Luke 16:1-15 "Be Like A Bad Manager"
Sometimes when my mom’s birthday was coming up or Mother’s Day or something, dad would give me five or ten dollars to go to the store and get her a gift. So I’d ride my bike to the Pawnee Foodliner or Nelson’s drug store and buy her a funny card, maybe a box of chocolates or a bag of M&Ms—then I’d eat half the bag on the way home before wrapping them up and pocket the change.
She’d open her gift, pretend to love it, eat one or two chocolates—my brothers and I would eat the rest.
That is not the way it was supposed to work.
Today we’re going to look at a parable of Jesus that deals with stewardship. Stewardship is when the owner of something trusts someone and gives them the responsibility to manage it for them. My dad could have just bought gifts for my mom himself and said they were from us but he wanted us to take part in the gift-giving experience. He trusted us to steward his money for the purpose he gave it to us. We didn’t do a particularly good job—Jesus is going to tell a story about a manager who was even worse.
This parable in Luke 16 is one of the strangest stories Jesus told. I’m going to read the whole thing before I start breaking it down and explaining it. I want you to get a sense of how weird it is —before we try to make sense out of it.
[Jesus] said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 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. 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. Luke 16:1-9
Ask 20 pastors what this means and you’ll get 25 answers. It’s a weird one.
On the surface, it sounds like Jesus is praising dishonesty and selfishness. Doesn’t it?
A rich man owns a business, he has a manager who is bad at his job, he’s going to fire him, so the dude hurries up and gives giant discounts to his clients in the hope that they’ll help a brother out when he’s unemployed.
At this point, we might expect Jesus to say the business owner gets mad and has the guy thrown in jail—but that’s not what happens. Instead, He compliments the manager for being so dang clever. The point of the story is that we should all strive to be like that clever manager. Make friends using unrighteous wealth so those friends might bail you out when you get in trouble. People bend over backward trying to make sense of this parable.
I actually don’t think it’s that complicated. Jesus is just telling us how He wants us to be stewards of the things He gives us. How He wants us to manage everything. Let’s walk through it line by line:
VERSE 1:
He also said to the disciples, Luke 16:1
This is the same setting as chapter 15, the audience is the same—half of them are followers of Jesus who look like worldly sinners, half of them are Pharisees and religious leaders who don’t think Jesus should be hanging out, eating and drinking with dirty rotten scoundrels. He told them three stories: about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost sons. The religious leaders are not enjoying storytime at all because it’s obvious they’re being roasted.
Starting in chapter 16, it’s the same audience but Jesus looks at His disciples and directs this story to them—kind of like how you might share an inside joke with your friend at a party.
Still verse one, Jesus sets up the parable: “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.
Successful business owners hire managers to run the day-to-day operations. But this particular rich man hired a turkey. His manager was not doing a good job. It says he was wasting the man’s possessions—it’s the same word Jesus had just used to describe the Prodigal son who wasted his inheritance. This could be called the parable of the prodigal manager.
VERSE 2:
And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
Luke 16:2
In other words, “What the heck man! I trusted you, and this is how you repay me? You’re fired.” He was caught. Clearly guilty. Doesn’t even try to defend himself.
VERSE 3:
And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. Luke 16:3
This is a lot like when the prodigal found himself at rock bottom wanting to eat the pig food—the manager had wasted all the good things he was put in charge of. So he’s thinking about his options. What can he do for a living now? Too weak to dig. Too proud to beg. He comes up with a plan.
VERSE 4:
I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one…, [he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’] Luke 16:4-7
Before the account books are taken away from him and security escorts him out of the building, he’s going to bring in all his clients and give them huge discounts on the money they owe. We’re given two examples—the first is a 50% discount and the second is 20%. We’re talking about a lot of money here. These examples alone would be about two years’ wages—but the idea is that he does the same thing with all his accounts. This little scheme is going to cost the owner of the business a fortune.
What was the manager’s big plan? What did he hope to get out of this? Revenge? Stick it to the man? No, he just wants to leave a good impression with all his clients so maybe they’d help him out when he needs it—and he’s going to need it pretty quick. When it says “may receive him into their houses” might mean as a guest—like “can I crash on your couch for a while?” Or it might be like the Prodigal Son’s plan—he might be hoping they’ll hire him to do some bookkeeping or something.
So all that’s a little surprising but it’s the next part that really makes us go “hmmm.”
VERSE 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. 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. Luke 16:8-9
That’s the weird part. All of a sudden we start wondering who all the people in the story represent. Is the rich man, the master, God? Who’s the bad manager with the clever scheme? Who are the “sons of this world?” and the “sons of light?”
