Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.35 – September 1994
The Shrewd Manager
Sermon: by Revd. R. Brenton
Text: Luke 16: 1-16
My brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,
This clever crime is the stuff of newspaper headlines. It is the kind of story people love to hear. What an ingenious fraud! Perhaps Jesus lifted this story from the ‘Jerusalem Times’.
The rascal in question happened to be a business manager assigned to oversee the property and supervise the sale of his wealthy master’s goods. It was the manager’s duty to keep all his master’s affairs in good order and the books all balanced.
Well, as it turned out the manager went about his master’s business in a careless, slipshod manner. In time all the chickens came home to roost: the rich master found out that his manager was playing fast and loose with the company clientele by simultaneously extending to them incredibly long lines of credit and not collecting on their accumulated debt. In other words, the company clients were allowed to procure the master’s property without paying for it. Business appeared to be booming (the goods were moving), but the books were a shambles! So, the rich master, having found out his manager, sent him a memo that fateful Friday saying: “Report to me on Monday morning. Give me an account of your management, because you cannot manage any longer.”
Upon receiving the pink slip, the manager probably talked to himself like this: Looks like I just did myself in! My time is running out: only 3 days till Monday. Then it’s curtains for me! The show will be over! What then? I’ve had this ‘cushy’ job for so long. Truth is, it’s the only job I know. I’m too soft to work with my hands, not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg! I’ve got to come up with a plan – and fast! I need a solution to my dilemma now. Here’s what I’m looking at: NO JOB (I’m losing the one I have and no one will want to hire me after this fiasco); NO MONEY (the long arm of the law is going to reach in and confiscate all that I attained at my master’s expense; and since I can’t work, I’ll never earn another cent as long as I live). NO JOB and NO MONEY. I’m facing a ‘big-time’ CRISIS – crisis with a capital C. How am I ever going to survive? Suddenly it dawned on him. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll make friends! What I need now more than anything is friends who will support me when the hard times come.
Now how do you suppose this desperate man figured he could make such friends? Ah! This is where his genius rose to the occasion. Come, let us watch this desperately resourceful man as he puts his plan into action.
Perhaps you can imagine the execution of his plan in a scenario like this: he got on the telephone at once to ring up all his master’s debtors to call an urgent business meeting on Saturday morning. At the appointed hour all the master’s clients were together in one place. The manager, pretending to represent his master, addressed his audience. He related to them the recent success of the company in these tough economic times. He told them of his master’s good fortune, and of his generous will to share that good fortune with his valued and trusted business associates. In front of them all he said:
“Here is a message to you from the master. To ensure future prosperity in the business and continued amiable relations with my clients, I have decided to reduce substantially the financial obligation of those who are in my debt.”
Well, of course the plan sounded good. Everyone there was happy (and undoubtedly relieved) to be on the receiving end of such giant-hearted generosity. Who would possibly object to the master’s new debt-reduction plan? So, the desperate manager went around to each debtor and had each one take out his bill of what he owed. To the first one he said: ‘I see that you have 800 gallons of our olive oil that hasn’t been paid for yet. That’s a lot of oil, you’ll never pay that back. Let’s see how much we can afford to reduce that debt. Hm- m-m. I think we can halve it! We’re into the good times, right? All right then, let’s adjust your bill to 400 gallons.’
What do you think about that? And then on to the next debtor he went, saying: ‘A bill for 1000 bushels of wheat. Looks like you’re stepping in it pretty deep too. Not a problem. We can fix things for you. How would you like it if we dropped down to 800 bushels? 20% is not bad is it?’
All that morning the manager’s genius was at work implementing the fraudulent plan. He went from debtor to debtor, adjusting their bill and altering the master’s books with such cunning as to cover up his trail of deception and prevent any team of auditors from figuring out the true state of the master’s business affairs. By implementing this clever scheme, he succeeded in putting every one of his master’s debtors into his own debt! The reason is clear. Here was a desperate man on the eve of a crash. Soon he would be calling on his new-found friends, who would owe it to him to welcome him into their homes and to provide for his basic needs.
