Sermon on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager by Rev Harry Newton
A sermon delivered at Sumner Red Church by Rev Harry Newton on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager from Luke 16:1–13.
Summary
Rev Harry Newton delivers a sermon on one of the most puzzling parables in Luke's Gospel — the Parable of the Dishonest Manager — arguing that its central message is not an endorsement of dishonesty in business, but a call to understand money as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. He walks through the parable's narrative in detail, explaining the social and economic context of the ancient world that makes the manager's actions intelligible. Newton argues that Jesus's warning — "you cannot serve both God and money" — is not a call to poverty, but a challenge to examine what truly masters our lives. He closes with a practical two-month challenge for the congregation: give a chosen percentage of income to a chosen charity, and pay close attention to the internal tension that creates, because that tension reveals what is really at the center of one's life.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to the Parable
Rev Harry Newton: This parable is called the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. It's a parable told by Jesus that begins this way. There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought before him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said, "Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer."
Now, despite what we often seem to assume by reading this, there's no suggestion the guy was dodgy. There's nothing to say he was taking kickbacks, or that anything was falling off the back of a truck. Now, I'm told here in Christchurch, the question to ask is, "What school did you go to?" Is that legit? Yeah, I think it is, because my first ever party I came to in Christchurch, I had a girlfriend in Sumner. She brought me to a party here. She went to the bathroom, and I stood by myself, and this couple walked across the room and came up — "Hey, what school did you go to?" "Paraparaumu College?" And they walked off.
Anyway, so I went to Paraparaumu College, and to be fair, that's a fair response, because Paramu's not a good place. Stuff used to fall off the back of trucks all the time. I had a mate who'd be turning up at school most weeks with something new — be it Reeboks, a hoodie, new shoes, a new cell phone, a bag of chocolates — always somehow falling off a truck. Kelly was really good at getting good deals off the back of these trucks.
But there's nothing to suggest that this dude was the same. In fact, the word used to describe his conduct in Greek is diaskorpizo — I apologise for my pronunciation; as I've said before, I've been to Greek school, I don't speak Greek. It means "to squander," and it suggests a pattern of reckless and irresponsible behaviour. There's a sense that the man has squandered his master's money through reckless thoughtlessness and incompetence. In other words, just like me as a baker, he wasn't very good at his job, and he had lost a lot of money. And so his boss summons him, tells him to give an accounting of his management, because he can't be the manager anymore.
The Manager's Dilemma
Now, our manager character — he might not be very good at his job, but he's not dumb. He realises he's in trouble. We're told he says to himself, "What will I do now? My master is taking this position away from me. I'm not strong enough to dig" — he was a vicar, like me — "and I'm ashamed to beg." That was a joke, for the record. It's okay to laugh at me. My old fire chief used to always say to me, "You only work an hour a week. Why do we get the call?" And it's like, being a vicar takes more than an hour a week, mate. He'd go, "Yeah, an hour and a half, maybe."
Anyway, so the guy has this idea. He can't dig, and he's ashamed to beg. So he comes up with a plan. He starts to summon his master's debtors one by one, so that when he's eventually dismissed as manager, people may welcome him into their homes.
Now, that might sound like a strange course of action to you and me, but remember — this is not New Zealand. He didn't have a property, didn't have a mortgage he could leverage against, he didn't have income protection insurance, there was no social security net. It was dog-eat-dog. And he knew that with his loss of position as manager, he would forfeit his social status, with the consequence that he would shift to being what they considered to be an expendable class. In their society, the lowest of the low — human life didn't have any innate value. That's actually a very Christian doctrinal statement. If you were poor and beneath someone, you were worthless unless you were a means to an end. And so he became expendable. He would have no worth, he would have no social standing, and his options were boiled down to doing manual labour for a pittance — which would probably be the end of him — or begging.
The Deals with the Debtors
And so he begins to summon his master's debtors. One by one, he begins to make deals. These are probably well-off businessmen — I think that's the idea. This is a made-up story, but I think Jesus is pitching the idea of a well-off businessman who leases the master's land and then owes him a portion of the produce.
As we heard, the first debtor owes — now, the translations differ — it could be 100 or 450 jugs of olive oil. The original Greek says 100 baths of olive oil. How much water's in a bath, I don't know, so I think maybe that's part of the reason the numbers fluctuate. But roughly, it was the amount produced by an olive grove of about 150 trees. It's a lot of trees, it's a lot of land, it's a lot of olive oil.
Then comes a second debtor. He owes 1,000 bushels — that's 30 tonnes of wheat — which represents approximately 100 acres of farmland in the area's produce in a year. Monetarily, it's worth about a decade of the average worker's income. So we're talking about a lot of money. And again, the manager offers him a deal, cutting the customer's bill by 20%. Both debtors, through no effort of their own, receive this discount worth about two years of salary for an average worker.
And I think we can safely assume that Jesus was implying the manager continued on this way with each of the guy's debtors. And in doing so, he ingratiates himself with a large group of people who now feel obligated — hopefully — to extend some hospitality to him in his time of need.
