“Jesus the Teacher: The Shrewd Manager”
Luke 16:1-13
February 23, 2014
Rev. David Williams
Scripture: Luke 16:1-13
Sermon:
Context
	Heist movies.  Movies about thieves carrying off a great robbery of some kind seem to catch our imagination. [pics] Whether it be Robin Hood, or Ocean’s 11, The Italian Job, or The Great Train Robbery, these are stories that are told over an over again.  For some reason we are drawn to the crafty planning and outrageous daring it takes to complete a high stakes caper.  We enjoy the complexity of the plan to outsmart those who think they are invulnerable.  We like characters who steal from the rich to give to the poor, and in many cases, if they don’t give to the poor, we at least like that they’re stealing from the rich! 
	Today we are continuing our look at Jesus as a teacher, specifically his parable of the Shrewd Manager or Unjust Steward.  We’ve spoken before about the fact that Jesus told parables in order to make people think. He didn’t just give them the answer, he wanted them to puzzle over the meaning of his parables.  He wanted them to think about them so they would remember them, but also to separate the sincere seekers from those who were just following Jesus to see what all the fuss was about.
	This parable is certainly one that makes people think. Historically it has been very difficult to interpret because it appears that Jesus is commending dishonesty!  He is holding up the dishonest manager as an example for his disciples. What’s up with that!?!
	In many ways, this parable is like one of our caper movies.  The shrewd manager, the dishonest steward, is carrying out a heist in this story!  I want to make this point from the beginning because this is an incredibly difficult parable to understand and it’s my belief that if we think about it like a caper movie it will help us make sense of it.
	So let’s dive into our passage today.  Using our coin acronym, let’s begin with the context.  This parable begins chapter 16, a chapter primarily about wealth.  If you look at the page, you will see that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus concludes the chapter. What comes in between contains a number of Jesus’ teachings on money.
	But, it is important to remember that the chapters and verses in the Bible were later additions, they are not part of the original text.  This is particularly important because the chapter break at 16 artificially divides our parable from the parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son! [Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p. 332] 
	Why is that significant?  What makes the division artificial?  In verse 1 the manager is accused of “wasting” his master’s possessions.  The word for wasting literally means to scatter or disperse and it is the same word used for what the son does with his inheritance!  These are the only two places this word is used with respect to money. The other times the word is used in the NT it refers to either scattering seed or dispersing or scattering people abroad. The fact that Luke uses the word this way twice in back to back stories is a clear indication that they go together. [Bailey, p. 332] This means that the meaning of one sheds light on the meaning of the other.  At the risk of giving something away before we get to our interpretation section, this tells us that at least part of the meaning of this parable points to the graciousness of the master, just as the story of the lost son tells us about the grace of the father.  Tuck that in your back pocket for now and we’ll bring it out again when we get down to the interpretation of the parable.  But as we look at the parable, don’t just focus on the steward, but think about the actions and reactions of the master.
Observations
	Observations.  What do we see in the text itself? What does Luke give us to work with?  First is the idea of a steward- an estate manager.  It was not uncommon for wealthy people to delegate the running of their estate to a trusted manager or steward.  Think of the parable of the talents in which the wealthy man goes off to a far country to be appointed king of his homeland. [Luke 19:26-27] Before he goes, he entrusts three men with significant amounts of money with the intention that they would manage that money and earn more for the master. 
	This parable begins with the master being informed that his particular manager has been untrustworthy and has wasted, or squandered, his possessions.  He calls the manager in and asks him about the accusations.  Notice that the manager does not offer any defence for himself!  Not knowing what his master has heard about him, he could have begun with, “There must be some mistake! I would never mishandle your property.” He could have asked who were his accusers?  He could have demanded to hear the charges against him and the evidence to back them up. He could have appealed to the people of the town, asking the master to call them in because they would vouch for him. He even could have blamed his underlings, saying, “The people I have working under me are all thieves! It is their fault!” The manager’s silence is surprising.  It would be expected that he would put up some sort of defence and at least haggled over being fired.  At least he would have begged to keep his job and be given another chance.  But he says nothing. [Bailey, p. 335-6]
	The next surprise is the master’s response to his silence.  In the story of the talents, that we mentioned a moment ago, when the master returns and finds that one servant has just buried his portion of money in the ground, how does the master respond?  He immediately calls for the servant to be thrown out into the darkness! In Matthew’s version, he is executed on the spot!  The master in this story would have been within his rights to have responded in either way himself.  He also could have had the manager and his entire family thrown into jail until the money he wasted was repaid. [Bailey, p. 340] That the master only fired him and did not have him arrested or killed is a sign of mercy.  Remember, we mentioned before that part of the focus of this parable is on the master’s grace.
	The master calls for the manager to turn in the financial records, the account book, since he is no longer the manager.  The former manager heads off to get the books in order to return them, so we know he only had a couple hours at most to concoct a plan. Realizing that he cannot do physical labour and that he is too proud to beg, what does our rascal do?  He hatches a plan to ensure that when he is let go he will have people to take care of him and he does so by cooking the books he has been asked to return.
	He calls in his master’s debtors one by one.  Likely these men were tenant farmers who worked land owned by the master.  They would have been expected to pay rent in the form of produce from their farms, hence one owed olive oil and the other wheat.  That he called them in one by one is a clear sign that he is doing something secretive.  The debtors would have known that whatever was happening was meant for them only, that something special was happening, potentially underhanded but not necessarily so.  Remember, too, that the debtors would have had no way to know that the manager had been fired.  They didn’t know that he no longer had the authority to do anything. After all, he still had the account books with him and had their bills for them to change!  They may have thought he had brokered a special “back room” deal just for them.  By seeing them individually, the manager ensures that they are less likely to go to the master to tell him what happened. The conversation was private, who can prove what was said? [Bailey, p. 339] 
	From this point on, however, everything the manager does is illegal because he has, in fact, been fired.  He no longer has the authority to operate in his master’s name.  Technically speaking, the master is not bound by whatever the manager does. [Bailey, p. 340]
	Historically, there have been a number of attempts to understand what, exactly, the shrewd manager does with the bills of the tenant farmers.  Some think that he may have initially overcharged them.  In Jewish law, Jews were not allowed to charge one another interest on loans. To get around this, many lenders would overcharge on the repayment. They would inflate the bills in order to make profit.  So one explanation for the shrewd manager’s actions was that he was reducing the debtors bills back down to what they were supposed to be according to the law. [Darrell L. Bock, Luke, p. 264] This would make the debtors happy and make the manager look righteous. This interpretation seems unlikely to me, but it does mean that Jesus is commending the manager for changing the bills to fit the law.
	Another explanation is that he is cutting out his own commission. [Bock, p. 264] In this understanding, he is giving up his short term profit in order to make long term friends.  Remember, the debtors were not there to pay their bills, he summoned them.  So it may have been a long time before the manager saw any of that commission and now that he was fired he would not have gotten it anyway!  If that was the case, then he was “giving up now that which he cannot keep” anyway.
	A third explanation is that he is cutting into his master’s funds by reducing their bills. [Bock, p. 263; Bailley, p. 339]  In this case he would truly be acting underhandedly and would be guilty of wasting his master’s wealth.  It might be implied that he and the debtors would split the difference too. By allowing them to change their bills, the debtors would be saving a lot. Even if they split that difference with the manager, it was still significant savings compared to the full debt. Today we call this a “kickback.”
	It is interesting to note the detail that in each case he gave the debtor their bill and had them change it in their own handwriting.  If he was doing something shifty, by making each debtor write it themselves, he was drawing them into his plot.  If questioned later, he could point the finger at the debtors and say, “It’s not my handwriting on the bill!”  Also, later on, when the master expected the full repayment, the debtors could not claim to know nothing about the changes. They would be less likely to point the finger at the manager because they were complicit in the deceit.
	As the manager heads back to the master to turn in the newly cooked books, the tenant farmers, the debtors, would be going home to tell people about their reduced debts.  The reduction in the debt would have been “public” good news, even if how it happened remained secret.  The people in the community would be praising the landlord for his generosity.  They would have been celebrating him and his manager who fought for them to get the reductions made. [Bailey, p. 340] 
	With the freshly adjusted bills, the manager returns to his master and turns them in.  It would be at this point that the master sees what has been done, that the bills have been changed.  The master would be in a tight spot at this point.  If the master comes out and says, “Hold on, he didn’t have the authority to make those changes!” he would lose face in the community.  The people would have been angry. The celebration would have become complaining filled with disappointment.  If, on the other hand, he lets the changes stand, he loses all that money but the people are praising him for his generosity and are proud of the manager. [Bailey, p. 340]  This is the “Robin Hood” aspect of the story.  The manager worked his schemes so the common people would experience significant financial relief.
