“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
It’s almost Halloween, the time of costumes, candy corn, and above all, creepy movies. One of the movies that made a life-long impact with me came out at Halloween in 1990 --Joel Schumacher's horror-thriller, “Flatliners.” “Flatliners” followed the lives of four young medical students, who manually induced “near-death” experiences in order to find out what lay beyond the grave. What they found was that their past sins –ones they had not atoned for—were coming back to haunt them in real-time….literally. Only after they had made amends to the persons they had harmed or in some way repaired broken relationships could their “demons” be silenced and their souls be at peace.
There’s nothing scarier than your own sins coming back to haunt you when you are the star of your own horror story! How can this be averted? Jesus gives the Pharisees the clue.
Jesus’ tale of the “Dishonest Manager” in today’s scripture is a warning that if the Pharisees do not change their ways, their own personal ‘horror story,” may be coming their way (as in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man that he tells in its aftermath). The Dishonest Manager story is one of a triple shot of “bad decision” stories that the gospeler Luke tells in this order: 1) The Prodigal, a Son who makes a bad move, repents, and is forgiven and welcomed home by his Father, resulting in relationship healed 2) The Dishonest Manager, a Representative of the Master who screws up and tries in some way to make amends through reparations in hope of redeeming himself by mending broken relationships and 3) Lazarus and the Rich Man, a story in which the Rich Man thinks he’s doing fine and in reality has missed the mark and ends up in the fires of punishment, because he has not understood the importance of relationships.
In the first story, repentance is the theme. The Son knows he has messed up, and seeks a lowly position, and is then raised up. In the second story, the Manager is caught red-handed, and tries to change his ways in hope of making a bad situation at least better. For this he gains the nod of the Master and hope for redemption. In the third story, the mark is missed, the rich man is oblivious to anything he is doing wrong, and punishment is inevitable.
The Dishonest Manager then is a “warning story.” And it’s a “how to” story. It’s a story that says, it’s not enough to feel faithful. You need to live it out in real-life acts of kindness and generosity. It’s a story that praises the wisdom of storing up treasure in heaven, rather than storing up treasure on earth for one-self. It’s a story that is addressed to those “in charge” of others, those in power over others, those who have mishandled finances that these were not theirs to mishandle.
It’s a story that emphasizes the Grand Sovereignty of God and the awesome responsibility of what it means to be one of God’s pastoral Shepherds.
What does it mean to be a worthy representative of God’s kingdom to the sheep of God’s pastures? What does it mean when the “god of money” becomes more attractive than the One True God whose love encourages kindness, sharing, gentleness, inclusivity, and honesty?
In his warning story, Jesus will tell what happens when sin is revealed, and reparations and changes need to be made in order to regain a sense of character and good will before your sins come back to haunt you.
Coming before the doom of the Lazarus story (the failure story)…. Coming after the celebration story of the Prodigal (the success story)…. In the Dishonest Manager, Jesus is telling a “how do I fix this” story. It’s a story of the averting of failure after sin has been committed. It’s a story of failure, repentance, reparation, and the building bridges for restoration.
It’s a “turn-around” story. And Jesus is telling this story to the people who are hardest to turn around.
In a strange twist, we realize that Jesus wants to save the Pharisees. Even the Pharisees, who sneer at him, challenge him, and will plot to kill him.
Like the good shepherd that He is, Jesus tries to move the stubbornest of God’s sheep, or should I say, the most difficult of rams and bucks. He tries to shock and nudge the ones “in charge” of God’s Temple and of interpreting God’s Love (or should I say Law) for God’s people in a different direction. They are the most responsible of God’s “managers.” And they have been screwing up royally!
The Pharisees are the ones that Israel looks to for guidance and to be an example of how God’s love and law should look. They are the interpreters of God’s laws. They are the enforcers of God’s guidelines for loving and healthy living.
And something has gone terribly awry!
Instead of teaching God’s people Israel how to be a light to the gentiles, how to love God and each other, how to be kind and share resources, how to be healed and restored to God, they’ve been inflicting harsh regulations upon them. They’ve been enforcing strict impossible-to-follow rules upon them. They’ve been over-taxing them. They’ve been excluding anyone who doesn’t perfectly fit their strict “bill of code.” They’ve broken up marriages, have refused sacrifices, have harshly punished, and most of all, they’ve kept the people poor and themselves very, very rich.
