The Virtue of Shrewdness? —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 16C/Proper 20 (Luke 16)

Luke 16:1-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

16 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. ² So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ ³ 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. ⁴ I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ ⁷ 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.’ ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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. 

¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ 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.”

 

*******

This is a rather odd parable. In it, Jesus seems to be encouraging his followers to engage in a bit of subterfuge and financial malfeasance. At the same time, he warns against the dangers of the pursuit of wealth. There might be a bit of Robin Hood here, but even that doesn’t seem to be a good explanation. I don’t see Jesus suggesting that his followers rob the rich to give to the poor. The comment on this parable found in the Jewish Annotated New Testament says what most of us feel when it comes to the parable: “The parable defies any fully satisfactory explanation” (p. 134). So, you might be wondering why the creators of the Revised Common Lectionary decided to keep this parable in the mix. The warning against getting sucked in by wealth might be a worthy exercise, but the parable does appear to be something of a headscratcher! Of course, this parable is paired with the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, which follows (Luke 16:19-31). That parable also speaks of wealth and its challenges.

In this particular parable, we have a rich man (Dives?) who fires his manager because the manager squandered the master’s property. You have to side here with the Rich Man, don’t you? You can’t have your employees squandering your property. Yet, it’s not clear who we should side with. It would appear that Jesus is commending the dishonest manager who uses a bit of shrewd maneuvers to get back at his former master and make friends with the master’s creditors. That way, he would have created creditors of his own. Thank you very much! If only Bob Cratchit had thought of this angle!   

So, why would Jesus commend this dishonest manager who makes friends by making side deals with his master’s money just so he can survive his firing? Since we usually think of the parables as signs of the Kingdom of God, we will need to figure out who is who (though that can be dangerous)! The first question has to do with the identity of the master. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? That is, could this guy be the same guy who appears in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man that follows? So, what does this parable say about God’s realm?

We know that the manager in question has been identified in the parable as being dishonest. After all, he defrauds his master during the brief time between discovery and having to leave the office. No wonder many businesses and employers have security march their fired employees out of the building immediately after they’re fired. If you’re the boss, you want to make sure that no shenanigans occur!

While it seems that Jesus is commending the dishonest manager, Luke places a call to be faithful to one’s responsibility, which the manager was not. Jesus follows up the parable with a call for his followers to be faithful to their charge (not something the manager was) and then a word of wisdom about the impossibility of serving two masters—God and wealth. Contextually, this parable leads up to a critique of Pharisees, who Luke describes, reflecting a well-worn stereotype, as being money-grubbers (vs. 14). As is so often true when we read the Gospels, we need to be aware of these stereotypes because they often lead to unfortunate anti-Jewish sentiments.

                In the parable, the dishonest manager settles accounts with clients by reducing their debt in the hope that he will be welcomed by them—a little quid pro quo. As a result, the rich man commends the manager for his shrewdness. That is because, as Jesus suggests, the children of this age are shrewder than the children of light. Shrewdness apparently gains one friends who welcome you into the “eternal homes.”

What we should make of this wisdom about making friends with mammon, is difficult to say. It could be a reminder that as long as we live in this world, we will have to deal with money. Thus, we should use it wisely for purposes of the realm—our eternal homes. At least that’s the message offered by John Wesley who has been the most quoted commenter on this passage. In a sermon on Luke 16:9 Wesley, drawing on this parable, tells us to:

Gain all you can, without hurting either yourself or your neighbour, in soul or body, by applying hereto with unintermitted diligence, and with all the understanding which God has given you; —save all you can, by cutting off every expense which serves only to indulge foolish desire; to gratify either the desire of flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life; waste nothing, living or dying, on sin or folly, whether for yourself or your children;—and then, give all you can, or, in other words, give all you have to God. [http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/John-Wesley-Sermons/Sermon-50-The-Use-of-Money].

This makes for a good stewardship message. He encourages us to work hard, make some money, live frugally, and then give all that we can to the cause of God. There is a bit of shrewdness in Wesley’s word of advice.

There is, of course, wisdom in being shrewd in one’s dealings with the world. One should not be naïve about the ways of the world. There is value in being discerning. That is a message that Matthew’s Gospel offers. In that Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that in the coming days they will face persecution, and so they need to be prepared. As they go out into the world, Jesus says: “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). The children of light can at times be naïve, but that is likely not a virtue that will prove helpful as we navigate a world that throws a lot of conflicting ideas and “alternative facts” our way. So, for example, as we engage with social media, where a lot of misinformation is perpetrated, even by people who claim to be representing Jesus. So we need to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. There is value in being shrewd, though not in being dishonest!  

Whatever Jesus meant by this parable, in the end, he distinguishes between faithful and dishonest approaches to life. Thus, those who are faithful with a little will be faithful with much. The same is true of those who are dishonest when it comes to small things. They will be dishonest when it comes to big things. So, Jesus isn’t encouraging us to be dishonest in our dealings with the world. We might need to be shrewd and cunning, but naïve about the world. So, getting back to social media, there is no virtue in sharing “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories, even if it supports your viewpoint. Or, since this deals with money, let us not be caught up in devious schemes perpetrated in the name of God (i.e. the “prosperity gospel”)? Purveyors of such schemes are like the dishonest manager who shrewdly pads his pockets at the expense of the master. So, if there are folks like this manager in our midst, who are shrewd, then we must be shrewd (wise as serpents) as well so that we don’t get fleeced!

Ultimately, perhaps the message that we should take from all of this is that Jesus has a job for us. If we’re faithful and honest in the little things, then more responsibility can be entrusted to us. If we’re dishonest, we may do well in the world, but eternally perhaps not. When it comes to money—mammon—we may need it to survive in this world, but we need to be careful with it so that it doesn’t engulf us. That is, don’t become a slave to it, because you can’t serve two masters. So, when it comes to money, let us be wise (shrewd) and make use of whatever comes our way for purposes of God’s realm. Thus, as Donald McKim points out, “Being a disciple of Jesus Christ demands a full loyalty to Jesus. We must sit loose with whatever wealth we are given and never let it lessen our love and commitment to Jesus” [Connections, p. 334]. In other words, we don’t have to take a vow of poverty to be faithful, but we must be careful with what we are given. Ultimately, let us remember who is master. It’s not money/wealth!

 Image Attribution: Merchant taking accounts, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55705 [retrieved September 11, 2022]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BLW_Stained_Glass_-_Roundel_showing_a_Merchant.jpg.