16:8,9
This verse tells us that the manager acted dishonestly, so the various attempts to get round this feature are futile. He is also commended by the owner for acting shrewdly. Jesus is using the dishonesty of the man to draw attention to his shrewd actions, to wake people up and make them think. Our natural attitude towards money is to regard it as “mine”, and if the debts the man cancelled had been owed to himself he would no doubt not have reduced all these debts. But because they were owed to someone else, he could take this cavalier attitude. The money we have is not actually ours. One day worldly wealth will be gone, if we have just used it for our own benefit it will be of no further use to us. But if instead we have used it to bless others then it will be of eternal value. We need to recognise that we do not own anything, not even our lives. Rather we are stewards of these things. We need a right perspective on things.
16:10-12
At first glance this seems totally at odds with the parable. The shrewd manager has just been commended for his dishonest handling of things, yet now Jesus warns against dishonesty and untrustworthiness. So what is going on? Well the parable is one reminder that the goods we have are not ours, we are only stewards of them. So we should act as though they are not ours. The parable was a dramatic way of demonstrating this, and how it can actually work out for our benefit. We should use our wealth with an eternal perspective. Jesus is now showing how we should actually act. We most definitely should not be dishonest or careless. And how we handle small things is a key indicator of we would handle more significant matters.
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