Introduction:
Money, money, money! As a child, I was told not to talk about money. I thought it was ridiculous then and I still think it’s ridiculous now. In fact, 33% of Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of God use money as an illustration of eternal truths. If we don’t have a proper biblical understanding of money, we do ourselves, the next generation, and the church a huge disservice.
Some reformed people are the worst about money. It’s like there are only two extremes among Christians: either you’re a prosperity Christian who thinks all believers should be rich, or you’re a poverty mindset Christian who thinks even the thought of financial prosperity is heresy. My friend, just chill. Both extremes are wrong.
The Apostle John wishes that the church would prosper in 3rd John. The issue is not whether you should be poor or prosperous, but who you are serving.
You cannot serve God and money. You cannot worship money and God at the same time. Jesus tells a parable to cement this truth in our minds and He does it by putting the Pharisees to shame again. Open to Luke 16.
Scene 1:
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. 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 16:1-2)
This parable comes directly after the parable of the prodigal son, or the parable of the 2 sons as I like to call it. It’s important to remember that the context remains the same. The parable of the two sons was directed at the Pharisees and this parable is no different.
Verse one tells us that Jesus said this parable to His disciples, but as we will see by the reaction of the Pharisees at the end of the parable, this was aimed directly at their money-making religious racket they were proliferating.
For those who may not know it, the Pharisees were a group of religious experts who were supposed to teach the people God’s word and help lead Israel closer to the Lord. However, as often happens when authority becomes centralized with a group of men, they turned into an elitist religious inner circle who were running a purity racket that only they could adhere to. Oh, and of course, they found a way to make a lot of money at the same time.
So Jesus tells another parable for them, in this story there was a rich man and a manager. Just like today, rich people in the ancient world had managers that looked after their accounts. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In the course of time, charges were brought against the manager. You see, the manager was a dishonest man, and sooner or later, his financial shenanigans caught up to him. Word spread that the manager was running a scam and being scammy with his master’s great fortune. Jesus says the charge brought against the manager was that he was, “Wasting his possessions.”
It wasn’t that the manager was just being reckless, he wasn’t just flushing money down the toilet. That’s not what the Greek word used here is describing. The word here is διασκορπίζω (diaskorpizo) which refers to the scattering of the Jews among the gentiles after their captivity. Essentially, he was dispersing his money in a way that was wasteful, not for the manager but for the rich man.
The rich man hears the charge and calls in the manager, “What is this I hear about you? Bring me in the final accounts of my wealth you have oversight over, YOU’RE FIRED!”
Once again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The manager thought he could get away with serving both his master and his insatiable appetite for greed!
Scene 2:
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.”
(Luke 16:3-7)
The manager is caught and doesn’t know what to do. He panics, but then comes up with a plan that will save his sorry behind. He reasons within himself, “Hmmm, I’m not strong enough to dig and do manual labor. I’m also ashamed to beg. I need to do something now, so that when I’m fired people outside my master’s house will receive me into their homes.” So he calls in his master’s debtors, one by one they come in with their bills. He asks them, “How much do you owe?” The first one says, “a hundred measures of oil.” He says, “Very good, see where it says 100, erase that and put 50 instead.” He does the same with every debtor he has oversight over.
It’s a bold move, but would it work? Verse 8 says,
Scene 3:
8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
(Luke 18:8(a))
This one bible verse has tripped me up more than any other verse in the bible. You would expect the master to beat the manager and send him on his way in shame. This has happened in other parables of Jesus, when a servant acts wickedly, but not in this one. In this parable, the master COMMENDS the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
I have mulled over this verse for hours, sought help from other believers, read countless commentaries and could never get a satisfactory interpretation. The question I would ask myself is “Why is the master commending the dishonest manager for his dishonesty?” This seemed like a theological pretzel that I could not unwind.
Obviously, the rich man in this parable represents God, but who is the manager? I always thought the manager represented the disciples, but that can’t be. At the end of the parable, the Pharisees ridicule Jesus for this parable, it is clear that it was targeted at them.
The manager represents the religious Israelite establishment that was tasked with stewarding the riches of the word of God. I was asking the wrong question all along, and I was identifying the manager with the wrong group.
Read this verse carefully, the master was not commending the dishonesty of the manager, he was commending his SHREWDNESS. This is an important distinction. The word shrewdness in Greek is Φρόνιμος which means “acting in wisdom, practical intelligence prudence.” It’s the same word Jesus uses in Matthew 7:24 when he says, “24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise (Phronimo) man who built his house on the rock.”
So then, it was not the dishonesty of the manager that was commended, but it was the shrewdness and wisdom. Further, the word commend means to extol, praise and be pleased with! This leads me to believe that the act of the manager in cutting the bills of the debtors was not a dishonest act, but an act of repentance.
We know the dishonest manager was dishonest with his manager’s riches in a way that led to his own personal financial gain. We know the Pharisees, likewise, were being dishonest with their master’s riches, the word of God, and they were stewarding God’s word in a way that led to their own personal financial gain.
The manager in this parable represents the religious Israelite establishment, tasked with stewarding the riches of the word of God. The question of whether the manager’s act of cutting the bills of the debtors is an immoral act or a wise and prudent one is important to consider. The key is to understand that the manager was not cutting the bills, but rather accounting them honestly.
Just as the Pharisees were heaping extra burdens upon people that God never commanded, the dishonest manager was heaping extra charges upon the debtors that the master did not require. This is why the master was so pleased with the manager’s actions. Not only did the manager gain favor with his debtors, but he was finally being honest.
The one who owed 100, never truly owed 100. He always owed 50, but the manager would charge 100 and pocket the difference. The other who owed 100, always owed 80. This was a common practice among the temple elites, to mark up the animals in the Temple and pocket the difference. The Pharisees listening knew exactly what was happening here.
