A recent chat with friends regarding peaceful, non-violent resistance of cultural norms led to one of the most difficult parables taught by Jesus. Luke 16:1-9 has stumped and mystified interpreters for years, if not centuries. Some argue that the real meaning of this parable is lost to us forever; others point to Jesus’ overarching penchant for non-violent subversion as the key that unlocks the real meaning and intention of this parable. Given the social, political, and religious setting in which Jesus was situated, I tend to side with those who cite subversion.
The Parables as Weapons of the Weak
William R. Herzog II, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and author of Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God: A Ministry of Liberation, dedicated an entire chapter to this parable in his monumental work Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. The chapter is titled: A Weapon of the Weak: The Parable of the Dishonest Steward. In this chapter, Herzog agrees with James Scott1 and immediately explains why:
This chapter reads the parable as an example of how the vulnerable utilize what James Scott calls “The weapons of the weak” in their endless struggle for survival in a hostile world governed by invisible elites. Specifically, the parable presents a limit situation, a steward (estate manager) summarily dismissed from his job on the basis of hostile rumors, and follows the steward’s limit acts that seek to ensure his survival.
The above quote clearly points to what is coming, as far as Herzog’s interpretation is concerned. Jesus is simply continuing his kingdom agenda. This agenda or program is founded upon the peaceful, non-violent resistance of elite powers that dominate the religious, social, and political landscape of the 1st century. Remember, Jesus himself is a member of the lowly peasant class. He and his people are constantly oppressed by an almost invisible but very, very real power and the elitists who profit from it. So, the elite continue to benefit, while the peasant class suffers even more. Something had to change! Jesus, however, broke ranks with the members of his class who called for a violent overthrow of these oppressive powers. This obviously did not set well with the zealots, but Jesus preached a different message and he lived a different way. Jesus said that members of his kingdom peacefully resist such powers in non-violent and creative ways. Many, many contemporary believers mistakenly cite this as passivity. Pacifism, however, implies non-action. Jesus never said, “Do not act! Passively take the punches.” No! Jesus taught and lived in a way that reflects non-violent resistance. His program put this teaching onto the ground in a very, very tangible way. This is not the same thing as pacifism. This subtle fact concerning Jesus’ kingdom leads us right back to Luke 16:1-9, and offers us a glimpse into the real meaning and intention behind the text. Jesus was arming his listeners – the oppressed – with non-violent tools of active and progressive resistance. Remember, James Scott later cites these tools as universals in class struggles and refers to them as “Weapons of the Weak.”
Herzog, of course, explains the parable further; the following are his main interpretive building points:
In the village context, peasants had little access to the systemic factors that dominated their lives because they could do very little about them, so they tended to focus on people who were within their reach, such as the steward or estate manager.
The hostile charges brought against the steward need to be seen in their context. They are not moral charges that cast a shadow over the character of the steward but tactics in the endless resistance that is part of everyday life in agrarian societies. The charges are brought to sabotage the steward, undermine his authority, and place the villagers in a stronger bargaining position.
James Scott differentiates between the “onstage” public life of the village and its “offstage” or “backstage” existence. The elites and their retainers control the onstage life of the village but cannot penetrate its offstage world, where the rituals of deference and the symbolic compliance of the peasants are put aside. Backstage is where “gossip, tales, slander, and anonymous sabotage mocks and negates the public ritual order,” and this is where “elite control [does] fall away.” The attack on the steward has come from offstage. It is anonymous slander or gossip, intended to put the steward on the defensive, knock his feet out from under him, throw him off balance, and create suspicion between him and his master.
So, what is Jesus doing in the telling of this odd parable? Given all that Herzog says in the above, it seems clear that Jesus does much more than simply pray for the reign of God on earth; he literally and tangible enacts its principles too! He clearly is teaching his listeners how to take the cards out of the oppressor’s hand. The oppressor (in this story, the rich man and his manager) held all of the cards, but the oppressed found a non-violent way to force him to lay them down. The oppressed did so by working subversively through the rich man’s manager.
