The Parable of the Unjust Steward
Jesus and His Stories
Jesus often told stories, and many of his stories, even if you didn’t grow up in church, even if you haven’t read the Bible, you probably know some of the stories of Jesus.
Stories like the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the one about the wise man who built his house upon a rock! The foolish man didn’t and when the rain came down and the floods went up, the foolish man’s house went… “SPLAT!” Like I said, many of you know the stories of Jesus. The parables of Jesus.
Eugene Peterson, who was a pastor and an author, once said…
“Jesus didn’t lecture. He told stories. He knew that if the truth gets told as a story, it will find its way into our hearts.”
I think he was on to something. And I think it’s something all of us know even if we don’t know that we know it.
This is Kind of Like That
One of my favorite things is being a dad. If you have kids or if you’re around kids, you know, you’re going to get asked a lot of questions. When kids are little, they ask questions like, “Why is the sky blue?” “How do birds fly?” “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
As a parent, you could go all scientific with your responses and explain how the atmosphere works and how light waves get scattered as they bounce around off tiny molecules but you know… that answer isn’t going to make any sense at all to a four year old. So instead, you might say something like…
“You know how when we blow bubbles and watch them float in the air, you can see all kinds of different colors in them depending on the sunlight? The sky is kind of like that. When the sun shines the sky catches the light and it just happens to love the color blue the most and it spreads it around for us to see.”
You could explain how birds fly by getting into all the aerodynamics involved in wing span, speed, weight, lift, and everything else but again, it wouldn’t make sense to a child. So you might say something like…
“You know how sometimes, when we’re riding in the car, you like to stick your hand out the window. And when you do, you know how the wind lifts your hand in the air? That’s what birds do with their wings. When they open their wings they catch the air and it lifts them high into the sky!”
Teaching with a Well Told Story
We tell simple stories that explain or help us understand big ideas. And the truth is, we never grow out of this!
When you meet with your financial advisor, they could try and explain all the complexities of investing and strategies for mutual funds and the global economy and stocks and bonds, but if you’re like me you need in simple terms. So they might try to explain by simply saying… You know how you put seeds in the ground and over time, with patience and care, they grow into something much bigger. Investing is kind of like that! Really, all I want to know is when and if I’m going to be able to retire one day.
Same thing is true when you go to see the doctor. I still remember when Alisha and I were expecting our first child the doctor would give us the update at the appointment… Ok, you’re 12 weeks pregnant, you baby is about the size of a lime. Now, you’re 16 weeks pregnant, your baby is about the size of an apple. Now our oldest child is about to graduate and he’s the size of Goliath. 🙂
Vanessa Boris once wrote this in an article for Harvard Business Publishing:
“Organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than learning derived from facts and figures.”
This is what we do with all kinds of complex ideas and information. We tell stories. We use examples. We say, “This is kind of like that.”
Jesus Always Told Stories
And Jesus does the exact same thing when he teaches people about God, about the Kingdom of God, and about himself. He told stories. He talks in parables. He says you see this? Well this is kind of like that.
In fact, Matthew, one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers once said,
“Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables.” – Matthew 13.34
There are many of the parables of Jesus that you probably know and love. If we gave you a mic right now, you could stand up and, without any prep, you could tell us the parable.
Then there are others that, truthfully, we don’t talk about as often. They are harder to understand, confusing, perplexing, and difficult to know what they meant when Jesus first told them, much less what they could possibly mean for us today.
And you may want to call me crazy, but I want to skip over all the parables that many of you know and love and jump right into the deep end of a series of parables that were some of the hardest, most confusing stories he ever told.
These were real head scratchers some 2000 years ago, and not much has changed all these years later. Even the best and brightest scholars can’t agree on what Jesus was trying to say. And I don’t want to pretend like I have it all figured out either. There’s certainly more than one way to read a parable.
That’s part of the genius of Jesus teaching in story. Turn the story this way a little or that way a little, and you can learn something new about God that maybe you’ve never seen before.
But I do want us to lean in, listen, keep these stories in their original context, and see if we can learn something from Jesus together as we invite Him to be our ever-present teacher.
The Parable of the Unjust Steward
Near the end of Luke’s gospel, right after the famous parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the Prodigal Son, there are a series of parables that often get ignored. They’re confusing. Hard to understand.
And this first one found in Luke 16 may be the hardest parable to understand that Jesus ever told. I’m not sure that Luke, who wrote down this story for us, even knew exactly what to do with it!
Scholars can’t agree on what to call it… Some call it the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. Others call is the Parable of the Unjust Steward.
Scholars can’t even agree on where the parable ends. Does it end in verse 8? Verse 9? Or somewhere else?
So why don’t we do this? Let’s read the parable, hear it, and then come back and work our way through it. As you read this parable just ask yourself, what is Jesus trying to teach us about God, about himself, and about the Kingdom of God?
Hear the Word of the Lord:
Luke 16.1-9
1 Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. 2 So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.[a]’
7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.[b]’
8 “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd.
(Some people think the parable ends there — which lines up with a way Jesus would typically end a parable. With a short statement that puts a twist on the story and makes you think. Some scholars think Luke added these next lines, others think this is how Jesus landed the parable.)
And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. 9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
A Little Context Goes a Long Way
OK… So what is it that Jesus is trying to teach us about God, about the Kingdom of God, and about himself in this strange parable about this manager who was wasting his master’s money, got fired, and then, through a surprising turn of events, found favor with his master again?
