The Parable of the Dishonest Steward

There are many parallels in the parable in and The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Parable of the Good Father and His Lost Sons) in . (Dr. Ken Bailey, Poet & Peasant, vol. 1, 109.)

4. Both the steward and the son betray a trust.101

1. does not tell us that a “parable” is about to be told. To get the word “parable” we have to return to 15:3. Thus Luke relates the two.; 2) In a son throws himself on the mercy of his father. In a servant throws himself on the mercy of his master.

Though the setting differs, the message is strikingly consistent and similar to the three previous parables recorded in .

dmans Publishing Company, 1983), 109.

2. In a son throws himself on the mercy of his father. In a servant throws himself on the mercy of his master.

Our text for this morning is from . Though the chapter break is placed here instead of between verse 8 and 9, the first 8 verses of actually fit better with the parables of than they do with the verses that follow, which introduce a new literary unit. As with the other parables we’ve examined, we will need to understand something of the culture of the Middle Eastern peasant to understand this parable rightly.

98 Not too much can be made of this, in that the same can be said for the parable of Dives and Lazarus.

Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke, Combined Edition., vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983), 109.

This parable has often been regarded as the most difficult to interpret. Part of this is because of its common association with the section that follows it about how one cannot serve both God and money. And so that theme or topic of how one should regard wealth is read back into this parable and it makes things confused because they are actually addressing different topics or issues.

1. does not tell us that a “parable” is about to be told. To get the word “parable” we have to return to 15:3. Thus Luke relates the two.98

The other part of this parable that has created difficulty for readers and interpreters of Holy Scripture is that, at first blush, it appears that Jesus is commending the unrighteous steward in the parable for his deceptive actions. As is usually the case, when we understand something of Middle Eastern peasant culture, these difficulties clear up quickly.

98 Not too much can be made of this, in that the same can be said for the parable of Dives and Lazarus.

First, though, before we get further, let’s hear Jesus’ parable concerning the unrighteous steward. , says,

Luke 16:1–8 ESV

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

The setting is that of an agricultural society: a land owner who rents out his fields to be farmed by tenants. The rent paid is an agreed upon portion of the produce of the field.

The steward is unrighteous, but the owner is a noble and righteous man who is well-respected in the community.

The owner is a generous and gracious and merciful man. He doesn’t send the steward jail, as he rightly could have, but instead only fires him.

The steward, by his silence, admits his guilt.

Some observations that will help guide us in understanding this parable: 1) Though this parable has often been understood in banking and moneylending terms, it really should be understood in agricultural terms. This makes sense of the parable. The rich man is the owner of a large estate and tenant farmers rent his land and pay him a portion of the harvest each year. The master of the estate also has in his employ, among other servants, his chief servant–the estate manager or steward. This steward is in charge of the books and of collecting the rent owed in harvest time, among other things. He acts on the authority of his master.

2) Though the estate manager or steward is described in this parable as unjust, there is no criticism of the owner of the estate. We can infer this because Jesus says in introducing the story that “charges were brought to him...” concerning the actions of his steward. If the estate owner was a corrupt man, no one would have cared if his steward was stealing from him. But because he is a righteous and honorable member of the community, someone brings this report.

3) If a servant had brought the charges, there would have been an investigation by the owner, but because there is no investigation, this would suggest that the informant(s) are the well-respected members of the community, with whom the owner has a good relationship. The source was absolutely trustworthy, and so there was no need for an investigation.

So the owner calls his steward to him and asks, “What is this that I hear about you?” Interestingly, the steward keeps silent. He doesn’t make excuses. By his silence, he admits his guilt. And so the owner fires him on the spot. He tells him to go get the books and turn them in. The account books are the symbol of the steward’s authority. If he doesn’t have the books, he doesn’t have the authority of the owner.

Once again, upon being fired, the steward doesn’t make excuses. This is very odd behavior. Normally in this situation, there would be all kinds of excuses made or blame-shifting or attempts at persuading the owner to change his mind. But the steward engages in none of these. He knows, apparently, that no excuse or persuasion will work. His owner is a just man and will not stand for excuses or be influenced or bought off. And the steward knows that his master is a generous and merciful man. He knows this because his master could have had him jailed for his actions, but he doesn’t, he simply fires him.

The steward is fired on the spot–everything he does in “official” capacity after that is illegal.

