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Luke 16:1–13 (NIV)
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 “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. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13 “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.”
Shrewd Definition ‐ adjective: shrewd; comparative adjective: shrewder; superlative adjective: shrewdest
- having or showing sharp powers of judgment; astute. "she was shrewd enough to guess
the motive behind his gesture"
Similar: astute, sharp‐witted, sharp, acute, intelligent, clever, alert
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
That is the end of parable. So you see the situation. A manager is fired, but before he leaves, he negotiates with the debtors of the owner to sign new contracts so that they owe the owner less than they really do.
They think that’s cool, and the manager hopes that these debtors will feel obliged to him, so that when he’s jobless, they’ll help him out. So, the deceitful manager uses his wits to figure out a way to manipulate money so as to secure his future. That’s the gist.
We don’t know how the story really ends — what happens after this encounter. We just know that when the master found out how clever this guy was, he said something like, “Well, that’s clever. That was shrewd.”
Questions:
- Was the manager stealing from his master when he marked down how much people owed?
- In Verse 8, what does it mean that “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light?”
- In Verse 9, what does it mean to “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
- How does using wealth for eternal purposes align with the concept of shrewdness in the parable?
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