Luke 16:1-8
v1
A rich man had a steward who was working for him. In those days, the rich would have stewards to help manage their vast estates. A steward is given a wide range of executive powers to act on behalf of the master. v1 tells us that instead of working for the good of the master, this steward was serving his own interest. He was wasting his master’s goods. In today’s context, he was probably flying first class, or dining at lavish restaurants all charged to the company’s accounts.

v2
His master effectively gives him a notice period for his termination. In the mean time, he’s supposed to prepare the accounts and hand it in properly. What does this steward do? Of course he’s not going to work for the benefit of the master; he’s a self serving person.

v3
The steward reasons in his mind what to do. The Bible describes him as a very shrewd person. He suddenly has a flash of brilliance.

v4-7
He has a brilliant plan. Since he’s still a steward and still has executive powers, he gathered all his master’s debtors and reduces all their debts. In fact if we look at the amounts these people owed, we can infer they were wealthy people. All these people would be indebted to him when he goes out of job, taking care of his livelihood.

The parable concludes in the first portion of v8. The master commends the unjust steward at the end for dealing shrewdly.

This parable raises a few questions. Why does the master praise the unjust steward? If the master is identified as God (the master in Jesus’ parables usually refers to God), would the Lord praise such a behaviour? Some people try to circumvent this problem by focusing only on the man having foresight. The master only praised him for his wisdom and shrewdness, not his dishonesty. That’s one view of reading this parable.

There’s another view that we have to learn from this shrewd steward. To be as shrewd as this unjust steward in handling money, we must be like sons of the world.

The question is: was Jesus actually commending such behaviour? What’s the purpose of the parable of the steward?

First we have to understand the role of parables. Parables are analogies. There’s a story, and we try to draw certain lessons to draw to our spiritual lives. In fact, not every character in a parable needs to be fully mapped to some characters in our life of faith. As an example, we know of the parable of the persistent widow and the unrighteousness lodge. We are to identify with the persistent widow. She was persistent; we ought to be persistent in our prayers. In some ways, the unjust judge is like God. In the sense that he was the only one who could avenge the widow; only God can avenge us and judge our case. But obviously God is not like the unjust judge, Jesus Himself says so.

In the same way, the master praising the unjust steward need not mean Jesus praises such behaviour. To understand the parable better, we have to take a look at how Jesus interprets this parable.

The parable ends in the former part of v8. The latter part is Jesus’ commentary. He doesn’t really explain, He just draws out teachings from this parable. In fact, He draws multiple teachings from the parable.

As we read later, in some ways the unjust steward is a negative example. He’s unfaithful, while we ought to be faithful. In some cases, there’s something we ought to learn from him spiritually. He had foresight; we ought to have foresight. In the parables of Jesus, usually it’s clear which character we should learn from and which we shouldn’t learn from. But in this parable, what we should learn and shouldn’t learn from is from the same character. The same character serves as a contrast; we ought not to learn from him. At the same time, Jesus draws parallels on how we ought to learn from him but in a different way.

This parable is very multifaceted. This character is multifaceted. Let’s take a look at Jesus’ commentary on the parable.

[1st comment]
v8b
Jesus identifies the unjust steward with the sons of the world. Jesus recognises the sons of the world are more shrewd than the sons of light. The word shrewd means wise. Depending on the context of the Bible, sometimes it has a positive, sometimes a negative connotation. In this context, it’s clear it has a negative connotation. The unjust steward is wise relative to the people of the world. What kind of wisdom did he possess? We have to ask ourselves: is Jesus asking us to emulate that kind of wisdom?

James tells us there’s two kinds of wisdom: wisdom from above and earthly wisdom. No doubt the unjust steward was full of wisdom, earthly wisdom. Jesus’ comment here is to understand what he had done to be negative. The Pharisees understood it negatively as well. Let’s take a look at their response.

v14
The Pharisees who were lovers of money derided Jesus for whatever he had said. To deride means to show contempt; they were probably sniggering in their hearts. “Yeah yeah you son of a carpenter. Sour grapes. That’s why you say this.” Why did they deride Jesus? The Pharisees were very shrewd in the ways of the world.

