In Luke 15, Jesus told parables about things that were lost—a lost sheep, a lost coin and two lost brothers. Here in Luke 16, Jesus continues His parabolic teachings focusing on the idea of stewardship. This first parable is arguably one of the most difficult parables in all of Scripture to understand. Darrell Bock argues that it is the most difficult parable in the Gospel of Luke! So, as we seek to understand Jesus’ teaching here, in the words of Pastor Alistair Begg, we will seek to keep the plain things the main things and the main things the plain things.

It is clear that Jesus is teaching us about becoming a faithful steward of all God has entrusted to us, but the way in which He goes about it causes us to pause. In fact, this parable can be quite unsettling, for it seems at first glance that Jesus is commending actions that are unethical (if not illegal). But what we discover is that Jesus is not commending the actions of this unfaithful steward, but rather the shrewdness by which he handled the turmoil in his personal life. Jesus then follows this parable with some clear teaching about what it looks like to be a faithful steward for God.