The world belongs to God
The earth and all its people
How good and lovely it is
To live together in unity
Love and faith come together
Justice and peace join hands
Song “Morning has broken”
Reflection on Luke 16v1-13
A dishonest manager is about to lose his job because he has misspent his employer’s assets. Because he doesn’t want to do manual labour or receive charity, he goes to all the people who owe his employer money and reduces their debts. He does this so that they will be hospitable to him after he loses his job. The employer commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness!
The parable serves as a bridge between the stories of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32) and the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31). Like the prodigal in the preceding story, the dishonest manager has squandered what was entrusted to him (15:13; 16:1). And, like the story that follows, this parable begins with the phrase, “There was a rich man” (16:1, 19).
Although the dishonest manager does not repent (like the prodigal), he does something with the rich man’s wealth that reverses the existing order of things. In Luke, reversals of status are at the heart of what happens when Jesus and the kingdom of God appear. The proud are scattered (which translates the same word for squandered: dieskorpisen). The powerful are brought down and the lowly lifted; the hungry are filled and the rich are sent away empty (1:51-53; see also 6:24; 16:25; 18:25).
But why does the employer commend the dishonest manager for being shrewd? Maybe the manager has reduced his own commission in the debts owed and that this is what is being commended. Or the employer is simply commending the manager for responding shrewdly to a difficult circumstance. The word for shrewd here (phronimos) can also be translated as prudent or wise (16:8).
The text itself gives four interpretations of the employer’s commendation. First, “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” (16:8). Jesus’ disciples, referred to as children of light (see John 12:36), could learn something about acting prudently from the children of this age.
Secondly instead of using dishonest wealth to exploit others (as the rich do), disciples are to use wealth to make friends for themselves. If friendships are based on reciprocal and egalitarian relationships, then releasing other people’s debts not only enriches them, but also establishes a new kind of reciprocity with them. The Filipino concept of utang na loob, which literally translated means an inner debt or a debt of inner gratitude, perhaps captures something of what is being established here, a debt rooted in the shared reciprocity of friends.1
Luke often depicts how Jesus’ ministry and his followers is dependent on the hospitality of others (8:3; 10:7). Hospitality is often provided by those who are considered religious outsiders or lower down on social hierarchies (the Good Samaritan, 10:33; tax collectors, 5:27-39; 19:1-10; Cornelius, 10:48, etc.).
Thirdly, there’s a connection between being faithful (or dishonest) with very little and very much. How we use the resources at our disposal in this life, especially in tight circumstances.
Finally, “no slave can serve two masters … you cannot serve God and wealth” (16:13). The kingdom of God entails giving up all other commitments, including the commitment to economic security (14:33; 18:18-25). Luke puts great emphasis on how the reign of God reverses the status of the rich and the poor (1:51-53; 6:20). In Acts, the Christian community is one where disciples share all things in common, distributing to all, as any had need (2:44-45). These texts cannot just be spiritualized. Luke is talking about a different way of using wealth, not just for our own interests.
So why is our dishonest manager shrewd? He transforms a bad situation into one that benefits him and others. By reducing other people’s debts, he creates a new set of relationships based not on the vertical relationship between lenders and debtors (rooted in monetary exchange) but on something more like the reciprocal and egalitarian relationships of friends.
What this dishonest manager sets in play has analogues with what happens when the reign of God emerges among us (17:21). Old hierarchies are overturned and new friendships are established. Outsiders and those lower down on hierarchies now become the very ones we depend upon to welcome us — not only in their homes in this life, but even in the “eternal homes” (6:20-26)!
1Katrin de Guia, Kapwa: The Self in the Other: Worldviews and Lifestyles of
Song “Let your kingdom come”
The blessing of God be upon you
On those you love and those you meet
This day and forevermore. Amen
With thanks to Louis Malcolm and Working Preacher
