Luke 16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 3 Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6 He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light (NRSV).
The parable of Unjust Steward is complex. How can we see the unjust manager? He probably practiced usury. He lent a lot of money to his customers (village people) with a very high-interest rate, which means they could not pay him back easily or fast. He takes the interest-difference amount in his pocket. This means he deceives both his master and his village people. As a result, his master's reputation was ruined due to his malpractice of business. His customers were also ruined due to this and perhaps cried for justice. Now the master heard about this and is going to fire him. Then, this manager does something shrewd to his customers by cutting the debt so that he may be welcomed into their homes when he is fired. Seeing this, his master commended his action not because of his dishonesty but because of his fixing the high-interest debt. As a result, his customers are happy along with his master whose reputation is recovered. Then, could the lesson of this parable be "Save yourself by saving others"? This manager saves himself by saving others.
