The parable of the shrewd manager

The parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:1-15) places the reader right in the middle of a conundrum. What was the manager to do? He faced the charge of mismanagement, the owner of the estate wanted an explanation, and he was losing his job. Jesus said that the manager was accused of wasting his master’s possessions. The manager could clear himself by showing his master the books, but that’s not what he does. The manager is self-aware enough to know that he is guilty and cannot sidestep the accusations against him.

The manager is also self-aware enough to think about his future. Not only was he losing his job, but he also was losing his reputation as a manager. What estate owner would want to hire him? As he considered his situation, he realized his only work options were outside of estate management (verse 3), and he didn’t have the fortitude for either manual labor or begging. If the estate manager wanted to keep managing estates, he would have to act shrewdly. So he called in his master’s debtors.

A parable examined

The parable itself can seem like a conundrum. It might just be the parable with the greatest number of questions surrounding it. Here are just a few: What exactly made the manager shrewd? Did the master commend the manager’s sinfulness? What are we to do with this parable?

The manager managed his crisis deftly. This was no longer about his master; this was about preserving his own reputation and future. Notice how he dealt with the debtors. He acted quickly before word could spread about his firing. He presented himself as if he still held authority as estate manager. In a final flourish, he ingratiated himself to other businessmen by cutting their debts.

The manager cut the oil debt by 50 percent and the wheat debt by 20 percent. Since the value of oil was different from the value of wheat, both reductions amounted to about 500 to 600 denarii, or somewhere in the range of one and a half to almost three years’ wages. Whatever the amounts, we get the gist. The debtors were thrilled to receive a discount.

This discount reflects the manager’s unrighteous dishonesty. So why does the master commend him? “Because he had acted shrewdly” (verse 8). Certainly, shrewdness can have a negative connotation, but here the master commended the manager for handling his situation wisely to secure his future.

A parable explained

Still, a conundrum remains: What are we to do with this parable? Jesus offers clarity in the second half of verse 8. Here he sets up a contrast between “people of this world” and “people of the light,” that is, between the unbelieving world and believers.

The people of the world know how to act shrewdly. They know how to analyze their situation and act to secure their temporal future. Jesus said that the people of the world are better at being shrewd than the people of the light.

Shrewdness is not something to be avoided. Elsewhere, Jesus called on his disciples to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Shrewdness has everything to do with living as people of the light because it means having the self-awareness to analyze our situation and act for our future. The exception is that we live under a different set of values than the people of the world; these values inform our shrewdness. If the people of the world are good at being shrewd in accordance with the values of the world, then the people of the light should be even better at being shrewd in accordance with the values of God.

In verse 9, Jesus gives us three values that guide the way we act for our future.

Value one: People of the light do not trust money; we use it. Jesus said, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves.” Jesus literally called worldly wealth “the mammon of unrighteousness.” Mammon usually refers to money, but it can also be something in which people put their trust. Trusting something that should not be trusted results in unrighteousness. The manager’s actions are an example of this.

However, misuse of money does not mean we have to avoid it. Instead, we put money to use as we live as light in the world. We use it to gain friends, but through generosity. We use it to build community, but by giving aid. Most of all, we use wealth to support setting people free from the debt of sin. Jesus, the light for revelation to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32), described his mission this way: “to proclaim good news to the poor . . . to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

Value two: People of the light know the limitations of wealth. Jesus said that worldly wealth would one day be gone. In verse 11, Jesus contrasts worldly wealth with “true riches.” We’ve seen this theme before in the gospel of Luke. For example, in chapter 12 Jesus said, “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys” (verse 33). Wealth is a useful tool, but at best it can secure only a limited and temporal future because one day it will be gone.

Value three: People of the light focus on their eternal future. Jesus said in verse 12 that our wealth today is someone else’s property, not ours. We are just managers. But we have eternal property waiting to be given to us. This helps us see things rightly. People of the light know the difference between what is passing away and what is eternal. We know that it is possible to gain a better tomorrow, while also losing our very soul (Luke 9:25). We have a future that is far greater than tomorrow.

If shrewdness is being able to analyze our situation and plan for the future, then these are the right kind of values because they come from the Light himself. These values make us wise. These values are more precious than gold. These values guide us to eternal dwellings.

This is the fourth article in a six-part series on Jesus’ parables found in the book of Luke. Read the series(opens in new tab). 

Author: Aaron Goetzinger
Volume 113, Number 09
Issue: September 2026
Illustrations: Corissa Nelson

Interpreting parables: Purpose

We’ve been considering different questions to help us interpret parables. The parable of the shrewd manager is an example of a parable where help is needed in interpretation. There are more interpretations of this parable than there are verses in it. That is because interpreters are far more interested in what lies outside the purpose of the parable.

Jesus gives us the purpose of the parable in verses 8 and 9. The parable really isn’t about the master, what the manager did to get fired, or the debtors. It is about the shrewdness of unbelievers and believers, and how believers are to be shrewd in using worldly wealth for the eternal benefit of others.

Knowing the purpose of the parable keeps us from getting fixated on things that are in the parable but are irrelevant or, even worse, on things that aren’t in the parable at all.