In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke discuss a challenging parable from Luke 16:1-13. They explore the story of a dishonest manager and its implications for our understanding of wealth and eternal riches. Join them as they navigate through the complexities of this parable and delve into its possible interpretations. Gain insights into the themes of stewardship, shrewdness, and the tension between worldly wealth and serving God. Don’t miss this thought-provoking discussion on a perplexing passage. Subscribe to our channel for more biblical insights and discussions!
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Transcript
00:00:00:41 – 00:00:22:09
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for closing out the week with us. Have a great weekend. Hope that things are going well. We’re grateful to be with you as we start a new chapter in Luke getting to the 16th chapter, another parable, kind of a doozy, particularly on the heels of the parable of the prodigal son, as it’s often called, this one.
00:00:22:13 – 00:00:44:19
Clint Loveall
Whereas that parable, I think Michael has a great following and people love it. This one, I think, is a head scratcher. People don’t know what to do with it. And I and I suspect either are neutral on this or may even dislike it. I think this could be one of the passages that people might even say, I don’t like that very much.
00:00:44:24 – 00:01:04:52
Clint Loveall
So we will do our best to see if we can find something in it and make it bring some clarity. But I’ll just warn you on the front end, this one’s kind of a tough one. Chapter 16, verse one. Then Jesus said to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager. And charges were brought to him that this man who was squandering his property.
00:01:04:57 – 00:01:30:43
Clint Loveall
So he summoned him and said to him, What’s this? I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer. Then the manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master’s taking the position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m ashamed to beg. I’ve decided what to do so that when I’m dismissed as manager, people may know me and welcome me into their homes.
00:01:30:48 – 00:01:52:39
Clint Loveall
So summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, How much do you owe the master? He answered a hundred jugs of olive oil. He said, Take your bill. Sit down quickly and make it 50. Then he asked another, How much do you owe? He replied, 100 containers of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill and make it 80.
00:01:52:44 – 00:02:24:27
Clint Loveall
And his master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, you may they may welcome you into eternal homes. So this, I think, lands hard, Michael.
00:02:24:32 – 00:02:50:06
Clint Loveall
You know, we have a similar kind of beginning. The manager squandered properties, and we’ve just heard a beautiful, grace filled story about a young man who squandered resources. And now we have this dishonest manager and living up to form. He comes up with a scheme to get himself some favor when he knows he’s about to be job hunting.
00:02:50:11 – 00:03:19:25
Clint Loveall
And so with questionable authority, he says, Yep, cut your bill in half. I’ll cut your bill by a fifth. And and then we think, Oh, this guy’s this guy’s in for it. And all of a sudden the master shows up and commends him for being shrewd. And shrewd is a word that shows up in the Bible a few places.
00:03:19:30 – 00:03:44:30
Clint Loveall
And I think it’s a difficult word to know what to do with. It has some sense of being worldly. Of being crafty, maybe. Is it is a similar kind of word in our language. Shrewd is not a word we use a great deal. It’s not quite criminal, but it’s a person who’s willing to blur the edges a little bit.
00:03:44:33 – 00:04:05:58
Clint Loveall
Who’s going to come out on top. And and we expect that it would not be celebrated. Clearly, this behavior is is questionable. And yet here comes the manager and says, that’s good work. And and we’re surprised by that. This is one of those places where Jesus sets us on edge by saying something very unexpected.
00:04:06:03 – 00:04:35:33
Michael Gewecke
There’s a couple lessons here. And I think the first connects to how you began the study. Connecting it to, of course, the parable of the Prodigal Son parable, the elder brother. We’ve spent a few days on that, and I just think it’s worth noting to start here this kind of transition from a text that is well known, well love, deep and rich in meaning that just immediately moves into another text, which is for most obscure and in some cases very difficult to interpret.
00:04:35:38 – 00:05:12:52
Michael Gewecke
That’s actually very common in the Bible. Actually, that may strike us as odd as we go through a study like this. But the way that the strict scriptures are constructed, these things live together. They’ve been put together thematically. They’ve been put together because of the different ways that the texts are moving in, telling the story of Jesus. I just think it’s worth noting that just because there’s a story that is particularly meaningful to us or a story that we know really well, we might think that it is going to be contained with other stories like that, and that’s often not the case as we have today.
00:05:12:52 – 00:05:37:10
Michael Gewecke
So all that to say is along with saying this is an abrupt transition to us. But in many ways the themes that we’ve seen previously are themes that are being reworked in different ways, right? So what we have here is we now have, as you were right to point out, we have someone who is a squandering. We have someone who is being found wanting.