Before we dive in, I think it’s important to remember the context Luke gives us for this story. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem for the final time. And Jesus knows what awaits him in Jerusalem: death and resurrection.
He is on a mission, and while He is on the way, the stories He tells are not random. They, too, have purpose and intention. And they, too, have something to do with death and resurrection.
Justice
So Jesus tells this story and says…
1 …“There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs.
These are the two main characters in the story. The rich man and the manager.
The owner and the steward.
The master and the servant.
One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
If you’re hearing Jesus tell this story, you’re not surprised by this. And you’re probably not surprised today. If you own a company or a business, no matter if it’s big or small, and you catch one of your employees wasting your money, you’re probably going to fire that person. And you’re not going to feel bad about it.
That’s what they get for wasting your money. That’s what they deserve. And you believe, like we all believe on some level, that people should get what they deserve. If they do something wrong, they should get what’s coming to them. And we call that justice. And we want justice for wrongdoers, don’t we!
When people get what they deserve, we call that justice.
What is hard to see in our English translations is that the word Jesus uses for “wasting” here in verse 1 is the same word he uses for wasting in Luke 15.13 about the Prodigal Son “wasting” his father’s money on wild living. Diaskorpizen is the same verb used in both stories, creating a connection. The Prodigal Son and this Manager have both gone rogue and have something in common in WASTING money.
This guy is about to get fired. As he should. And this is a kind of death. He’s about to lose, to be separated from, life as he knew it before because of his wrongdoing.
The master wants an accounting of everything he’s given the servant to manage, to steward, and the man knows that the numbers don’t add up. He’s wasted what his master gave him. What’s he going to do?
Forgiving Debt?
3 “The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. 4 Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
5 “So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ 6 The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’
7 “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’
What does the manager do?
He could have demanded everyone to pay what they owed! You might think that’s what would have pleased his master the most. But that’s not what he does!
He cuts one guy’s bill in half! Another, he takes off a fifth! And just so you know, these were not small amounts!
800 gallons of olive oil would be the yield of about 150 olive trees and equal the wages of about three years work for the average worker! Just think about your annual salary, multiply it by 3, whatever it is, and imagine owing that much money? Now imagine the bank calling you and telling you that HALF of that amount has just been cancelled!
1000 bushels of wheat would have been enough grain to feed 150 people for a whole year! It’s the amount of wheat you could harvest from 100 acres of land. It’s equivalent to seven and a half years of work for the average laborer! So again, think about your average salary, multiply it times 7.5, whatever it is, that’s what you owe! That’s the debt that you have to repay. And then, imagine getting the call that it’s been reduced by 20%!
We’re not talking about nickels and dimes here, we’re talking about thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, and what is this guy doing who’s just been fired by his master but nobody knows he’s been fired yet? He’s forgiving debt.
What does the manager do? He forgives debt.
He can do that because, by law, as the manager, the steward in charge of the master’s books, he is the agent of the master. Whatever he does or decides to do on behalf of the master, because of his position, it is as if the master is doing it himself!
From “You’re Fired” to “You’re Admired!”
What does the master do when he finds out?
“The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd.
And if you ask me, the parable ends right here!
This is exactly the way Jesus would end a parable. Here’s the twist. Here’s the surprise. No explanation given. No further statement required. We’re left to scratch our heads and wonder, “What just happened!?”
How did the master go from, “You’re fired!” in verse 2 to “You’re admired!” in verse 8?
Somehow, someway, the master turned from an unforgiving bookkeeper to an elated lord because of the managers actions, decision, wisdom, and grace!
Remember, Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he will be crucified as a criminal, hung on a cross between two thieves. And while you and I know Jesus never sinned, Scripture clearly says… “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5.21, NIV
And while Jesus never sinned he certainly consorted with crooks. He broke the sabbath. In the words of Robert Farrar Capon…
“He became sin for us sinners, weak for us weaklings, lost for us losers, and dead for us dead.”
Finding Jesus in this Story
So if you’re looking for Jesus in the story, you might find him in an unlikely place, in the form of an unlikely character, the unjust manager. The one who became the friend of sinners, forgave debt, and received praise from his master for the wisdom of extending such grace.
And you might just hear Jesus say… “The Kingdom of God is kind of like that!”
And if you do you just might think, Thank God we don’t have to deal with a just steward!
Thank God we don’t get what we deserve, that we don’t have to pay back a debt we could never repay.
Forgiveness
What does this look like for you?
Who do you need to forgive?
That becomes the question. And it’s a question only you can answer.
When people get what they deserve, we call that JUSTICE.
When people get what they don’t deserve, when their debts are forgiven, we call that GRACE.
When we make the move from being the steward of our Master who wastes what He has given us to being a steward of our Master who forgives with grace and wisdom, then I believe we, too, will hear the Master say, “Well done. You are to be admired.”
Why? Because, you chose to forgive.
On the way to Jerusalem for one last time, the place where Jesus would experience death and resurrection, Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that this is what forgiveness is. It is death and resurrection.
It is a dying to ourselves, to what we think we’re owed, to the wrong that has been done to us, and it is a rising to wisdom and grace, freedom and peace, and…
We become more like Jesus when we forgive.
So who do you need to forgive today? You can require justice. Or you can be unjust, like Jesus, and give people what they don’t deserve. You can forgive.
What if we all did this? It’s easy to hold on to grudges. We live in a world of angry, frustrated, agitated, unforgiving people.
What if we were different? What if we forgave?
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