The Unrighteous Steward

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to teach my Sunday school class. It is both a blessing and a struggle. The blessing is the drive it gives me to dive into scripture. I want to be prepared, I want to be ready to share anything God desires. The struggle is pulling the class into the conversation. I think I have a lot of room to improve in this area (lighting a fire, sparking an interest, creating an atmosphere where the entire class can share.)

After speaking with our regular teacher, I decided I would teach about the Unrighteous Steward. A parable in the New Testament sometimes called 'The Shrewd Steward' or 'The Unjust Steward'. I picked this particular parable because I had absolutely no clue what I would say. It was a difficult passage that I had not spent much time on previously. It reminded me of the movie The Sixth Sense. For anyone that has seen this movie, they know there is a huge twist at the very end of the movie. It catches you off-guard (at least it did me.) Regardless you get to that pivotal point in The Sixth Sense and your brain explodes into a flurry of thought. I think God gave us difficult passages for the same reason. At times, I think we browse the Bible half checked out. But when we hit a passage like Luke 16 or Hebrews 6 or any number of difficult passages, we have to stop and think; we can not browse these verses. We are reminded that sometimes, we have to dig deep.

Luke 16:1-13 (NAS)
1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.
2 "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'
3 "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; I am ashamed to beg.
4 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.'
5 "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6 "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And 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?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'
8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
9 "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth."

Who was Jesus talking to? In verse 1:
Now He was also saying to the disciples,

In chapter 15, we saw that Jesus was drawing quite the crowd. We read that he had tax collectors and sinners coming to listen to him. In addition, he had the Pharisees and the scribes. He also had disciples with him, but in chapter 15 we see him addressing the others in the crowd with three parables (The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Prodigal Son.) In verse 1 of chapter 16 it appears as though Jesus changes his focus to his disciples. From previous chapters we can assume there are between 12 and 70 disciples present (possibly even more.) In Luke 6:13 we see there were somewhere between 70 and 120 believers present when Jesus appointed the 12 apostles. Again in Luke 10:1 we see that Jesus sent out approximately 70 believers in pairs to the places he would be visiting.

After coming to the conclusion that the disciples were Jesus' main audience I looked at the major characters in the parable. I could be overlooking the debtors but I saw the master and the manager as the two key characters. Opinions vary here about what each of these characters represent. Several commentaries say that the characters do not represent anything, they are only pieces of the story being used to drive home God's point. Other commentaries say the master is God and the steward is Israel. Still others describe the steward as all believers. While these comparisons may work, I walked away with a message that did not require me to link these key characters to anyone.

With the audience and characters defined I began to work through the story Jesus was sharing. Basically the manager was getting fired. He got caught squandering his master's wealth. Fortunately I have never been fired, but I have survived over twenty lay-offs at my current company. These are not fun. The situation is stressful and the mood can be grim. I can see the manager now; stressed, upset, confused, worried, and disappointed. We even see him ask, 'What shall I do...

Verses 4-7 tell us what the manager did:
4 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.'
5 "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6 "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And 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?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

Opinions are split on these verses as well. There are details that commentaries explore, that I am not convinced have anything to do with the core message of this parable. That said, some of the commentaries thought the master might be in the wrong as well as the manager. When Jesus was telling this parable, it was illegal to charge interest. To get around this many masters would simply charge extra. The manager in this case is relieving the debtors this extra charge. The result is two fold, he gains the favor of the debtors and avoids further trouble with his master (the master would not be able to speak out against what the manager was doing without incriminating himself.) A few other commentaries described the manager's actions as forfeiting his commission.

Regardless, I do not think the manager was up to any good. Looking through all the verses we get a pretty clear picture of the manager. First, we know he is being fired for squandering his master's wealth. Second, at least one commentary described the manager as lazy. In verse 3 we hear the manager say he is not strong enough to dig. However, we have no information that the manager was old or lame. We see nothing that would prevent the manager from digging, except maybe an unwillingness. Third, in verse 6 we see that he is in a hurry to finish his business with the debtors. He asks them to settle their bills quickly. It sounds like he is still doing things he should not and he fears being caught. Finally, in verse 8 we see him described as unrighteous.

So we travel through the bulk of this story and then in verse 8 we get hit with the whammy:
8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly;

I can not imagine this is what the disciples expected to hear. However, if we step back for a minute, I do not think it is as strange as it sounds. We are not told that the master changed his mind about firing the manager, nor are we told that the master is happy. What we do see is the master praising the manager's resolution to his situation. The manager acted shrewdly. He did not do the right thing, but he did gain favor with his master's debtors to ensure his own comfort. I think we have the same reaction sometimes to modern crime. At times we are impressed with the manner in which a crime is committed. We do not approve of the actual crime, nor do we absolve the criminal, but we are impressed with his methods.

Jesus brings home his message in the second half of verse 8:
for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.

Some translations use the word wisdom in verse 8. The Message uses streetwise. When I looked at the different words I preferred shrewd or streetwise. For me, wisdom implies a well rounded application of knowledge where shrewdness is more narrow. Being shrewd is trying to make the right decision for me, opposed to making the right decision regardless of how it impacts me. So what is Jesus telling us?

He does not want us to squander his blessings, to lie, to steal, or to cheat. What is the point of the verse? Jesus is creating a stark contrast between the world and believers. He just told us a story that showed the extreme lengths a non-believer would go to for temporal rewards. If the lost will go to these lengths for temporal rewards, then how much further should the sons of light be going for eternal rewards? I think we can see this better today than ever before. Our society is willing to move half-way across the world for a well paying job. We see corporate leaders stealing, we see warlords killing, we see our world going to extreme lengths to satisfy themselves. And where are the sons of light? Are we willing to move for God? Will we drive more than a few miles for church fellowship? Will we pull an all-nighter for God? Miss dinner? Work a weekend? Travel for a month? Give up sleep? Give up comfort?

8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.

Jesus drives this home even further with verses 9-13:
9 "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth."

Not only is there a contrast between what the world is willing to do for itself and what God's children are willing to do for him, but there is a clear hierarchy to wealth. There is a temporal, unrighteous wealth, and then there are the true riches. When I read of this I thought of the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-24 (NAS)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

I obviously also thought about temporal versus eternal:

2 Corinthians 5:1 (NAS)
1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

John 14:1-3 (NAS)
1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Matthew 6:19-21 (NAS)
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Sometimes I wonder what our eternal dwellings look like compared to the homes of our shrewd society. The sons of this age impress us with the crafty ways in which they obtain expensive cars, homes, stereos, jewelry, and so many other temporal things. How much more shrewd are the sons of this age than the sons of light? How are we using our unrighteous wealth? How are we using our time? The world should be in awe at the ingenious ways we provide for the poor, feed the hungry, love the orphan, love the widow and love our enemies. We stand in awe of the lengths people go to for their own pleasure, when it should be just the opposite. Our love for Jesus should compel us to extend ourselves further than we ever imagined.

Luke 16 was a challenge to me, to all believers. Look around, look at the sons of this age. Why are they extending themselves further than I am willing to extend myself? Further than believers are willing to extend? We need to multiply the blessings, the talents God has given. I think too many of us are burying them. I think I bury mine. Luke 16 challenges me to use them.