Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Jesus also said this parable to His disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So, he called his manager and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be my manager.’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am not strong enough to dig and I'm too ashamed to beg.’ Then he said, ‘I know what I will do, so that after my removal from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’

“And he called in each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first.

“‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he answered.

“‘Take your bill,’ said the manager. ‘Sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

“Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied.

“‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.” Jesus then gave the people practical advice for using their worldly wealth to their eternal advantage. “I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when the wealth is gone, those friends will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

“Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus. So, Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before people, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among people is detestable before God.

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.”

Jesus then gave the people another example of bad stewardship, despite the contemporary teaching of the rabbis. “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

See Luke 16:1-18

Notes:

1. “A hundred measures of olive oil”: (Greek, 100 batous, 100 baths) Approximately 870 gallons or 3,300 liters

2. “A hundred measures of wheat”: (Greek, 100 korous, 100 cors) Approximately 1,000 bushels or 35,000 liters, about 30 tons or 27 metric tons.

3. “use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves”: Do good with your money. It is not certain whether the “friends” that welcome you are those who received your charitable giving or the inhabitants of heaven—God and the angelic host—or a combination of both.

4. “The Law and the Prophets”: All the teachings of the Old Testament.