Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Introduction:

Welcome back to MCC, Cody is out of town this week with his family. Caden and Caleb are competing in a power lifting competition of some sorts which is pretty cool so Cody asked me to step in again this week. Now many of you might not know this, but every week that I preach Bill and Jana are normally out of town. Last week is a great example, I talked about the parable of the sheep and the goats and Bill, of course, wasnt here. So this week I am going to be talking about it again. So if you were here last week, you already heard this sermon, but Bill didn’t. So i am just going to say word for word what I said last week.

No, i am kidding, I am going to be talking about a different parable this week, its really just a running joke that Bill and I have that he is never here when I preach, but I am glad he is here today.

Today we are going to be talking about something completely different than last week and I am actually really excited. This week I wanted to talk about the parable of the Shrewd manager. And the reason I am excited to talk about this particular parable is because it is actually slightly confusing. When I first read it and started digging into it I was confused by what Jesus really meant when he said some of the things that he did. At one point, it almost sounds like Jesus is condoning sin, which of course he isn’t, but it kinda seems like it. So we are going to be digging into that parable today.

Main Body:

Now last week I talked about the different types of parables that Jesus taught. Some were meant to be uplifting, some instructional, some were designed to put people in their place, and others were meant to be warnings. At the end of the day all parables are really instructional because there is a lesson to be taken from them. We also have been really hitting on who the target audience is for these stories. It’s so important for us to understand this, because it helps us understand the context. And context is everything.

I have a funny story about context that is really related to anything but I thought I would share it because it helps illustrate my point. Earlier in the week a friend of mine sent me this video that I just HAD to watch. This video was one of those conspiracy videos too, which for the record, I hate. I am always open to new ideas and whenever someone can approach a topic with hard evidence I am ALWAYS willing to look at the evidence and change my opinion on something. But be warned, the evidence has to be good and indisputable. If i can easily counter the evidence with a quick google search then it is not good evidence. The problem is though, is 99% of the videos that promote conspiracy theories don't actually have hard evidence. The evidence is either circumstantial or can easily be proven wrong. Side story off my side story, i had a different friend send me a video about a biblical conspiracy that he really wanted me to watch and i ended up writing him a six page paper on why it was wrong and how easily it could be disproved. Anyways, back to the first side story, so this video was about the moon landing and claiming that it never happened. Now for the record, i believe that we DID land on the moon, HOWEVER, of all the conspiracy theories out there, this one would be the most plausible. Again, i fully believe that we landed on the moon, however I am open to changing my opinion if hard evidence can be given. So in this video Buzz Aldrin, who was one of the first men on the moon, is being interviewed by a little girl and the little girl ask him “Why haven’t we gone back to the moon yet” and Buzz kinda says that a not a question an 8 year old should be asking but one that he has been asking for years. He then goes onto say “well you see, it didn’t happen.” And that is where the video ends. And the way the video was cut it makes it look like Buzz Aldrin, just accidently admitted that we didn’t actually go to the moon. And people look at that and they say look here is evidence that the moon landing was fake. So whenever I am presented with something like this I am instantly skeptical. The first question that I had was, well what did he say after than, and what had he said before that. So i quickly googled the interview and watched the whole thing and it became obvious very quickly that his quote was being taken out of context and if you actually went on to watch the rest of the video you would see that he says the reason we havn’t been back to the moon is a budget issue. But that isn’t as catchy and it doesn’t fit the narrative that these conspiracy theorist are trying to push so they leave it out. Instead they take the one sound byte, that fits there narrative, and they inject it into the video in an attempt to get you to believe what they are saying.

The reason I tell you guys this story is because context is EVERYTHING. We live in a day and age where people pick and choose the information they want to share as long as it fits the narrative they are screaming at you. The Bible is not immune to this at all. I think a great example of this is the westboro baptist church, and if you don’t know who they are, they were the church in Topeka, i think it was Topeka, who would go around and protest other churchs and hold up signs saying ‘God hates fags’ and other hate speech. And they would have random verse that they thought supported their ideas. But if you read the bible or those verses in the correct context that is not at all what the verse is saying. So with anything, and this is something that I encourage our youth all the time, question everything. Don’t take whatever you hear or read at face value and simply believe it, take the time to do research and examine the argument from different angles, that way you can come to your own conclusion about the subject. And ALWAYS do this with the Bible. Understanding the context and audience of anything in the Bible is crucial to help understanding the truth.

Which brings us to our parable. In order to actually understand the overall point Jesus is making in the parable we have to first understand the overall context, because if we really wanted to, we could easily cherry pick verses from this parable and say that Jesus condones dishonest business practice, which he doesn’t. So lets turn to Luke 16 and read all about this shrewd manager that Jesus is talking about. Now keep in mind, that this is a fictional story that Jesus is telling.

The New International Version Chapter 16

16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘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—4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 “ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

7 “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.’

Alright, so we are going to pause here and try to get a sense of what is going on here. First of all we see that Jesus is talking to his disciples, but later we will see that they aren’t alone and that others, as well as the Pharisees, are listening in. So we have this rich man, probably a land owner who has a large farm and sells items to local vendors or something to that extent. We can conclude this from the fact that people owe him olive oil and wheat. So at some point he lent someone a large amount of olive oil and they became indebted to him. So this rich farmer man has a manager who is responsible for settling accounts and managing his assets, only problem is this manager isn’t doing to well. He is accused of wasting his bosses possessions so his boss comes up to him and says that he is going to get fired. Now this manager admits that he is too weak, probably from age, to do manual labor and he has to much pride to beg on the street. So instead of having to face the shame of going to someone and asking for handouts, he tries to create this situation where people owe him a favor. He goes to those who have debt with the rich man and he starts knocking off item offf the bill. Look at the account with the olive oil, the man owes 900 gallons of olive oil and he says to make it four hundred and fifty. That is half of what is owed. It looks like he is doing a huge favor here. He does the same thing with the man that owed wheat.

Now what do we expect to happen here. I know if i was the rich man I would not be happy here. I told this guy I was going to fire him and off he goes taking profit away from me and cutting peoples debt. But that is not what Jesus says, in fact, lets read verse 8 - 9 and see what happens.

The New International Version Chapter 16

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Wait a second here. Jesus is saying that the master condoned the activity of the dishonest manager. Does this mean that Jesus condones dishonest business practices? Does that mean that I can use money to buy friendship and the more paid friends I have the more I will be welcomed into eternal dwellings? Not at all, here is where we have to understand context, because I could easily use this parable to justify some shady business dealings if I really wanted to. So lets dig into why Jesus is saying this.

The first question that I had when I read this parable is “Why is the master commending the dishonest manager.” I mean if I was the master in this situation I would be incredibly angry. So why do we see commendation instead of punishment here. So interesting fact, Jews are prohibited by law from lending anything to other Jews with interest. They can give loans with interest all they want to a gentile, but they aren’t supposed to lend money to other Jews with interest. This is found in Duet. 23:19-20

The New International Version Chapter 23

Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.

So what do we think the shrewd manager is knocking off. He isn’t cutting the bill in half, he is knocking off the interest and having the people just pay back the principal. So it really looks like this rich land owner might not have been so honest himself. He may have been conducting business practices that were prohibited by Mosaic law. So the manager goes to these people and says, “Hey I am going to do you a favor and knock off the interest, and you only have to pay back the principal.” Naturally the people that owe are going to be really excited and encouraged to do more business with the rich land owner.

So when the land owner finds out what happend, if he was to get mad and punish the manager he would have to admit that he himself was being shady, and secondly, the manager potentially just did him a favor becuase now people are happy with him. So if he was to get mad and seek retribution for what the manager did he is running the risk of looking bad himself. So instead he commends the manager and says, ‘well good job you got me on this one’.

I imagine it would be like when you catch a child doing something wrong and then when they provide the justification you can’t help but admire they reasoning. Right, like there have been several times where Taylor has done something wrong, but when she tells me they “why” of the matter I cant help but laugh or admit that she has a good point.

