JESUS AND THE SHREWD MANAGER

Luke 16:1-9

Introduction: In 1978, I was the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We housed a church and a Christian school in our building and were experiencing growing pains. So we purchased 100 acres of land for future expansion. Meanwhile, a soybean farmer wanted to rent the land temporarily for his crop. We settled on 20 percent of his income at harvest time as a reasonable rent.

I thought of our renter when I read the parable in Luke 16:1-9. The story is about a landowner, renters, and a rent collector. Instead of soybeans, the crops were wheat and olive oil. The bigger difference is that the rent collector in the parable was a cheat. He “doctored the books” and cheated his boss out of a lot of money. The parable may have been taught in the first century, but it sounds so much like 21st-century Ponzi schemes!

The Story

• A squanderer (16:1-2)—The word steward in the text reminds us of Joseph in Genesis 39:2-4. The word means a “household manager.” Joseph was honest and faithful and successful. This Luke 16 steward was dishonest and a failure. He wasted money. The Greek word diaskorpizon means “to scatter.” This is what the prodigal son did with his dad’s money. It was scattered quickly because he lived on the wild side. In the parable of the shrewd steward, he scattered his boss’s money and a lot of it landed in his own pocket. The word squander ties together Luke 15 and16.
• His scheme (16:3-4)—“I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses” (16:4). When his options were reviewed, it was a short list. Manual labor was out—he had spent all of his life behind a desk. Charity was out—he had too much pride for that! But he had to act fast because his window of opportunity was small. He had been given a few days to go over the books and to estimate the size of the losses. But he was out of a job. In a couple of days, he would have to clean out his desk and be gone. (In 2010, the words, “You’re out of a job,” are heard daily as we spiral downward in a recession. Today, our loss of jobs has nothing to do with failure on our part, but everything to do with the economy.) It may have been in the middle of a sleepless night that the scheme hit him. He decided to call the renters into his office. He had found a way to look out for his future.

• Reduced rent (16:5-7)—Renter #1 had a grove of olive trees on the boss’s land. His annual rent was 100 gallons of oil, produced by his 150 trees. The office manager called the renter down to the office and invited him to pull up a chair and go over the rental contract. No questions were asked when they changed the figure to 50 gallons. This was great news! As the first renter left the office, renter #2 entered. He was in the wheat business and his rent was 100 measures of wheat. He was astonished when his rent was changed to 80. This was money in his pocket! He asked no questions and was whistling with joy as he headed home. The steward was like a spider that had spun a web of deceit and entrapment. What was the plan? In several weeks, the steward’s money would run out. His rent would be due. His cupboard would be bare, and his children would be hungry. He would knock on the door of the olive oil man and state that he was planning on moving in. When resistance came, he had his leverage in the form of a changed rental contract and the threat of telling the boss! All he had to say was, “You wouldn’t want me to tell the landowner, would you?” The same scheme could be used on the wheat grower.

• Commendation (16:8)—“So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” This is an elliptical sentence that needs the concluding words: “than the sons of light are in their generation.” It is a contrast in the making and managing of money by the sons of this world and the managing of money by the family of God. The verse must be read carefully. A quick read might lead to the faulty conclusion that Jesus is commending cheating. Not so. He is commending shrewdness. The Greek word is used in Matthew 7:24 when the wise man builds his house on the rock. It means to act wisely and with foresight. Eugene Petersen’s The Message translates it: “He knew how to look out for himself.”

The Lesson (16:9)

• Money and its use—This rather difficult verse tells us to use our money (mammon) to benefit others and therefore make Christian friends, so that when our life’s journey is over we will be welcomed into heaven.
• Friend-making in century 21—How will the teaching of this parable change our stewardship, our lifestyle, our budget, our attitude? Let’s strive to be “missional” followers of Jesus. May we desire to be just as passionate about reaching neighbors, friends, and family members as we are about reaching those who live thousands of miles away. My mission field personally is profoundly identified in the sign I read every Sunday as I left the church building in Fort Wayne. Over every door that led to the parking lot were the words: “You are now entering the mission field.”

One Response to “JESUS AND THE SHREWD MANAGER”

1. ekgrandma says:

   April 23, 2010 at 2:42 pm

   I had not quite understood the parable about “The Shrewd Steward” before. I had heard it explained, thus. The steward was overcharging the renters and putting the extra money in his pocket, and when he knew there was to be a reckoning he took the extra amount off the amount each creditor owed. However were that the case, the creditors would not have been likely to come to his aid if there ever came the need.