They’ve grown to love their money and their power, and although their original intent may have been good, they’ve grown quite beastly in their positions of influence and authority.
Now, Jesus tells them in this parable, that position of authority is going to be threatened. God will take it away from them. How can they make amends? How can they repair their fences and become the good shepherds that God intended them to be? How can they at least become good people, even as they have been bad managers?
Jesus tells a story that can help them understand.
It’s a story about mending your fences.
The idiom “I need to mend fences” is one that came from the 17th century in an idea that “fences make good neighbors.” In other words, when you breech the “proper boundaries” between what’s yours and what’s your neighbors, you’ll have “broken” not just a fence, but a relationship.
The idiom morphed therefore over the years until in the 20th century, the phrase “to mend fences” meant “to repair broken relationships.”
The story of the Dishonest Manager, as with most stories Jesus tells, is about broken relationships, with self, God, and neighbor. The Manager in the “secular” story has misused the Master’s money, has appropriated it for himself and has spent lavishly the “company funds” that were meant to be shared with all of the stock holders.
The manager is caught, and he knows he will lose his job. So he acts wisely (honorably, ethically, with character, virtuously in the Greek sense). Instead of just leaving the mess he made, he goes about trying to restore relationships in the only way he can. He takes money and does the opposite. Instead of taking for himself, he gives. He treats the Master’s debtors graciously, creating good relationships not only between himself and them, but between them and his Master and the company as a whole!
Although he has lost trust and his status as manager, he has re-established honor as a good human being. And he has joined himself to the community by creating good relationships with his neighbors.
He is commended for doing so. He is not commended for thinking of himself, although he is given credit for recognizing that his actions have jeopardized his future and that he needed to do something to make that better.
He is commended not for being “crafty” but the Greek word pronis means “to act wisely, honorably, to have learned a lesson, to have made amends.”
He will never again have his position of power. But he at least has restored relationships, has mended his and the Master’s fences, and has removed “money” from its “godlike” status in his life, and has instead used that money as a tool to be gracious to others.
He has learned that the status of money should no more be wrongly elevated than his own wrongful elevation of his own position within the Master’s community.
The Pharisees know Jesus is addressing them. Their love of money and power has been hurting God’s people, and God’s name among the people. They have torn holes in relationships with God and neighbor. They have broken the fences of God’s sheepfold, and have lost many of God’s sheep due to their wily ways.
Jesus is calling them to repentance. Jesus is calling them to make reparations. It’s not too late to change your ways, Jesus says with this story.
It’s not too late to store up treasure in heaven, rather than in your own purses.
It’s all about relationships. It’s NOT about the money!
The thing about the movie Flatliners that stuck with me all these years…. It’s all about torn relationships that need mending. For one medical student, it was a girl he helped to bully in elementary school that he needed to apologize to. For another medical student, it was the women he took advantage of that he needed to make amends to. For another, it was a boy he accidentally killed when treating him like a freak when he was young. He thought he had paid when he did his years in reform school, but the true reparation had to come from his heart.
There was one last medical student, a woman, who was sure she must have done something terribly wrong in her young life, because her father had committed suicide. Haunted by visions of her father, the terrified woman’s soul is put at ease when at least he speaks to her, telling her, it was his fault, and not hers. That he loves her. That he asks for HER forgiveness.
Broken relationships come in all kinds and sorts. Sometimes they are our fault. Sometimes the fault of others. While the tale of the Dishonest Manager addresses those “in charge” who have faulted others, Jesus might just as well have told a story too of one of those “others” who have lived for years feeling they were sinful and at fault, when in fact they were not.
Jesus comes to heal ALL of those relationships. Jesus is the great restorer. And the good news for all of us is that no matter what we have done, what others have done to us, fences can be mended. Relationships can be healed.
What relationships in your life need mending? Are there times you have overstepped? Has money, or power, or the desire to do it your way caused you to tear some fences? Do you feel guilty for things you haven’t done?
Come to the table. Jesus’ table, where all souls are restored, all hearts put at peace. If you have mis-stepped, let Jesus show you how to make amends. If you have been stepped upon, let Jesus help you to forgive.
When a community is restored, and all of God’s people are good to one another, there is shalom.
True shalom.