Why This Parable Is So Hard to Understand
Now, on one level, it's a fairly simple story — convoluted logic from our perspective, but it kind of makes sense. But at another level, it's a really weird story, isn't it? I'm a bit of a geek. I have a whole bookshelf in my office full of what's called commentaries and theological musings, and I like to read these just because I'm a geek, as my wife will tell you. And one thing that nearly all the commentators say is that this story is hard to understand.
We are in one of the four accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. This account is written by a guy called Luke, who in the last couple of years I've been going deep into this gospel version. And in Luke's account, chapters 15 and 16 are a collection of parables given by Jesus which are really, really influential in the Christian faith. In chapter 15 in particular, the parables are incredible. I know people in this room whose lives have literally been changed by reading these parables. They're parables that convey to us the incredible depth of God's unmerited favour and love poured out to us in Jesus Christ. Parables that cut to the heart of the human condition. And when they're understood, they simultaneously challenge and console our hearts. They're amazing. If you don't know them — the Parable of the Prodigal Son, awesome story; the lost coin; the lost sheep — if you don't know them, go look them up on your phone. They're just there.
And then we have chapter 16: the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. This is a sudden, abrupt gear change, and it's hard to understand. We're left with the same question lots of people ask: what are we supposed to learn from this story? How are we supposed to make sense of it? It's almost like Jesus is commending, in a roundabout way, dishonest behaviour and suggesting we can go and do likewise.
In fact, I've heard people argue that. Before we came here to Sumner, I was the vicar of a place called Greytown, Wairarapa, up in the North Island. And there was a guy who got himself invited to preach to all the churches in the region. I thought, before I invite him to ours, I'll go listen to him. I went along and listened to him in Carterton. And he got up and read this and said, "This is an example of how Jesus is saying it's okay to not be honest in business. In fact, Jesus is encouraging us to rip people off as much as possible. That's how I got rich. You should do the same too."
Now, that doesn't sound right — because it's not right. Just going to put it out there. But if that's not his point, what is?
The Key: Serving Two Masters
Well, I think part of the key to understanding the parable is found when Jesus talks about serving two masters. He says, "No one can serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." And to be honest, you could probably fill in the blank on money — make money a blank and fill in most things in there.
And I think this shows us why it's important that we discern the spiritual element of money. They say in polite company you should never talk about religion, politics, or money. And we're going to talk about two of those — probably not politics today.
We must discern and see money for what it is. Money is a means to an end, nothing more. It's neither good nor bad. Some people think it's really evil. Some people think it's essentially God himself. It's neither. It's just a tool.
And I think that's what we can learn from this Parable of the Dishonest Manager. Jesus is not implying that he wants you and me to go off and rip off others in business. He's not saying the man's behaviour is good. He's saying the man acted shrewdly because he understood that money was a means to an end. Because think about it — he's about to become homeless. He's about to be cast out into the street, can't provide for himself, and so he acts shrewdly. Dishonestly, yeah, 100%, but also shrewdly, because he understood money was a means to a greater end. In his case, not being homeless.
Money as Means, Not End
And we need to remember this. Because at the end of the story, when Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters — you can't serve both God and money" — when he said that, he wasn't saying that to follow him you have to choose between poverty and making ends meet. That's also an incorrect reading of this scripture. Nor is he saying that we can't enjoy the finer things in life — which I'm really happy about, because I had a really good coffee this morning and I really enjoyed it. There are good things in life that money buys us. Finer things in life, in and of themselves, aren't bad.
What he is saying is that we must remember money is a means to an end — it is not the end. If we get this twisted, and we focus on money as the meaning of life, we'll elevate money to being our treasure — or, to quote Jesus, our "true riches" — and it will come to have power over us.
Money, when we allow it to become the master of our life, of our life decisions, leads us into an insatiable appetite. No one wants to be mastered by an appetite. Because being mastered by an appetite, by an addiction — as we talked about last week — it's absolutely horrific. But the reality is that if we elevate money to being our treasure, our true riches, to quote Jesus, it will always come to have power over us. It will always come to be our true master. And what that means is that Jesus will cease to be the Lord of our life. We'll miss out on true riches — God's Holy Spirit, spiritual fulfillment, redemption and forgiveness, divine purpose. We'll miss out on those good things.
So just to make this really clear: money is not spiritually bad, but nor is it the be-all and end-all. Money is simply a means to an end. And as long as you and I keep this in mind, we'll be free from the subconscious temptation to make it the end rather than the means, and therein replace Jesus as the centre of our lives.
The Practical Challenge
Now, I hate it when I go to church and someone stands up and says something which may or may not make sense, and then goes, "Oh yes, think about that," and sits down. I go, well, what am I supposed to do? I like being given a list of things to do because I'm quite a practical, focused person. So I'm going to do something very un-Anglican this morning. I did this three years ago when I first came. I'm going to do it again. Some people told me at the time it was really awkward. Other people told me it was really powerful. I hope today that it is really helpful for you.
