Tuesday, September 20, 2011

What Jesus Said about Your Money, Part 3 of 31

GUEST: Jeff Manion

TEXT: "He also said to His disciples: 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." Then the steward said within himself; "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses." So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said to him, "Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill, and write eighty." So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light'” (Luke 16:1-8).

IDEA: When we look for solutions to questions raised by a text, we have to ask which explanation best fits the details and the context of the passage.

PURPOSE: To help listeners weigh alternative explanations of a question in a passage.

Here is a story Jesus told in Luke 16:1-8:

“There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”

What is the major problem encountered as you listen to this parable?

Why would Jesus use a scoundrel like this—and apparently speak of him with approval—to teach a lesson to His disciples?

Where would you turn to find an answer to that question?

There are basically two explanations:

I. He may not have been cheating his employer.

He may have been foregoing interest payments that his master did not have a right to charge. The manager may have originally overcharged the debtors. That was a common way of getting around the Old Testament law that prohibited taking interest from fellow Jews (Deuteronomy 23:19). So to reduce the debts, he may have returned the figures to their original amounts. That would have satisfied the owner and gotten the friendship of the debtors.

What favors that explanation?

What are the problems with that explanation?

It doesn’t really solve the problem: the man is a scoundrel.

Jesus calls him “unrighteous” or “dishonest” (Luke 16:8). He was accused of wasting his employer’s possessions. That wasn’t “unrighteous” as much as it is irresponsible. Evidently, it was in the way he made the deals.

II. He was wicked.

Take the worst-case scenario:

Jesus chose His characters in His stories with a great degree of freedom. In Luke 18 He pictures God as an “unjust judge” in a lesson in contrast.

What is the point of the comparison? Jesus says that His coming will be like a “thief" (Revelation 16:15). Does that mean that Jesus resembles a “second-story man” in everything?

What is the point of comparison in this parable?

In this story, Jesus isn’t commending this man’s morals. He is commending his shrewdness. It’s possible to get a good lesson from a bad example.