*The photo for this sermon is attributed to Lori Grant at Smart Lemming Career Tips.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Jesus’ Parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16)
Minor Text
The Making of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32)
David Takes What is Not His and is Confronted by Nathan on God’s Behalf (2 Samuel 12)
Gehazi’s Greed (2 Kings 5)
King Hezekiah’s Offer of Monetary Retribution to the King of Assyria (2 Kings 18)
Advice on Storing Up Treasure in Heaven from Father to Son (Tobit 4)
Love Your Neighbor with the Entirety of Your Means (Sirach 29)
The Book of Jubilees
Psalm 15: Who May Live in the Lord’s Tents?
Psalm 40: The Lord’s Mercy to the Contrite
Psalm 51: David’s Psalm of Contrition
Psalm 118: The Lord Will Save
The Story of Jonah and God’s Forgiveness of Ninevah’s Greed
Joshua Witnesses God’s People’s Vow to Serve God as Master at Shechem (Joshua 24)
James’ Warning to Those Who Have Made Riches Their God (James 5)
Jesus’ Encounter with Zacchaeus the Repentant Tax Collector (Luke 19)
The Monetary Deception of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)
Simon the Sorcerer Attempts to Buy the Gifts of the Apostles (Acts 8)
Jesus’ Parable of the Dishonest Manager
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.
For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.
He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Image Exegesis: Mending Fences
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager has been avoided frequently. And if you read it as a comparison and don’t read its metaphors according to Jesus’ explanation, you could be duly confused by its messages.
Jesus begins with a story about a Rich Man and his manager. Think Herod and perhaps his manager of his household. Or think of a famous person today and his or her accountant. It’s a story about money in a secular world, in which the accounts are monetary and the manager has in some way been dishonest. We aren’t told exactly what the offense was, but we can guess. The owner says:
“What’s this I hear about you?” “Give me an account of your management of my accounts –including money collected from debtors.”
The rich owner has “heard” from others complaints or whispers that the management of the accounts is not accurate. This probably either means that the manager has over-collected from the master’s debtors and has swept the overage aside for himself putting the correct amount into the master’s accounts. Or it means that the manager has collected the correct amount from the debtors and has stiffed the owner himself of what was owed. It could also mean he is simply squandering the master’s money for himself, and not dealing well with others.
Most likely it is the first or last scenario, as the owner has “heard” complaints from others --perhaps that they have been overcharged. And at the same time, the manager is living high on the hog.
No doubt the rich owner no longer can trust the manager with his wealth. He has after all treated his debtors badly, and in that way has made the Master himself look bad in their eyes! And he has not respected the Owner’s property (much as the terrible vineyard managers in another of Jesus’ parables).
So what does the manager do? Does he simply resign and accept whatever fate may befall him? Not a chance!
Caring much about what will befall him, he tries to remedy what he has done. Granted, he doesn’t do it out of the kindness of his heart. But he does realize his error and try to correct it, because he DOES care what his Master thinks of him and about his own future or lack of it. He realizes that relationships will be much more important than money. So he acts wisely and with character. He calls together the Master’s debtors and cuts the debts, no doubt making up what he has formerly stolen from them. Perhaps he takes the extra funds he has used for himself in order to make up the difference. Satisfied that he has made “friends” among them, even though he has lost his “standing” and his position with the owner, he accepts his fate. He has lost his status, but he has built relationships.
And if you pay attention to Jesus, for God, it’s ALL about relationships!
The parable isn’t praising the manager for benefitting himself. It’s a corrective. Where before he had overcharged them, now he is undercharging them, so as to repair his deeds. Where before he has squandering the master’s wealth (think of the Prodigal), he now is attempting to do something for others instead. The reparations are the issue.
He has lost his standing. But he has at least mended some fences not only between himself and the master’s clients, but between those clients and the master whom he represents. And he is commended for changing his ways! His focus is now on relationships rather than simply on money. He has learned a lesson. And this “learning” is the key.
Let’s think of it another way before looking at what Jesus is getting at. Think that perhaps YOU are the finance manager of a department in a successful corporation. You are highly trusted in your position by the CEO.
In wanting to be successful in your job, somewhere along the way, you lost your sense of compassion and ethics. You wanted to make the most money for the CEO, because you want to earn that raise and that promotion coming up. But you also got to really like living high on the hog. So you have overcharged people for some of the products, refusing to grant them discounts that were promised. But you took your own discounts, and have lived quite well, buying nice things, a nice car, eating out frequently, maybe charging a few more things to the company card than you should have done. You took lots of perks. You cared more for your own comfort, than the CEO or the company, or any of the relationships with clients.
