Notes from the Wayside: Perspective: Lessons from a Questionable Bookkeeper

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Lessons from a Questionable Bookkeeper

People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it's gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.

Luke 16:8b-9 (CEB)

Money, so they say

Is the root of all evil today

But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise

That they're giving none away

From "Money" by Pink Floyd

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a rather strange story about a man whose job is to manage the property of a rich man.¹ One day, the rich man catches wind that his manager is mismanaging his assets, so he summons him and demands a report of his business dealings. The manager, knowing that he will soon be out of a job, has to figure out how he will provide for himself since he is, by his own admission, "not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg." He contacts all of his employer's debtors and tells them to alter their bills so that they appear to owe less. He is hoping that, if he can endear himself to them, then maybe one of them will help him out after he is fired from his job.

When the manager meets with his employer, he is commended for his shrewdness.

What makes this parable perplexing and even troubling is that, in the end, a seemingly dishonest person is commended. It is not the type of parable we would expect Jesus to tell His followers.

I decided to write about this strange parable in order to force myself to figure out what it means. It has been suggested that one of the best ways to learn about something is to teach it to other people. I consulted the various commentaries at my disposal, and, if I've learned anything about this parable, it is that there are numerous different interpretations out there and that there are many different lessons we can glean from it.

There is a lesson about our priorities, particularly what drives us to think and act. Speaking of the rich man's manager, Jesus says, "People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light." On this note, scholar William Barclay writes,
If only Christians were as eager and ingenious in their attempt to gain goodness as those with more worldly concerns are in their attempts to attain money and comfort, they would be much better people. If only people would give as much attention to the things which concern their souls as they do to the things which concern their business, they would be much better human beings.²

There are also lessons about how we use the resources available to us. Jesus says, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it's gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes." In the parable, the manager leverages the position he fully expects to lose in order to gain help for himself when it is gone. Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that we should similarly leverage our temporal resources, which we will not have forever, for eternal gain, which we cannot lose. When it comes to our worldly resources, we need to use them before we lose them.

The great preacher Fred Craddock notes that "how one handles property has eternal consequences" and that, "for all the dangers in possessions, it is possible to manage goods in ways appropriate to life in the kingdom of God."³

There are additional lessons to be gleaned if we are willing to consider alternative interpretations of the parable. Perhaps the manager wasn't quite as dishonest as he seems. It is worth noting that the Jewish people were forbidden by their Law from charging interest on loans to fellow Jews. In the Book of Deuteronomy, we read, "You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent."⁴ The Jewish people were especially forbidden from exploiting the poor through interest. In the Book of Exodus, we read, "If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them."⁵

A number of commentators, including scholar N.T. Wright, speculate that, if the manager in the story is to be commended, then maybe, when he told his employer's debtors to alter their bills, he was knocking off interest they were wrongly being charged. According to Wright,
If [the steward] reduced the bill in each case to the principal, the simple amount that had been lent, the debtors would be delighted, but the master couldn't lay a charge against the steward without owning up to his own shady business practices. Thus when the master heard about it... he could only admire the man's clever approach.⁶

Maybe the manager used his position to endear himself to others by righting wrongs that had been committed. According to Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson, "By cutting the deals that he did, the manager makes his boss look extremely generous while simultaneously bringing him into alignment with God's law."⁷

There are lessons in the parable about making friends. Jesus tells us to "use worldly wealth to make friends for [our]selves." N.T. Wright suggests that maybe the unlawful interest that the rich man was charging represented the rules and regulations the religious leaders of the day added to the Jewish Law. He writes, "Jesus in this parable, indicates that if Israel is facing a major crisis the answer is rather to throw caution to the winds, to forget the extra bits and pieces of law which the Pharisees have heaped up, and to make friends as and where they can."⁸

I suspect that Jesus would want us to use our resources to make friends with the very people with whom He identifies: the widow, the orphan, the poor, the immigrant, and other vulnerable populations. In the end, we will be judged by how we have treated such people. In another Gospel, Jesus says
I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me... I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.⁹

Having studied this perplexing parable, I haven't come to any conclusions regarding a definitive meaning. That said, I think I'll take some advice from The Beatles and "get by with a little help from my friends." My friend Wendell called the Bible "a tough book" in our church small group discussions. My friend Marti, a fellow teacher in my denomination, would say that only Jesus really knew what He had in mind when He told His parables. My friend David would say that it makes God smile to see us trying to figure such things out.

So let's keep trying to figure it all out, shall we?

If you have any thoughts about this strange parable, please share them in the comments.

Notes:

A majority of this perspective is based on Luke 16:1-9. Quotations from this passage are taken from the Common English Bible.
William Barclay. The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke. 2001, Westminster John Knox Press. p. 247
Fred B. Craddock. Luke (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching). 1990, John Knox Press. pp. 190-191
Deuteronomy 23:19 (NRSV)
Exodus 22:25 (NRSV)
N.T. Wright. Luke for Everyone. 2004, Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 193-194
Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson. Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You've Only Heard About (Participant's Guide). 2012, Thomas Nelson. p. 42
Wright, p. 194
Matthew 25:35-36, 40 (CEB)