Mark 7 talks about how the Pharisees practised corban. The 10 commandments say we have to honour our parents, by supporting them financially as well. But the Pharisees said if the people dedicated money to the temple, they wouldn’t need to support their parents financially anymore. The whole purpose of the Pharisees was to enrich themselves. So they take what’s supposed to be given to their parents to be dedicated as part of their tithes. The Pharisees were indeed very shrewd with money. They were the sons of this world.

Of course they didn’t see Jesus as praising the shrewdness of the unjust steward. Instead they saw the parallel Jesus was drawing up to them.

Let us see Jesus’ response.
v15
What does Man highly esteem? In this context and in the entire parable, it is money. They are very shrewd about money. But here Jesus says, “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
This is a very strong word. Abomination in the Old Testament is usually used for very grave sins. What the unjust steward did is clearly what God isn’t please with.

The first thing we should learn is that we shouldn’t handle money like the unjust steward.

Many years ago, the speaker had a friend who invested in a Ponzi scheme. The scheme takes money from latter investors and pays them to former investors. They don’t do anything with your money. He wasn’t the perpetrator but an investor. The speaker told his friend he thinks it’s a Ponzi scheme. His friend replied, “I know! I’ll take out all the money before the scheme collapses.” Ultimately, there won’t be enough money to pay out the investors and then the perpetrators will run away with your money just before it collapses.

“Eh bro, you know you’re getting money out of another person getting cheated.” (His friend was a Christian.)

After some time the speaker asked him how things were going. Turns out he lost money. The speaker said, “Good thing you lost money. I don’t know how you can sleep at night if you profited off someone else being cheated.”

We can earn money properly. We shouldn’t earn money like the unjust steward. We shouldn’t be shrewd in the ways of the world to earn money.

[Second comment]
v9
This is the second teaching Jesus draws from the parable. As mentioned, the parable is multifaceted. Here Jesus draws a parallel with the steward’s actions and what we ought to be doing. The unjust steward used his master’s money to make friends for himself. When he lost his stewardship, his newfound friends would take him in. Here Jesus says there’s something for us to learn. We should also use our master’s money (all our money is given by God) wisely. Make friends so that when we die, they’ll receive us into the eternal home. What are these friends?

Two possibilities:

1. We make friends through our riches by using our riches in the work of evangelism
2. The friends refers to the poor and those in need of help.

Luke 14:13-14
When we treat others, do not treat those who can treat us back. That’s the way of that world. People who often treat other people treat those that can pay them back even more. That’s exactly what the unjust steward did. He helped those who can help him back.

We also make friends but in a different way. Because the way of Christ is different. Jesus says to help those who have no way to pay us back. God will pay us back at the resurrection. Jesus now tells us to use our riches to help those in need.

The best negative example is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus also recorded in Luke 16. This parable is what we shouldn’t do if we have wealth and riches. Luke 16:22 tells us the conclusion that both of them died. Lazarus was brought to the bosom of Abraham but the rich man ended up in Hades. How did the rich man end up in Hades? It’s not stated he’s a liar, immoral, evil. Was it because he was rich? Obviously not lah. His fault was that he was indifferent to the plight of Lazarus. He could’ve helped Lazarus because he was so rich. But he didn’t. To put this in context with the parable of the unjust steward, the rich man didn’t make friends with Lazarus. Lazarus only ate the bread crumbs that dropped from the table. If the rich man had provided for Lazarus, the outcome wouldn’t have been the same. Instead of being tormented in Hades, begging for a drop of water, Lazarus would’ve been the one to receive him in the Kingdom of Heaven if he had helped Lazarus.

Jesus says we need to make good use of the riches we have for our future in heaven.

The wise of the world are wiser than the sons of light in this respect. Does Jesus mean we are not as shrewd as the people of the world in the ways of the world? What do the sons of light have to do with the ways of the world? What Jesus means is that they’re wiser in the ways of the world than the matters of God.

