Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”
Luke 16:1-8
I guess the bottom line of this strange parable about a bunch of crooks is that we can learn something - even from them!
First of all, the steward was a crook! He was a slave who nonetheless was in charge of running his master’s estate. His master was probably an absentee landlord which was common in those days. His master, being away most of the time, gave his steward a clear path to a career of embezzlement.
Second, the debtors were cooks as well. When they heard that the steward had been fired, they collaborated with him in his scheme to falsify the books. With his days numbered, the steward decided to lower the debts of all his maser’s debtors. That way, they would be grateful for lowing their debts and if they reported him, they could be blackmailed as collaborators in that very same scheme.
Third, the master himself was probably a crook too. Instead of condemning his scheming steward, he praises him for being so slick and cunning in his crookedness. He actually admired the trick that his steward played on him to save himself once he was fired!
In this strange parable, Jesus is not suggesting we all become slick and crooked. He is simply saying that “the children of this world are much more creative in dealing with their own kind than the children of the next world are in dealing with their own kind.” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Would that Christians were as eager and ingenious in their attempt to attain goodness as the people of this world are in their attempts to attain money and comfort!” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Would that Christians were half as hungry for righteousness as the people of this world are for material wealth! Would that Christians would be as clever about reaching holiness as the people of this world are about making money!”
Yes, the bottom line about this strange parable is that we can learn something even from crooks!
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