The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (thanks, Lord!)

On Wednesday I asked for God’s help in producing a sermon within four days (see earlier blog). He only took a few hours to provide (via an internet search) enough ideas for me to realise I could tackle the whole parable with honesty and integrity. By the time the sermon was completed a few days later I was happy that it remained faithful to the spirit of the original parable. I was less sure how relevant and meaningful it was.

The responses afterwards were favourable. Many people thanked me for a ‘good service’ and a handful commented specifically on the sermon. The adjective ‘interesting’ was employed more than once, which confirms my suspicion that I had been stronger on Biblical exposition than on real life application. Nevertheless, thank you, Lord, for helping me to meet what seemed four days ago to be an impossible challenge.

As it happens, the appointed preacher for my own church (I was preaching elsewhere in the circuit) fell ill during the week. I volunteered to type up my sermon in full (I normally rely on brief notes) so that it could be read out. Hence the same sermon was delivered twice. In one case it was read out fairly verbatim by someone else. In the other case I read out some bits, paraphrased others and inserted extra sentences here and there as the whim took me. In the former case the only feedback I’ve had so far is from my wife (“the service was all right”) and my daughter (“your sermon was rubbish”).

By the miracle of internet technology you can judge for yourself. I have copied my scripted sermon here below. Sermons really need to be preached rather than read, but the printed text ought to give you the gist of it.

(The following would make more sense if you first read Luke 16:1-13)

Many years ago, a Primitive Methodist preacher, intent on demonstrating the evils of drink to his congregation took a glass of water and dropped into it an earthworm. The worm wriggled around for a while apparently unharmed. He then lifted it out and dropped it into a glass of whisky where it immediately shrivelled up and died. “”What does that tell you?” he asked the congregation, and an old man at the back of the church replied, “If you drink whisky you won’t get worms!”

A good sermon illustration is one that makes the point clearly and doesn’t confuse the congregation with alternative meanings. This is even more true for a parable, which is more than a mere illustration. A parable is a story that gets under your skin. It shouldn’t need an explanation or a moral attached to it. The story itself should make enough sense to inspire or challenge or comfort those who hear it.

According to those criteria, the story of the shrewd manager, as told by Jesus, is not a very good parable. It tends to leave the hearers mystified and confused. Is the story encouraging us to be deceitful if we want to get on in life? Surely not. We need to spend a little time with this parable and allow it to get under our skin before we can discover the important truth it conveys.

To begin with, it’s a story about a rogue. He is selfish and dishonest. He thinks only about his own future well-being and cooks the books to earn brownie points with those who owe money to his master. The word Jesus uses to describe him at the end of the parable is ‘unrighteous’.

But there shouldn’t be a problem about having a rogue as the central character in a parable. Sometimes the unrighteous can act in ways which put the righteous to shame. Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector? It’s the ‘sinner’ in that story rather than the respectable man who Jesus commends. Not for his sinful life, but for a particular aspect of his behaviour. In that case it was his honesty in recognising his need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. In the case of the dishonest manager it is not quite so clear what aspect of his behaviour is being commended.

There are ways of understanding this story which make the dishonest manager’s behaviour slightly less reprehensible. Here are two scenarios, which soften the harsher edges of the story.

First, notice where the commendation comes from. It is not Jesus commenting on the parable afterwards who commends the manager. It is the master within the story who praises the unrighteous manager – because he had acted shrewdly. This is not the response of a man who is furious over the loss of his money. It sounds more like the response of a man who is very shrewd himself, but on this occasion has been outmanoeuvred by one of his employees.

You could imagine that the rich man was one of those people who have grown rich as a result of dodgy dealings and underhand business practices. He employs an accountant to keep track of his assorted ill-gotten gains. He expects the accountant to have the same dubious morals as himself, but what better person to manage his shady dealings. After a while he decides that accountant is not making enough money for him, so he sacks him. Next thing he knows, the accountant has cleverly used his control of the funds to win friends for himself. “Good for you,” says the master, “you’ve got one up on me this time. You’re devious, but you’re my kind of devious. Well done.”

There are plenty of stories around today of loveable rogues who manipulate others for their own ends – sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Think, for example, of Michael Caine in The Italian Job, or George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven, or the gentleman thief Raffles, or the character of Blackadder on television. All selfish and devious rogues, but we still enjoy their adventures and admire their cunning.

Was this how the disciples understood the parable of the shrewd manager? As the story of a loveable rogue who used his cunning to stay ahead of the game...?

A second way to understand the story is based on the fact that it was against the law of Moses to charge interest on a loan. This didn’t stop lenders finding some other way to make money. Accounts were adjusted so that a proportion of the funds found their way into the pockets of those who brokered the loan. Whatever you call it – a fee, a commission, a bribe – it was the accepted business practice even if not entirely legal. So, for example, if the accounts showed someone owed a thousand bushels of wheat, it may have represented a loan of 800 bushels, plus a further 200 bushels commission to the manager.

