This was the teaching this sunday at my church. I’ve NEVER understood it. Was the dishonest steward supposed to be getting in good with the master’s creditors so he’d be welcome there if he got kicked out? Why did his master “commend” him for his cleverness? Then the parable ends with saying you can’t serve God and money.
Maybe the master thought it was good that the servant was so casual about the value of money - even though it was the master’s money!
You need to think of this parable in the construct of a satire. The Lord was speaking to unbelieving Jews...(no doubt the ones he accused of having the Devil as their father in John 8).
Anyway, the Jews rejected his message so the Lord tells this parable where wickedness and treachery are rewarded in the next life and then he says...” they will receive you into everlasting habitations...of course, we know the children of light are not as wise as the children of the world (wink).”
He is challenging the Jews to take their precepts all the way and logically fit them to reward and ultimate outcome....of course they can’t. They defraud people, love money, lie, warp the commandments of God...so Jesus says...ok, you’ll be rewarded and be received by your ilk in the next life...it is ridiculous.....
See it as satire and it makes sense....literally, it makes no sense at al.