The steward hatches a clever plan to endear himself to the community so that they will hire him to manage their houses. This is what he means when he speaks to himself about being received into people’s houses–he wants another job instead of being forced to leave the community because no one will hire him.

The plot is born out of the knowledge he has just received that his master is a generous and merciful man.

The steward has to carry out his plan quickly because in short order the ruse will be up and it will be public knowledge that he was fired.

On his way to get the books to turn them in, the steward thinks through what to do now that he is about to lose his job. Now, in one sense he already lost it–the owner has informed the steward that he is fired and so everything from here on out that the steward does is illegal. But he still has to get the books and he has about an hour, maybe two before he has to get back to the owner with the books and then it will be public knowledge that he has been fired.

And so he thinks to himself about what he is going to do. He says to himself, “I am not strong enough to dig.” This means he is physically unable to work in the fields. He also says, “I am ashamed to beg.” So those two options are out. But also, who would want to hire him after they find out he has been dishonest with his current master’s property? So he hatches a clever plan.

He summons his master’s renters one by one. We should take note that the steward is acting like he still has authority because it isn’t public knowledge yet. And so the lesser servants still obey like the steward is still over them. As soon as it’s known that the steward is fired, no one will cooperate. So his plan depends upon getting things into place before the cat is out of the bag, as it were.

Now, it isn’t harvest time yet, and so when the owner’s tenants receive the summons from the steward, they think that he must have something special to communicate to them from the owner. Again, if they know he’s fired they won’t cooperate. And so the steward calls them in one at a time so they can’t talk amongst themselves and figure out what’s going on.

The steward asks the first one how much he owes his master come harvest time. Notice he says, “my master.” He is counting on the tenants’ assumption that he still has the authority of the owner. The first tenant says he owes “a hundred measures of oil.” The steward says, “Take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty.” To another he said, “How much to do you owe?” Answer: “A hundred measures of wheat.” “Take your bill, and write eighty,” the steward says.

What’s going on here? Well, the steward is having the tenants write down their bills in their own handwriting. Now, if they knew that the steward was out of a job, they wouldn’t cooperate because that would make them complicit and they wouldn’t want to risk losing the land they are renting. But since the steward is acting like he’s still the steward, they have plausible deniability–they don’t know what’s happening. The renters think that the steward is acting on his master’s authority and that he somehow convinced his master to give the renters a cheaper rate…in essence they are getting an exceedingly generous price for rent. Eventually it’s going to get out that the steward was fired and so the renters will not trust him, but they will employ him because better that he works for them than for someone else.

All this must happen quickly, again, because the steward has to turn in the books. And by the time he goes back to his master with the books, there will have begun in the village a celebration of the most generous land owner there has ever been. And both the steward and the master know it.

By the time the steward turns in the books, there is a great party going on in the village celebrating the exceptional generosity of the land owner.

The owner knows immediately what the steward has done once he sees the books.

The owner has two options: 1) tell everyone that the steward acted illegally and all the bills are the same as they were before their meeting with the steward. This would certainly be within his rights to do. 2) The owner can leave the bills as they are after being changed and absorb the cost/pay the cost himself for the steward’s salvation (he goes free instead of to jail). The steward is betting everything on this option.

The steward is commended by the owner, not for his actions–which were clearly sinful–but for knowing his master was a merciful man and trusting completely in that mercy.

When the steward turns in the books, there is no pretense of deception. The steward knows that the master knows the books and what agreements and contracts he made with his renters. He will certainly see the adjusted bills written in the hand of his fellow villagers who rent from him and with whom he enjoys a good relationship.

And so he has two options: 1) he can go to the village and tell everyone that the steward had no legal authority to make those contract changes and everything remains as it was before. But this would kill the party and the master’s reputation would be that of a most stingy and unreasonable landowner instead of a generous and respectable one. 2) He can accept the backhanded compliment from his fired servant and pay the full price of the steward’s salvation by leaving the contracts as they are now written.

And the master of the estate commends the steward for his cleverness. Notice the master doesn’t commend the steward’s actions, but because he knew his master was a gracious and generous man, and he put all his eggs in that basket–he threw himself upon the mercy of his master. This is what is being commended.

Jesus reinforces this when He says that “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Jesus refers to the steward as a son of this world. This means that Jesus isn’t commending his actions. In fact, what the steward should have done right away when he was caught and his sin exposed was repent. But he didn’t. He admitted guilt, but then continued to cheat his master. Sin often begets more sin.