In this case, what the shrewd manager was doing by changing the record from ‘IOU 1000 bushels’ to ‘IOU 800 bushels’ was merely waiving his own commission on the deal. He would be out of pocket himself, but he would be in favour with the man who owed the wheat. Maybe this would explain the master’s commendation. If the master wasn’t himself out of pocket from these book-keeping adjustments, then it would certainly account for his lack of anger at having been diddled.

Was this how the disciples understood the parable? As the story of a manager prepared to give up the usual under-the-counter commission in order to win the favour of others...?

However the parable first struck the disciples, the way it strikes us today is the story of a crook who was only interested in getting the best for himself out of a tricky situation. What is there to admire in that?

This is one of those occasions when Jesus pointed his disciples to a single aspect of an otherwise immoral life and said, “Look, even a crook can get this particular thing right – why can’t you?” He didn’t use those exact words in this case. What he said was “the people of this world are much more shrewd in handling their affairs than the people who belong to the light.”

To put it another way, Jesus was saying “Have you noticed how those who have to deal regularly with such worldly things as money and property manage to keep their wits about them? How come you, as my followers, seem to go to pieces when it comes to knowing how to use your wealth?”

The broad principle is that there is something we can learn from the devious crook as portrayed in this parable regarding the way we handle our worldly wealth . But what exactly does Jesus want us to learn?

One key feature of the parable is that the manager was about to leave his master’s employment. He would soon find himself in a different and less secure situation. He would be without the resources and influence that he currently enjoyed. So what was he going to do? The solution was obvious. He would use the wealth available to him in his present position to create better prospects for the future.

When he left his current employment, what would be of value to him? He would no longer have access to his master’s funds. All the privileges he now enjoyed would be gone. What assets would remain? He would still have his health, but he didn’t consider himself strong enough for physical labour. He would still have his self-esteem, but that alone would be no good to him. In fact, his self-esteem was a barrier to one potential source of income – begging. He would still have his network of contacts, but why would they maintain any interest in him when he was no longer managing their accounts? The answer is that he needed to get on their good side by using his power and influence whilst he still had it. His conclusion was simple enough – the wealth at his disposal was not as valuable as having friends who would be around to support him when he lost his job. If using his current wealth would increase the quality of his future friendships, then there was no time to lose!

Our own wealth, along with the resources, power and influence we have in this life, is not going to last forever. We may not be leaving our present world quite so soon as the manager was due to leave his position, but our departure is no less certain. One day all the material privileges we enjoy will come to an end. What will we do then?

Jesus says we can learn from the shrewd manager. “Make friends for yourselves with worldly wealth,” he says, “so that when it gives out you will be welcomed into the eternal home.”

Don’t misunderstand Jesus at this point. He is not saying we can buy our way into God’s good graces, or that we can secure a place in heaven by wise use of our money here on earth. What he is saying is that we need to see beyond our narrow restricted view of life – which focuses on mere pounds and pence, bricks and mortar, flesh and bone – and give consideration to the things of eternity, which will endure when all earthly resources are exhausted.

Like the manager in the parable, we must wake up to the fact that our present situation is only temporary. What provision have we made for building up those things which will remain forever. Saint Paul once said that three things remain – faith, hope and love – but he never said these were the only things that would remain. There are many good qualities such as peace, joy, truth which will endure for ever. And given that the parable is about building friendships, what about our friendship with Jesus Christ? Shouldn’t we value that above all earthly possessions. After all, we can’t take our money with us when we leave, but we can and will continue the loving relationship with Jesus already begun here and now.

The parable acts as a reminder that we will not live for ever, and the wisest way to use our worldly wealth is to use it to prepare for eternity. But Jesus did not tell this story only to get his disciples to think of what would happen after they had died. He told it so that they would learn the right way to live here and now.

Several comments of Jesus follow the telling of the parable. The final one is this. “You cannot serve both God and money.” The word Jesus actually used was the old-fashioned sounding word, mammon. This is not just money, but the whole concept of worldly wealth, power and possessions in its broadest sense.

Like the shrewd manager, we need to decide what we value most. We can’t treat God and Mammon equally. One must be subordinate to the other.

In this, we can learn a lesson from the charity commissioners. For some years now they have been challenging the church and other charities over the level of their reserve funds. It’s comforting for a charity to accumulate large assets so that they can feel financially secure for the future. But the money is not the property of the charity to hoard for themselves. It was given to them to use for their stated charitable purposes. For charities and for churches, achieving their particular purpose is more valuable than building up huge reserves.

As individuals we need to learn the same lesson. All of us here have tremendous resources of time, talent and treasure at our disposal. And far too often we squander them on ourselves. The parable of the shrewd manager forces us to face up to the question, what do we value most? A large bank balance, all the right status symbols and being in a position of power over others? Or do we value our relationship with God, our discipleship of Jesus and our commission to love and serve the world? If even a dishonest crook can work out on which side his bread is buttered, then why can’t we?