00:05:37:15 – 00:06:13:42
Michael Gewecke
And so he’s informed that he’s going to leave his job. And so now the question is, what is the nature of the shrewdness? Is this shrewdness of for the sake of the man, for the manager, or is the shrewdness for the sake of the owner, or is it a strange combination of both? And my commentary points out that one way to see this shrewdness is that we could see that potentially the manager, by calling these people in, is essentially removing his commission or cut from what would have been given, which is benefiting the owner.
00:06:13:53 – 00:06:52:14
Michael Gewecke
Now, now here I want to make this clear, because I’m glad that Clint spaces on the screen here. I think that that on one hand could be an interpreter’s goal or desire to get this guy off the hook and to say that there’s something redeemable about the shrewdness so that we could say, hey, look, he he’s actually being shrewd in the sense of making his cut less, but getting these products actually back into the household owner’s pocket and therefore ingratiating himself, giving himself an opportunity that may be, you know, turn the dial and get his job back.
00:06:52:19 – 00:07:14:38
Michael Gewecke
On the other hand, you could say that this is simply a man who’s trying to turn whatever levers he’s got on his way out the door and that the owner finds something in the shrewdness of that to be commendable. And the interpretive lens is open. And I think that the text lets us sit in that a little bit.
00:07:14:47 – 00:07:36:57
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I do think not to not to challenge your commentary, Michael, but I do think there is a knee jerk reaction to try and find a way to make sense of this, to make it, to make it about a central point. And so the idea is that, that yes, he’s, he’s doing what he has the authority to do.
00:07:36:57 – 00:08:18:49
Clint Loveall
He’s forfeiting his own income to guarantee his future, which could then be a sign in lieu of make sure you you use your life and your resources in such a way you’re in good graces with the master at the end. That’s possible. Certainly. You know, it’s within the realm of possibility. But this last line I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, which is a kind of translation choice here with worldly wealth, with Mammon, is the word or part of the word, so that when it’s gone, they may welcome you into eternal homes.
00:08:18:54 – 00:08:51:02
Clint Loveall
This, I think, maybe points us not to a completely happy resolution, but gives us the idea that we are navigating life and possessions and wealth with the goal not of accumulating it and keeping it, but of finding our way into an eternal home. And Jesus is saying, people in the world do this with business. People in the world do this with finances.
00:08:51:07 – 00:09:23:11
Clint Loveall
People of the cross do this with everything, make friends, make connections. You use resources that you may that they may welcome you into the eternal homes, that you may have a life beyond this life and something that matters more than wealth. This is an odd parable, I think, for Luke to tell. And if there was ever a crystal clear meaning of it, I would argue we’ve lost it.
00:09:23:16 – 00:09:55:31
Clint Loveall
I’m not sure that anybody stands comfortably and confidently on their own interpretation of this, saying, Oh yeah, we know exactly what this means. It’s more jarring given that we’re just leaving a parable that does seem crystal clear, but this one is messy, this one is muddy. I don’t know that there’s a good answer to it. It is a nice corrective, though, to the idea that Grace is just, oh, whatever happens, welcome the prior to go home and go to the party.
00:09:55:31 – 00:10:10:41
Clint Loveall
And now Jesus says something troubling that has to be navigated just as the servant is navigating his own complicated situation. And and there’s something true in it. I’m just not sure we know exactly what it is.
00:10:10:46 – 00:10:31:39
Michael Gewecke
I think that there’s an interesting interpretation that we might come to bring to this text if we were to look ahead in just a few verses. We’re going to talk about this. But in just a few verses, Jesus says here, no slave can serve two masters for a slave will hate the one, love the other, be devoted to the one, despise the other.
00:10:31:39 – 00:11:10:13
Michael Gewecke
You cannot serve God and wealth. And I think there’s an interesting interpretation that we might come to look backwards once we get there. And to be able to talk a little bit about the reality that that worldly wealth and eternal riches are always is put in an interesting, intensive relationship with one another. Because Jesus and especially in Luke, this idea that wealth can be a tool that is used in this life, rightly or wrongly, but that how we use that tool does have bearings upon the the eternal riches that we are given.
00:11:10:13 – 00:11:35:01
Michael Gewecke
And I think that with that coming in just a little bit, we might be able to look on a text like this and we might be able to say, you know, that the friends you gain by dishonest wealth, this is a thing for this life. But when that’s gone, all that will matter is the eternal home. All that will matter is whether you’re welcomed into the tent that is in lite or the tent that is in darkness.