While you certainly made some money, you have also smudged the reputable name of the company, the CEO’s promise of a discounted product, and the public’s trust in him, as well as took much more for yourself than you deserved.
While YOU are a cog in the wheel of the company, the one on whom it reflects is the CEO, and the company itself.
The CEO finds out, after hearing the grumblings from the public and others in the company who figure out what’s going on. And the CEO is not happy!
You know you’re going to lose your job. And you know you deserve to. But what can you do to at least make up for what you have done?
Before your last week, you take the extra money saved from those you have cheated of their discounts, and you announce a profit-sharing plan that will be distributed to all of the company’s loyal customers.
You meet with them personally to hand over the checks and present them with a personal gift from the company, and the CEO.
People are happy. The CEO commends you for your quick thinking. And for repairing the damage you had originally done with the trust of clients.
You still are going to lose your job. That trust is broken. But you have at least earned the respect of the CEO, and have proven that you can put your values in the right place, that you value relationships more than just money.
The CEO may not give you a recommendation. But you may get a tip for another job from one of the people you have helped and have personally gifted. You have lost trust. But you have rebuilt some relationships. More important, you have rebuilt relationships between the clients and the CEO and his company. And these are the building blocks of life.
In the Game of Life, you can be penalized and must go back 20 spaces. But you’re still in the game. And you can move ahead differently.
What are the lessons?
- When you work for someone else, your actions are bigger than you! (And if you know better, much more will be expected of YOU!)
- The question isn’t just about messing up. It’s about what you do from there!
- It’s not about the money, it’s about relationships. Money is not the Master. But money is a tool for building good relationships!
- There are consequences for actions, but God always offers second chances!
Jesus accuses the Pharisees of several things: 1) of being dishonest 2) abusing their position 3) besmirching the reputation of the Master and most of all 4) not caring enough about their own “future” in heaven to mend their fences even though they’ve been called out!
The phrase “mending one’s fences” most likely stemmed originally from a 17th century proverb regarding good fences as making good neighbors. The phrase later mutated by the 20th century to refer to the rebuilding of previously good relationships. The mending of fences is paramount to making things whole again, to keeping the peace.
Fences in Jesus’ day referred to the “sheep’s fold.” And Jesus is the “gate” to the sheep’s fold. When a leader of the Temple damages “fences,” we can imagine that not only has he allowed the sheep to wander into wrong pastures, but has not cared enough about the sheep’s well-being to watch over them appropriately. Likewise, he has not honored the Master of the pasture, to whom the sheep belong. He has been a bad shepherd –an accusation Jesus also has drawn on in the past when addressing the Pharisees and Temple Priests and Scribes.
To mend fences then may be to re-establish caring for those sheep. And to act like a kind shepherd, not like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who cares only for itself.
In the case of the Pharisees, Jesus accuses them of worshipping money, of misleading people with man-made rules and strictures, and of allowing greed and pompousness to overpower their love of God and neighbor.
They have grown to love their lavish way of life, their status, and their power. They have grown to love money as their “god,” (as a desire) rather than using it as a tool to bless those in their care on God’s behalf. They have misrepresented God and God’s message to God’s people. They have imposed strict limitations rather than sending out God’s loving and redeeming message and welcoming all into the fold.
Jesus’ comment that the “worldly” money-makers of the world care more for what will become of them than the Pharisees drives home the level of arrogance and “above-the-law-ness” that these Temple leaders have risen to. The Pharisees apparently believe that they are the epitome of justice. They have forgotten that they too will be judged. They too have a Master who can remove their status.
Jesus advises them to use the wealth they have accumulated not to flaunt and separate themselves from others, but to assist and make relationships with others, a theme Jesus would again repeat in his next parable, that of Lazarus and the “rich man.”
In a sense, Luke sets forth a trilogy of “money parables”: The Prodigal, the Dishonest Manager, and Lazarus and the Rich Man. In the Prodigal, Jesus shows that even the worst offense regarding money can be forgiven and repentance is sought, and that God welcomes home all offenders. In the Dishonest Manager, Jesus tells how repentance and reparation can be carried out –by reversing one’s bad deeds, and using that same money to do good deeds. In Lazarus and the Rich Man, the perils of ignoring the call to repentance is revealed.
For repentance for Jesus is not just a state of mind. It’s a way of behaving, a way of relationship-building IN the world, so that you are building fences and bridges (and tabernacles) that connect you with God.
