Luke 16:1-15
Luke 16 contains two stories concerning worldly possessions, but the first part of this
chapter, which is the gospel reading for today, is one of those difficult passages that is hard to
understand. There are countless interpretations as to what Jesus really meant when the shrewd
manager was commended by the master, but I think there is only 1 good and sound
understanding of this parable which fits very well with the immediate and overall context of
Luke. Nevertheless, I think most of us don’t really like this particular story for at least 3 reasons:
1) because as I just mentioned, we have no idea what it means, why would the manager was
praised for his little tricks? 2) because we also do not understand how that fits with the next
section about money, is Jesus telling us to deceive people??? 3) we really don’t like this passage
because it talks about money, especially our money.
But this is an important passage not only because it is the word of God, but exactly
because this is a difficult one. When we read in the previous chapter in Luke 15 with the parables
of the sheep, coin, and the sons, we understand them and readily remember the stories and the
gospel meaning behind it. But with this one here, when we don’t understand, we have the
tendency to just read it and forget about it. Even when we sort of understand it, it’s still easy to
forget because it’s actually quite abstract, if you just understand the parable only. That’s why
Jesus goes to explain and apply it directly to us, particularly concerning our money and
possessions. Therefore the word of God is for hearing AND also to be kept in our hearts and
minds, and then lived out as dearly beloved children of God.
So what does this mean? Well, let me explain what the parable means in the first place.
The most common mistake in understanding this is to focus on the manager and his apparent
wicked and deceitful acts against his master. Indeed the story introduces to us this manager as
“squandering” his master’s possessions, this is actually the same word used in the previous
chapter when the younger son “squandered” his father’s possessions. And so there are many
parallels between these two parables. The focus and key to understanding both of these parables
is not the dishonest manager or the lost son, but on the MERCY of the master and the father.
So in this parable, the manager is accused of being squandering the property and when
asked about it by the master, he has no excuse. At this point the master has every right to throw
him in jail but he doesn’t (just like the father has every right to beat the son for asking his
inheritance). The master not only does not punish the manager but he even allows time for him to
prepare for a transition. But of course the manager is unable to dig or beg, what else can he do?
He then realizes he must rely on something outside of himself, namely, on the great mercy of the
master and decides to bank on it for one last time for his survival. So he goes to the debtors to
change the bills. In those days, the master would probably be a landlord who rented the fields to
the people so they could grow crops and such. A portion of the yield would be given back to the
master as payment for the rent. The debt that these people owed is no small amount. 100
measures of oil is about 800 to 900 gallons of oil, which is about 3000 to 3400 liters. The amount
for the wheat would be about the same. The manager then reduces the debt so that for both cases,
the value would be the same, so from 1000 danerii to 500 denarii.
With this reduction, what can the master do? He can go to the debtors and revoke what
the manager had done, but what would happen then? He would invoke the wrath of the renters
and he would no longer be a “merciful lord” in their eyes. His other option would be to let the
adjustments stand so that people would truly see him as a merciful lord, which is in keeping with
his own character. He is a merciful lord, that’s his nature, so he has to let it stand as it is.
So the master praises the manager because he trusted in his master’s character, he trusted
in his mercy, so that the manager himself also acted mercifully toward others, though it was not
under his master’s command. Indeed, there’s a paradox here, the manager was first introduced as
unfaithful and unrighteous, but he still ended up acting righteously on behalf of his master
because he was faithful, that is, he trusted in a merciful master.