Now, what would have been expected when Jesus was telling the parable is that the steward would be the hero. Most everyone knows what it’s like to be the little guy who works for the Big Man with money. And we all enjoy a good story about how the little guy outwits the big guy. The same was true in Jesus’ day. However, what they didn’t expect was for Jesus to criticize the steward, the little guy, and hold him guilty for his behavior. But Jesus does. Again, what is being commended is not the behavior, but the trust in the master’s character which caused the steward to entrust himself to his master’s mercy.

Application

What do we do when we are confronted by God through His Word concerning our sin?

Do we try to hide our sin? Make excuses? Blame someone or something else? Do we try to “fix” it by trying harder to do better? Do we retreat deeper and deeper within ourselves, keeping silent about our sin because we are too embarrassed to admit the truth? Do we hope by our silence it will go away? Or do we confess that we have sinned and admit our guilt?

The devil likes to lie to us and tell us that sin isn’t serious. And then when we commit sin, he lies to us and tells us that we cannot be forgiven…grace and mercy cannot be true. He seeks to do all he can to keep us from the forgiving Word of Christ: that Christ has paid for your sins, all of them, by suffering and dying on the cross. The devil never wants you to hear that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake.

The truth is that we know from Scripture that God is gracious and merciful. God sent His Son to die for sinful human beings as a testament to His love for sinners and to indeed make atonement for them. God promises that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God wants you to bet everything on His mercy and grace and forgiveness in Christ.

This forgiveness of sins is continually given by God to His Church through corporate and private confession and absolution, through the preaching of the Gospel, through the waters of Holy Baptism, through the reception of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion, and through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren, as we speak to each other the truth about sin and the truth about the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ on the cross and delivered to us through His Gospel.

So how does this parable apply to us? First, we should remember that the steward is not commended for his behavior. He is clearly shown to be sinning. We can learn something from the steward about the nature of sinful human beings. Sin never stops with just one infraction. Sin brings forth more and more sin. The steward should have immediately repented for his sin against his master, but instead he continues to deceive and rob his master of his property. Sin brings more forth more sin and when it is fully grown or matured, it brings forth eternal death. We cannot correct the problem of sin on our own. Left to ourselves and our own strength we will increase sin, never reduce it. We cannot solve our sin problem.

This parable illustrates for us what happens when the Kingdom of God comes among us: it exposes our sins and exposes us as sinners. And this happens when the Word of God comes to us and speaks to us. God in His Law, exposes our sin and exposes us as sinners. So, what do we do when our sin is exposed?

We have a few options.

1) We can press on in our sin and say we don’t care that God says that what we are doing or thinking is wrong. That’s one option.

2) We can try to cover up and hide our sin and put on an outward show of righteousness and hope that we fool the people around us. We cannot, however, fool God. He sees through all our pretenses of righteousness and sees through the smoke screens that we put in place to mask and hide our sin.

3) We can try to make excuses. This is very common, as we all know. We try to explain away what we did or thought or we blame someone or something else for what we did. We’re very good at activating the inner lawyer in us that defends us tooth-and-nail and tries to come up with every excuse possible to get us out from under the “guilty” verdict.

4) Or we might try to bargain our way out of a guilty verdict. I’ll do better next time. I’ll make it up to you, God, by being a better person. I’ll do more “good” deeds to balance out the bad things I’ve thought and done.

But all of these options are really just our attempts to justify ourselves, to save ourselves. And in the end, none of these attempts will work. God cannot be bargained with. He does not fall for any pretense of righteousness, nor is He fooled by any excuse or attempt at shifting blame. He is just and His judgments are right.

The only real option left to us is to admit our guilt. To confess that we have sinned and offer no excuses or bargains. But to simply be silent under the judgment of God, the only words to say are “I’m guilty.”

Say you get to that point. You admit without excuse or explanation that you are guilty before God of the sin that He has charged you with. What then? We learn from this parable that God is not only just and so will not be swayed by any excuse or bargain, but that God is also merciful. Remember, the master of the estate didn’t jail the steward as he rightly could have. He only fired him. Because of this, the steward learned that his master was a generous and merciful man. And so instead of making excuses, he throws himself on the mercy of his master.

This is what God wants you to do when confronted with your sin. He wants you to admit your guilt without excuse and throw yourself completely on His mercy, trusting and knowing that He is merciful and will forgive you for Jesus’ sake.

