Luke 16:1-14 The shrewd investor

Luke 16:1-14 Parable of the unrighteous steward. The first eight verses are the story, which is a bit difficult to understand. The steward decides that since the master is most likely going to fire him for poor management, he will get some bad loans off the books, hoping to curry favor with other debtors (rather than taking them to court and having them thrown into debtors' prison). The odd part about this story is that the master praised this steward for his shrewd actions, because the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own generation than the sons of light. Perhaps Jesus is saying in verse 8 that the master recognized the steward's managerial savvy that he had not previously shown. Verses 9-13 are more puzzling. Verse 13 parallels Matthew 6:24 and presumably sums up Jesus' teaching on this parable: No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. He seems to be saying that worldly possessions are a test, and how we manage things on earth will affect how much God will entrust true (i.e. spiritual) riches to us. Matthew 6:24 is preceded by Matthew 6:19-21 in which Jesus advised His listeners not to lay up treasures on earth, where they will decay or could be stolen, but to lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven, where there is no rust and where there are no thieves. In that passage, He seems to be saying that we should focus on doing things with spiritual payoffs. In this passage, He seems to be saying that faithfulness in the use of earthly riches will be rewarded with being entrusted with heavenly riches, and the converse is also true. If we are unfaithful in the use of earthly riches, we will not be rewarded nor entrusted with heavenly riches. Taken together, these suggest that God is judging how we use the earthly wealth He has put under our care. If we use it on ourselves, He won't give us heavenly riches. If we use it to advance His kingdom faithfully, He will reward that use with spiritual blessings. The only problem with this interpretation is that it is hard to draw this from verses 1-8. The only connection is the concept of shrewdness - a worldly steward is shrewd with respect to his ultimate goals, so a son of light (i.e. of the kingdom of God) should be shrewd with respect to his ultimate goals, which are completely different than those of the worldly steward. Nevertheless, the  shrewdness of the son of light would lead him to manage his earthly riches in such a way as to advance God's purposes.

          Verse 14 indicates that the Pharisees either didn't understand the message, or else they loved money so much that they rejected the lesson.