The oppressed actually subverted systemic injustice by starting rumors about the manger and his wasteful dealings concerning the rich man’s possessions. This rumor got back to the rich man. The rich man consequently fired the manager and abandoned him to the lower class. The manager, in a last ditch effort for survival, befriends the oppressed class and cuts their already exaggerated and inflated debt payments considerably (this manager was probably over-charging them, and pocketing the money). This act lightened the stress load of the peasants considerably. The peasants found a way.
This is not just an interesting interpretation of the parable; it is the only sensible interpretation. Let’s look at the parable, just to be sure:
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
Luke 16:1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the 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, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
It seems Jesus was actually teaching his listeners the art of peaceful, non-violent resistance through the subversive guise of parable. This will undoubtedly create more than a bit of discomfort in most North American Evangelicals, but they need a little discomfort in their faith lives anyway. Seriously, when was the last time you heard of this side of Jesus in church? It’s right there, in the parable! Is there a better interpretation? If there is, no one has found it yet! Countless New Testament scholars have struggled over the meaning of this parable for centuries.
Sometimes the basic truth is simply inescapable. If that basic truth is obvious in this simple reading of this parable, then the question becomes: Can we handle all of Jesus? Can we handle the sort of Jesus who equips the oppressed in subversive – and non-violent – fashion?
End Notes:
1 James Scott’s work focuses upon the ways that members of low social class resist dominance. Scott argues that dominated classes fight back with what he calls “Weapons of the Weak,” or “Passive Noncompliance” (e.g., foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, and sabotage). Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Prior to this position, Scott was the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology. He also has spent much time in Agrarian Studies.
Works Cited:
Herzog, William R.. Parables As Subversive Speech: Jesus As Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.’, ‘The Difficult Parable of the Dishonest Manager
Related posts:
Hi Shawn, I wrote a teaching on Luke that may open it up for you in a way that is most enlightening
here it is :
http://10camels.blogspot.com/2008/09/too-proud-to-beg-and-too-old-to-dig.html
Hi Shawn,
I have been working on this off and on for the last week. Because of it’s length I will post it in parts.
Part One
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If one takes this teaching found in Luke 16, in context to all the parables that Jesus taught the people identified in Luke 15:1, one would begin to understand some primary spiritual precepts of God and His kingdom. In a brief introduction, Jesus first sought to reveal the heart of His Father for the lost of Israel. In the first three parables Jesus has drawn for us a picture of His Father’s heart for His people Israel. The parables show that He is involved in each and every life of not only those who are righteous but those who have lost their way in this world. Then in the fourth parable Jesus’ teachings transition to revealing the hearts of the Pharisees and scribes. He begins with the Parable of the Unjust Steward, which reveals that over the course of time, many of the religious leaders standing before Him have not faithfully followed the Scriptures. We know this to be true because at the end of the last parable taught to this group standing before Him, He finishes with this thought…
31 But he said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
So let us see and hear what Scripture has to teach us as well. We must begin with this question: Who is Jesus teaching? The following Scripture defines His audience.
Luke 15:
1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He spoke this parable to them, saying:
According to these verses, the parables that follow will address those who stand before Jesus. First we have the tax collectors and the sinners who are the lost of Israel. And secondly, we have the religious leaders of Israel whose hearts are not in accord with the heart of our Savior. Listen to what the Scripture says of Jesus’ ministry.
Luke 19:9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Jesus begins to teach the people standing before Him with three introductory parables. The focus of the first three parables speak of something that was lost, and of course, the tax collectors and sinners of Israel are those whom Jesus was sent by the Father to preach this good news. In His teaching, Jesus describes the heart of the Father for His people. Each of the parables point to the joy of victory over the works of Satan. Each of the parables focus on the individual and not the group. The stories tell of a Father who desires good for those who have strayed off the ancient path of faith. The stories depict a Father who personally cares for each and every soul of His people Israel. Listen to what Scripture has to say of our Father’s heart desire for those who have repented.