	It is at this point the master realizes that the manager had acted shrewdly and thus commends him.  The manager shrewdly judged the master to be a generous man. This is where the connection comes in with the prodigal son.  In that story, the father is gracious and the son counts on that when he decides to go home.  Here, the manager knows the master is generous and gracious as well.  After all, he was generous to the manager by not throwing him in jail or having him executed.  All he did was fire him and even let him get the account books himself.  The manager shrewdly acts on this generosity with his scheme.  This is what the master praises him for! Because he is generous, the master is likely to let the changed bills stand, even though the manager did not have the authority to change them.  Thus, the manager has increased his former master’s reputation for generosity, he has made all the people in the town happy, and the debtors themselves know that he is a clever fellow.  Now, when he is kicked off the master’s property, he will have plenty of grateful people to look after him. In addition, other land owners will see his cleverness and want such a shrewd man to come work for them.  Why? Two reasons. First, they want the smart guy working for them, not against them. Second, they want to keep an eye on him to make sure he’s not cheating them.  Either way, the manager is likely to find another job as a manager.
Interpretation
	So what does this parable mean?  Is Jesus encouraging us to work out kickbacks without our companies’ clients so that we have friends when we get fired? Of course not!  But what is he teaching?
	First, go back to the beginning of the parable.  It opens with the master calling his manager to account for himself. The first lesson of this parable is that there will be an accounting, a day of judgement.  In Jesus’ day, this was taken for granted, so he didn’t have to articulate this as part of the explanation. The Jews were all looking forward to the day of judgement because they believed that was the day the Romans would finally pay for invading Israel, oppressing the people and desecrating the temple.  Jesus frequently speaks of judgement and a time of accounting.  People will be held accountable for their actions in life.  We don’t like that talk. We don’t like those teachings. We don’t want to think about judgement. But the fact is definitely there in Jesus’ teaching.
	Jesus explains the parable, in part, in the next few verses. He says, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”  What does he mean by this? He is telling his followers to use their worldly wealth to lay up treasures in heaven.  Jesus is teaching them to do good works with their wealth in order to be rewarded in heaven.  The children of this world put a lot of time and effort into amassing earthly wealth.  Children of God should put similar amounts of time and effort into amassing heavenly wealth.  God’s children can learn from the children of the world in terms of thinking ahead to their future. The difference is that the children of this world only think as far as this lifetime, the children of God know there is much more to existence than this world.
	Jesus goes on to say that those who are trustworthy with little will be given more, but those who are dishonest with little will be dishonest with much.  Trustworthiness is a matter of character, not the amount you are trusted with. Ones character shines through when they are given small trusts, even if they think they would be more trustworthy with greater trusts.
	I have heard it that DL Moody once said, “If there is a man stealing nuts and bolts from a railway track, and, in order to change him, you send him off to college, at the end of his education he will steal the whole railway track!”  Our character shines through in the little things.  Don’t expect it to change when you’re given bigger things.
	So what are the little things?  Jesus is saying that worldly wealth, worldly possessions, are the little things.  What are the big things then? The big things are things of the Kingdom of God.  The real treasures are what we are given in Heaven.  If we do not show ourselves worthy of God’s blessing with earthly wealth, which will all pass away and we can’t take beyond the grave, then God will not entrust us with heavenly wealth that lasts forever. “Handling wealth is a preparatory lesson for other responsibilities before God.” [Bock, p. 267]  “What is dangerous is that it can turn our focus toward our own enjoyment.... To possess money is also to hold a sacred stewardship.” [Bock, p. 262]
	Like the steward in the parable, we have also been entrusted with wealth from our Master.  Like the steward in the parable, we will also be held accountable for how we manage that trust.
Now Apply It
	So how do we put this to use?  What are we to do with this parable and Jesus’ explanation of it?
	First, know that there is a day of judgement.  We have to wrap our heads around this fact.  We live in such comfort that we don’t want to think about being held accountable when we die or when Christ returns.  We like what’s going on now too much to think that far down the road.  But we are foolish if we don’t start thinking about it and letting it determine our actions now.
	This lesson is so important.  This needs to shape our big picture thinking because that, in turn, will determine our short term actions.  The day of judgement is necessary and is not optional.  All people, without exception, will be judged, including Christians.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”  He is saying this to Christians!
	We know that Christ himself will be the judge, which is why it is so relevant that Jesus is the one teaching this parable.  He is going to be the judge and here he is telling us some of the criteria by which he will do the judging!
	Now, if you’re a Christian, if you have put your faith in Christ, know that you will still stand before him on that day.  Christians put their faith in Christ that on that day we will be judged “not guilty” because of his death for our sins.  That is what we call “justification,” and it comes only by putting out faith in Jesus.  Justification does not come from our actions or “works.” However, there is more to salvation than justification.  There is also obedience.  When we put our faith in Christ we are declared to be right with God.  When we do good works we demonstrate we are right with God. [Joel Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology, p. 798] The second is just as important for Christians as the first.  Good works without justification do not justify.  We cannot be saved any other way than first being justified by faith.  But our works “will mark the difference between those in the church who loved Christ in sincerity (Eph 6:24) and those who were only hypocrites.” [Thomas Manton, in Beeke and Jones, p. 801]
	So, bearing in mind that even those who put their faith in Christ are going to stand in judgement, what are we to do? If that is the big picture, what is the small picture?
