Jesus’ Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-13)
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Wes McAdams and today’s guest, Luke Dockery, discuss the meaning of Jesus’ parable of the shrewd, dishonest, or unjust manager from Luke 16:1-13. What does Jesus mean by commending a dishonest or shrewd man? What does Jesus mean when he says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth” (Luke 16:9)? Is Jesus being ironic or is Jesus teaching us how we should use money? Wes and Luke discuss both possibilities. Special thanks to John Shipley, one of our listeners, who submitted this question for discussion.
Today’s guest, Luke Dockery, is the Youth in Family Minister for the Cloverdale Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. One of the resources Luke recommended during the discussion was Ian Paul’s article, “Can We Read the Unjust Steward in Luke 16 with Irony?” (www.psephizo.c....
Also, one of the resources Wes McAdams recommended during the discussion was the Bible Project Podcast, on which Jon and Tim discuss this particular parable (bibleproject.c....
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Wes makes a great point about Luke's Gospel account from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus: the point of that parable is about how we treat the poor, not the spatial divisions of the afterlife! Placed in its larger context, many Lukan parables focus on good stewardship of our resources. Great conversation, guys!
Thanks, brother!
Brothers, thanks for your well-prepared and lively presentation. May I ask a question? Why, if the shrewd manager was acting dishonestly, would he think a future employer would hire a dishonest manager? (In your business, would you employ a person who was eager to defraud his employer?) I have an idea about this, but I'd like to know yours.
As I understand the parable, the manager was not counting on any future employment, but rather on the kindness of the people he had helped. The idea is that the people he helped would be relationally indebted to him, so they would provide for his needs in the future. They would welcome him into their homes.
The application in my mind is that this mirrors the way we should give to people now, so that in the age to come, we have a place in the "eternal dwellings" with the Lord, because of our present generosity.
According to brother Dockery's interpretation, Jesus would be using irony to admonish this type of using money to make relationships.
Wes, thanks for your kind reply. It's clear you've given this a lot of thought. Are you willing to consider a rather different take? Might the debtors have "welcomed him" because the steward had kindly recognized that the sincere debtors were no longer capable of paying their debt?
The steward was accused, but never convicted, of wasting his master’s goods. (Jesus was falsely accused by the Pharisees of wasting his time with sinners.) The steward knew the debts because he was holding their contracts. (Jesus knows our debts and sins.) Knowing that they’d appreciate any reduction of their debt, the steward first asked them to honestly state their debt. (Jesus knows that we want forgiveness, and he asks us to honestly confess our debts and sins). Could the steward have known that due to a serious problem, such as a bad harvest, that the debtors weren’t able to pay their debts in full? (Jesus knows that without his help we can’t pay our debts in full.) Could the later commendation by the master indicate that the master realized that the steward had effectively negotiated using less-important monetary debts to cultivate the more-important personal relationships between the debtors and the master? (As God was pleased that Jesus, during his earthly ministry, demonstrated that less-important “unrighteous riches” things were to be used to cultivate “what is true” (spiritual relationships among sincere believers and with God). After the commendation, could the master have then reinstated the steward, perhaps to a more important position of service? Just as God rewarded Jesus, after his earthly ministry, with an even more important position in heaven?
@@johnbuchan3678 Thanks for that take, brother. That's one I had not heard before.