"Not the prodigal son"
Today we’re looking at what is often called the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, or the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, or similar.
A rich man entrusts his manager with stewardship of his assets. The manager wastes his master’s wealth. The rich man demands an accounting. The manager then reflects. He needs to do something to get out of the pickle. His options are limited. He hits on a plan to use some of the rich man’s wealth to gain friends for himself. The manager now engages in a nice little bit of debt reduction. He calls in his master’s debtors. He reduces the first debtor’s debt by 50% and the second by 20%.
And now, the weirdest thing happens. The master COMMENDS his manager for his prudence! Has the manager actually done something good for his master, and we’ve missed it?
The traditional view is that the manager genuinely cheated his master. The only thing the master commended was the fact that the manager had acted prudently.
An alternative view since about the mid-20th century is that the manager actually benefited his master or did something that he was happy with. There are various creative proposals for how that could be true.
***
This is a famously difficult parable. I don’t think we should be too troubled if, after we’ve looked at it, everything is not clear. Commentators don’t all agree on what it means and there are certainly parts of it that aren’t clear to me. But we can do our best. Even if there are some parts we don’t understand, there will hopefully be some parts we do.
At the end of the parable, Jesus draws some lessons from it. The lessons he draws are presumably the lessons he’d like us to draw. We’ll take a look at those in due course.
But first we need to think about what the parable is about.
We can get a clue by looking at what's been happening. As always, we need to consider the context!
In Luke 15 Jesus has told three ‘lost and found’ parables. The third is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
How does the Parable of the Dishonest Manager link with the ‘lost and found’ parables? It looks very much as though it’s a continuation from them. I don’t want to go into too much detail or we’ll get bogged down. But let me give you two reasons for thinking that the Parable of the Dishonest Manager continues on from the ‘lost and found’ parables in chapter 15.
First, at the start of the Parable of the Dishonest Manager Luke writes, ‘HE ALSO SAID to the disciples.’ ‘HE ALSO SAID’ strongly suggests that Jesus is continuing on the same subject.
Second, the subject matter of the Parable of the Dishonest Manager is very similar to the Parable of the Prodigal Son and to all three ‘lost and found’ parables.
Luke 15 starts off with the Pharisees and scribes grumbling, saying, “This man RECEIVES sinners and eats with them.” Jesus’ three ‘lost and found’ parables are Jesus’ answer. They are his explanation of WHY HE RECEIVES SINNERS. In the Parable of the Dishonest Manager Jesus looks at the other side of the coin: WHAT A SINNER NEEDS TO DO TO BE RECEIVED.
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son the youngest son left home, went to a far country and ‘SQUANDERED his property in reckless living.’ In the Parable of the Dishonest Manager the manager WASTED his master’s possessions. It’s the same Greek word in both cases.
So, it looks as though the Parable of the Dishonest Manager is a continuation of what Jesus has been talking about.
I don’t know what Jesus wanted to talk about after he reached the end of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But if I was one of the disciples, I’d certainly have some questions in my mind. Here are two that I would have asked if I’d been one of Jesus disciples.
‘Hey Jesus ... in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son squandered his inheritance. And yet, his father received him back. So, is what we do with our money not important?!’
‘Hey Jesus … in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son only had to repent and return to his father. Don’t sinners have to do anything?!’
That’s the context. It gives us a clue as to why Jesus might have felt he needed to say a bit more, why he needed to tell the Parable of the Dishonest Manager.
The end of a passage also often gives us a good clue as to what the passage is about. Jesus' conclusion is in verses 10-13. If you glance at these verses you can see that their main theme is money. It's understandable that Jesus would want to say more about money. There was a danger that his disciples might conclude from the Parable of the Prodigal Son that it’s OK for us to squander resources.
***
We’ve looked at the context and seen WHY Jesus might want to tell an additional parable. From the ending it’s clear that Jesus’ main point in the parable is to teach about using money prudently.