The word “shrewd” is mistranslated and misunderstood. In Greek, the word phronis means to be wise in a practical, learned way (as opposed to theoretical wisdom of Sophia). The word suggests moral or ethical character, mindfulness, choosing actions wisely after learning a lesson. It is wise and intelligent behavior. The idea reminds of Solomon’s plea to God as he is blessed as king. He does not desire wealth he says. But asks God to bless him instead with the gift of wisdom. And God does. Solomon’s wisdom isn’t a matter just of comprehending the mysteries of the universe (Sophia), but it’s phronis. It’s the ability to make wise moral and ethical decisions, to “act” wisely. It is a situational wisdom –how you “act out” your faith.
Wisdom for Solomon (and for the Pharisees) is in choosing God over all other things, in loving God and neighbor, and in seeking the kingdom are worth all the treasure in heaven. The more wisely one behaves, honoring the covenant, and using wealth for the means of helping others, the more one stores up treasure in heaven. This theme is found in several of the apocryphal books, such as Tobit and Sirach.
But the turning from mammon toward wisdom and God can always be welcomed. And when mistakes or mis-steps are made, anyone can make better on what they have done, can make a wiser decision. “You can’t have two masters,” says Jesus. You must choose one.
This parable then is a call for repentance to those who have the hardest time doing so –the Pharisees. They sneer at Jesus, because they love their money. And yet Jesus lets them know that they too, though they have failed their position as leaders of the flock and have lost God’s trust and entrust, still they can repent and change their ways, using their wealth as a tool to build relationships with the poor, and thereby store up new wealth in the kingdom of heaven. This is the true way to “dwell” in the house (tabernacle) of the Lord –through right actions.
Jesus told us earlier in Luke, to those entrusted with teaching others, to those who have already been taught and should know better, more will be expected. And these will be judged more harshly than those who know no better and have not yet been taught.
The Pharisees have not only been warned by Jesus, but they have been in positions of great power over God’s people, and they have failed not only the people, but God. They have as God’s representatives, failed to represent God honestly. And therefore, the people’s impression of God has been skewed.
In order to be in right relationship with God, they must first restore right relationships between themselves (God’s representatives) and God’s people, with themselves and with God. Only then can God say, “well done good and faithful servant.”
To lose a “job” or one’s “status” may be a strike. But to lose one’s soul and one’s relationship with God is a death sentence. For God it’s all about relationships. And when you do something wrong, it’s all about mending fences!
What you trample, you must repair. In repairing relationships, you are building tabernacles.
It’s interesting here that Luke uses the trendy philosophical concept of “phronis.” It may point also to the extreme hellenization of his time. And may also point to the hellenization in Jesus’ time. The idea that your actions matter is paramount. Your faith in God must be “acted out” in wise handling of wealth (wise meaning giving it to others, kindness to the poor, justness and compassion in interactions).
While the manager of the secular “world” learns this lesson quickly, the Jerusalem authorities are not quick to “get it,” stubbornly holding onto deviant authority and foolishly “storing up” worldly wealth rather than building “true riches.”
It’s not just about the hereafter, although that should be a concern. What you do here…matters! As with Jacob’s ladder, your actions here build bridges to your heavenly home.
Jesus is speaking to a different audience here than he is when he is teaching his disciples or among people in the open air. Here, he is appealing to the authorities, who are educated, knowledgeable, and astute enough to know what he is referring to with his use of phonis.
Jesus also is bringing in a touch of his end times talk –“when money fails….and it soon will….you should be most concerned with the treasure you have stored in heaven, so that you may enter into God’s “everlasting tabernacles.”
The word tabernacle, or house, or dwelling suggests that this lesson is coming at the time of the Festival of Booths. Jesus has no doubt just come from Mary’s and Martha’s. He has come into Jerusalem, where he is now debating with the authorities about what it means to dwell in God’s booths (the ultimate of relationality).
Jesus’ message is this: “you can still turn this around!” Later, Zacchaeus will do just that. But the Pharisees aren’t having Jesus’ call for redemption. They sneer. They feel they have it all wrapped up.
Jesus offers shalom (restoration, peace, wholeness, the offer to be paid in full). The Pharisees opt for continued division. From here, Jesus will tell a story about the results of choosing this path: the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, a story of what happens when you don’t value relationships, and when it’s too late to mend fences with the One True God.