Luke 16:5
“Calling each one of his lord’s debtors to him, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my lord?’”
What does Luke 16:5 mean?
A manager who's about to lose his job is calling in his employer's debtors one by one, and he starts by asking the first person what they owe. What makes this moment so striking is that he's preparing to do something dishonest: he's going to reduce their debts so they'll be indebted to him personally instead, giving him allies for when he's unemployed. It's a picture of human cunning and self-preservation, and Jesus is using it to make a point about how shrewd we can be when our own survival is at stake. The question itself is simple, almost innocent, but it's the setup for a lesson about priorities: if we're willing to be this clever about securing our earthly future, shouldn't we be even more thoughtful about our spiritual one?