A Hard Parable to Understand

The parable of the dishonest manager comes to us in Luke, and for me this was one of the hardest parables to understand. I kept asking myself: why would Jesus be commending or praising the manager’s immoral behavior and dishonesty? It simply made no sense to me and I have struggled for a long time trying to understand it.

I think I finally understand it, so let’s take a look at the parable. Here is Luke 16:1-13 from the ESV:

16 He also 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. 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.’ 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. ⁴ I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ 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.’ 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. ⁹ 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.

Many times we stop reading here, trying to understand what Jesus was commending. However, after this, Jesus goes on to say that people who are faithful with little will also be faithful with much, while people who are dishonest with little will also be dishonest with much. The parable concludes with Jesus saying that no servant can serve two masters, for they will hate one and love the other. You cannot serve God and money. (See Luke 16:10-13)

So, the parable ends with a lesson about faithfulness, and how a person must make a choice between earthly wealth and God. But still the question lingers for many people, myself included for a while; why did Jesus commend immoral behavior and dishonesty? We get hung up on this question in the middle of the parable and sometimes we lose sight of the end.

Was Jesus Commending Dishonest Behavior?

When we dig into the parable, we find that Jesus is not commending the man’s dishonesty, he is commending his shrewdness in dealing with his immediate future. He does not say the man acted morally, or that what he did was right.

When the man realized his future was in danger he took action to secure it. Jesus was using this man’s sense of urgency about his future to compare him to Christians who don’t have a sense of urgency about theirs.

Let’s look at this a little closer.

The Sons of This World vs The Sons of Light

The key sentence we need to look at to understand what Jesus was commending is: “for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

The dishonest manager was asked to give an account for his actions, and we will also be asked to give an account for our actions when we stand before God on judgment day. Jesus was lamenting the fact that many Christians (the sons of light) are not as concerned with our eternal futures as most people (the sons of this world) are with their temporal futures.

We know we are sinners, and we know we will be facing judgment in the future. Yet too often we do not change our sinful ways because we don’t feel that same urgency.

Jesus is essentially saying, look how seriously this man takes his coming reckoning. He understands his time is short and acts accordingly. Why don’t my followers treat their eternal futures with the same urgency?

So often we are quick to act when our worldly possessions are in jeopardy, or when our worldly problems begin to rear their ugly heads, but we are slower to look inward to see if we have spiritual deficiencies that hurt our personal relationships with God.

Conclusion

I know how easy it is to get caught up in our earthly problems and goals, but our focus should be on God and eternity. When we start to get overwhelmed, or consumed by earthly problems, we start to lose our focus on God. We must take a step back and examine our priorities.

We must ask ourselves if we are serious about our futures with Christ? Are we living our lives as if we are followers of Christ? This means refocusing on God, and making Him the top priority in our lives before it is too late.

It comes back around to the end of the parable, which is so often missed: do we serve worldly money or do we choose God over all else? We can’t do both; the sons of this world serve one master, while the sons of light are supposed to be serving God. Are we taking the time to make sure that we are?

Our time is short and we should face our eternal futures with as much urgency as those who are concerned with their worldly future. Unlike the dishonest manager, if we decide to serve money in this life we will not be able to use it to negotiate our debt when we stand before Christ.

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