And what is Jesus saying? Why would He tell His disciples to make friends by means of unrighteous wealth? How on earth would that help them get into eternal dwellings?
Are we supposed to be like Christian Viking pirates? Go around breaking the law, cheating people—like Robin Hood? Take from the rich and give to the poor? Basically, act like politicians in Congress?
Verse nine is the point of the story. When Jesus says, “And I tell you,” that means He’s getting to the point. It’s the same as saying, “This is what I’m saying guys!”
“Use your unrighteous wealth to make friends with people. That way, when the unrighteous wealth fails you, (and it will, not “if”—“when it fails you,”) then you’ll have some friends to welcome you into eternal dwellings, someplace safe. Someplace eternal.”
The manager in the story was going to need a soft place to land after he got the boot. So he used his last day on the job to make some friends. Yes, he’s looking out for himself but look how he does it: He uses his power and authority to bless other people. He didn’t just grab the money in the safe and run for the hills. He didn’t line his pockets. He saved his new friends a bunch of money—reduced their debt.
So here’s the key to understanding this parable:
The rich man, the master, is God the Father. He owns everything and hands it over to a manager, a steward, gives him the responsibility to take care of it
Now to understand who the manager is, we have to understand the three layers of this brilliant story.
First, the manager is Israel. The people of God in the Old Testament, including the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. God had given them the responsibility of His Word and the promise of salvation—they were to manage it—supposed to make sure it was distributed to every tribe and every nation. But they had no interest in doing that, they just wanted to keep it for themselves and waste it. Instead of being a nation of priests for the whole world, they were like the prodigal manager. So they were going to be fired.
The second layer is Jesus. Jesus is Israel reduced to one man. Jesus does what Israel failed to do. He called people to Himself and canceled their debt. He made friends with sinners and welcomed them into eternal dwellings.
The third layer is you and me. The church. Christians. Followers of Jesus. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him (just like the manager in the story had the authority to do business in the owner’s name) and then Jesus commissions His followers to take care of His accounts. He said to “go into all the world, baptizing in the name (the authority) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them all His commandments, making disciples of all people—same thing Israel was supposed to do. This is the responsibility Jesus gave us, to steward the mysteries of God, the Gospel. Teach the wisdom of God. Go and cancel people’s debt! Make friends with sinners!
So, God is the owner and master. The manager is a layered reference to Israel, Jesus, and all of us.
“Sons of the world,” those are unbelievers—“Sons of light” are believers. He says the “sons of the world” understand how to take care of the things of the world better than the “sons of light” do. Sometimes us believers can be so focused on what we think are “heavenly things” that we’re no earthly good. Because the way we treat people, what we do with our possessions—those things matter. The things and stuff of this material world matter. Matter matters. God has put us in charge of all kinds of stuff—we need to be faithful with the things He gives us to manage.
Let’s talk about wealth.
Wealth is anything we possess that’s valuable. Money and everything we can buy with it. It’s not necessarily bad to have wealth, but it’s dangerous if we don’t know how to handle it. If we let it into our heart, if we love it, if we hold onto it like Gollum holds onto “My Precious,” it’ll do the same thing to us that it did to him. It gets wrapped around our hearts like thistles, it’s like cancer, and it turns our hearts black. This is everything Jesus calls “unrighteous wealth” or “worldly wealth.” The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Instead of keeping this kind of wealth in our hearts, the only safe thing to do with it is to use it to make friends. To be generous with it.
The Bible has all kinds of things to say about money. Most of it boils down to three big ideas: be thankful for what God has given you to manage for Him, use your money to Worship God and use your money to love people.
Our selfish hearts are greedy little monsters. Stingy hoarders. Always looking for what’s in it for us. Preachers start talking about money and all of a sudden everyone turn into Gollum—put the ring on their finger and disappear.
A lot of people use money and greed as an excuse to avoid being part of a church. They’re like, “All they want is my money.” And a lot of preachers make it worse by talking about giving money all the time, driving fancy cars, living in big houses—wearing all the bling. But then other pastors, probably me included, avoid talking about money as much as possible so we don’t get lumped in with the greedy prosperity freakshow. But that’s not good either because Jesus talked about money a lot—how dangerous it is if we don’t handle it right. And it’s His commandments that I’m supposed to be teaching. All His commandments, not just the ones people want to hear. I’m supposed to be a good manager of what He’s put me in charge of and not waste the wealth of His wisdom. My job is to steward the mysteries of God.
You too. If you’re a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, then you’re supposed to be a good manager of what He’s put you in charge of, too. Money, all the things you buy with money, your time, your talents.