The unjust steward seized hold of the opportunity while there was still time. In the short window of opportunity, he made use of what he still had to provide for the future. In this respect, the people of the world are very good. In our respect, we are not as good as them. Because one day the inevitable will also come upon us. You will fail/die. Within the short window of opportunity we have, Jesus asks, “Have you made use of the riches God has given us to prepare for the future?”

The unjust steward was of course dishonest. But the master praised him for making use of the best opportunity to prepare for his future. At that time, this was the best decision he could’ve made. This was between the unjust steward and the master.

How about between us and our master? Will OUR master praise us? Have we made the best use of our riches in the window of opportunity we’ve been given.

[3rd comment]
v10-12 (read)
The unjust steward serves as a negative example here. He wasn’t faithful in managing his master’s riches. He was ultimately removed. We too are stewards. We don’t really own the wealth we have. But we are given executive powers to manage what God has temporarily given us.

Jesus says if we are stewards, we have to be faithful. One day, we have to give an account to our master.

A few things to note about what Jesus says about mammon:
• Mammon is unrighteousness
Why? We know mammon/money is neutral. But it’s a CAUSE of unrighteousness. It causes people to act unrighteously like the unjust steward. The love of money causes us to fall.
• Mammon is the least important
“He who is unjust in what is LEAST…”
Interestingly, how we deal with this LEAST important thing has very important consequences. Jesus says, “How you deal with what is LEAST will determine whether you get true riches.”
If you’re not faithful in what is least, true riches won’t be given to you.

Jesus isn’t saying Christians can’t be rich. But the more riches you have, the more responsible and more faithful you have to be as a reward.

Job was also a very rich man. But we also know he was the most faithful person concerning his wealth. He never trusted in riches or rejoiced in his heart because he had a lot of gold. He never withheld from those in need. In fact, every time he saw someone in need, he stretched out his hand. He was really one of the most faithful person concerning riches, that’s why God gave him a lot of riches. Job understood why God gave him riches. Sometimes we think it’s OUR money.

We know that God makes some people rich and some poor for a reason.

Luke 16:25
Abraham told the rich man about a certain concept he hadn’t grasped while he was alive. The concept of quality. God is just. That’s why the experience of the two is now balanced. The rich man enjoyed the best thing in his life, now he’s tormented. Lazarus who suffered was now comforted. There was balance.

While the rich man could’ve alleviated the suffering of Lazarus without any real loss to himself actually, Lazarus couldn’t do anything for the rich man after death because a great gulf separated them. Equality will always be matched somehow somewhere. Riches and poverty ought to have equality somewhere.

2 Cor 8:13-15
Paul also used the concept of equality here. The Corinth believers were to help their poorer brethren. Paul reminded them of what they had committed. By supplying the lack of other Christians, there is equality. Which is what the rich man didn’t do.

Interestingly, Paul used the example of gathering manna to talk about equality. The Israelites who gathered much had nothing left. Those who gathered little had no lack. If we have abundance, it should be supplied to those who are lacking that there may be equality.

Sometimes we think: wah God gives me favour!
But we don’t think why favour is given in the first place. Paul says riches are given to us not for us to enjoy but to supply lack that there may be equality. If we don’t establish equality, there’ll be equality in the life to come.

Have we been faithful? Have we supplied where is lacking?

By now we realise the central theme of this parable is money.
How should we view money? How should we use money? How should we NOT use money?

Conclusion
Luke 16:13
This is clearly brought out by the unjust steward on the Bible. He served his own interest to the detriment of the master. Hence, no servant can serve two masters.

Sometimes we think we OWN money. But Jesus tells us its money that owns us. Mammon is the master and we are the servants. If we serve mammon, it’s a deadly decision a Christian needs to make. Jesus knows mammon is an important thing in our lives. This parable and all the teachings tells us to think carefully who we serve ultimately. There’re two masters. Which do we choose? God or mammon. Who do we serve? May God help us.