SermonStudio

In the scripture lesson for today Jesus tells a perplexing parable about a thoroughly dishonest employee who was praised for his dishonesty. In this story Jesus not only seems comfortable suggesting that it is acceptable to compromise with moral failings, but our Lord appears to commend his disciples to "go and do likewise." For centuries, preachers, commentators, and scholars have struggled to make sense of this outrageous tale.

Let me give some context. The fifteenth chapter of Luke opens by telling us that Jesus is preaching to a large crowd. Scribes and Pharisees object that our Lord spends too much time with the "sinners and tax collectors." As the religious authorities of the time, they have responsibility for monitoring the orthodoxy of Jesus' teaching and then reporting back to the Temple authorities. The religion police are upset that the Master is so welcoming of the morally objectionable that he actually eats with sinners. Jesus responds by telling the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. The fifteenth chapter of Luke concludes when Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son to the scribes and Pharisees. That story continues the theme of God's risky love and radical grace by describing how a loving father welcomes back a wayward child who has just frittered away his inheritance on fast living.

Luke 16 opens by indicating Jesus turned his attention away from those who were trying to undermine his ministry, the scribes and Pharisees, toward those who support him, his disciples. Remember that these folks have just overheard the story about the kid welcomed home after having wasted the family's money. His father gave him a party and did not even tell him, "I told you so."

Let me extrapolate on the ideas as well as paraphrase the story Jesus tells immediately after the Parable of the Prodigal Son: Once upon time there was an incredibly wealthy landowner who heard that the manager of his properties was incompetent or corrupt or both. The rich man called the manager into his office and fired him on the spot. "Clean out your office. Turn in the account books and get out!"

This manager might have been lazy and incompetent. He might have been dishonest. He was not, however, stupid. He thought to himself. "Without this job I am in big trouble. I cannot dig ditches for a living. Shovel handles give me blisters. I am too embarrassed to sit in the intersection holding a sign 'Homeless. Will work for food, but prefer a handout.' Before the word gets out that I have been fired, I had better make some friends among the boss' customers. If I do it right, I can worm my way into the good graces of those rich folks. With luck, so many people will owe me favors that I will not have to work another day in my life. I had better hurry, however. When it gets out that I have been fired, my plan will not work. This scheme is possible only if people believe I am being generous on behalf of the boss."

This conniving scoundrel immediately rushes down to Ruben Levine's Olive Oil factory and offers a deal. "Ruben, you are the Olive Oil King of Galilee, but you are behind on your payments to my boss. You know how much I have always valued our friendship. Well I am going to help you out. You owe my boss 800 gallons of olive oil. I pleaded your case with him and he has agreed to reduce that debt to 400 gallons if paid today." Ruben is thrilled by the opportunity to settle his account.

Immediately the scheming manager heads off to Sam Sha-piro's grain farm. "Sam, no one in this valley raises as much wheat as you do. I know you can afford to pay your debt to my boss, but after I told him what a valued person you are, he gave me permission to offer you a deal. Today and today only, you can have a twenty percent discount." The wheat farmer jumps at the opportunity.

Like Ruben Levine, the Olive Oil King of Galilee, Sam Shapiro, the wheat farmer, owes this conniving property manager a big favor. Each of those fellows has also come to think very highly of the generosity of the rich landowner.

The deceitful manager is pleased with himself. He records these deals in his account books. He may have fallen out of favor with the richest man in town, but he has built a bridge to the future. Two other very important people in town, Sam Shapiro and Ruben Levine, owe him big.

He expects the rich landowner to throw a fit when he finds out that he has been giving deep discounts. Imagine his surprise, as well as the surprise in Jesus' audience, when the dishonest manager drops off the account books and the boss praises him. "Your plan was absolutely ingenious," the landowner says. "You have greatly enhanced both our reputations by using my money! In doing that you have put me in an untenable position. Sam and Ruben think that you convinced me to give them the discounts. If I tell Sam and Ruben that you were not authorized to do that, I look bad, not you. Rather than angry, I am just amazed at how clever you have been."

Jesus follows the parable with some curious comments. He says to his audience, "I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes" (v. 9). Jesus concludes this discussion with the familiar "No slave can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and wealth" (v. 13).

