Being Shrewd

Luke 16:1-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

What a parable we’ve just heard.  It’s one of those difficult sayings of Jesus that we end up scratching our heads over and hoping that next week’s lectionary reading is easier to understand; at least I do. But we ignore this parable at our own peril, so let’s look at it and spend some time trying to comprehend what Jesus may have been talking about.

To recap:  There’s a rich man who has a manager or steward.  The rich man discovers that the manager hasn’t been dealing with his accounts in his best interests.  The manager, upon learning that he’s been found out, hatches a plan to ensure that his good fortune continues.

He realizes that he’s too old or feeble to dig ditches and I can empathize with him there.  He’s also too proud to beg so there has to be another solution.  His solution is to create a circle of friends by reducing the debt they owe to the rich man.  Then comes the twist to the story; when the rich man learns of this plan, he commends his manager.  He doesn’t condemn him but rather calls him shrewd, as truly he is.

You’ve got to imagine that Jesus is telling this story with a glimmer in his eye.  He knows that the twists don’t make sense and that’s the joke of it all.  He’s telling this story to the man on the street; those who catch the early bus to get to grinding jobs.  This is a story for the run of the mill guy or gal who knows about rich men and how unlike they are from the rest of us.

And you have to remember that Luke, the author of our gospel, is particularly interested in proclaiming God’s preference for the poor.  Luke is concerned with what we would call economics; especially the economics of the poor versus the rich. 

So the rich man is not the hero here, well, at least not at the start.  Our protagonist is the manager, who shows how shrewd he is.  The translation we heard talks about him “squandering” his master’s riches.  In actuality, the Greek word is closer to “scattering:”  the manager was strewing about the rich man’s money. 

To where was he scattering it?  Well, very likely those hearers of the parable originally, those men and women of the street, would have assumed that it was going to the poor.  The manager was being an early Robin Hood, more or less.  Then he continues this use of his boss’ riches by shrewdly reducing the amount of what some of the rich man’s debtors owe.  And who are these debtors?  Well, once again they’re people who owe to rich people, in other words, poor people.

The manager is reducing the debts of these folks, in one case by 50%, so that they would feel an obligation to him.  Jesus is clear that the manager is doing this so he’ll be welcomed into the homes of these debtors once he’s out of a job.

Then comes the twist of the story.  The rich man learns of this turn of his affairs and commends the manager.  As Tom Boomershine, who taught me in my Digital Culture Certificate program, writes:  “This is a sign that the story is about God.  God is the one who commends a shrewd steward for acting in a way that was not in the benefit of a rich man.”  Jesus’ explanation about this is that the children of this age are shrewder than the children of light in their own generation.  That is to say, they know how to act; they know how to work the system and to have it work for them.  Children of light, Jesus is saying, are often naïve, pious, nice and don’t know how to use stuff such as money in their own interest.

Jesus knew what everyone else knew:  poor people welcome those who have treated them well into their homes.  That’s the shrewdness of this parable.  In Luke’s version of the beatitudes, the very first thing that Jesus says is that the poor shall inherit the kingdom of God; not the poor in spirit...that’s Matthew’s take on it.  And in the story about Lazarus and the rich man, it’s clear that the poor are going to be the gatekeepers for God’s realm. 

Jesus, according to Luke, is here for the poor.  And this parable only drives that point home.  We may look at it with alarm but that’s because in our materialistic culture, where money is a reward from God, the rich man is the hero.  We have to turn the tables and recognize this parable as a first century story and Jesus was telling it to the poor and those run of the mill, early bus catching guys and gals.  Jesus was, as he often does, turning things upside down; turning the story head over heels with a glint in his eye as he did it.

So where does all this leave us?  Likely none of us are in a position to scatter the riches of anyone in the upper income brackets and even if we did, we’d likely get a very different reaction when we were caught and let’s face it, we’d get caught.  Any scattering of someone else’s riches would likely land us in jail rather than commended.

And the answer to that question of where this leaves us is found in the paragraph that follows the parable, the very last line that we heard:  “You cannot serve God and wealth.”  If you’re serving wealth, you’re not going to scatter the riches around to those who need it, ignoring God’s call to serve them.  This is a parable of the end times, when things are turned as topsy turvy as the parable itself does; when God’s realm enters in fully and we don’t value people based on their bank account or garage contents.

Indeed we dismiss this parable at our own risk.  It must be viewed through the lens of God’s preference for the poor.  Only then can we begin to understand the lesson that this parable provides.