What qualities does a person need to be a good manager? Would you say that honesty is an important quality? If so, would you say the manager described in the parable we’ve heard this morning would qualify as a good hire? Not only did this manager squander his wealthy employer’s property, but once he realized he was going to be fired, he “shrewdly” made side deals with the people who were in debt to his employer in the hopes they would take him in once he was let go. Ultimately, when he was fired, his employer commended him for his shrewdness in making sure he had a way of supporting himself after his firing.
There is something rather strange about this parable. If you’re like me, you probably wonder why Jesus decided to tell this story. What was he trying to accomplish with it? There are no easy answers to these questions because even biblical scholars struggle to make sense of it.
While the wealthy employer commended the manager for his shrewdness, surely Jesus isn’t suggesting we emulate him. That would make no sense. So there must be more to the story. Perhaps Jesus is using this manager as a symbol for the ones he calls the children of this age. Such “children” are, it would seem, to be shrewd in their dealings with each other. Another way of putting it is that they are streetwise, while the children of the light, who tend to be naive about the things of the world. So, perhaps a bit of shrewdness is a good thing as long as you remain honest and faithful.
Getting back to the parable itself, it might be helpful to put it in context. Back in the first century, wealthy landowners often hired managers or stewards to run their estates. They would give these stewards significant freedom to make decisions about their master’s property. That’s because the property owners thought they had “better things to do” than take care of their estates. So, they would empower their managers to take care of business. We see this happening in other parables in which Jesus talks about wealthy land owners entrusting property or funds to their employees, expecting them to make a profit, while not worrying too much about how they did this. When we turn to this story, it seems as if someone might have blown the whistle on the dishonest steward. That’s when the landowner called in the manager and fired him. However, it appears that the manager knew what was coming and took steps to ensure his survival by cooking the books. After all, as the manager thought to himself, he was too weak to dig and too embarrassed to beg. As I said before, the landowner does seem impressed with the man’s ingenuity. He might lose his job, but he provided himself with a means of survival.
So, we have this strange parable about a shrewd but dishonest steward who can’t serve as a proper example for us. However, it does our peek our attention. As we struggle to make sense of it, Jesus changes the subject a bit in verse 10. Rather than commending the dishonest steward for his shrewdness, Jesus calls on his disciples to be faithful stewards. He tells them that those who are faithful in little things will be faithful in bigger things. At the same time, those who are dishonest with little things, will be dishonest with the big things. Therefore, if you’re dishonest when it comes to the use of mammon or wealth, then who will trust you when it comes to true riches?
Here is where this morning’s passage speaks to our age. One of the biggest complaints people register when it comes to religion is hypocrisy. We’ve watched religious leaders tarnish the reputation of the church in recent decades. There are cases of embezzlement and other forms of financial misdeeds. There are also numerous cases of sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of sexual misbehavior, including the abuse of minors. There are also many cases being reported of forms of spiritual abuse. While these leaders have been entrusted with the Gospel, they have failed to remain faithful to their calling. The reputation of the Christian community has suffered as a result.
So, Jesus calls on us all to remain faithful in our Christian life. Here’s where shrewdness might come into play. It’s important that we remain faithful to our calling to follow Jesus. However, faithfulness doesn’t require naivete. There is a place for shrewdness as we navigate this world. We need to understand how the world works without giving in to its temptations. One of those temptations involves the pursuit of power. As Lord Acton supposedly said, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
While democracy is far from perfect, it does offer protections against the dangers of authoritarianism. As Reinhold Niebuhr once wrote: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary” [Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p. 254]. At a time when authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe, seizing power in whatever way possible, being faithful to the Gospel does require a bit more shrewdness and a bit less naivete. As Jesus is recorded as saying in the Gospel of Matthew: “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
I think it’s worth pointing out here that in our reading from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t speak to the larger crowds that followed him. Instead, he speaks directly to his disciples. In Luke’s narrative, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he ends up being executed by the authorities. His followers needed to be prepared for what was coming their way. They would need to know how to deal with what they would face after Jesus had departed from them. What was true for these disciples is true for us. Can we be faithful stewards of the things of God while navigating a world that is always seeking to entice us to take a different path? So, can we be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves as we follow Jesus?
The parable focuses on the proper handling of money and wealth. Jesus closes the conversation with a warning. Using Eugene Peterson’s translation of the closing verses, we hear Jesus declare to us:
No worker can serve two bosses:
He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can’t serve both God and the Bank. (Luke 16:13 MSG).
Unfortunately, we don’t live in the world of Star Trek, where apparently money is unnecessary. So, we do need the bank, but Jesus warns us against becoming slaves to the bank or the stock market.
While the Gospels do record Jesus telling certain people to sell everything they own, give it to the poor, and follow him, I’m not sure he requires everyone to follow the example of St. Francis of Assisi, who gave away everything he owned and became a beggar and the leader of beggars. But, be careful in your stewardship of mammon so that it doesn’t take over your life like it did for Ebenezer Scrooge. It took three Christmas ghosts to turn him around. Hopefully, we won’t need that kind of intervention!
So, as we walk faithfully and shrewdly along the path set before us by Jesus, perhaps this parable can serve as a call to live faithfully but boldly our calling as followers of Jesus. With that calling in mind, perhaps something my friend Ron Allen wrote for stewardship material my church used a few years back can be helpful. He suggested there that the children of light, “should be as fresh, creative, imaginative, innovative, and bold in the service of the values and practices of the realm as those enmeshed in pursuing the values and customs of the present broken world.”
If the dishonest manager was bold and creative in his use of his bookkeeping to prepare a place for himself during his time of unemployment, how might we be just as bold and creative in the ways we participate in God’s work in the world? How might we invest time and resources in a way that further’s God’s purposes as we navigate this rather broken world we live in? After all, we can only serve one master. Will we serve God or the idol of materialism? Deciding which way to go requires wisdom and discernment. As we ponder these questions, we will need a tonic of God’s grace to sustain us when we fall short.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church
Tyrone Township, MI
September 21, 2025
Pentecost 15C
Image attribution: Merchant taking accounts, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55705 [retrieved September 20, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BLW_Stained_Glass_-_Roundel_showing_a_Merchant.jpg.
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