Tragically, though, we so often don’t believe that God is merciful and wants to forgive us. So often when we are confronted with our sin and we know we’re guilty, we tend to run from God. God is the last person we want to go to with our sin. We feel ashamed. We think that God couldn’t possibly love us or want us to come to Him. We think we need to clean ourselves up first so that God will accept us and be happy with us.

The devil is truly a wicked being. You see, he comes to us with lies. He lies to us about our sin. Tells us on the front side that it’s no big deal if we commit sin…there’s always forgiveness. But then, when we believe the lie and commit the sin or sins, the devil is right there to tell us that because we sinned there is no hope for us. God doesn’t love us. Our sin is too great for God to forgive. We’re too dirty and God can’t stand us. And the devil seeks through these lies to drive us further and further into ourselves, which is to drive us further and further from God and into despair. And so we try to run and hide from the very One who can and wants to heal us with the blood of His Son.

The antidote to lies is the truth. When God confronts you with your sin through His Word, through your conscience, tell the truth. When we make excuses for our sin and try to write it off or pass the buck or pretend like it’s really not a big deal, we are lying to ourselves. God’s Word is truth and that truth shines the light and exposes the lie and reveals our sin. Speak the truth about your sin: that your sins are indeed sins and that you are guilty before a holy and righteous God.

And when your conscience is afflicted with the knowledge of your sin, and the devil and the world and your sinful flesh tell you lies–that you’re too dirty to be made clean, that God doesn’t want to forgive you or can’t forgive you, that you can make up for your sin by doing good works and trying harder, that all hope is lost and you may as well despair, speak the truth. The truth is that God is a merciful and generous and kind and gracious God who loves you. And you can know that God loves you because He sent Jesus to take your sin upon Himself and bleed and die to wash them away.

What God desires by bringing to you the knowledge of your sin and the reality of His righteous judgment is to bring you not only to repentance, or sorrow over your sin, but ultimately to faith in the shed blood of Christ for you. The devil wants you as far away from that Word of forgiveness and grace as possible. God wants you to “bet the blue chips,” as it were–all of them–on His grace and mercy, just as the steward put all his hope in the generosity and mercy of his master.

Sometimes it isn’t enough to tell ourselves the truth. We may recognize rightly that we have sinned and are guilty before God. We may know intellectually that God forgives those who confess their sins. But the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are sometimes too much for us to overcome by speaking the truth of grace and forgiveness for Jesus’ sake and because of His suffering and death on our behalf. Sometimes, maybe often, we need to hear it from outside of ourselves, we need to hear it from someone else.

This can be done among ourselves as Christians–we can confess our sins to one another and hear of the forgiveness of sins, and this is good. This is also why the Church has made a practice of private confession and absolution. You can go to your pastor, in this case, me, of course, and confess your sins. The confession stays with the pastor–this is the seal of the confessional that a pastor promises never to break. And upon your confession of your sins, you hear and receive God’s Word of forgiveness to you, specifically, that your sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake.

This is the same Word you hear each Sunday morning when we confess our sins together and receive God’s absolution, His forgiveness, but in private confession and absolution, instead of a general Word spoken to the congregation, you receive that Word specifically for you. This is of great aid and help against the lies of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.

This is also the same Word of grace and forgiveness that is spoken and delivered to you in Holy Communion. God delivers to you the forgiveness of sins through giving to you Jesus Himself, His very body and blood that hung on the cross and poured out of His side. To be given Jesus in His death for you is to be given the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And this Word is objective, it is true. It doesn’t depend upon you or how you feel. It is God’s sure and certain action upon you and what God does and says is true and real.

And so when you are confronted with your sin and you stand exposed as a sinner and guilty before God, admit that it’s true. Don’t try to hide it, dress it up, blame someone else, make excuses, etc. Acknowledge the truth of what God is saying when He convicts you of sin. And having admitted or recognized your guilt, throw yourselves on the mercy of Christ, knowing that He is a merciful and generous and gracious Redeemer who will pay, indeed He has paid, the full price of your salvation. And the price He paid was His very own blood, His very life for yours.

Trust Him. His Word is true. It is sure and certain. And so His mercy and grace and forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus is real and true. And this mercy, grace, and forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ is for you too. Continually. Every day of your life.

King David, a great sinner himself who knew the mercy of God in Christ, writes in :

Psalm 32:1–5 ESV

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

The peace won by Jesus Christ on the cross for sinners be with you, now and always. Amen.

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