16 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.’

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.’

⁸ “The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. 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.

¹⁰ “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. ¹¹ And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? ¹² And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

¹³ “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in.^[d] 17 But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned.

¹⁸ “For example, a man who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

Luke 16:1-18

Dear God, I’ve always struggled with this story. If it hadn’t been the gospel reading for today I would never have picked it. But one of the nice things about a reading plan is that it will sometimes take me through a difficult passage whether I like it or not.

After I read it again this morning, I immediately went and grabbed my biblical commentary on it. In this case, It’s The Communicator’s Commentary: Luke by Bruce Larson. I’m just going to completely copy the two paragraphs he takes to explain this passage’s meaning:

Jesus tells two parables about money. The first one deals with the purpose of money. Some have said that this story of the unrighteous steward is the most difficult of all the parables. Incompetence and dishonesty seem to be rewarded. That’s not the message of this parable. In verse 9, Jesus talks about “unrighteous mammon.” Unrighteous mammon was interest money, profit from usury. The Jews were forbidden to lend money at interest, but they got around this by lending out commodities, oil, corn, or wheat, and charging interest. Since you could dilute the oil, the interest on that was 100 percent. On wheat, interest was perhaps 20 percent. This man, through his steward, was charging his neighbors interest, and this illegal interest was the unrighteous mammon to which Jesus refers.

When the steward finds that he is going to be fired, he tells all those who owe his master money to forget about the interest. They can return just exactly what they borrowed and no more. He bought friends and favor for the future when he would be unemployed. Not dumb! He was not punished for this because by doing it he bought favor for the master as well. The steward’s dishonesty made his master look pious. It’s an interesting story. George Buttrick has said, “This rogue acted with foresight.” He bought friends with money. Jesus is suggesting we act with the same kind of foresight and use our money for that which is lasting.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard the perspective that the owner was the one who was unscrupulous because he was charging interest. That’s an interesting perspective. It’s still a hard story for me, but I guess I just like this idea of being shrewd and, as Larson puts it in the last sentence, act[ing] with the same kind of foresight and use our money for that which is lasting.

Father, I have a difficult path ahead of me. You know exactly what the path is. I’m figuring it out one step at a time, and sometimes I’m making missteps as I walk it. My prayer to you is that you will reveal it to me clearly at each step. I don’t need to know the whole path. I’m willing to wait on you and your timing. But I need to see that next step and I need the courage to take that step. I need to be shrewd, but not so that I can get the advantage. I want every person involved in this to get the advantage. I want every person involved in this difficult situation to emerge from it in better shape than they are now, and if that means it costs me something then so be it. Help me to find that path, and help them path bring every person involved closer to you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen