Part 5 - The Shrewd Manager
Short Stories of Yeshua • Sermon • Submitted
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Part 5 - The Shrewd Manager
Me: I love a win-win situation. I love people who want to create win-win situations.
1. In 1993, I dropped out of high-school and shortly thereafter I began working in a warehouse. I was the grunt. A technical term for the young guy who would do all the heavy lifting because I had what was deemed a “young back.” It was a grooling job.
2. That experience made me do to things: regret my decision to drop-out of high-school and go get some kind of education to get some kind of education. So, I got an Associate’s Degree in accounting from the Bradford School of Business.
3. And, after the Lord rescued me and cleaned up my life, I landed a job at a company called David Weekly Homes. I was a temporary number pusher: doing accounts payables. I did not have much professional experience and the drug dealing industry does not have that many transferrable principles to the legal marketplace. So I recalled the only time in my life where I felt like I had the Midas touch (make sure people know what that is), when I played baseball. What made me successful at baseball is that I knew The only way I would ever get better is if we all got better. I wanted to be the best player on the field but I also wanted all my team-mates respectively to be the best player on the field. So I spent as a player in two directions, getting better myself and helping other players reach their fullest potential. It worked.
"When one side benefits more than the other, that's a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust."
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.
We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!
"When one side benefits more than the other, that's a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust."
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.
We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!
4. At Weekly Homes, I took that same philosophy and thought to myself: how can I make the whole Accounts Payable team succeed. How can I create a win-win scenario for my manager and co-workers.
5. This was a value David Weekly lived out and with his employees long before I got there. He wanted to create a company that created a win-win environment for His employees.
We: We all want win-win situations but isn’t a little selfish to want others to just so I can win?
1. We all want win-win situations.
2. But, we all have been burned by the person who is using us not really winning with us.
a. These are not win-win relationships they usually are relationships of co-dependency.
b. The co-dependent person wants you to win not so much because they love when you win but because they are fearful if you don’t win you will not love them, if you don’t win love will be with-hold or if they don’t help the other person win that person might leave them and they don’t think they can exist without the other person.
c. People pleasing, serving out of fear,
Some bad win-win scenarios:
a. I want you to win so you will do X for me.
b. I want you to win so you will not withhold X from me.
c. I want you to win so you will not leave me.
Bible: Yeshua teaches that shrewdness is a virtue when it creates a win-win scenario.
It is to my benefit for us to succeed.
Ha-foke-bah
Ha-foke-bah
De-Cola-bah
Ha-foke-bah
Ha-foke-bah
Mashiach-bah
Turn-it and turn-it everything you need is in it.
Turn-it and turn-it the Messiah is in it.
Read
Now Yeshua was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a household manager, and this manager was accused of squandering his belongings.
So he called the manager and said to him, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg.
I know what I’ll do, so that when I’m put out of management others will welcome me into their homes.’
So he called in each one of his master’s debtors, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“He said, ‘One hundred units of olive oil.’ “The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
Then he said to another, ‘Now how much do you owe?’ “He said, ‘A hundred units of wheat.’ “The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill and write eighty.’
“Now the master praised the crooked manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the sons of this age are smarter when dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
The parable is straightforward. There is nothing allegorical in it. It has no hidden meaning. It is the story of a dishonest household manager who has a terminal confrontation with his boss, engages in some serious reflection, and comes up with an ingenious solution.
The confrontation is a firing. If you have ever been fired, you know it leaves you with an empty feeling to say the least. It happened to me when I was 20 years old. I was not performing to my boss’s expectations. He said something like, “Your time with us is terminated,” and I said “What’s terminated?” In the following minutes he added to my vocabulary! I had a slow, low walk home.
In Yeshua’s tale, the terminated man was a scoundrel and wastrel, and he deserved what he got. His boss didn’t waste any words
And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
:“What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer” (v. 2). In todays terms, “Give me all your records, and clean out your desk. You’re outta here!” This is depressing, even if you are a crook.
Even if you are not given to deep thought, being sacked is cause for reflection, especially if you’re thoroughly white-collar with no calluses except on your elbow from “tipping a few.” The thought of manual labor was unacceptable. And begging? The non-canonical book of Ecclesiasticus says, “It is better to die than to beg” (46:28b).
“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg.
I know what I’ll do, so that when I’m put out of management others will welcome me into their homes.’
