The Parable Of The Shrewd Steward

by Chris Simmons

Luke 16:1-8, "Now He was also saying to the disciples, 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." And the steward said to himself, "What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes." And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, "How much do you owe my master?", and he said, "a hundred measures of oil." And he said to him, "Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" And he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." He said to him, "Take your bill, and write eighty." And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light."

This parable speaks of a "steward" who is called into account by his master to answer charges that he had "squandered" the assets placed in his charge. The steward's conclusion, even before giving his account, was that his stewardship would be taken away from him. He also thought ahead and determined that when he lost his position as steward, he would need another means of providing for his needs and that he didn't have the physical ability to do manual labor nor did he have courage to beg for his sustenance. We then read that the steward had some time before his "accounting" and began a process of renegotiating with those debtors of the rich man, whose accounts he managed and was responsible for, with the goal of obtaining favor from them in the future for gratuitous acts towards them now. After this process of reducing the amounts owed by each of the debtors, we read that the master found out about this and actually praised the steward for his ability to act "shrewdly."

It will be beneficial to our understanding of this parable to ensure that we define some key terms that are used in this context. First of all, the Greek word for "steward" is "oikonomos" which Strong defines as, "a house-distributor (i.e. manager), or overseer, i.e. an employee in that capacity; by extension, a fiscal agent" (Strong's Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary). Thayer adds that the steward is one "to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age" (Thayer's Greek Lexicon). As we make application of this parable, we must remember that we are all stewards in our lives upon this earth (Luke 12:42; I Corinthians 4:1-2; I Peter 4:10).

Secondly, the Greek word used for "squandered" means "to scatter abroad, disperse" (Strong's and Thayer's) and, when applied to physical possessions, carries the idea of wastefulness. Its attribute is applied to the younger son in what we refer to as the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) in which he wasted his inheritance with his riotous living (verse 13). It's what is meant by the word "prodigality" and is the opposite of being wise, prudent, careful and cautious. Applied here, the steward had failed to exercise due care and prudence with his master's resources and had wasted that which had been put in his charge.

Third, we need to understand what it means to act "shrewdly." Sometimes in our current society, to speak of someone acting shrewdly is to insinuate that they were really rather conniving and manipulative - if not dishonest. But in the Greek, the word "fronimoos" carries the simple meaning of prudence and wisdom. The ASV and KJV perhaps better translate the word by using the word "wisely" rather than "shrewdly." For the master to say that the steward acted "shrewdly" was most definitely a complement and a positive affirmation of what he had done. We need to understand why.

Perhaps the choice to use the word "shrewdly" was made because it is perceived by many that the steward in this parable was in fact somewhat dishonest and/or unethical in renegotiating the debts of those who owed the master just so they would extend some favor to him when he was later out of a job. Perhaps we need to take another look at what a steward was, not from the perspective of our modern-day Western commercial culture but from the perspective of a Middle Eastern first century culture. Eldred Echols, in his book Discovering The Pearl Of Great Price states regarding stewards in first century times, "scholars say that the person who is called in Greek the oikonomos (manager) was, in fact, a contractor or business agent who operated on a flexible commission, much as tax collectors like Zacchaeus did for the Roman government. In other words, these agents were bound to collect from buyers the price their employer required for his products. But they could charge whatever they could get above that and keep the difference for their own commission. Often the profit they made was enormous." Assuming those scholars to be accurate, this would explain the favorable reaction by the master. When the steward told the debtors to reduce their bills by 20% and 50%, what he was likely doing was ensuring that his master still received what was owed but giving up the profit that he had been seeking for his own. He was forsaking short term gain for long term benefits. In that, we can see a reason for his master praising his wise actions. Otherwise, if the steward had given away what was rightfully owed his master just to secure his own favor later on, we would expect that the master would have had him imprisoned for such fraudulent, dishonest and deceitful behavior.

This then gets to the real point of the parable. What is our attitude towards riches in the "here and now"? What is our attitude towards the material and monetary possessions? Are we willing to use our blessings in such a way now that has a view towards our eternal future? When Jesus states in verse 8, "the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light," I believe Jesus is making the point that those of the world ("sons of this age") are oftentimes able to use money and material blessings with a view towards their temporal future more effectively than children of God ("sons of light") are able to use it with a view towards their spiritual eternal future.

We can't afford to forget that we are all stewards of our possessions and that what we "own" doesn't really belong to us, but God. We are just blessed to have use of them for a short while and whatever so-called profit we make from those blessings entrusted to us are really His. The godly steward is not governed by selfishness and personal gain but by benevolence and what's in the best interest of our Master. This is why in the parable the steward was praised by the master.

Immediately following this parable, Jesus goes on to make some further applications in Luke 16:9-13. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

Jesus uses the Aramaic word "mammon" to refer to money in this context. This word is found only here (verses 9, 11, 13) and in Matthew 6:24 ("... you cannot serve God and mammon"), and in both contexts, Jesus is giving money, wealth and riches personal characteristics and is personifying mammon as a rival god. We must learn that money is not just some abstract means of exchange but is a potential god that seeks to dominate and rule our lives if we become its servant. The insidious nature of money makes the warning in I Timothy 6:10 all the more serious. The teaching of this parable is twofold. We either learn to use the money God blesses us with to His glory with a view to our long term spiritual desire to be taken care of after we are removed from our stewardship here on earth. Or, we allow money to be our master all the days of our life here on earth and find ourselves looking across the "great chasm" (Luke 16:26) for all eternity with perpetual regret for our inability to "act shrewdly."

We either use our money to serve God or we try to use God to serve our money. Will we use our money and material possessions in such a way that we prepare ourselves for an eternal future with God? Just as there was to be a day for the steward to "give an account" for that which had been entrusted to him (Luke 16:3), so we also will have a "day of reckoning" (Isaiah 2:12; cf. Romans 14:12) for our stewardship as well.