	Invest in the Kingdom of God.  People of this world spend hours and hours and thousands upon thousands of dollars investing for their retirement.  They are investing for their final days in this life.  They put so much energy and effort into it.  Christians are called to make investments that last beyond retirement, beyond death. [incl pics]
	You’ve all heard that “you can’t take it with you.”  In many ways that’s true. But here’s a wrinkle.  Jesus frequently speaks of being “rich towards God” and “storing up treasures in Heaven.”  What does that mean?  It means giving to the poor.  In Jesus’ day it was commonly understood among Jews that giving to the poor meant you would be rewarded in Heaven. One of Herod’s sons was very wealthy. On his death bed his officials came to him and said, “You need a will. What do you want done with your estate?”  He replied, “I’m taking it with me.” “No, no,” they said, “You can’t take it with you. What do you want done with it?”  “I am taking it with me!”  “You can’t take it with you. You need a will. How do you want your wealth distributed?”  “I am taking it with me! I have given it all to the poor!”
	When the rich young man came to Jesus and asked how to be saved, Jesus told him to sell all he had and give to the poor, then come follow him.  The man went away sad.  The problem was not that he did not believe, but that he did not give to the poor.
	In 1 Timothy 6:17-18, Paul tells Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
	One of the times I went to Urbana, a global conference on missions, I went to a workshop on investing in the Kingdom of God.  The workshop leader was an InterVarsity staff member who had gone to Harvard Business School!  His workshop was excellent, but his own testimony was amazing too.  He loved to invest in the stock market.  As he invested, he dedicated half of what he invested to God.  At this point, in the early 90's, he was looking for people who were giving to Christian work so he could match their giving. He was intent on giving away the money he promised to God!  A friend of his, a pastor in South Africa told him, “You are looting the world for the kingdom of God.”
	He also loved computers and would read computer catalogues before bed.  He was planning on buying a fancy new computer.  He didn’t really need a new machine, his current one was working fine, but he liked the shiny new ones.  Then God convicted him.  His pastor friend in South Africa didn’t have a computer at all.  The pastor was still using an old gestetner machine to run off bulletins for his church. So this IV staff worker withdrew the money he was going to spend on himself to buy a new computer and sent it to this pastor with instructions to buy a computer for himself to use in his ministry. 
	Investing in the Kingdom of God.  How you use your resources in this life will have an effect on the next life.  Are you investing wisely?  Do you keep track of your earthly investments?  Do you put as much thought into your heavenly investments?  If you are not trustworthy with little things, like money, God will not entrust you with greater things!
	We need to be trustworthy as individuals. We need to be trustworthy as a church too. If we, as a church, are not trustworthy when we are small, I don’t believe God will make us big.  That doesn’t mean big churches are more trustworthy!  But what I mean is that if we want our church to grow, we need to demonstrate to God that we are taking good care of the people he has already brought to us.  If we are not doing a good job caring for those God has already entrusted to us, the small number, he is not going to give us more people to not take good care of!
	Our mission here at Priory is to get people plugged in to the Holy Spirit.  Why? Because it is the Spirit of God that will work in us to do good works.  It is the Spirit that changes us from the inside out.  If you’re feeling convicted this morning about how you use your worldly wealth, if you feel uncomfortable about the Day of Judgement, good! That’s the first sign that the Spirit is working in you to bring about change.  Do not stifle the Spirit. Do not harden your heart.  Instead, pray earnestly that the Spirit will teach you how to trustworthy with little so that you may be given true riches.
	If you’ve been moved by this message, take stock of your finances.  Take an unflinching look at your attitude towards and use of finances.  Are you heavily invested in the Kingdom of God? Or are you heavily invested in this world?  Know that at some point, this stocks of this world are going to come crashing down in value.  Get out while you can and invest in the Kingdom of God where value never drops, it just keeps going up for eternity.
	So be shrewd.  Be crafty with what God has given you.  Keep your eye on the prize, on the ultimate destination- the Day of Judgement.  The shrewd manager suddenly realized his day of reckoning had come, so he looked to his future. Realize that your day of reckoning may come at any moment.  Look to your future!  Use what you have now to earn real treasure then.
	Let me close with a wonderful insight from the NT scholar William Barclay, “If only people would give as much attention to the things which concern their souls as they do to the things which concern their business, they would be much better human beings.  Over and over again people will expend twenty times the amount of time and money and effort on pleasure, on hobbies, gardening or sport as they do on their church.” [2 slides][Luke, p. 247]
	My beloved, this should not be so. Amen.