If you are not a Jesus follower, can I just say — A, you're really welcome here, I'm stoked you're here today. But B, you get a free pass. This does not apply to you. You can walk out of here and be like, "Yes, free pass."
But for those of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus, I have a challenge for us. For the next two months — not for the next two weeks, not for the next two paychecks — for the next two months, I want you to choose a percentage of your income and I want you to give it away as soon as you get paid. However that works — pension, wages, salary, gratuity, whatever it is — I want you to give it away.
I'm not going to define how much either. It's up to you and your life situation to determine. Don't be irresponsible. Don't be foolish. Don't give 100% away and then turn up at my door going, "Harry, I need a food parcel." If you need a food parcel, that's absolutely fine. But if you did it because you gave away your entire paycheck, we probably need to talk about that. Because I'm not saying be silly.
It's important. It's not just half a percent — an amount you won't notice. I want you to pick a percentage that makes you do this. And whatever that amount is for you, I want you to give it away.
In my last parish, there was an elderly woman, and for her it was $5. That was her spending money for a week, and she gave her $5 away. And that was hugely sacrificial. I had another guy in my parish who is literally a billionaire. For him, $5 — he wouldn't even have noticed it. I'm not being judgmental; he just wouldn't have. So it's about choosing something that's appropriate for your context.
And then I want you to give it away. And here's the key: I don't want you to give it to church. This is not my roundabout way of asking you to open your wallet. Instead, I want you to pick an organisation that supports something you love, something that breaks your heart, sets your soul on fire. It could be the City Mission, Médecins Sans Frontières, it could be Empower Latin America, it could be Puppies R Us — it's up to you. Just pick an organisation. And as soon as you get paid, as soon as your money comes your way, I want you to take that percentage and give it away.
The More Important Part of the Challenge
But that's only the first part of the challenge. The second part of the challenge is this — and it's way more important.
I want you to pay attention to the internal tension that creates inside you. When you start thinking about this challenge I've just given, I want you to hit pause and think: what's the tension at play inside me, and what's it really about? I want you to listen closely to the internal conversation — like the one you might already be having, arguing against me about why this is a dumb thing to do. I want you to pay attention to the internal tension it creates, because I want you to discover what is really at the centre of your discomfort.
For example, if you're a saver, and you don't like the idea of taking some of that away and giving it away — what's that about? Trust? Fear? Control? If you're a spender — like me; Amy's a saver, I'm a spender, it's great — what is it for you? Is it because you're fearful you'll miss out on some pleasures or some experiences? Pay attention to the internal tension it creates within you. I want you to listen to those excuses, and then I want you to do it anyway.
Because what you'll discover is that this tension that you and I both feel is not about money. It's about something else. It's about what Jesus said it's about. It's about who or what is the master of your life, of my life, of each of our lives.
So there's my challenge to you. I'm going to do it too. That's awkward, isn't it? I haven't talked to my wife yet about this. I just realised that, hon. I should have asked you this morning before I went to church. My bad — you were still in bed. That's your fault.
But here's my challenge: for two months, give a percentage of your choice to an organisation of your choice. Please don't make it church. The City Mission needs your money if you have it. So does the Sallies. So does the Wilson Home Food Bank. So does Médecins Sans Frontières. It's up to you. Just pick an organisation.
And then pay attention to the internal tension it produces. And then I want you to ask yourself, truly and honestly: who am I more devoted to — Jesus or money? And underline the money — the thing that underpins it. My fear, my sense of control, my need to be needed, my desire to experience good things. What am I more devoted to — that, or Jesus? Who do I want to be more devoted to — Jesus, or that underlying thing?
Closing
Because if we allow money to become the master of our life, it will always, always, always continuously fuel an insatiable spiritual appetite for fulfillment through more and more and more — and yet it will never be enough. And it will draw you further and further away from your heavenly Father.
As Jesus himself said this morning: "No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
The wisdom of the world is that everyone who focuses on making money will ultimately be free. But the reality is that everyone and anyone who makes the accumulation of wealth their main objective in life actually becomes its slave. But if we choose Jesus — if you choose Jesus, if I choose Jesus — as the master of our lives, and proactively seek to view money as nothing more than a tool, then we will experience the greatest treasure in life. One that can't rust, one that can't be stolen. We'll discover true spiritual freedom. And as long as we keep this in mind, I think we'll be free of the temptation to make money the end rather than the means of life, and in doing so replace Jesus as the centre of our lives.
That's all I got this morning. Hopefully it's helpful. Hopefully it made you uncomfortable. Because here's the thing — Jesus didn't come to make us cosy. Jesus says some really awkward things. And if you ever read the Bible and find yourself agreeing with everything, you're probably not reading the right Bible. Because honestly, the Word of God is convicting to all of us.
And if you're not a Christian, can I say — I'm glad you're here, and hopefully you can also take this and apply it to your own life too, even if you don't have a spiritual orientation like mine towards Jesus. Perhaps you could also consider this challenge: for the next two months, take a percentage of your income and give it away as soon as you get paid.