What is Luke 16:1-13 on about? Especially that stuff around v8 about commending dishonesty?.
Luke talks a great deal about money, wealth and how to use it. Luke 16 falls into Jesus’ teaching on this topic. The point of Luke 16 is easy to discern. Be generous and responsible with your resources.
Some initial observations
The parable is about a steward who is accused in v1:
There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.
This idea of wasting his money is like that of the previous story of the Prodigal Son who wastes his Father’s inheritance. It is clear that this type of mismanagement of money requires a response. It can’t be left unchecked.
I guess this shows us our first lesson. We need to be good stewards of our money. Money is a tool. When used properly it is an excellent resource. It can also be a great danger and like all good things that God gives us we can use it serve our own needs and desires.
So, what exactly is the steward doing when he ‘wastes’ the money?
Is the steward inept in his management, just a bad manager or is he siphoning off funds for his own consumption from transactions made? The answer to this question will help make sense of v8:
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
Is his dishonesty what he does in v5-7, letting people pay him back less than what they owe him? Or is his dishonesty siphoning off funds?
V3 tells us of the manager’s pickle – he can’t do anything else but be a manager. So his plan is seen in v4:
I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.
His plan is to counter cultural for any banks or governments – he introduces a deflationary scheme: a 50% & 20% reduction in bills.
There are 3 options to consider what is going on here;
1. The steward just lowers the price and therefore the master later praises the steward for his shrewdness and recognises his dishonesty. This view says that v8 is about v5-7 not v1. View 3 challenges this position.
2. The steward removes the interest charged from the debt in line with Mosaic Law. This doesn’t really hold up though because of the different rates of reduction
3. The steward removes his own commission. This would make the most sense of the master’s commendation in v8. Who is going to commend someone who has actually just cheated them? The steward has reduced what is owed to him and at the same time been faithful to his master as well as making his master look good. Jesus also commends the steward for his behaviour and he would not commend immoral behaviour. This would that the dishonesty mentioned in v1 is about him siphoning off stuff for himself – that is the reason for his subsequent sacking.
Some applications of this text:
The steward sacrificed what he could have taken now and has given it to others so that he can receive gain later. The moral about the use of resources is exactly the application Jesus makes in v8-9
For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings
Jesus’ point is that the people of this ‘age’ give thought to how they use their resources – even if they misuse it they think about it! They think about the short and long term benefits of what they acquire.
We, as well as his disciples should honour and serve God with our resources thinking through the short and long term benefits of our actions. So to gain friends by means of money is to use money in a way that others appreciate you for your exercise of stewardship, your kindness and generosity.
