A Shrewd Investment in the Right Kingdom

Have you ever read a part of the Bible and just thought to yourself, “Wait… what did I just read?” If you have, you’re in good company. Our passage for today, from Luke16:1−12, is one of those sections. It’s a story that can leave us scratching our heads.

As commentator Chelsey Harmon puts it, “Why is Jesus seemingly praising a shady businessperson? The ‘hero’ of the story steals from his boss in order to curry favour and ensure his future with other people all too happy to cheat the system!”

It’s a fair question. This parable is dense, like an onion we need to peel back the layers, one by one, to get to the heart of what Jesus is teaching. On the surface, it seems like Jesus is patting a dishonest manager on the back. But as we’ll see, that’s not the case at all.

First, let’s understand the audience. Jesus is speaking directly to the disciples. But this isn’t a private conversation. We learn that the Pharisees, who are described as “lovers of money”, are listening to the whole conversation. So, this parable becomes both a profound lesson for those following Jesus about life in God’s kingdom and a sharp critique of the values the Pharisees and others in society held so dear.

The story is about a manager who is about to be fired for mismanaging his boss’s possessions. Faced with unemployment, he knows his limitations. He says to himself, “I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.” He’s self-aware. He knows he needs a plan, and he needs one fast.

So, what does he do? He calls in each of his master’s debtors and performs a radical re-negotiation of their debt. He tells the one who owes a hundred measures of olive oil to change the bill to fifty. He tells the one who owes a hundred measures of wheat to make it eighty.

Let’s be clear: If you or I tried this at our jobs, it would only reinforce our boss’s decision to fire us. It’s dishonest. The manager has not been faithful with the “dishonest wealth” he was responsible for. He isn’t acting out of virtue; he’s acting out of pure self-preservation to ensure he has friends who will welcome him when he’s out of a job.

And here’s the twist that confuses everyone. The master—the rich man who is being cheated—commends the dishonest manager. Why? Not because he was dishonest, but because he had acted shrewdly.

The manager was clever. He used his present position to secure his future. And in the process, he trapped his boss. The boss can’t reverse these transactions now without looking like scrooge. The manager has given his boss a sterling, if accidental, reputation for generosity, and the boss has to uphold it. The manager used the system to his advantage. He and his boss are cut from the same cloth; they both ultimately serve money and their own comfort.

But Jesus’s point is not for us to copy this behaviour. Right after the story, he says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” We are not called to be dishonest. So, what is the lesson?

Jesus is using this story to draw a sharp contrast. He says, “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”

The manager, a person of this world, was completely focused on his earthly future. He saw a change coming, the loss of his job, and he used every resource he had, cleverly and decisively, to prepare for it. His goal was an easy life, and he pursued it.

Jesus looks at his disciples, the people of the light, and asks a piercing question: Are you that shrewd about the things that truly matter? Are you that clever and decisive in using the resources you have now to invest in an eternal future?

This isn’t a new idea. This reflects God’s long-standing commitment to social and economic justice, a theme that we find in prophets like Amos. God’s economics are not about hoarding wealth but about justice and relationship. The manager, for selfish reasons, created a community of relief and gratitude. He made friends with “dishonest wealth.” Jesus flips this and tells us to use our worldly resources—our time, our money, our possessions—to build relationships and serve a higher purpose, to invest in eternal dwellings.

This all builds to the final, unforgettable point: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The manager and his boss served money. Their lives were driven by comfort and wealth. The people of the light are called to represent a radical alternative. We are called to serve God.

Serving God means we live by a different set of values. We have a vision for a different kind of world, a world that doesn’t yet exist but one we are committed to building. A world of justice, generosity, and faithfulness. Because the children of God have this vision, they are trusted by God with the true riches.

The lesson of the shrewd manager isn’t a “how-to” guide for shady business dealings. It’s a wake-up call about character and allegiance. Jesus doesn’t commend the dishonesty of the shrewd manager, but rather his foresight. How you behave now dictates how you will behave in the future. Who you make friends with now shows who you will associate with in the future. How we handle the little things, the earthly wealth entrusted to us is a powerful indicator of who our true master really is.

The manager was shrewd for the wrong reasons and for the wrong kingdom. The question Jesus leaves us with today is, will we be shrewd for the right one? Who, or what, will you serve? Amen.