Parable of the Unjust Steward
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Parable of the Unjust Steward
The Parable of the Unjust Steward (also called the Shrewd Manager) is a parable of Jesus which appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. According to Luke 16:1-13 a steward who is about to be fired curries favor with his master's debtors by forgiving some of their debts.
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Passage
And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am 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 lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
— Luke 16:1-13, King James Bible
Interpretation
The parable has caused difficulty, since on the face of it Jesus appears to be commending dishonest behaviour.[1] This issue is sometimes addressed by suggesting that the manager is forgoing a commission due to him personally, but this explanation "is not a plausible one."[2] However, although the master has "a certain grudging admiration"[3] for the manager's "shrewdness," Jesus labels the manager "dishonest."[2] Few commentators deal with the problem that generally in the parables following this formula, "the master" is most often a metaphor for God. It would seem that the parable would suggest that the conduct of the manager meets with God's approval.
The manager in the parable is probably a slave or freedman acting as his master's agent in business affairs.[2] As his master's representative, the agreements he signs with the debtors are therefore binding.[2]
The parable shares the theme of other passages where "Jesus counsels the disposition of possessions (and hospitality) on behalf of the poor with the understanding that, while mammon will vanish, eternal treasure will have thus been secured."[2] When death comes, "the power we have to do good with our money ceases, so we should do good with it now"[3] so that the friends we have made on earth will be waiting for us in heaven.[3] This interpretation was also espoused by early church writers, such as Asterius of Amasia:
When, therefore, any one anticipating his end and his removal to the next world, lightens the burden of his sins by good deeds, either by canceling the obligations of debtors, or by supplying the poor with abundance, by giving what belongs to the Lord, he gains many friends, who will attest his goodness before the Judge, and secure him by their testimony a place of happiness.[4]
English Reformer William Tyndale was at pains to emphasise the consistency of this parable with the doctrine of justification by faith, writing a booklet on the parable called The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528),[5] based on an exposition by Martin Luther.[6] Tyndale saw "good works" as the result of faith.[5] Tyndale also pointed out that the steward was not praised by Jesus for his conduct, but merely provided as an example of wisdom and diligence, so that "we with righteousness should be as diligent to provide for our souls, as he with unrighteousness provided for his body."[5]
The Anglican theologian J. C. Ryle, writing in 1859, rejected a number of allegorical interpretations of the parable, and gave an interpretation similar to that of Tyndale:
Let us contend earnestly for the glorious doctrines of salvation by grace, and justification by faith. But let us never allow ourselves to suppose that true religion sanctions any trifling with the second table of the law. Let us never forget for a moment, that true faith will always be known by its fruits. We may be very sure that where there is no honesty, there is no grace.[7]
All of the parables in Luke chapters 15 and 16, including the parable of the unjust steward, can be interpreted as answering the objection raised against Jesus in Luke 15:1-2: "Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." In other words, if this man is as righteous as he says he is, why is he mingling with sinners? Jesus answers with a string of parables. God's love for the sinner and his joy in the sinner's reclamation is illustrated in the first three parables: the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), the lost piece of silver (Luke 15:8-10), and the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus also begins to address more directly the reluctance of the self-righteous to accept the repentance of those they consider to be irredeemably lost (Luke 15:28-32). Jesus continues in this theme more forcefully in the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-12). This parable can be interpreted as Jesus saying to the Pharisees and scribes: 'You look upon yourselves as the stewards of God or the word of God, but with my ministry, the true kingdom of God has come, and you are being displaced. Meanwhile, you consider yourselves so far above the publicans and sinners that you refuse even to associate with them, but as you see here, they are the ones entering into the kingdom of God. And their sins, for which you despise them, against whom were their sins committed? Against God. Who holds their debt? God is their creditor. Overlooking their debt to God is as easy as a manager canceling the debts owed to his master. It costs you nothing. In the world, this is embezzlement, but in the kingdom of God, it is a requirement. So, scribes and Pharisees, you have a choice here. You can choose to cling to your self-righteousness and end up cast off with nowhere to go, or you can forgive the sinners' debt to God of unrighteousness and dwell forever in heaven with them.' The parable of Lazarus and the rich man can also be interpreted in this context. The rich man represents the Pharisees and scribes, rich in the word of God. From their point of view, as experts of the word of God in God's chosen nation, they possessed more of the word of God and understood it better than any other people in the world. Lazarus represents the publicans and sinners. Though they lived in the midst of this vast treasury of the word of God, because the experts, in their contempt, refused to teach them, they could only scavenge for the scraps that fell to them. But according to the parable, they will be exalted, and the self-righteous, condemned.
See also
References
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- ^ Daryl Koehn, "Integrity as a Business Asset", Journal of Business Ethics, (2005) 58: 125–136
- ^ a b c d e Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, Eerdmans, 1997, ISBN 0-8028-2315-7, pp. 590-595.
- ^ a b c John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Luke: An expository commentary, Kregel Publications, 2005, ISBN 0-8254-3377-0, pp. 216-217.
- ^ Asterius of Amasia, Sermon 2: The Unjust Steward, Sermons (1904) pp. 45-71.
- ^ a b c William Tyndale, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528), also printed in The Works of the English reformers: William Tyndale and John Frith, Volume 1 (1831), pp. 83–161.
- ^ Mike Pincombe and Cathy Shrank, The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature, Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 0-19-920588-4, p. 109.
- ^ J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, London: Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt, 1859, p. 199.
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