The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

In Luke 16 Jesus tells this story about a wealthy man who finds out that his manager, who oversees his property and wealth is “wasting his possessions”. So, the wealthy man fires his manager. The manager realized that he is “not strong enough to dig and too ashamed to beg” so he comes up with a scheme to help himself when he’s fired. He calls in all of his manager debtors and allows them to only pay half of what they owe. So, all of these debtors will see the manager as an ally and “so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.”

The master finds out what is going on and actually praises the shrewd manager for what he was doing.

I want to make two points out of this parable toward the times we are living in today.

The first point comes from Jesus summary of the parable in Luke 16:9, “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.”

When Jesus says “unrighteous wealth” this doesn’t mean immoral, simply worldly wealth as opposed to spiritual wealth. Notice what He says next, use your wealth to make friends. How do you do this? By helping those in need. This is not a new lesson in scripture. Use whatever you have to help those in any kind of need. Jesus says, so that when “it” fails. What is “it”referring to? The wealth. Wealth will inevitably fail them – either it will be taken or they will die. Jesus says, “However, they will still be able to invite you into eternal dwellings.” Here’s my take on this. Use your wealth to help those in need so that they will give their lives to Christ and when earthly things fail them, namely when they die, they will have eternal dwellings. Bottom line guys: use your “wealth” to help people in an effort to bring them to Christ.

But I want to say that wealth doesn’t have to be money. It could be anything you have in abundance or that other people need. Food, time, advice, tools, a listening ear. Right now you have a unique opportunity to be there for people and help them during this time. And who knows, if you help them now you may get to see them in Heaven one day!

Then Jesus says this, “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.”

Whatever you have been given – money, property, health, time, the ability to listen or speak, a lawn mower, the talent to cook or fix cars, freedom – whatever you have been given you are meant to manage that as if it belongs to someone else, because it does! And use it to serve God – don’t fall into the trap of serving the gifts He has given rather than the Giver! Here it is use what you have for God, don’t let the things you have use you. In times like these we often discover what our idols are. The things we begin to get frantic about losing, as if all would be lost if they were gone, those are the things that just might matter more to us than Christ. Remember, you can’t own anything here – the only things you actually own are the treasures you store up in heaven. True riches, Jesus calls it.