Jesus commands us all to be good stewards. Good managers of everything He trusts us with.
Because it all belongs to Him—He just gives us the responsibility to manage it. Steward it.
And the big point of this parable? Use the worldly wealth God puts you in charge of to bless people. Make friends. Be generous. All of it? 100%? No, some of it has to pay for the actual oil and wheat and all the costs of life—but 50%, 20%—as much as you can get away with? Yes. Extravagant generosity.
There’s also another kind of wealth. The treasures of the kingdom of God. The Gospel. The wisdom of God. Grace, forgiveness, mercy, hope. All the things that, if we fill our hearts with them—it makes us alive! Gives us peace. We need to be good stewards of those things, too. Not be like Israel and just keep them for ourselves, bury them, waste them.
Like the crawfish boil we had a couple weeks ago—it’s a good example of both kinds of wealth. We gave away free crawfish, hamburgers, sodas, peach cobbler. People walked up and they were like, “how much?” When we said it was free, they were like, “Nah. Nothing’s free. What’s the catch?”
But there was no catch. We just wanted to make new friends. I mean, we wanted them to come to church and hear the Gospel, the heavenly treasure we’re also supposed to be good stewards of—which is even more life-changing and spicy than Robert’s crawfish.
But they were right, it wasn’t really free. It cost us a lot of time and money. It’s true, nothing is free. Someone has to pay. We paid for the crawfish. Jesus paid for the salvation.
We did made a lot of new friends that day—some of you have stuck around. I want us to do more things like that. A lot more. That’s the whole idea of NewChurch getting our own place—so we can do all kinds of crazy things to make new friends for the kingdom of God.
It can happen but we’re all going have to pitch in and be faithful managers of what God has given us. Faithful with our money, with our time, with everything. You’ve been blessed to be a blessing. The first ten percent of all our money needs to be given to God so our church can use that money to make eternal friends. God promises you’ll go further on the remaining 90% if you’re faithful with the first ten. The first morning of the first day of the week needs to be given to God by coming to church so we can encourage each other and build each other up so we can make eternal friends. God also promises that we’ll get more done in 6 days if we give the first one to Him. We need to be faithful stewards of our time and money—and talents and possessions. What are you good at? What do you have that God has given you so that you can use it to make eternal friends?
Because we’re either generous and faithful with all those things, or all that stuff becomes a root of evil in our lives.
One more chunk, VERSE 10:
“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 in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:10-12
See how that’s all coming together to make the point that we have to be good managers of what God gives us? If we can’t be trusted with a little then He’s certainly not going to trust us with more. God wants you to have good things but He doesn’t want those things to have you. And this is why…
VERSE 13:
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.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. Luke 16:13-14
Notice it doesn’t say we “shouldn’t” serve two masters—it says we “can’t.” We will either serve God or we will serve our love for money. Want to know who your God really is? Look at your bank account, where do you spend your money? Where your treasure is that is your master.
Jesus said all these things to His disciples but the religious leaders were still there—and they thought He was off His rocker. They loved money and thought the idea of using their wealth to make friends with sinners was the dumbest thing they had ever heard.
The prodigal manager in the story who got fired—he had a big clever plan for setting himself up with a soft landing but it all depended on one big risk. It all depended on his boss being a kind and merciful man. His plan wasn’t going to work unless the owner was willing to cut his losses and let the shrewd manager get away with it. He was counting on his boss being a man of great character—someone who would commend that kind of generosity.
Here’s a thought experiment: What if you wouldn’t be welcomed into heaven unless you were welcomed by someone who was thankful to you for telling them that Jesus has canceled their debt? Would that maybe inspire you to be a better steward of the Gospel? All the grace and forgiveness Christ has trusted you with? What if God only forgives your sins if you let other people know that He’s forgiven their sins, too?
It’s pretty much what He told us. Every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you should be reminded of these challenges: “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” or in other words, “Lord, help me to be Your activity in the world, help me be the person You’ve called me out of the world to be, help me do Your will.” And when we pray “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we’re saying, “Show us mercy as we share Your mercy with all the people in our lives.”
You’ve been trusted with so much. You’ve been forgiven of a lot. Your heavenly Father has given you what He’s given you so that you can be generous with it—not so you can just eat all the chocolate and pocket the change.
May you guard your hearts against becoming enslaved to the pursuit of wealth. Instead, may you use your worldly wealth for godly and eternal purposes—to receive eternal friends into the kingdom of heaven. You’ve been given lasting treasure in Christ—so may you keep a true and faithful perspective on money and goods. Deliver us, Father, from the love of money, but increase our love for You and for one another. Amen.