Even the betrayed master could not help but admire the wit and ingenuity of his crooked manager. His astuteness was commendable! In the midst of his desperation, he had managed to keep his wits about him and devise a plan to see himself through the coming crisis. He was shrewd. Oh so shrewd!
My brothers and sisters, I want you to remember that it is our Lord Jesus who is telling us this story. And I want you to realise that Jesus, the story teller, has taken the viewpoint of the betrayed master who commends his manager’s behaviour. He commends not the manager’s dishonesty, but his clever resourcefulness. He commends his ability to assess his desperate situation and devise a plan of salvation. Yes, I want you to realise that Jesus is commending this shrewd manager to us.
Jesus does so because He wants us to see that our situation is just as critical as the manager’s situation. In fact, we find that our situation is similar! Let’s compare. Consider the crisis the manager faced. His entire life situation was about to change overnight. His present way of life was going to be terminated, and he faced an entirely new and different future. No more work. No more pay cheque. No more money. Imagine getting along in life without a livelihood and without access to the common currency! No question about it: a life-changing crisis confronted this man.
Jesus says to us: ‘Look at him! There is a man in your situation. So, look at him and learn! Learn how he faced up to his crisis and took desperate measures to prepare for his future. What you learn from him is essential knowledge for facing up to the future God has in store for this world. His kingdom is coming! That kingdom is God’s future for this world.
Do you realise what is going on here? Jesus is proclaiming the good news about God’s future. In the message about the coming kingdom, Jesus is announcing a crisis situation. If it is true that God’s future is breaking into the present world as we know it, then what else can that breaking in mean but a CRISIS? If God’s future invades this world, that marks the end of our present. The ‘here and now’, the ‘existential moment’ gets swallowed up by God’s future! That, my friend constitutes the crisis. We cannot go on living by the maxim: Let us eat and drink and live for today, for tomorrow we die! No! The meter is about to expire on the world’s present manner of living. If indeed God’s future is breaking into this world in the form of a kingdom – His heavenly kingdom – then who is to stop it from coming? Truth is, there is no escaping God’s future. It is inevitable! ‘The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached..!’ The crisis has come! Therefore we cannot go on as though nothing is happening.
The breaking in of God’s future means a new world order. In the new world order God is the master. He has established a new way of doing business. He has minted a new currency: God’s ‘true riches’ replaces the worldly wealth of this present age. And there will be a new kind of prosperity: only those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ will know the good life!
The kingdom is coming! God’s future is breaking into our present. Crisis is inevitable! There is no stopping God’s future. It will overtake everyone and everything.
The question is: are you prepared for it? Are you acting with the same degree of urgency as the desperate manager? Are you using all your wits to make something of the resources which lie at your disposal so as to be ready to face up to the new situation?
Our Lord commended the manager for his astuteness and resourcefulness. He saw what had to be done and devised a plan of action. In commending him, Jesus lamented that the people of the world are more shrewd in the way they deal with their own kind than are the people of light (verses 8,9). God’s own people, says Jesus, can stand to learn a lesson from a clever rascal like the manager. Indeed, we must learn from the likes of him, for our eternal life depends on it! As Jesus had said earlier: Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to (Luke 13:24).
While the door of opportunity is open, we must put every ounce of energy and every pound of talent we possess to ensure ourselves an entrance into God’s eternal life.
Oh yes, you’ve heard that eternal life is all of grace, not of works. You heard right! Oh yes, you’ve heard that salvation is of the Lord; that it is God’s work from start to finish. And so it is!
But don’t you believe for a minute that you will enter into the joy of God’s future as a saved soul without making the effort to enter in. You have been called to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That call demands a response from you. A faithful response. The call to believe on the name of the Lord makes you responsible!
You must rouse yourself from your slumber. Get off your couch and employ every ounce of energy, every pound of talent, every dollar of your treasure – and use them all to prepare for God’s future!