00:11:35:02 – 00:12:12:19
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, so maybe there’s a little bit of a present life wealth on this side versus wealth on the other. I mean, that’s certainly a theme that we’re going to see fleshed out towards the end of this context. But I want to make it very clear I have no simple answer to a parable like this. And I think, yeah, clearly on the heels of the the parable of these two lost sons and then now you come to this is very clearly a very intensive, difficult relationship, a difficult sort of teaching, because no, Christian’s going to read this and say, Yeah, Jesus is saying, do whatever you want, go be an Enron executive and steal
00:12:12:19 – 00:12:21:43
Michael Gewecke
money, because whatever you do in this life won’t matter in the next. Clearly, that doesn’t fit the canon of Scripture. So what we do with this is going to require some interpretive work.
00:12:21:55 – 00:12:46:21
Clint Loveall
And I do think it it straightens itself out maybe as we get to verse ten and following. But before we get there, just a word of caution. We’ve we’ve said this on multiple occasions that typically in a parable, the master character, the father character, is almost always equated with God. I think the case could be made, Michael, that this is one of the exceptions.
00:12:46:26 – 00:13:21:52
Clint Loveall
I don’t know that it is saying that the master here is the God character and that the master is commanding dishonesty. I think it could be read to say that happened and then Jesus says, Yes, make friends with wealth, if that’s what it takes, use it toward an internal purpose. It may or may not be the case that the that the master in the parable is intended to clearly represent the God figure in the story.
00:13:21:57 – 00:13:25:51
Clint Loveall
So though that is almost always true.
00:13:25:53 – 00:13:39:30
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And that is an interpretive choice. I mean I yes, it’s obviously a more difficult reading to make the case that in this parable that the the figure is God. And that said, it can’t be wholly excluded.
00:13:39:30 – 00:14:09:49
Clint Loveall
But the idea of God commanding dishonesty is problematic from multiple fronts. Absolutely. And I do think when we get to these next verses, it it may help us there a little bit. Verse ten following, however, is faithful in very little is faithful with much. And whoever is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with dishonest wealth, who will entrust you to true riches?
00:14:09:54 – 00:14:35:18
Clint Loveall
And if you’ve not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? And then the verses you quoted, Michael No slave can serve two masters. A slave will hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth. And here we see the idea that the servant plays out the truth of these words.
00:14:35:18 – 00:15:03:59
Clint Loveall
He’s dishonest with little, he’s dishonest with much. He’s dishonest, and he has served wealth. There’s no mention of anything else in the passage. So I think for most of us, we will leave the parable kind of cloudy and then we’ll find ourself back on somewhat more solid ground when we get to verse ten, following these verses seem more like what we expect, seem more like what we can understand.
00:15:04:12 – 00:15:38:18
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I want to make a case in whole in for just a second here, because I think this is helpful for me at least verse 11, if then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth or other worldly wealth, who will and trust you the true riches. And I think this gets to the point that you were making, actually, to be honest, this idea that and the reason I get to this interpretation, I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page actually comes from verse eight, where it says, The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
00:15:38:31 – 00:16:14:45
Michael Gewecke
There’s a kind of commendation in that to say that you should be shrewd with the world, the riches towards the end of eternal purposes, that you should make good use of the small, passing, worldly stuff that you’ve been made steward of, because ultimately that is you investing in the thing that will be eternal and weighty and good that, you know, there’s almost a kind of insult or kind of look down upon the children of light who are unable to be shrewd stewards of the small resources they’ve been given in the world.
00:16:14:45 – 00:16:35:51
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, this reads very differently, Clint, when you read this, if you’re in a sort of an American context and there’s a lot of privilege and wealth and authority and all of these things are assumed, if that’s your context, this may read differently than if you actually don’t have access to a lot of worldly resources and power and ability.
00:16:35:51 – 00:17:06:10
Michael Gewecke
And from that context and the idea, well, if you’re a slave in the first century, but you’re a Christian and you don’t have much, but what you have, you don’t do much with, if you don’t deal with it in a good way, if you if you don’t invest it as best as you can and you don’t manage it, well, then there could be a lesson in this story to say that then you’re not preparing for the worldly riches that you want given to you in eternity, that the the kind of gifts that God will give us on the other side.
00:17:06:10 – 00:17:13:03
Michael Gewecke
I let making some interpretive leaps there, but I think we could see how that might fit in a first century context Reading.
