Jesus was undoubtedly a very good storyteller. He was able to capture the attention of crowds with his carefully crafted parables.

These are stories hewn from real-life situations and experiences of the Jews which Jesus made as jumping board to describe the coming of his heavenly Father’s Kingdom.

Take, for example, today’s parable known as the parable of the Shrewd Manager or the parable of the Dishonest Manager. Rich landholders during Jesus’ time hired managers to look after their properties when they traveled abroad. Managers augmented their income from the produce of the farm by imposing jacked-up prices and pocketing the difference.

The manager in Jesus’ parable belongs to the run-of-the-mill stewards who look only after their own profits rather than the good of the farm and the workers’ welfare.

However, the manager is praised in the parable, not for his dishonesty but because of his shrewdness.

Given the time constraints, he was able to think fast and to think well to assure himself of a good future once he would be dismissed from his managerial post.

He cut his own share of profit by assigning to one client only 50 measures of oil instead of the actual 100. To another client who had bought 100 measures of wheat, he reduced the price for only 80 measures.

This scheming manager strategized to ingratiate himself to his patron’s clients.

The “internal arrangement” he devised with the clients brought him on their good side, thus earning from the clients a debt of gratitude that would later be collected in terms of job openings or personal favors.

It was a clever tactic since he thought “out of the box,” so to speak, and this was the ingenuity that Jesus praises about this manager.

Now, Jesus tells his listeners to act with the same creativity and dispatch in terms of matters pertaining to the heavenly Kingdom.

He is subtly making an appeal for almsgiving, for people to channel “unrighteous mammon” for the spread of the Kingdom.

He points out that the grandeur and glory of this passing world is always “very little,” and if we harness the resources of this world in view of “much,” which is God’s Kingdom, then we would be identified as responsible stewards of the “true riches” which is heaven.

We are warned against having inordinate or undue attachments to anything in this world since all things will pass away, and only God’s Kingdom will prevail.

For indeed, we cannot serve God with divided loyalties. We cannot profess to love God while remaining enamored of this world

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.