Follow Jesus Christ

For many Christians, the parable Jesus told about the shrewd manager who was about to be fired for embezzlement is baffling. Commentators often struggle to explain His words. Were it not for the context in Luke’s Gospel—which clearly warns about the danger of loving money—Christians might even take this parable as permission to stockpile earthly wealth. Curiously, Luke is the only evangelist who records it. Why did the others avoid mentioning it?

Jesus said to His disciples:

“There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

So he called in each of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Everyone in this story is a crook: the manager is a crook, the debtors play along with his shady scheme, and even the master, instead of flying into a righteous rage, admires the slick trick of his servant. So what exactly does Jesus want us to learn from these people?

The “sons of light”—angels—would never act this way. They wouldn’t steal in the first place, so such a dilemma would never arise. That is precisely Jesus’ point: this story is about life here on earth, told for ordinary people who are surrounded by theft and corruption from the cradle on. In a world scarred by sin, ingenuity sometimes arises in ways that would never occur in heaven, where there is no sin at all. What Jesus singles out here is cleverness and resourcefulness. These are valuable traits—even if they emerge in the middle of a corrupt situation. Perhaps it is sin itself that sometimes forces the human mind to kick into high gear and discover unorthodox solutions. When we are cornered by sin, we desperately search for—and sometimes stumble upon—a way out.

Why did Jesus tell this parable to His disciples and apostles? Most likely, the key lies in the word zeal. Their calling was to preach and to serve the community. Yet the great temptation of all religious workers is to slack off, to say: “The Lord’s return is far off; I can take it easy.” Zeal fades, laziness sets in, and spiritual decline follows. But where then is the wit, the resourcefulness, the urgency? Where is that relentless creativity that should be used to bring as many people to God as possible? Instead, we often see Christians carrying out their duties slowly, comfortably, and half-heartedly.

Did Jesus mean that we should “buy” people’s loyalty in order to convert them? Or that we should go to the ends of the earth, cutting moral corners if necessary? Certainly not—immoral behavior is off the table, and love of money and theft remain sins. But every case of “winning friends” is unique, and God will weigh each one individually. There are no one-size-fits-all rules. What if, working “on the edge of the rules,” we manage to bring someone to faith—and it truly bears fruit? What if our ingenuity in preaching and in daily choices leads to a saved soul, with no condemnation from God or others in the end?

Isn’t this the very lesson hidden in Jesus’ parable of the shrewd manager—that zeal and resourcefulness, even in a world steeped in endless chains of sin, can still serve the purposes of God?