Shrewd Dealings

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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? (Luke 16:9-12)

Jesus told a rather confusing story to his disciples to encourage them to think differently about their resources. In the story a wealthy man fired his account manager for misuse of the rich man's money. In order to gain favor with those he would now have to rely on (perhaps for food and a place to stay), the dishonest manager then decided to lower the debts of those who still owed payments to the rich man. It's likely that the manager simply removed what he was overcharging in order to pad his own pockets. Seeing what his former manager had done, the rich man commended his shrewdness - he did not, however, rehire the manager.

While Jesus was not regarding the dishonest manager as a moral example that we should emulate, he was teaching that we should use whatever we have to achieve the goal of building God's kingdom. If the rich man in the story represents God, and we are the dishonest managers of God's property, this parable reminds us that we don't need to stockpile what God has already entrusted to us. By ensuring that others experience the wealth of God's goodness (being trustworthy with God's property), we store up for ourselves treasure in heaven (property of our own). We may also note that the dishonest manager wasn't only mismanaging the wealthy man's property, but - by charging more than what was owed - he was misusing (stealing) the property of others. When we don't extend God's kingdom to all, we are hoarding for ourselves what rightly belongs to everyone. God has blessed us with so much - not only material things but also with forgiveness, grace, joy, peace, and love. When we deprive the world of these gifts we are depriving ourselves of the fullness of God's bounty.

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath be ended

that we may market wheat?”—

skimping on the measure,

boosting the price

and cheating with dishonest scales,

6 buying the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done."

(Amos 8:4-7)