Luke 15:
7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Also….
10 Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Also…
21 And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
With these parables Jesus spoke to the hearts of those who were lost. Jesus preached the good news to them. Come and taste the goodness of the Father. He waits upon you, repent and turn towards Him. He will take you in and clothed you with a robe of righteousness that will hide your nakedness. But this story is only beginning.
Let us not forget that there is a second group of people who have a heart that is not in one accord with the ministry of Jesus. They have neither followed obediently nor grown beyond the constraints of the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Paul compares the outcome of two ministries: listen carefully to the words of Scripture and you will see the manifestation of the law of Moses in the hearts of the religious leaders standing before Jesus.
2Cor. 3:7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
The ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation was sadly manifested in the hearts of those who were standing before Jesus that day. These men had never walked far enough in the law of death and condemnation to know God’s grace that comes by faith. Because of their faithlessness to the word of God, their hearts were filled with condemnation. Their hearts could not go beyond what the law of Moses was designed to do. The stated purpose of the law given on Mount Sinai was given to condemn all and that all have fallen short of the glory of God. This spirit of condemnation is revealed to us in Luke 15:2
As Jesus spoke these first three parables; one can imagine the growing contempt for Him in the hearts of the religious leaders, the shepherds of Israel. The words that had just come out of their mouths and thus from their hearts, (Luke 15:2) those words that condemned Jesus for the reason He was sent by the Father, were now being turned against them in the parables taught by the Son. The teaching of Jesus about His Father’s heart for the lost brought into the light the darkness, the blackness of the shepherd’s hearts of Israel.
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end of part one
In Christ
Jeff
Part Two: The Unjust Steward
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Now the stage has been set for the next parable in Luke chapter 16. The title often given to this parable is “The Parable of the Unjust Steward.” In this parable we have the master, the unjust steward, and his master’s debtors. Based on whom Jesus is teaching we can identify the master as God, the steward as the Pharisee and scribe, and the debtors as the tax collectors and sinners of the nation of Israel. In this parable the focal point is now shifting from describing the heart of the Father to that of the heart of the unjust steward. Jesus will now diagnose the reason for the contrast of light verses darkness that existed between the heart of the Father and the hearts of the Pharisees and scribes that stood before Him on that day.
But before we can continue on we must first define scripturally what a steward is and what function he serves in the kingdom of God. Being that most are more familiar with the New Testament, I will use the teachings of Paul as a reference. Paul often spoke of the “stewardship” that was given him by God. Like those who were the leaders of the nation of Israel, Paul was given a specific stewardship. A God given stewardship is one that proclaims the mysteries of God to the specific people He sends one to: to preach the good news of the kingdom of God. First listen for the reason why God calls specific individuals to be stewards of the gospel.
Paul identifies who is responsible for the selection of these stewards…
Eph. 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
9 (Now this, “He ascended”MDwhat does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
Paul identifies that it is Christ who selects those who will be stewards of the gospel for He is the head of His ekklesia, the called out ones. Next Paul names the office of the steward.
Eph. 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
And now Paul identifies God’s purpose for these stewards.
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
A man who is called to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor teacher, is a man who will seek to edify, to build, to exhort those who have repented and turned towards God. These men are able to protect the sheep from those who claim to be stewards but are not because they are these whom Paul describes as sowing “every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” The parable of the unjust steward speaks to how the Pharisees standing before Jesus on that day have come to represent the unjust steward.
Again, before we can proceed with this parable, it is necessary to define scripturally how God effectively works out beforehand the calling in those whom He has called to shepherd His people. For this we now will consider John chapter 9.