And this is the point of this story, if even an unfaithful manager can have faith at the end
so that he acted mercifully, how much more for us who do have faith in the heavenly master, the
lord of all things in this world? How then does faith actually relate to this physical life, how does
a life of faith look like in terms of our money and possession? Well, we know the final
conclusion of this passage as stated by Jesus in verse 12 and 13, that no one is able to serve God
and money at the same time, either he will hate one and love the other. Indeed, Jesus’ teaching
on money and possession started as early as in chapter 12 when he talked about the fool who was
only content in his abundance of wealth. That same night God required his soul for his was not
rich toward God. Yet it is our very nature to trust anything but God, we would readily trust in
money than anything else in this world, and ourselves of course because we earned what we
have, haven’t we? But there is something more important than all the treasures of the world IN
THIS TEMPORAL LIFE. That’s why Jesus says this strange saying that we should use this
unrighteous wealth to make friends, so that we may be received into an eternal dwelling. It’s not
that we can actually buy our way into heaven with money, I think most of us can understand this
much, but how does money relate to our eternal dwelling?
One must first understand the dichotomy that Jesus presents from verses 10 to12. Jesus
talks about the small and the great things, the unrighteous wealth and the true riches, and the
things belonging to another and the things belonging to us. These three groups are essentially
referring to the same things, that is, the small things that do not belong to us are the material
possessions in this life, which Jesus calls unrighteous wealth, while the great things that truly
belong to us are the heavenly riches. Think about it, can you truly call the money and everything
else as truly belonging to you? If it is truly yours, do you get to keep them forever? No you
don’t. Your money will one day be spent, either by your or by someone else. Your own body
will die so that you don’t have it anymore in this life. Nothing in this world is truly yours
because it will be taken away from you one of these days. You will never be able to keep them
forever. But there is something that belongs to you forever, something far greater than anything
you have encountered or imagined from this world.
And did you know that this true and lasting riches is now yours through Christ Jesus? We
have it now because it is a gift from God through the death of his son Jesus Christ. He died, but it
is because of his death that he opened to us the door of everlasting life. In this life, there’s joy,
peace, comfort, love, hope that cannot be extinguished. And in the next life, you have true life,
and a heavenly home which also cannot be destroyed. Aren’t these much more greater than
money and all material possessions? These truly belong to us, which will never be taken away
from us. This is the great mercy of the heavenly master, that he would give all these true riches
to us, even though we have not deserved them at all. Can you imagine that master in the story
after all that the manager had done says to him, “ good and faithful servant, receive my son’s
inheritance”? Yet this is what the heavenly master has done with us. He gave his own son’s
inheritance to us even though we have been unfaithful, unrighteous, and self-serving. He is
merciful because he not only does not count our wrongs and punish us right away, but he allows
us time to repent, not only that, he also gives us more than we ever deserved even before we
have thought about them.
In Christ then, we are all counted as being faithful so that God would entrust the big
things to us. If he has entrusted the big and true riches to us, then it also means that he actually
trusts in us in the small things that we find in this world. If even the unfaithful manager can use
the master’s riches wisely in a merciful way, then we who have the true riches from heaven can
also manage the riches of this world in a wise and merciful way. This is why Jesus tells us to use
our money to for our eternal dwelling, not in the sense that we have to secure it with earthly
riches. Again, I remind you that the small things, the earthly riches are not ours, they will be
gone one day. These can certainly not secure the greater riches in heaven. But what Jesus means
is that since we have already been given and have secured these great heavenly riches, we have
the freedom, that is, our hearts are now free to openly, without restriction, use the earthly means
to help those around us, and in helping them we may also share our heavenly riches in Christ
Jesus. So that finally, as Jesus says, when these things fail, when money is gone, when our
bodies are gone, we may arrive at a place where we will meet again those whom we have helped.
When we look at all the abundance of riches that God has bestowed upon us both in the
great and small things, then the act of “giving” is really nothing in comparison. When we see the
mercy of God in all that he has done for us, then we showing mercy is the only natural way of
life. And so the disciple of Christ is one who looks and learns from the mercy of the master. But
he must first himself receive mercy in order to understand mercy. Those who have been forgiven
little loves little, but those who have been forgiven much loves much (Lk7:47). How much has
God given you? How much has he forgiven you? How much time he has given you to repent and
believe in his love and mercy? And how much has he given you in this life and the next? Indeed
too much to count, nevertheless we do not stop counting and continue trusting in that mercy so
that we may also learn in being merciful to others.