My guess is that very few of you here this morning have ever heard a sermon on that parable. It ranks as one of the least known in the Bible. It doesn't take any particular insight to understand why. The story praises a scoundrel. That message does not seem in keeping with the other teachings of Jesus. Julian the Apostate went so far as to cite this parable as evidence of the inferiority of the Christian faith and its founder.1

I hope this does not upset you too much, but there is no particular agreement on what this parable means. Different scholars interpret it differently. In fact, every commentary I consulted put a slightly different spin on the story's meaning. I suggest it has always been that way. I don't think the people in Jesus' first century audience had the same interpretation. At dinner tables across Galilee that night when this story about the dishonest manager came up, different people gave different interpretations. That is a very normal thing to happen. Different people understand things differently because they are in different places in their lives.

On any given Sunday morning, the minister preaches only one sermon to the congregation. However, every parishioner hears a slightly different message. "Pastor when you said, 'Thus and so about this or that,' it was so meaningful to me. I seemed like you were preaching just to me." The minister thinks, "I did not say anything like that. That is what they heard because that is what they needed to hear." God can use the words of a sermon to bring the message that God wants.

Certainly that happened when Jesus told the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. Different people in Jesus' audience got different messages. Let me offer just three possibilities. All of these can be heard in the parable.

First, some people in Jesus' audience went home that night with the message, "Hey, its only money. Don't make such a big deal out of it."

Remember the context. Jesus had finished telling the Parable of the Prodigal Son. That is the story about the willful child who demanded his share of the family inheritance, then ran off to a distant country, and wasted the money. He goes home and his father welcomes him.

Some people in Jesus' audience had inflated notions of the importance of money. Consequently, these folks were aghast at the way the Prodigal Son treated his inheritance. To them, wasting money on fast living is the sacrilegious equivalent of mistreating holy objects. They think of money as a minor deity in their worldly pantheon.

The message that the Christian faith offers over and over again is that there is nothing sacred about money. In fact, rather than a holy icon, money is just a tool. Money is to be used to accomplish worthwhile things. It is not to be put on the altar and bowed down to. Money is just a resource and it is the most renewable resource on the planet. These folks heard Jesus' admonition on not being able to serve both God and money very clearly. To these folks, Jesus taught a lesson on the place of money.

On the other hand, others in the crowd listened to the parable and their minds gravitated toward the rich landowner. The behavior of the property manager cost him big bucks. Yet the landowner does not get upset. In fact, he is only appreciative that his reputation has been enhanced. To those whose minds fasten on the wealthy landowner, the message is that relationships and reputations are more valuable than gallons of olive oil, bushels of wheat, or stacks of money.

Wise people know to use their fortunes to improve their reputations. One morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel, one of the world's leading industrialists, opened a French newspaper and was shocked to see his own obituary. It was a mistake, of course. It was Alfred's brother who had died. However, Alfred Nobel had an opportunity to read about how other people saw him. The obituary simply called him "The Dynamite King." He had made a fortune in manufacturing and selling explosives, but it rankled him to be thought of that way.

Alfred Nobel decided to use his wealth to change that reputation. He immediately arranged his estate to establish the Nobel Prize, to be given each year to the person or persons who do the most for the cause of world peace. In the past century, it has long been forgotten that the name Nobel once meant "The Dynamite King." Today the name stands synonymous with promoting world peace.2

Let me make a third and final observation. Some people listened to Jesus offering praise for that less-than-perfect manager and heard it as encouragement for their less-than-perfect lives. "If that rascal manager could do something worthy of praise, perhaps there is hope for me." Ordinary people can identify with the imperfections of others. That is why stories of rogues and tricksters were very popular in Jewish folklore.3 It is also why the great heroes of the Bible are always shown to be frail human beings. Jacob, the patriarch, deceived his father, cheated his brother, and scammed his father-in-law out of most of his flock. Great King David lusted after the neighbor lady, committed adultery, and when he got her pregnant, plotted to have her husband killed. The apostle that Jesus chose to head the church, Peter, denied he even knew the Lord on the night of Jesus' arrest.

Ordinary people like us love stories about imperfect people doing something good. As imperfect people ourselves it gives us a little hope. I will admit that that is not a central theme of the parable of the dishonest manager, but it is what many people hear because that is exactly what we need to hear.

Lesson one from the parable: It is only money. It is a renewable resource, not a holy object. Don't worship your money. Use it as a tool for doing good.

Lesson two: Friendship and a good reputation count for more than money. In fact, wise people will use money to do good and thus to improve their reputation.

Lesson three: Even less-than-perfect people like you and me stand a chance with God. Thanks be to God for that.

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1. Lectionary Homiletics, Volume VI, Number 10, September 1995, p. 31.

2. John T. Carroll and James R. Carroll, Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), pp. 116-117.

3. The New Interpreter's Bible: Luke and John, Volume IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 310.