of the lord.
Sounds crazy right? But just think about it for a minute. The dishonest manager was commended for shrewdly going to his master’s debtors and having them reduce their debts. This would be a dangerous thing to do at any time, but especially in first century Israel where a man could be killed, placed into slavery, or face other dire and severe punishments for such an act.
But look at how he acts. He has the debtors act quickly to change their bills. So that the debtors—people who no doubt rented land from the lord and paid back a tithe to him for it—wouldn’t realize that the dishonest manager was acting without the lord’s prior consent or knowledge. They would think that the lord was the one ordering this generous change on their behalf. Thereby raising up the status of the lord in the eyes of all. Indeed, their readiness to re-write their bills indicates their belief that this generous act comes from the hand of their master, perhaps under the gentle persuasion of the wise steward, but certainly not the steward’s own desperation. Their community is dependent upon the mercy of the generous lord and has come to expect this kind of mercy from him.
When finally confronted with the truth, the lord would have two options: either retract the altered bills, thereby causing unrest and anger toward him from his own beloved people, or, he could leave it alone—thereby receiving praise and honour from his debtors. He goes with the second option, which was really no option at all—for he desires to further secure the goodwill of his renters, and this he does by remaining true to his own character, a character distinguished by love and mercy.
It is then that the master commends the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly as he trusted in the mercy of his lord and staked everything on his compassion. Which is exactly why Jesus commends us to act similarly as well, not only in regard to Christ, but in regard to our very possessions as well.
Possessions often tempt Christians to be distracted from the main focus of their salvation, diverting us from our true source of hope, and riches beyond measure. Often, rather than putting our trust in our merciful Lord and Saviour, we look to our possessions, our own faculties and abilities to give us security and happiness in this world. Look at how we often respond to pleas for mercy and help from our neighbours near and far—those who need our resources of time, talents, and treasures—we often horde these things for ourselves—not only depriving our neighbour—but even our Lord’s church of these much-needed things.
Christ in this parable is here calling us to repentance. Calling us to relinquish our control, our desire, our passion for our possessions—calling us to put our trust not in the things of this world, which are here today and gone tomorrow, which so quickly pass away, but rather to trust in our merciful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He who has given us every good thing. He who loves us without fail for all eternity—He who has taken our enormous debt of sin upon Himself and nailed it to the cross with His own flesh—pouring out His blood to redeem us (buy us back) from the deadly consequences of our sin. We are to trust that He will give us what we need for this life—and ever firmly believe that He has managed our account of sin so perfectly that it has been wiped out from the eyes of His Father forever.
We can serve our neighbour freely with our good works and possessions of time, talent and treasure because our Lord has freed us for this very purpose. In the person and work of His own beloved Son, we have been blessed with a very wise and shrewd steward of our souls. Indeed, our account before our God was deep in the red. No amount of work on our behalf could ever pay for that enormous debt of sin that hangs over every single human head, with the consequences of everlasting death and damnation as our just payment. Yet, by His gracious working—Jesus poured out His own red blood on the cross to cancel our debt, thereby bringing us into the Lord’s good books—the book of Life—forever.
Each week, every day, every hour, every minute that we feel the cumbersome weight of our sin upon our shoulders, slumping us in the debt of our sin—our Lord comes to us with the amazing promise of His own flesh and blood in meek bread and wine—to bring us out of debt again and again—to refresh us with His outpoured mercy—freely given for the sake of Jesus Christ. Our loving Lord has managed our life with His death, freeing us to share all things with our neighbours. He has been faithful in much—so that by His grace, through faith in Him, we might be debt free from sin and inherit the eternal riches of life and salvation. Thanks be to God, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Luke 16:1-9 (10-13)
Management 101
v.8 “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”
Beloved in Christ, I’ve never owned nor operated a business as some of you have. I’m definitely not someone whom you would call business savvy—indeed, I hire someone to file my taxes for me because I just don’t understand how it all works. Yet this parable Jesus tells His disciples strikes me as rather odd, especially from a business perspective.
The story goes that a lord discovers that his household manager—one who controlled and looked after all the business aspects for the lord—his very right-hand man as it were, is not doing a very good job. In fact charges were laid that this manager was actually wasting the lord’s possessions. What does the lord do? Does he fire the dishonest manager? Well, sort of, but not fully and completely—not yet. He tells the manager that he may no longer be manager, but does he immediately remove the man from office, at least until such a time as an investigation can be launched into the manager’s accounting skills, so as not to make a bad situation worse? No. Rather, the lord asks for an account of the manager’s activity—and leaves him in charge—with no other supervision in place!
Now that is odd enough. But in looking at the next verses, we veritably shudder at the results of what appears to be the poor wisdom of the lord. For what does the manager do? Does he go and get the books and simply lay them before the feet of his master? No, he starts messing with them. In fact, he acts very quickly to undermine the master’s possessions once again by calling in the man’s debtors and having them reduce their bills by significant amounts.
