The Samarian Ministry at Various Cities (9.51-18.34), 16.1-18

I have a confession to make: I strongly dislike this parable. I can’t say I hate it, per se, because it is part of God’s word and even the very words of our Lord. But I don’t like it because to the modern reader it is so easy to misunderstand. It’s not an illustration I would every use in teaching, and I wonder why Jesus did. I don’t think I’m alone, either as I rarely hear this passage preached on. Because it is part of God’s Word we are responsible for understanding it properly and – more importantly – doing what it says.

Let us dig in, then, and understand this passage properly. If you don’t normally read this blog alongside the passage (and you should), you will want to do so with this one. Luke helps us out by defining the context for us. Jesus is speaking to his disciples, so this teaching is for us as well. Also present are some Pharisees (verse 14).

The parable begins with two characters, a rich man and his financial auditor, neither of whom are living righteously. On this day the rich man, having heard through the grape vine that his financial manager was “wasting” assets, called for an accounting of the books. The nature of this crime is uncertain, whether the manager was investing poorly, or not enough, or embezzling funds we don’t know but it is something that the audit the will disclose. Knowing this, and that his ability to work ever again is at stake, the manager decides to act.

He sends word to the two largest debtors and gets them to participate in financial fraud, recording payments they have not made to reduce the debt. The fact that he doesn’t know how much these men owe reveals he has not been keeping accurate books. This dishonesty is nothing Jesus condones; he is simply relating the way the world works. Both the rich man and the financial manager are “looking out for number one”, as are the debtors. In short, everyone is corrupt. When the rich man uncovers what has happened, he commends the manager not for stealing from him but for acting the way he himself would have acted.

Jesus explains that these “worldly” people behave shrewdly with each other; in modern parlance that would be “dog eat dog”. This is not in opposition to the “people of light”, but in a greater degree than them. And who are the people of light? A common misunderstanding is that this is a reference to Christians, but that cannot be true as Christianity does not yet exist. In fact, this isn’t even a reference to the disciples or others who follow the Messiah. The people of light is a common reference to the people of Israel. The Israelites followed the pillar of fire through the desert at night during the Exodus, and they were supposed to be a people of light to the Gentile nations (Isaiah 49.6). They failed in this task, however, and became imitators of the nations around them. They may not have been as completely unrighteous as the Gentile’s, but their behavior wasn’t much better. Even in Israel, money was used as a means to do evil.

By contrast, Jesus teaches the disciples to use worldly wealth as a means for righteousness. In doing so we forsake friendship with the world to attain friendship with God. Furthermore, the friends we make through such righteous transactions (helping the poor, funding missionaries, giving above your normal tithe to fund Kingdom work, etc.) we may make friends that will follow us into the Kingdom. For unlike the world which concerns itself with self-preservation, we trust God for such concerns and use our wealth and possessions to help others. When using our wealth and possessions we too are to be shrewd – not unrighteously as the world does, but in a way that is effective and that produces righteousness.

What does it mean to be shrewd in our use of worldly wealth and possessions? Consider the act of giving to a street beggar, something most consider to be noble. Should you hand money to the beggar on the street corner? Certainly there is nothing wrong with doing so, but how does it accomplish righteousness? There is no accountability with how that money will be used. Some might say doing so is no better than “wasting” money as the financial manager was accused of doing. Handing them money with a gospel tract is a step in the right direction. Buying them a meal and telling them your testimony is better still. Perhaps the best use is to start a program at your church where the poor can come and eat or get medical care if they become involved in working with the church toward some goal. Relationships breed accountability and opens doors to sharing the gospel. This is only one example; there are many ways we can be shrewd in ministry.

Jesus indicates there is a scale of shrewdness that matters in our spiritual life. The more shrewd (in this case that means faithful use of money and resources) we are, the more we will be given to manage. This instruction comes with a warning, however. We must never fall into the trap of worldly use of money. We do not attempt to earn more money, we attempt to earn greater righteousness in our use of it. Never lose sight of God in any of your dealings.

The Pharisees who were present sneered at this teaching, because they had lost sight of the righteous use of money and adopted the worldly view. Jesus points out that their misstep went beyond their understanding of money and extended to their salvation. Rather than accepting their Messiah and his justice, they chose to justify themselves in the eyes of men. At this time Jesus says a curious thing: “The law and the prophets were in force until John…” Jesus speaks of the old system of justification in the past tense, and then outlines a new way: “…the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urged to enter it.” Jesus is clearly talking about the new covenant. One cannot be justified by the law, but rather through a right relationship with God; the law was not a door to salvation, but Jesus is the door to that and much more.

Why Jesus chose the issue of divorce as his example of a law that will not pass away and which leads to judgment is unclear, but in a world where the percentage of Christians divorcing is higher than in the world it is a good teaching to take seriously.