NOTES for Luk 16:1-9

Christ tells His disciples an astonishing parable today. He compares the relationship between God and a human being with that between a master and a dishonest manager. Faced with the imminent threat of dismissal, this manager resolves—perhaps for the first time—to show mercy to his Master’s poor debtors. It is like the regular promises of higher wages, pensions, and benefits before an election. In essence, the manager does this at the Master’s expense, but the Lord does not condemn him; He merely makes an ironic remark about the shrewdness of the children of this age. Far more important is that the debtors who benefited at the Master’s expense receive the manager not merely into their own homes. Here the Lord moves beyond the framework of the parable and speaks of eternal dwellings. Thus mercy shown to people becomes an utterly undeserved but real opportunity to enter the eternal dwellings of the Lord Himself. It is also striking that it is not the master who admits the manager there, but those upon whom the manager took pity. This is why it is so important for us to be grateful and to pray for those who have helped us in one way or another.