There was a Rich Man
“Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Luke 16:1-13
Trusting our Teacher
In this passage, when Jesus himself says to his listeners, “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth”, it really makes you stop and ask, “what are you talking about, Jesus?”
It’s also thought provoking that the protagonist of this parable isn’t a person of faith. We’re learning from the example of a man who is not concerned with faithfulness or obedience to God.
Part of following Jesus is being willing to listen to and wrestle with the teachings that are confusing or difficult. One crucial thing is trusting in Jesus’s leadership. We may not always be good students, but we have a good teacher. One act of discernment is to hold difficult lessons alongside other teachings of Christ to help us discern:
- What is Jesus asking me to think about?
- What is Jesus drawing my attention to?
- What is Jesus teaching me?
Part of the teaching style of the Gospels is that we often see the same lesson taught several times in a row.
Prior to this parable is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and in both stories, the protagonist squanders what was given to them. They both move towards reconciliation through giving or receiving some type of forgiveness. The ultimate goal of both stories is being welcomed home, when the Prodigal seeks to be welcomed as a servant to his Father, and the Manager hopes to be welcomed home by the poor when he becomes powerless.
In the story that comes after, we hear what happens when there is no one to welcome you home. The story of the Rich man and Lazarus and the shrewd manager parable both start off: “There was a rich man”. The Rich man is tormented in the afterlife, while his neighbor Lazarus, who was poor in life, now lives in heaven. The Rich man doesn’t ask to go to heaven, rather he asks them to send Lazarus to bring him cold water, as if Lazarus were a servant or slave. He is told that the gap between them is too great to cross. We now have three examples of why forgiveness and reconciliation with our neighbors, and closing the gap between us, is more important than the pursuit of money in life.
Reversal of Fortune
The theme of money and status shows up throughout the Gospel of Luke, and it often shows the reversal of status as being a representation of the Kingdom of God. Specifically, the first will be last and the last will be first.
Even without faith as a motivator, this shrewd manager goes to those who cannot pay their debts, and forgives a portion so that they might have compassion and welcome him into their homes when he loses his status.
Keep in mind the ongoing theme in Luke’s Gospel about the reversal of power and status, which we hear about in Mary’s Magnificat of the powerful being taken down from their thrones and the lowly lifted up. We see that here, when the manager, who has the power now, gives it away so that when he is powerless he will be welcomed by the poor, who will then become his masters and will have the power to save him. Regardless of his motivation, we see a complete reversal of economy and power in his relationships.
This reversal of power and status in Luke reminds me of a quote from Madeleine L’Engle. She asks, “Might we say that the opposite of love is power, rather than hate?”
And of course we believe in the power of love and the power of doing good, but it does make me think of the Biblical idea of Kenosis or self-emptying; where Jesus, emptying himself and taking on the form of a slave, gives up everything and becomes totally vulnerable, not lording power over others but relinquishing it to the point of death, even death on a cross so that love might triumph over power.
The Values of the Kingdom
That’s what I see in the Kingdom of God, in the Kingship of Christ, and in this parable. Good news brought to the poor, forgiveness of debts, freedom from the weight of oppression that is felt most strongly on the margins, the haughty being brought down, and the hungry being filled with good things. The outcasts and those we would seek to exclude are now the hosts that welcome us to the table.
This is a vision of the world turned upside down, with the acquisition of power over others no longer being a priority or a barrier to reconciliation.
Treasures in Heaven
Now let’s get to the sticky part where Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
When I compared different translations of the Bible, some of them translated “dishonest wealth” as being “worldly wealth”. I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of worldly wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
This could be seen as another reversal of the way that money is used to exploit or gain power over others, so that the money we would use for our own gain is used for reconciliation. Jesus is commending this use of money as reflecting something that happens in his Kingdom.
In Matthew 6, Jesus describes it this way, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
With that teaching in mind, listen again to what might be the treasures on earth and what might be the treasures in heaven: “use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
In our eternal home, when the money is gone, the friends are still there, because money is not the treasure of the Kingdom of God. We hear a lot of symbolism in scripture about how wonderful heaven will be, with mansions and streets of gold, but if we think we can hoard money there, as if our neighbors could still be homeless on the streets of heaven, then we have missed something in the Gospel message.
A Treasure No One Can Hoard
One thing that Jesus tells us over and over is to love. Love is not something that we hold onto or hoard in our treasure chest. Love is the treasure that we cannot hoard, because it grows as we give it away. This is the treasure of our relationship with God, but also our relationships with each other, which is why Jesus tells us, “love one another as I have loved you”. These are the riches that grow in the Kingdom of God, through seeds that we plant now through obedience to the way of Jesus. We are not planting a money tree, we’re growing relationships of love and service through self-giving, so that rather than exploiting our neighbor, we put down that power and welcome each other home.
Jesus says that no man can serve two masters, you cannot serve God and wealth. By walking towards greed, we walk away from generosity. By walking towards exploitation, we walk away from reconciliation. Jesus entreats us toward a reversal of our culture’s position on money and relationships, so that instead of using wealth to dominate our neighbor, we use our money for reconciliation and service, for lifting our neighbor up and forgiving their debts.
If our primary goal is gaining status and pride, then we are leaving behind the self-giving love of Jesus Christ and we are leaving behind our neighbors, who are our way of loving Jesus here and now, our neighbors who are the treasures of God and who may very well be the ones to welcome us into our eternal home.
What We Squander
The way of Christ is the way of the cross. It is a path of kenosis or self-emptying, but it does not lead to emptiness. It leads to a fullness that we cannot imagine, but it’s like the difference between a cup of water and living water welling up within you to everlasting life. This is the reversal of values that we find in the Kingdom of God: it’s not through hoarding that we store up treasures, it’s through giving: giving love, giving forgiveness, giving ourselves and our resources.
Jesus said, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”
He’s not just talking about money, because is money the only thing we can squander? We can squander resources, but can also squander our time and our relationships. We can squander the people whom God has given us to love and serve. I think that’s why he says, “If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?”
He’s not talking about money, because true riches are not gold or silver. So what Jesus is drawing our attention to in this thought provoking passage?
What are we squandering? What master are we serving, and what practices or relationships have we set up as guard rails against the temptation to serve wealth? Who do we trust enough to hold us accountable?
Do we long for the values of the Kingdom of God, where the lowly are lifted up? How is Jesus inviting us to participate in that? How are we invited to participate in Jesus’ own self-giving, as his body in the world?
This parable leaves me with a lot of questions, but it also leaves me with hope. I have hope in the promises of God, hope in Christ as our teacher, and hope that we would leave behind false riches to learn from Jesus what true riches really are.
To read more posts, visit my column here. Check out my published writing in “Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership”. If you are interested in contemplative leadership and are between the ages of 25-40, visit Shalem.org to learn about Crossing the Threshold: Contemplative Foundations for Emerging Leaders.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In