Given the situation, it was truly a wise, prudent and shrewd course of action. The manager was repenting for his own good and the master praised him for his turn from dishonesty to shrewdness. If only he could have applied that shrewdness to his master’s wealth before he was fired.
The parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16:1-8 is similar to the story of the prodigal son in that both end with a derelict son/servant being received and commended by the father/master after coming up with a plan that would save them from disaster. In the prodigal son story, the son wastes his inheritance and comes back in repentance because he is about to starve and die with the pigs. In this story, the manager sees that he’s about to be homeless with no friends (because he’s been so dishonest) and begins to account properly, gaining favor with the debtors and receiving praise from the master when all is said and done.
Both took action to save their own skin in repentance, and both were received back and commended for it. Jesus continues in the last half of verse 8, interpreting that the Pharisees have been running a spiritual racket and must repent or be fired like the manager.
Scene 4: Jesus Interprets the Parable
(Luke 16:8(b)-13)
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 dwelling. 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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in 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 he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
This was another head scratcher, but makes total sense when you understand the financial racket the Pharisees were running. The Pharisees were ripping people off and stewarding both the financial assets of God and the treasure of the word of God. They were instructed to make friends for themselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive them into eternal dwelling.
Jesus is saying that unrighteous wealth should be used to make friends. He urges them to stop ripping people off and running a dishonest financial racket. He makes it clear that you cannot keep doing this and expect God to look the other way forever. The wealth of this world will fail, but if it is used properly, as a tool to mutually benefit all humanity and spread God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth, then one will be received into the eternal dwelling.
Jesus explains that if you are faithful with a little, you will be faithful with much, and if you are dishonest with a little, you will be dishonest with much. He emphasizes that if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous wealth, with earthly money, why in the world should you be entrusted with the true riches of God?
This is key, Jesus says, if you have not been faithful with that which is another’s (God’s word, the wealth God has entrusted to you), then who will give you that which is your own? The answer is life, life eternal.
Jesus finishes by making it plain to them that you cannot serve two masters, you will either love the one or hate the other, you cannot serve God and money. This is the whole point of the parable. The Pharisees and Israelite elite were dishonest managers, they thought they could serve God and money, but it was not that they made money in service to God that was the problem, it was that they were making that money dishonestly.
The problem was that they were running a purity racket, exploiting the poor, heaping burdens on people they themselves could not keep, and profiting in a dishonest way from religious adherence. They tried to balance two masters, God and money, but the day of reckoning had come.
Jesus was calling them to repentance or He was there to break the bad news, you’re fired. So how did the Pharisees respond?
Scene 5:
In Luke 16:14-17, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees who were lovers of money. They heard all the things Jesus had to say, but instead of listening and learning, they ridiculed him. Jesus responded by telling them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”
The bible gives us the descriptor “lovers of money” to help us understand why the Pharisees were behaving in this way. This is important because it shows that the parable was directed at them. Jesus finishes this section by summarizing the point of the parable as “You cannot love God and money.”
But the Pharisees were indeed lovers of money, which implies that they were not lovers of God. And their response to Jesus makes this clear. They ridiculed him when they heard the parable. The word “ridicule” in this context means to lift one’s nose in derision. The Pharisees essentially lifted their noses high up in the air and said, “Pfft, whatever! What do you know! We are Pharisees, you don’t have the authority to speak like this about US!”
This behavior lends evidence to the fact that they knew this parable was about them. They loved money and they knew it, but they had to keep up appearances. Jesus confirms this when he says, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, God knows your hearts!” He knew it, they knew it, and they knew God knew it too. As a result, they were fired from stewarding the riches of God.
The law and the prophets were until John, the moment John began lifting his voice and preparing the way of the Lord, the good news of the Kingdom began. And Jesus says, “Everyone forces his way into it.” This means that the entrance into God’s kingdom is not for the religious elite to gatekeep. This means the same thing as when Jesus told the Pharisees, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31)
The Pharisees had a racket going on, where they pretended to be the authority on God’s word and used it to gain wealth and power. However, Jesus came and exposed them as dishonest managers, stripping them of their authority and firing them from stewarding the truth of God’s word.
In Luke 16:14-17, Jesus says, “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.” He is not saying that the law of God is now replaced or made void, but rather that the Pharisees had been dishonest in their interpretation and application of the law, and that the kingdom of God was now open to all who would repent and come to the Father in faith.
Conclusion:
Jesus makes it clear that you cannot love God and money. Those who love money have a choice: to repent of their love of money and be commended by God for their wisdom, or to continue in their love of money and have it all stripped away from them and be barred from the kingdom. Money is a beautiful tool that helps humanity scale, but when we love money more than God, it becomes a tool for great evil.
The Pharisees were takers, taking money without adding any value to anyone. As people made in God’s image, we are called to be makers, to use the resources and gifts God has given us to add value to others and reflect His image in us. The Pharisees were perverting the true meaning of being made in God’s image, which is not about taking value from others without adding any value, but about using the resources and gifts God has given us to make more value.
Jesus came and paid the price for our sin. He paid the price with the most valuable currency ever: his own blood.
We owed God an eternal debt and no amount of religious racketeering could pay it. Only one currency is accepted by the Lord for this debt, and that is the blood of Christ.
Jesus was calling the Pharisees to repentance and he’s calling everyone else to repentance too. Turn from your sin, your greed and misplaced worship. Trade in your filthy rags of sin for the perfect righteousness of Christ.
His blood money will wipe away all your sin and make your account whole with the Master forever. Serve Christ, he paid it all!
You cannot serve God and money. If you want money, serve man and you will get money. But at the core of our service for man is our service to God. You cannot serve God and money, but you must serve God and man with money.
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