The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

The Real Issue

So having laid out the problem, the solution and the incentive, Jesus closes this discourse by revealing to us the real issue behind His teaching. If you wondered if it was really all that important whether we use our worldly resources to provide for others, and why God offers us treasure in heaven in return, this is what it is all about.  “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Luke 16:13)

Again Jesus is drawing His imagery from the parable, this time focussing on the relationship between the master and the manager. The manager’s role was to serve his master - that is what he was employed to do, taking care of the resources that the master had left in his charge. However, the whole scenario kicks off because the manager had instead been ensnared by the resources themselves - he had been squandering his master’s possessions for his own ends, and he could not serve these possessions and his master at the same time. The result, as we saw, is that he lost his position and his future provision.

 As Jesus brings us to the real issue, His advice is not simply that we should avoid trying to serve God and money (or rather God and worldly resources as the word here is ‘mammon’ again). Nor does He say we should not, or even must not, serve God and worldly resources. He tells us we cannot serve God and the worldly resources He has given us. It is simply not possible. In being mastered by one, you cannot help but fail to serve the other.

It is like trying to serve two human masters who are in opposition to one another, whose aims and agendas are a completely at odds. How could anyone really serve either of these masters while also serving the other? It is simply not possible and the only sensible course of action is to choose to serve only one of them.

But which one?

There is a battle that rages in the heart of every person who tries to be a disciple of Jesus - a battle for supremacy between God and the things of this world. Whom will we choose to serve? Will we serve God, or will we instead serve our worldly resources, whether in the form of money, possessions, fame, power, abilities or status? We are in constant danger of worshipping these things instead of God, and the worst thing is we may not even realise we are doing it.

In this passage, Jesus calls us to open our eyes and look at our lives, to consider how we use the worldly resources God has entrusted to us. By using them in His service, not only do others benefit as we provide for them, not only do we benefit as we earn eternal, true riches in heaven, not only does God look great and draw people to Himself, but we keep Him at His rightful place at the centre of our lives, with worldly possessions our servant instead of our master. This is why Jesus calls each one of us to be a shrewd manager.