John 9: 1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
On another day, Jesus again receives reproach by the religious leaders for His outreach to the lost of Israel. Again He teaches by way of parable, the difference between the shepherds that stand before Him and those who are the true shepherds. The shepherd who is not willing to enter the sheepfold “by the door” but instead chooses to climb “up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” The motivations of the hearts of these individuals are not transformed by faith in the working of God’s grace upon their hearts. They are not willing to enter “by the door” of the doorkeeper who is Christ. They are not willing to listen to His voice. They have not learned to shepherd according to the ways that Jesus shepherds His sheep. These shepherds are blind because they themselves have not submitted to the righteousness that comes from God. Instead these shepherds have devised another way that will always reveal the nature of the motivations that come not from God but of the world. The hope that is planted in these men’s hearts is the same in nature as the hope for which men strive in this world. Their hope is the same as “a thief and robber.”
Jesus continues to paint for us the picture that reveals to us why these men do what they do in John chapter nine.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…
12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
Jesus identifies the two sources, two cisterns by which men draw from for strength to shepherd the people of Israel. Those who have not followed Jesus cannot draw upon the living water. They are left with no option but to continue as a wage earner, a hireling. Without power they remain trapped in the ways of this world. To survive in the world they do as the world. They strive to reproduce disciples that in reality lead the blind to their own destruction. In another place in Scripture Jesus says of these religious leaders…
Matt. 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
Matt. 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
In verses 13 and 15, the Scripture clearly teaches that the religious leaders shut up the way into the kingdom of God for others because they themselves were not willing to enter in “by the door.”
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end of part two
In Christ
Jeff
Part three: The Unjust Steward
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Having laid the foundation based on Scripture, we are now ready to search out the meaning of The Parable of the Unjust Steward. There are many aspects of this parable for which many sermons can be preached. Therefore I will try to identify the main theme that encompasses all other aspects of this parable. Jesus gives us this spiritual precept in the last verse of the parable.
Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
This verse reveals a spiritual truth that transcends all generations. In mathematical terms, Jesus gives us an either or statement which reveals the evidence of the substance for which men hope for and thus strive for in this life. He declares that there are two masters, and man cannot faithfully follow both masters. One might object to this reality and say that he is his own master. But according to Scripture, this man is deceived. For in the book of Jeremiah we find this precept.
Jer. 10:23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
All men are born, in this world, live in bondage to Satan. All men are subject to this spiritual influence. The sons of disobedience will over the course of time grow in the nature of their father Satan. Because they follow after Satan, their hearts will grow to love the lies that supplant the truth of God. They will deny their conscience that convicts them of their rejection of God’s truth. As their hearts grow corrupt in the lies of Satan they will have their conscience seared. Their hearts grow in opposition to their Creator. They learn to hate God like their father Lucifer does.
In this parable, Jesus highlights one of Satan’s most deceptive devices, mammon. Throughout the entirety of Scripture we are given examples of men and women who have grown to love money. Along with these examples, we are given testimonies of the hurt and sorrows, the evil that flows from those who are deceived by Satan’s lie. Satan has deceived many into believing that money can bring security, pleasure, and position in this life. Instead of peace men find strife. Instead of pleasure, men find hurt and sorrow. Instead of position secured by money, they find that other men of like mind are striving to replace them. There is no rest.
But, for those who repent and submit to the master who is God, they will learn to hate what once caused them hurt, sorrow, and all kinds of evil. As servants of God we will be conformed into the image of His Son. Our hearts will grow to love in the same way as the Son loves the Father. Our former love of mammon will be replace by our love for God. And Jesus declares in verse 13 above, that for those who love God, these will find that there is a by-product of this kind of love. This by-product is hate for their former master’s device. They will despise the way Satan uses money to destroy God’s creation. The work of this by-product in the heart of the believer will over the course of time, reveal to him that he cannot serve both masters. This is the spiritual precept which is the theme for this parable.
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end of part three
In Christ
Jeff