This document provides an in-depth analysis of the parable of the Unjust Steward found in Luke 16:1-9. It examines the context, characters, and possible interpretations of the parable. The author argues that Jesus used the parable to challenge listeners to understand how unjust systems work against their interests, and to make amends through repentance and restitution. The document also discusses how different historical interpretations have understood the parable, and questions what lessons it may have for addressing issues like debt in modern contexts.

1. Shrewd Managers?
Or Predatory Lending?
Re-reading a difficult text
Simon Nash – Business Connect – 18 January 2012

2. Parables
“A little story which communicates a big truth”
“A story that entertains your mind at the front door while the
truth sneaks in through the window”
Parables don’t “work” like dogmatic theology…
Jesus’ parables are often based on the everyday experiences of
the common people. The details are made up because they are
true to everyone’s experience.

3. The parable in Luke 16:1-9
The parable of the Shrewd Manager NIV
The parable of the Unrighteous Steward NASB, KJV
“One of the most difficult parables to interpret” - Leon
Morris
“This is perhaps the most complicated, difficult parable Jesus
tells in all the Bible” – Mark Driscoll

4. Luke 16:1-9
1Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who
had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering
his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear
about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no
longer be manager.’
3The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking
the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am
ashamed to beg.
4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the
management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5And he
summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the
first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred
measures [batous] of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down
quickly and write fifty.’ 7Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you
owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures [korous] of wheat.’ He said to
him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
8And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted
shrewdly.
For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind
than the sons of light. 9And to you I say, make friends for yourselves by
means of the wealth of unrighteousness, for when it fails, they will
receive you into the eternal dwellings’.
[Narrative
Situation]
[Predicament]
[Plan]
[Outcome]
[Interpretation]

5. How has the parable been understood?
Medieval interpretation
Reformation interpretation
Victorian interpretation
Modern Interpretations
Kingdom Interpretation
Canonical Interpretation
Historical Interpretation

6. Christian Scriptures
Gospel of Luke
He has filled the
hungry with good
things but has sent
the rich away empty.
He has anointed me
to preach good news
to the poor.
Your Father has been
pleased to give you the
kingdom. Sell your
possessions and give to
the poor.
When you give a
banquet, invite the
poor.
Luke’s penultimate teaching section
(15:1 – 16:18) – on the way to Jerusalem.
(Lost Sheep, Lost Coin,
Prodigal Son, Lazarus)
The Canonical Setting
Jesus
Pharisees
Disciples
Sinners
Tax
Collectors

7. Everyday life in Lukan Galilee
Foreclosures
Occupation
Taxation
Imperial
Military
Occupation
Corrupt
Institutions
(Temple)
Day Labour
Begging
Patriarchal
Customs
Absentee
Aristocratic
LandlordsNational
Humiliation
Prophetic
Interpretation –
Curse / Exile
Covenant
Starvation
Death

8. Who are the characters?
The Rich Man (ho plousios)
(Also the Master – ho kurios)
The Unjust Steward
(to oikonomon adikias)
“The Poor”
(day labourers on their
ancestral fields)
Foreclosures (following heavy
taxation or poor harvests)
Day Labour
(if fit and healthy)

9. What is going on? - BEFORE
Deliver 30 Tonnes Wheat (80c)
Pay for 37.5 Tonnes Wheat (100c)
Kickback (off the books)
The Rich Man (ho plousios)
(Also the Master – ho kurios)
The Unjust Steward
(to oikonomon adikias)
Rome?
Local Distribution
Export Market
The Debtors
(commodity merchants)
“The Poor”
(day labourers on their
ancestral fields)
Foreclosures (following heavy
taxation or poor harvests)
Day Labour
(if fit and healthy)

10. What is going on? - AFTER
Deliver 30 Tonnes Wheat (80c)
Pay for 30 Tonnes Wheat (80c)
Kickback (off the books)
The Rich Man
The Unjust Steward
The Debtors
(commodity merchants)
Hidden Interest (7.5 Tonnes value) Written off (just this once)
Social Capital – Favours / Honour Created (conditional upon
retention of Manager)
Reminderr Job Security

11. How does Jesus Interpret it?
1) A call to prophetic insight v8b
“the sons of this age are mores shrewd in relation to their kind than the sons
of light…”
[To the disciples and sinners]
Know what’s really going on - how the system works against your interests.
Understand how the parts join up - don’t be a naïve victim.
Your situation is not the result of ancestral sin, bad luck or God.
2) A challenge to repentance and restitution v9
“And to you I say, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of
unrighteousness, for when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal
dwellings”
[To the Pharisees and toll collectors]
The Kingdom of God is right here…
So leave behind the ways of injustice (and the proceeds of injustice)
Be reconciled to the hospitable community from which you are estranged.

12. How has the Church understood this?
Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215)
Lucius Lanctantius (240-320)
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
John Calvin (1509 – 1564)
[Robert Cain (c. 1635)]

13. Calvin’s “New Perspective”
Dismissed the old Aristotelian / Thomistic structure of society
Dispensed with much of OT as “for another people / time”
Forbade laziness and wastefulness
Identified purchase of luxuries as a sin
Valorised hard work
Sceptical about almsgiving (furthers beggary and dependance)
Recommended limits on donations to churches
Allowed usury between Christians.
-Resulted in a culture built around work, savings, investment and success as
upward mobility.
-Possibly also lead to a version of Christianity that was private, personal,
obsessed with sexual sin and focussed on afterlife destination.
-Perhaps why many of the Kingdom teachings of Jesus seem strange or
difficult to us.

14. Jesus’ Impossible Challenge?
- Call to a hungry and slow death?
- Call to loss of worldly status, prestige, power and privileges
- Contrary to our Darwinian drives (original sin) to advance,
acquire, attain, retain…
- The powers executed Jesus.
- But in the resurrection community… life in the Spirit.
- “Old self was crucified in him”
- “You died with Christ to the powers”
- “You died and your life is hidden with Christ in God”
- “Put on new self, created to be like God in justice…”
- “If anyone is in Christ – New Creation”
- “No one can enter the Kingdom … unless he is born of water
and the Spirit …

15. Luke 16 in Jersey 2012
Can we identify with system of injustice in the story of the unjust
beneficial owner and the unjust investment manager?
Christians should be shrewd about where their money comes from,
how it was made, at whose expense, and what to do with it?
Christians who take the red letters most seriously might be inspired
to respond in practical ways to issues of indebtedness?
Not the whole story, but will we “go away in sadness because he was
a man of great wealth?”
“What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27)

16. Questions
What does the Parable of the Unjust Steward contribute to a Biblical
understanding of debt, or of money?
Jesus challenged the disciples to be a bit more “worldly wise” about
the system of sin, that worked to the interests of the rich man and
his unjust steward – what areas today should Christians in Jersey be a
bit more clued up on?
Jesus invited the Pharisees and toll collectors to participate in God’s
Kingdom, through repentance and restitution – what is a Christian
response today to a deeply embedded issue such as indebtedness?
We saw how the church has changed its understanding about the
challenge and the invitation of the Kingdom in this parable over the
years – what might the Spirit of God be saying to you today?