How long do you honestly believe we can sit on our couches waiting for that better day to come, all the while complaining about ‘brother so and so’ and ‘sister you know who’, consumed by your own pitiful feelings and fears? How long do you intend to sit in that pool of pity whining about why the church doesn’t serve you better and suit your wants and whims?
Can’t you see how desperate you are? Do you not know that you are standing at the crossroads? At the point of crisis! God’s future is breaking into your miserable self-serving existence. If you will not rise to face the new day, you will not enter in! You will be crushed and stomped even as you stand in hesitation at the doorway.
You need to learn from a man of the world like this shrewd manager to see the crisis and to take decisive action. In the kingdom of this world, such men abound: men who are alert and astute, men who see the turning point and are ready to answer when opportunity knocks.
Let me tell you the story of Nathan Meyer Rothschild (you’ve heard no doubt of the Rothschild fortune). The story goes like this. At the battle of Waterloo, Mr. Rothschild was present as a spectator. From the safe distance of his bullet-proof tent he watched the battle progress. He observed the tactics of both the English and the French. At sunset when he saw Napoleon’s French army give way to the English offensive, he sprang into his saddle and galloped on horseback all through the night, reaching the shore of the English Channel by daybreak. He straightaway bribed a fisherman to take him across. Thirty-six hours before anyone else heard the news of England’s victory, Mr Rothschild was in London taking advantage of the new situation. Do you know what he did during those thirty six hours? He traded on the stock exchange. Why? Because he knew that as soon as England’s victory – the new situation – was known, the public euphoria would instantly inflate the value of shares in the market place. So, he used the time to his advantage. He bought low. Then a few days later he sold high. Nathan Meyer Rothschild amassed a fortune of nearly two million pounds in those crucial days. Surely, there is no finer example of a shrewd man of the world seeking worldly wealth.
Why are we not as resourceful? Why do we so easily give up? Or why don’t we even begin to plan for the new situation of God’s future? Is it because we haven’t got a policy? A plan of action?
The dishonest manager dreamed up a plan and he put that plan into play. He resolved to make friends so that in the future he could trade on their friendship and live on their bounty when every other resource had failed.
Believe it or not, Jesus recommends this policy for us as well. He says: I tell you use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings (verse 9). Yes, Jesus really said that. He truly recommends the policy of the shrewd manager! He urges us to use the resources that are presently at our disposal to befriend people and help them find the way to God’s eternal life.
I find it interesting that Jesus told His disciples the story of the shrewd manager as He was walking with them toward Jerusalem, where He would one day be lifted on the cross and afterwards taken up to heaven’s glory. If we pay attention to what is going on here in Luke’s gospel, we can see that Jesus is on the Glory road; on the way to his eternal life. He wants more than anything for His disciples to follow Him all the way home to glory so that they may share in His eternal life. It would seem then that He is telling this story to show us the way home! It’s as if Jesus is saying: ‘If you are going my way, then this is the way to go! Make sure you enter through the narrow door by going this way! Befriend others. Be a blessing to them. Show them the way of faith and of life. And in doing so, put them in your debt.’
So, I ask you today, are there other people in your life? Not just your own kith and kin, but others whom you are even now befriending, helping and blessing? People who may, in God’s providence, find the door to the eternal dwellings of our God; and who will, in God’s eternity testify in your favour, saying: “he loved me for Jesus’ sake”. Or: “she served me and was a blessing to me.” Will there be people waiting for you because they are somehow in your debt? Waiting for you with an eager welcome in the eternal dwellings of the heavenly kingdom?
You will never know, unless you make the effort now to prepare yourself for God’s future. Until John, it was the Law and the prophets. Since then, since Jesus came, there is the good news of the kingdom of God. And everyone forces his way in!
How desperately are you striving to get in? What measures have you taken? Are you as alert, as astute, as resourceful in the face of crisis as Jesus’ shrewd manager?
AMEN