wealth

The parable of the shrewd (and blatantly unethical) manager (Luke 16:1-9) has always made me uncomfortable. Is Jesus endorsing dishonesty? The story in itself is about a manager who has been hiding his own misuse of his master’s property, is exposed and about to be fired, and then protects himself by ingratiating himself to his master’s debtors by having them alter their accounts. And then the master praises the manager for being shrewd!

Something new struck me about this parable as I read it devotionally today. There is usually one explanation for a parable, a spiritual truth that Jesus illuminates by using a down-to-earth parallel. But in this case, Jesus follows up the story with not one, not even two, but three explanations. He starts by saying that worldly riches are to be used to gain friends. Then he compares worldly wealth to true riches. Finally he says that none of us can serve both God and Money. He hammers home his point by rebutting the Pharisees with a fourth explanation, that God detests what the Pharisees value so highly, i.e., worldly riches.

Jesus’ point is not a simple one. He is certainly not simply endorsing dishonesty (the Pharisees would have raked him over the coals for that). He is giving us a many-layered perspective of worldly wealth. His rebuttal to the Pharisees shows that many people who call themselves followers of God do not look at worldly wealth the way that God does. Jesus calls worldly wealth “very little” relative to true wealth (v. 10). He calls it “someone else’s property”, i.e., we do not truly own it (v. 12). He says that it has the ability to own us, to be our master (v. 13). And he calls it detestable to God even though some people value it highly (v. 15).

All of this begs the question: what is true wealth, that which is highly valued by God? And the problem with answering this question is that it may cause me to hoard something else in the mistaken belief that I am now hoarding something that is truly valuable. It is the hoarding that is in itself the problem. The deeper question is this: Is my value system the same as God’s? That is a question that can’t be answered like a math problem or a question in a catechism. It is a question that is meant to be “lived in”, a question that we will spend our lives answering. And that attitude of seeking to know what God values is what God values.