[Scripture: Luke 16:1-9]
This parable tells us that Christians should help and love people rather than money. These kinds of people are considered wise when Jesus Christ comes again to complete his kingdom. Jesus teaches putting people first because it is a core value that God always practices in his kingdom.
Jesus Christ went to a certain place and sat there. When people heard that Jesus Christ had come to a town, many tax collectors and sinners gathered to listen and eat with Jesus. At that time, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complained about why Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them.
The “sinners” in these passages are named so according to the Pharisees’ point of view. They were referring to those who did not fully keep the Mosaic Law and the traditions of the elders. The Pharisees were not interested in the lives, circumstances, hardships, and sufferings of the people but rather their teachings, laws, and traditions.
Jesus Christ heard their complaints and told them parables to teach them the truth of God. The Pharisees were wrong because they believed that God had not blessed those who did not follow their teaching. The Pharisees complained because the disciples of Jesus were associating with the sinners and were saying that God’s kingdom belonged to them. The Pharisees thought that the disciples of Jesus were wrong because they were giving the kingdom of heaven to people who broke the law.
The Parable
Today’s parable is about a dishonest manager, but unexpectedly, the manager was praised by his master because he was dishonest. This is the main point of this parable. The manager was accused of wasting the owner’s possessions because he was charging tenants full rent. When the manager reduced the tenants’ rents, the owner called him wise. Ironic, isn’t it?
However, we need to identify two things in order to have full understanding of this parable. First, we need to know who informed the owner about the manager’s poor management. The other thing we need to understand is the owner’s management philosophy.
To identify the accuser in this parable, we should consider who benefited the most from this incident. In the story, the tenants benefited the most. According to the storyline, the tenants were most likely the accusers.
The owner’s business philosophy was that he wasn’t supposed to just take the rent owed to him but also care for the tenants themselves. Their well-being was understood as the owner’s responsibility because the owner knew that if the tenants felt the manager wasn’t taking care of them, the tenants who were farmers had lower crop productivity and there was higher tenant turnover. Therefore, the manager was not simply to earn rent for the owner but to take care of the lives of the tenants as his most important duties.
Behind Story of the Wise Manager in Luke 16
When tenants entered into a contract with the manager, they agreed to pay the landlord a certain amount of their agricultural produce. They could pay their rent to the owner when they collected a good harvest. However, the problem was when the crops were damaged due to drought or other unfavorable weather conditions.
When they could not pay the fixed rent, some of them ran away. If the manager lost his tenants, he lost the yearly rent. This is why they accused the manager of wasting the owner’s possessions. Wasting the owner’s possessions meant that the manager lost some tenants. The owner heard that, and he was upset with the manager’s mismanagement of the people. In the time of Jesus, there were many bandits and thieves around the country. (The Good Samaritan was also attacked by robbers.) Tenants who ran away and who could not pay their farm rent often joined the robbers.
The Best Solution for the Dishonest Manager
When the manager heard his master was coming, he took action to restructure the rent rate according to each tenant’s personal ability. After that, he did not lose the tenants, and the tenants praised the manager and said he was a generous and careful person. That’s why the master mentioned that the manager was a shrewd man—because of his wise people-management skill.
Manager’s Job Description
The most important priority in a manager’s job description is to please the boss when he reports the final settlement of the work and put the profits in the owner’s hands.
In 2011, after I graduated college, I worked at a footwear store as a manager with two or three employees for almost a year. When I did the manager’s job for my boss, she always said, “Cloud, don’t let any customer go away empty-handed.” She always told me, “Cloud, you need to have an aggressive attitude to sell well.”
She also gave me full permission to make a discount sign. If I could not sell products at the daily average rate, I changed the discount sign to up to 50% off. She did not complain so long as I made money over the daily average.
But if I could not make the daily average, she always raised her voice. “Cloud, what did you do for me?” The boss always wanted to see how much money she could get when I closed a cash register. I could not see her during the day, but she was always there at the time of the cash register closeout.
The Spiritual Meaning of the Parable
This parable is not a story that teaches about work ethics or a Christian’s moral life but about how we manage our Christian life and how to prepare for the future wisely. The spiritual moral of this story is to serve people first. It could be my only prize when Jesus comes and asks me, “Cloud, what did you do for me?” Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.”
Earthly value means keeping possessions, but heavenly value means keeping people.
Conclusion
I have been serving churches in Northern Michigan for almost six years. However, if some of you asked me, “What was the best thing that you did for those churches?” I could not say many things that I did in my ministry, but one thing I could say was that I officiated funeral services.
Again, if you asked me what kind of ministry did I do best, I would say, “I was a funeral service specialist.” It sounds like a kind of joke, but when I officiate, I pray to God, “Lord, I send one more Saint to you.” I call the individual’s name who is in the coffin and say, “Tell my name to God when you see God in heaven.” Serving people is my prize when I finish my race and come to see God in heaven.
Jesus said people come first; that is his ultimate goal! In Luke 19:10, it says that Jesus Christ came to seek people and to save the lost. This is the true meaning of the gospel that Jesus Christ died for. While the Pharisees spent their time and energy keeping their tradition and the law as a money-making business, Jesus Christ encouraged his disciples to focus on people more than money. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) Therefore, the best way to do good for God is to serve people. If you want to do the will of God, you should love and serve people. Serving people is the best use of Christian love and action.
2022.02.27. Pastor Cloud Poy
@ Photo on Unsplash