So the rich man might still be angry, but he is in a position to where he can’t do anything about it and admires the managers cunning. So then Jesus goes onto say,

For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

So in this verse we see Jesus say that people of the world, or in this context, Gentiles or non-Israelites, are more shrewd when it comes to dealing with others and using personal wealth to make friends. He goes on to say that the Israelites could learn a thing or two from this manager and use their worldly possessions to help others and to help further the kingdom. Now if we wanted to just stop the passage right there it would look like Jesus is condoning bribery or dishonest practices, but lets keep reading to see if that is true in verse 10.

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

So the last part of this parable might sound familiar. This is a pretty famous verse about not being able to serve both God and money. You see Jesus isn’t condoning dishonest business practices at all, in fact he says the opposite that whoever can’t be trusted with a little, will not be trusted with alot. If we focus too much on the commendation the master gives the manager we miss the overall point of this parable. Jesus is saying that instead of hording money and being selfish, we should take learn a thing or two from the Gentiles and use our money to benefit the kingdom. But the Pharisees, they loved money, and they loved to hoard money so that they could benefit themselves. And this is a pretty common theme that Jesus talks about , that we shouldn’t store up treasures here on earth, but to use those treasures to further the kingdom of God. Jesus isn’t saying that it is bad to be rich by any means, but what he is saying is that we should use our wealth to benefit the kingdom. Money, by itself, is not evil, but the worship and coveting of money is. When our desire for wealth and riches outweigh our desire to further the kingdom of God, that is when it is sinful. And that is why Jesus says, you can’t serve two masters, you will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. If we serve money that means we are letting money control our lives and it will inhibit our ability to faithfully serve God.

With all the uncertainty in the world I think our first instinct is to hoard and save. Just take the toilet paper shortage that we had last year with this all kicked off, human nature is to horde when faced with a crisis and to be selfish. It’s ingrained into human nature but then it is strongly reinforced in our own culture. We have it jammed into our head that we have to have a savings account and an emergency fund and we have to save, save, save. And there is nothing wrong with saving, but when it becomes an obstacle to the kingdom it becomes a problem. We can somewhat relate to the situation the Israelites were in, they were in a crisis as well as we are. Their crisis wasn’t a pandemic but an occupation of Rome. They were at the mercy of Rome and were probably scared and wanted to hoard all that they could in case something happened, like a revolt or a war. Which, a revolt did happen shortly after Jesus died on the cross. But they probably had a strong instinct to hoard and save just like we do today in this pandemic. But Jesus tells us that instead of worrying about what is going to happen to us, we should use our wealth and possessions to make friends and to further the kingdom, that way when we need help, people are willing to help us as well. It also gives us a great opportunity to share the love of God when we make sacrifices to help those in need.

When we look at this parable it can be kind of confusing at first, but really, the overall point that Jesus is making is that we should use our money in clever ways to further the kingdom of God instead of hoarding the money all for ourselves where it sits and gathers dust and literally does nothing except supply us with this false sense of security. Or maybe you are on the other side of the spectrum where you find yourself constantly worrying about money and stressing out about how you can make more. Whether you are a hoarder or a someone who lets worry and stress control your life, your master is money. We know that money is our master when it controls us like that and ultimately it is going to affect our relationship with God.

So if you are a hoarder and find yourself stressing about the problems of this world and just putting that money away where it is doing nothing I would encourage for you to push yourself to give. And it doesn’t have to be to the church, but look for opportunities to help those in need. Stretch yourself spiritually and trust that God is going to take care of you no matter what happens and that you don’t need to have a ton saved. I think you will find that when you are generous with your money and you see the happiness that you can provide others you will see that you too are blessed by giving. And blessed in the sense that you just feel happy, it feels good to help others and to know that you were able to do something about their situation.

And if you find yourself worrying about not having enough money and stressing constantly then I would encourage you to turn to God and to trust that he is going to take care of you. And to be praying to him that he provides for you instead of worrying about money. If you find yourself constantly worrying about money a little exercise you can do is to pray. Every time you find yourself thinking or worrying about money to pray to God instead that he will take care of you.

And the last thing that I want to encourage you to do is to come to the church when you need help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help and if you see a need within the community to bring it to our attention and maybe we can help out. Here at MCC we don’t want to hoard our money, but to use it to further the kingdom and to show other people God’s love. So be looking for those opportunities. Let’s pray.