Now, at this point what would we expect? The fury of the lord against the manager? Perhaps some official criminal charges to be laid, resulting in some hefty punishments and prison terms? Well, that is what we would expect because that is what we would do, but we are astounded at the master’s response (as also Jesus’ disciples would have been as well—especially the businessmen of the group: Peter, Andrew, James, and John who owned and operated their own fishing business, not to mention Matthew who was himself an expert in financial matters as a former tax collector). No, indeed, rather the master actually commends the actions of the dishonest manager. And what’s even more shocking is that Jesus apparently endorses his actions as well and seems to be advocating that we act in a similar way.
That is one reason why this parable has always troubled me, as I’m sure it has many of you as well. Yet, let’s look more closely at the text. What does the manager actually do? When he is told by his lord and master that he is going to be fired he quickly searches out his options. Digging as a general labourer? No, too old—can’t do that. Begging? That’s even worse—it’s downright degrading for a man of his important status to be reduced to that!—not to mention leaving one with very poor prospects. So what then? What can he do? He finds that there is no answer to be found within himself—his own works—his own abilities and talents. Rather, he must search for a solution outside of himself.
Instead of looking to the actions of the dishonest, though shrewd, manager—we must look to what he looked to for his hope and help in time of need. Indeed, to make sense of this entire account there is only one way to look at this parable—through the mercy of the lord.
Sounds crazy right? But just think about it for a minute. The dishonest manager was commended for shrewdly going to his master’s debtors and having them reduce their debts. This would be a dangerous thing to do at any time, but especially in first century Israel where a man could be killed, placed into slavery, or face other dire and severe punishments for such an act.
But look at how he acts. He has the debtors act quickly to change their bills. So that the debtors—people who no doubt rented land from the lord and paid back a tithe to him for it—wouldn’t realize that the dishonest manager was acting without the lord’s prior consent or knowledge. They would think that the lord was the one ordering this generous change on their behalf. Thereby raising up the status of the lord in the eyes of all. Indeed, their readiness to re-write their bills indicates their belief that this generous act comes from the hand of their master, perhaps under the gentle persuasion of the wise steward, but certainly not the steward’s own desperation. Their community is dependent upon the mercy of the generous lord and has come to expect this kind of mercy from him.
When finally confronted with the truth, the lord would have two options: either retract the altered bills, thereby causing unrest and anger toward him from his own beloved people, or, he could leave it alone—thereby receiving praise and honour from his debtors. He goes with the second option, which was really no option at all—for he desires to further secure the goodwill of his renters, and this he does by remaining true to his own character, a character distinguished by love and mercy.
It is then that the master commends the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly as he trusted in the mercy of his lord and staked everything on his compassion. Which is exactly why Jesus commends us to act similarly as well, not only in regard to Christ, but in regard to our very possessions as well.
Possessions often tempt Christians to be distracted from the main focus of their salvation, diverting us from our true source of hope, and riches beyond measure. Often, rather than putting our trust in our merciful Lord and Saviour, we look to our possessions, our own faculties and abilities to give us security and happiness in this world. Look at how we often respond to pleas for mercy and help from our neighbours near and far—those who need our resources of time, talents, and treasures—we often horde these things for ourselves—not only depriving our neighbour—but even our Lord’s church of these much-needed things.
Christ in this parable is here calling us to repentance. Calling us to relinquish our control, our desire, our passion for our possessions—calling us to put our trust not in the things of this world, which are here today and gone tomorrow, which so quickly pass away, but rather to trust in our merciful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He who has given us every good thing. He who loves us without fail for all eternity—He who has taken our enormous debt of sin upon Himself and nailed it to the cross with His own flesh—pouring out His blood to redeem us (buy us back) from the deadly consequences of our sin. We are to trust that He will give us what we need for this life—and ever firmly believe that He has managed our account of sin so perfectly that it has been wiped out from the eyes of His Father forever.
We can serve our neighbour freely with our good works and possessions of time, talent and treasure because our Lord has freed us for this very purpose. In the person and work of His own beloved Son, we have been blessed with a very wise and shrewd steward of our souls. Indeed, our account before our God was deep in the red. No amount of work on our behalf could ever pay for that enormous debt of sin that hangs over every single human head, with the consequences of everlasting death and damnation as our just payment. Yet, by His gracious working—Jesus poured out His own red blood on the cross to cancel our debt, thereby bringing us into the Lord’s good books—the book of Life—forever.
Each week, every day, every hour, every minute that we feel the cumbersome weight of our sin upon our shoulders, slumping us in the debt of our sin—our Lord comes to us with the amazing promise of His own flesh and blood in meek bread and wine—to bring us out of debt again and again—to refresh us with His outpoured mercy—freely given for the sake of Jesus Christ. Our loving Lord has managed our life with His death, freeing us to share all things with our neighbours. He has been faithful in much—so that by His grace, through faith in Him, we might be debt free from sin and inherit the eternal riches of life and salvation. Thanks be to God, in Christ Jesus. Amen.