The man’s musings sound like a soliloquy from an opera: “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses” (vv. 3, 4).
The solution that he dreamed up was pretty slick. You can see him high-fiving the air and shouting, “Yes!” In order to get the sense of just how clever this was, we must understand that it was illegal in Jewish culture to charge interest to fellow Jews (cf. ; ; ). There was no such thing as principal and interest. So they would hide the business interest by hiding it in the loan, so that the principal included the interest. It was not unknown to charge as much as 100 percent interest on profitable commodities. The manager, according to common, accepted business practice, was making such usurious loans, just like everyone else.
So he called in each one of his master’s debtors, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“He said, ‘One hundred units of olive oil.’ “The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
Thus the solution: “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred’ ” (vv. 5, 6). The truth is, the debtor actually only owed 400 gallons of oil. The other 400 were the manager’s commission. The debt had been large (800 gallons was the yield of 146 olive trees). Accordingly, the debt reduction was massive.
Then he said to another, ‘Now how much do you owe?’ “He said, ‘A hundred units of wheat.’ “The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill and write eighty.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred’ ” (v. 7). Here he wrote off a 20 percent commission on a less inflationary commodity.
So he called in each one of his master’s debtors, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
The manager did this with “each one of his masters’ debtors” (v. 5)—and every one of them thus became his debtor.
He is trying to make restitution but more importantly He is exposing the “crookedness” of his master.
This is the moment in the great con movies, like the Italian Job where the con man (Edward Norton) is outsmarted by the other con man (Mark Whalberg) and now must face the Ukranians.
So when the unemployed manager would show up over the years as he made his rounds, there would always be a room and a table set for him. What a rascal this creative crook was!
As the disciples listened, they were expecting to hear how the master cleverly extricated himself and gave the crook his due.
“Now the master praised the crooked manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the sons of this age are smarter when dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
Imagine their surprise, and I think laughter, when Jesus said, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” (v. 8a). He did not approve of what his ex-employee had done, but he certainly admired his foresight and astuteness. This was one smooth operator. He was so quick, so artful, so utterly cool in looking out for Number One.
While the disciples were admiring the surprise turn in the story, Yeshua turned it on them, perhaps with a smile himself
“Now the master praised the crooked manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the sons of this age are smarter when dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
“For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light” (v. 8b). The dishonest manager had an epiphany. Enlightened self-interest: when you win, I win. Let’s put it into language that sits easier on pure ears: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The master is praising his shrewdness, not his greediness. Shrewdness is “when we begin to make the other’s needs as important as our own, not more important than our own, but not less important than our own.”
He refused to live with his hands in other people’s pockets but invited other people to put their hands in his pockets. If he did not do something fast, he would be out on the street. He used all his intelligence, wit, and energy to insure his earthly comfort.
In contrast, “the people of the light” lack the vision to see how “outsiders” can help “insiders” get a win.
Let me explain what I mean, and I think, a little Rabbinic thought could help unwind the parable. The Torah and Talmud encourage lending money without interest. But the halakha (Jewish law) that prescribes interest-free loans applies only to loans made to other Jews. Jewish law allows making loans with interest to persons who are not Jewish.
Another significant loophole in the law was the biblical permission to charge interest on loans to non-Israelites, since this made it possible for an Israelite to charge interest on a loan to another Israelite, by making the loan through a third party who was not an Israelite; interest could be charged on the loan to the non-Israelite, who could then loan the money to the other Israelite at a similar rate of interest. -Baba Metzia 68b; Baba Metzia 5:6
The problem is that religious people tend to only help other religious people.
Here is the real zing, kicker of Yeshua’s short story: Treat outsider like insiders and they will help you when you become an outsider.
Then Yeshua gives what appears to be three lessons
I say to you, make friends for yourselves from the wealth of the world, so when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal shelters.
Be shrewd – seek for Enlighted self-interest
“One who is faithful in the smallest matters is also faithful in much, and the one unjust in the smallest matters will likewise be unjust in much.
So then, if you cannot be trusted with unjust wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?
Now if you have not been trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you anything of your own?
Must be faithful with worldly money to get the treasure of heaven
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
You can’t serve God in money.
People can smell a fraud a mile away but if you use money the way God says to use it then people will trust you with more than just their money.
Then Yeshua
We: It is to our benefit to see _____ succeed.