#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Biggest Dishonest Manager Ever

Luke 16:1-9 Then Jesus said to His disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of squandering the man’s property. ²He called the manager. “What’s this I hear about you?’ he asked him.’Give an account of your management, because you can’t manage my property any longer. ³“’What will I do?’ the manager said to himself. “My master is taking my job a away from me. I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I’ll do so that when I’ve lost my job people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵So he called everyone who owed his master anything. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first. ⁶“ ‘Eight hundred gallons of oil,’ he answered. “ Take your note,’ he said, “sit down quickly and write “four hundred.” ⁷“Then he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he answered.’ ‘Take your note,’ he told him, ‘and write eight hundred.'” ⁸“And the master praised the dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly. “In dealing with their own kind of people, the men of this world are shrewder than those who are in the light. ⁹“And I tell you, with the money that’s often used in wrong ways win friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you’ll be welcomed into the everlasting homes.

Well I guess we have to say that with this parable Jesus shows us the mind of God whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts and whose ways are higher than our ways. This parable has tied in knots many of us who try to explain it. What gets our pious britches in a wad is that Jesus praises the dishonest manager. Why on earth would he do that? What is his point and what are we to make of the details of the parable?

We see there is a manager accused of squandering his bosses property. We don’t know if it’s true or not. He may have been squandering this bosses property or he may not have been. He’s called to give an accounting of the books. He assumes that he is fired no matter what. So he devises a plan so that people will welcome him into their homes because he doesn’t know how to do any other sort of work (and it is assumed no one would hire him having been accused of mismanagement) and he won’t beg. So what does he do? He calls in his master’s debtors and starts cooking the books (if wasn’t guilty before, he is now). As they come in he asks how much do they owe. When they tell him, he tells them to write a significant number less. The master praises the dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly.

Jesus then tells us the people of the world are shrewder than those of the light in dealing with their own kind of people. Ok, what are we supposed to do with that? Well Jesus follows that with buy friends with money so that when it is gone, they’ll welcome you into everlasting homes. Great, what do we do with that? We have been told you can’t buy friends. Well Jesus never said that. What I believe Jesus means here is to use our wealth to help people who can’t pay us back who need our help. We will be rewarded in heaven for doing so. Also use you money to spread the Gospel of Jesus. Those who hear it because of your gifts will thank you in the kingdom of God.

So for my most controversial statement, Jesus is the dishonest manager. He not only paid off some of our debt to God, he paid off our entire debt to God. He did this so we, upon hearing this would welcome him into our hearts, become his friends, and we would enter his kingdom.

Heavenly Father, we thank you your Son Jesus Christ paid our debts for our sins. Grant us faith to believe this so we may enter your heavenly mansions. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.