00:17:13:08 – 00:17:43:24
Clint Loveall
I think the most Lucan verse is verse 11. I think this is subtle, but this is this is beautifully Luke in a nutshell. If you’ve not been faithful with dishonest wealth and again, this is an interpretive choice to add the word dishonest here is, is I think, a way that sometimes we’ve protected ourself from Luke’s message of just wealth, right?
00:17:43:31 – 00:18:05:53
Clint Loveall
Worldly wealth. I think fits. I’m not a scholar, but worldly wealth I think fits. Luke’s bent more than dishonest because then dishonest means I can still justify my use of wealth if I gained it honestly. Right. I don’t think Luke on the whole is going to allow that argument. So I would call this I would say worldly wealth.
00:18:05:58 – 00:18:29:35
Clint Loveall
But but those of us who live in a society that considers that nearly the best you can get, and then Luke says, Well, if if you can’t be trusted with houses and cars and wealth and lake homes and etc., well, who’s going to ever give you actually good things? Who’s going to give you truly great things? Who’s going to give you real riches?
00:18:29:40 – 00:19:06:52
Clint Loveall
And that, for Luke, is a beautiful illustration. Luke sees the best the world has to offer here and the gospel here, and an immeasurable gap between the two. And if you can’t manage something like wealth, how are you ever going to manage the good news of the gospel there is? I just think it’s easy to read past that and not understand what it means in the context of Luke’s gospel is a beautiful reminder that the best that Earth has to offer doesn’t approach the least of what Heaven has to offer, of what the kingdom has to offer.
00:19:06:57 – 00:19:28:06
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, and this connects directly back to the parable that we just read. When you come to verse 13, you either hate one, love the other, be devoted to one, despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. And what does that manager represent? Someone who didn’t care enough about the wealth he was willing to make deals with. I mean, just write 50% off.
00:19:28:06 – 00:19:49:34
Michael Gewecke
Just give us the olive oil or, you know, he’s willing to despise or get rid of some of that worldly stuff if it would advance the cause, if it could make something happen. And so here, this idea that money is not important enough, wealth, not important enough worldly stuff isn’t important enough for you to get fixated on and hung up on.
00:19:49:39 – 00:20:12:01
Michael Gewecke
You’ve got to choose. Ultimately, that’s going to define your life in choices, and you’re going to wait for the 100%. You’re going to wait for the whole payment of the olive oil in that parable. Or if you serve God, if you are looking ahead to something eternal riches that matter, then you’ll be willing to deal with the worldly stuff and fix the issues that you have to with it.
00:20:12:14 – 00:20:26:47
Michael Gewecke
There’s a condition on this in the one if you’re serving the other. And Luke is making a point, maybe in a way that we would agree with through means that we might struggle to understand or that may land on our ears in a difficult way.
00:20:26:47 – 00:20:54:12
Clint Loveall
I think that’s helpful. Michael, do we take a difficult path to get there? But it delivers us diverse 13, particularly the end of verse 13 You cannot serve God in wealth. And Luke Luke, of all the gospel writers, believes this firmly. This is fundamental to Luke’s theology. You cannot be devoted to God and be devoted to wealth. They do not share the spotlight.
00:20:54:12 – 00:21:25:04
Clint Loveall
They do not share the podium that they will inevitably push on one another so that only one remains. And we’re going to continue this theme Luke gives us to a real world application and then a parable application of the idea of serving two masters or loving wealth and a couple of reasons why Luke is maybe a hard gospel for First World readers, but we will get to that on Monday.
00:21:25:19 – 00:21:45:49
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, and as we do, I just want to close today, lest you think that this parable, I can’t imagine how you could get here to the end of the video. But lest you think that this parable ends with Jesus lauding, use ing money to gain money dishonestly, I just want to make it very, very clear that in the verse to come that we’ll get to next week.
00:21:45:54 – 00:22:12:59
Michael Gewecke
He makes it explicit that Luke does that Jesus speaks to the Pharisees who are lovers of money and are enraged by this. I will make it very, very, very clear Jesus attributing this to people who are in that enemy antihero interpretation in the parable, and they get the fact that he’s critiquing them. And so so this is intentionally critique of the saying it’s not some sort of justification.
00:22:12:59 – 00:22:20:57
Clint Loveall
Yeah, this parable is confusing. It is not permissive. You’re right. It is not a green light to go get dishonest wealth.
00:22:21:01 – 00:22:31:57
Michael Gewecke
During this next week. We’ll continue that conversation. Until then, friends be blessed like this video. It’ll help others find this text. A strange text, maybe help them in their own faith, walk and indeed subscribe so you can stick with us along the way.
00:22:31:58 – 00:22:32:40
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.