How could Jesus commend the Shrewd Manager?
Perhaps you’ve noticed there are some difficult passages in the Bible. I’ll be honest, the parable of the shrewd manager is one which irritated me for years. If you are not familiar with it, Jesus tells the story of a business owner who discovers that he has a dishonest manager. The manager realizes that he is about to be fired by his boss and concludes that he is not strong enough to dig ditches and too proud to beg. So he quickly decides that he’d better have plenty of friends to take care of him when he loses his job. So he goes to everyone who owed his boss money and cuts their bills by 20-50%. In the end the business owner commends the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.
Jesus concludes the parable of the shrewd manager by observing how shrewd people in the world are in their dealings with the people around them and what we can learn from them. “Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. (Luke 16:8-9 NLT).
Why did Jesus commend the shrewd manager and his last-minute but dishonest dealings in business? First the man was dishonest as a manager. Then when he was about to be fired, he practically stole from his boss by changing the bills of his clients. How could Jesus endorse such behavior?
It occurred to me a number of years ago in a sobering flash of insight, that I read and studied the Bible from a poverty mindset. Subconsciously I had filtered the Bible all my life through the mindset and belief system of a poor-middle class person. Not surprisingly, this was the very socio-economic status in which I had been raised.
Don’t Favor the Rich or the Poor
I had studied the book of Proverbs many times and two verses had been highlighted to me with regard to money and friendships. “A poor person is disliked even by his neighbors, but those who love the rich are many.” (Proverbs 14:20) “Wealth adds many friends, but a poor person is separated from his friend.” (Proverbs 19:4).
I always believed that the “friends” which rich people had were fake friends and all they wanted was the person’s money. In filtering the Bible through the mindset of a poor-middle class person, the poor people were my heroes and the ones I identified with while the rich people were the villains or the antagonists. Jesus commanded us not to show partiality to the rich and I always believed that meant not to favor the rich. But, it seems that I along with most Christians, believed that in not showing partiality to the rich that it was permissible to show partiality to the poor and favor them.
One day I read the same verses with a different paradigm. When you are living in poverty you aren’t thinking about other people very often because you are solely focused on survival and having your needs met. When a person is so self-focused and only thinking about themselves it is hard to create a magnetic environment for attracting friends. I always assumed that “friends” were attracted to the rich man after he became rich. But suppose that he first began acting rich even if he did not feel rich and that he became generous with the people around him, thereby attracting friends. Studies reveal that there is a direct correlation between your network and your net worth.
Be Streetwise
I love how Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Parable of the Shrewd Manager found in Luke 16:8-9 in The Message Bible. It reads,
“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way –but for what is right –using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
The more relationships you have and the better your communication skills are, the more wealth that you can create. And, the more wealth you create, the more impact you can have on the relationships around you now and in eternity. What is the lesson from the parable of the shrewd manager? Relationships are valuable and money is powerful. Jesus commanded us to use our worldly resources (including money) to benefit others and make friends.
Be like the Shrewd Manager. Be generous. Make friends. Create wealth. Repeat.
