Preached at Christ Church, Billericay at 10:00 on 18 September 2022
Introduction
Of all the parables, this may be the one that causes the most discussion. It doesn’t seem straight forward – it appears that Jesus is suggesting to his hearers that they should be like the dishonest manager, but is that what he is really saying?
Other parables have explanations for the disciples who are sometimes a little slow, but this one doesn’t, so we look at it and assume what Jesus was saying must have been completely obvious to them.
Activity
The dishonest manager is clever – shrewd, but he is not honest. So to see what we think honesty is all about here is an activity. For each of these questions, I want you to vote to tell me what I should do.
Q1
My mum gave me two cookies to take to my next door neighbour. This is my favourite kind of cookie, and it smells so good! My mum said after I come back from my neighbour's and eat some lunch, then I’d get four cookies, but I’m hungry right now.
Should I eat one cookie on the way – mum would never know, or should I take both cookies to my neighbour and stay hungry?
Vote Now
[Comment]
Q2
What would you do? Grandma gave you £10 to buy her a drink at the fayre. After you do, you notice you have enough money leftover to buy a cool toy you saw. Do you bring the change back to grandma, or do you use the money to buy the toy before you go back to her?
Vote Now
[Comment]
Q3
You’re at the arcade, and you find a wallet with £30 in it, but there’s nothing in it that says the name of the owner. Do you put the £30 in your pocket and leave the wallet where it is, or do you turn the wallet and it’s contents into the lost-and-found?
[Comment]
Vote Now
What did Jesus say
So what did Jesus say?
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted
with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be
dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling
worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have
not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will
give you property of your own?”
[comment]
We’re
all good
or
Some
of us might want to re-think our votes (and perhaps our actions too).
Charging Interest
Let’s look at the story and see if we can make a bit more sense of it. In Jesus’s world, loaning money for interest was not allowed. So people got around this by loaning goods instead. That explains why the manager is asking people how much they owe, and they are talking about grain and oil. These were the things that were commonly used for loans. He knows how much was originally borrowed, so it is likely that that is the number that the dishonest manager suggests is the new debt. The borrowers are, of course, very happy to have their interest payments forgiven.
Jesus doesn’t approve of either of them
But, you’re all asking, "What about the dishonest manager?" Well, Jesus doesn’t approve of what the dishonest manager has been doing to get himself sacked, but know what he has done is the right thing. There would be little harm to his master, who would only lose the profit that he really shouldn’t have made.
Jesus doesn’t approve of the Master’s actions, although these might be called a ‘grey area’. He was still cheating the system, and charging interest on loans when he shouldn’t have been.
The Master
The master does not represent God in this parable. If that were real, I’m betting the master's approval would be a rather grudging. He might say something like, “Oh, that was clever, well done for being so cunning”, and he’d be thinking “I’m glad I’ve got rid of you when I did”. He can’t make a big show of it and take the manager to the authorities because that would expose his own cheating.
Shrewdness
What Jesus is really saying is that we should be aware of how the world works, that we should be shrewd, we should be clever, but in all that we do we should be honest and focussed on the things of true value – the things that will last eternally, because those are the true riches.
In Matthew’s gospel Jesus tells his disciples “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
It’s a similar message to our reading today.
If the disciples are not shrewd, if they don’t understand how the world works they will get conned, or robbed. If they do understand how the world works their message of salvation will more likely be received by those they meet. If they are innocent they will also be trustworthy. If they are trustworthy, they will be taking the true message with them and not corrupting it for their own ends.
Our Riches
If we have riches, we should use it to make friends with the sort of people who can help us get to God, so that it will not corrupt us and lead us away from God. Then, when it is used up, we will still have the favour of those around us. Jesus is not saying that we can buy our way into heaven.
God and Money
Finally, we are reminded that we cannot serve God and Money. If we are shrewd, we will know that the whole financial system is corrupted by people’s greed. How often has someone offered to work for you for cash, so that neither of you pay tax? There are lots of ways of cheating the system. Some are illegal, some are just ‘grey areas’. Either way, if we are focussed on money, we will be part of a corrupt system, and we will not be able to serve God.
Amen.
References
https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog/parable-shrewd-manager/
https://sermonwriter.com/sermons/luke-161-13-the-dishonest-manager-anders/
https://www.askdifference.com/shrewd-vs-wise/
https://sermons4kids.com/dishonest_manager.htm
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