Before we go on to look more at the parable, let’s note that Jesus talks about money a lot. In fact, he gives more attention to the subject of money than to any other subject! Christians and churches, however, don’t like to talk about money. There are a number of reasons why that is. But I doubt that they are very good reasons. If Jesus talks about money a lot then so should we. Money may be unrighteous, but we need to handle it properly. It also seems from this parable that what we do with our money has a bearing on our salvation! Who would have imagined that!?
***
We’re ready now to look at the parable.
A) A rich man entrusts his manager with stewardship of his assets.
B) The rich man looks rather like God. God has entrusted humankind with stewardship of many forms of wealth – the created world, among other things.
A) The manager wastes his master’s wealth.
B) The manager looks rather like humankind. We – humankind – have wasted the wealth God has entrusted to us.
A) The rich man demands an accounting.
B) God will demand an accounting from us.
A) The manager then reflects. He hits on a plan to use some of the rich man’s wealth to gain friends for himself. He calls in his master’s debtors. He reduces the first debtor’s debt by 50% and the second by 20%. By doing so, he makes friends. In short, the manager sees the problem and takes measures to resolve it.
B) God expects us to act too!
A) The master COMMENDS his manager for his prudence! It might say ‘shrewdness’ in your Bible but I think ‘prudence’ might be a better choice.
B) God will commend people who show similar prudence. But was the manager's prudent in the fact that he acted promptly to sort out a problem, or was he prudent in the way he managed his master's wealth?
***
Let’s now turn to the lessons Jesus draws from the parable. Actually, to keep things simple, I’m just going to look at the main point Jesus makes. Let me read it again. This is verses 10-13. Jesus says:
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful with the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Jesus is saying that we have to be faithful with the things of this world if we hope that God will entrust us with true riches. The prodigal son squandered his inheritance. Does that mean that it’s all right for a person to waste the wealth that God entrusts us with? Remember, Jesus is speaking here to his disciples. His answer is absolutely not! Why should God entrust you with true riches, the riches of your eternal inheritance, if you haven’t been faithful with ‘unrighteous mammon’ – as it used to be called?
But what does being faithful look like? Does Jesus’ parable give us a clue? On the face of it, it doesn’t. Surely, the manager in the parable WASN’T faithful! He isn’t a good example at all.
I said earlier that there are two main approaches to the parable. The master commended the manager for acting prudently – certainly not for being dishonest! But in what way did he act prudently? Was it that he acted quickly and got himself out of a tight spot – but he still cheated his master? That’s the traditional view. Or did he act prudently in actually doing what his master wanted? That’s the alternative view.
Is it possible that the master was actually happy that his manager had written down his customers’ debts?!
Let’s suppose a contractor does some work for a church. There is some sort of difficulty and the contractor ends up owing the church some money. The church leaders could then decide to write off half the contractor’s debt, or perhaps 20% of it. Would God be pleased if they did that? Church money – and indeed all money – belongs to God. You might say that a good manager should recover everything that is owed. But you might also argue that God wouldn’t mind too much if the church reduced the contractor’s debt. Why might we think that?
We know from the parable of the rich fool that God doesn’t want people to store up wealth for themselves. But we still need to be careful how we use it! However Jesus gives one way we can use wealth well in this parable. The manager uses wealth to make friends.
Well, we need to conclude.
Jesus taught the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son squandered his inheritance. Does that mean that we can do that and expect God the Father to welcome US with open arms? Emphatically not! Jesus – addressing his disciples – tells them they must be faithful with worldly wealth. Indeed, if they are not faithful with worldly wealth why should they expect God to entrust them with true wealth?
The Parable of the Disobedient Manager shows us how we should regard worldly wealth. We should remember that we are managers, stewards. Money and wealth don’t belong to us; they ultimately belong to God. We must not serve money; it must be used to serve God, prudently and yet generously. Blessing others with money can build friendships that may last into eternity.
So, is it all right for God’s people be like the prodigal son and squander wealth? Absolutely not! We are NOT to be like the prodigal son!
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 28/2/2021
