The parable of the shrewd/dishonest manager

Yesterday someone came up to me and asked what Luke 16 was really about. To be honest, this is a really difficult parable so much that the NIV gives it one title and the NRSV almost the opposite. If we look at the following encounters and following parables to the shrewd/dishonest manager this seems to be part of a strand of teaching on material possessions: Serving 2 masters, the Pharisees – lovers of money, and the rich man and Lazarus. But if we look what is before, we find the cost of discipleship, what discipleship is about, who are disciples and why are they accepted. I think we can say that the parable covers the subject of money in the context of discipleship.

Why do I think this? Well there seems to be a key question in reading this parable. ‘Is the master in the parable, Jesus?’ and a second consequential one ‘Why does he approve the manager’s behaviour?’ Lets look at the second. Well the manager reduced the amount of money the people owe and the master approves. Perhaps because we forget corrupt business practices. When you have control of money it is easy to siphon off a part of the profits for yourself. Tax collectors during the Roman occupation seemed to do this. In many parts of the world today a bribe is necessary to get a government official to do something. Was the manager wasting squandering or neglecting his duty as steward of resources and service another master? Perhaps the manager in going around in fact was removing his cut/portion of the debt and therefore giving just treatment to those he has wronged. Perhaps his shrewdness was to right the wrongs he had done to others. Perhaps this is a reasonable understanding and allows us to say yes to the first and ‘because the lost manager has repented and returned home.’

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. Luke 16:10