Jesus talks about shrewdness. And how we should be that, without being evil, cruel, or careless. Fun?
Luke 16:1-13; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Psalm 113; Amos 8:4-7
This is one of those gospel lessons that make the Christian community go, “Huh?” Jesus is in the middle of a teaching session with some “tax collectors and sinners”. Some Pharisees and teachers of the law are nearby and are muttering about Jesus spending too much time with these “sinners”. So he starts on the parables. He tells four: The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, and the Shrewd Manager. Most of the time we’re ok with the first three, but the fourth is, well, odd.
There’s a rich man, who hired someone to take care of his business. Unfortunately it turned out that the manager was wasteful with his master’s possessions. So master called in his manager and basically said, “I’m going to fire you, so get your things in order.” The manager, realizing his predicament, decides that his best option is to “win friends and influence people” and so goes to the folk who owe his master money and decreases all of their debts. The master, seeing what the manager did, likely says something like, “That was pretty clever back there. You’re still fired, of course, but it was definitely clever.”
Then Jesus says, to use earthly wealth to gain friends, that we ought to be trustworthy in our own dealings with earthly riches so that we may be trusted with true riches, and that one cannot serve both God and Money.
Of course we still don’t like this comparison. Something doesn’t feel right about it. But Jesus isn’t telling us to be dishonest, He’s telling us to be wise. In essence, we’re to be shrewd in our dealings with money, like the unscrupulous manager was. We’re not to be dishonest, just shrewd. Now it seems like oftentimes shrewdness has a negative connotation, but let’s hear it straight from the dictionary shall we? “shrewd–adjective. 1. astute or sharp in practical matters: a shrewd politician. 2. keen; piercing. 3. artful. 4. Archaic . malicious. 5. Obsolete . bad. 6. Obsolete . shrewish.” The negative definitions have become unused in the English language, according to the grand dictionary, and “astute or sharp in practical matters” is the primary definition.
Now, being that I was still a little confused at this point, I went to get some help. Martin Luther says on the matter, “As the unjust man acts shrewdly, though wrongly and like a rogue, so we also should act shrewdly but righteously in godliness. This is the proper understanding of this parable. For the Lord says: “The children of this world are wiser than the children of light.” So that the children of light should learn wisdom from the children of darkness or the world. Just as they are wise in their transactions, so should also the children of light be wise in their transactions.” (The Sermons of Martin Luther volume IV:292-301 Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1983)
That seems like the best explanation of this parable I’ve read in while. But the most important part is when Jesus says, “You cannot serve both God and Money.” One or the other HAS to win out. Here’s where it comes to be an issue. We’re called to use our wealth to further the kingdom. For Luther, gaining friends for yourself is done through service to those who need it — caring for the sick, hungry, poor, imprisoned, etc.
As Christians, we know that any money we have comes from God. We pray in our offering prayer, “Merciful Father, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us–ourselves, our time, and our possessions. We’re called to be stewards of what God has given us. That’s where the whole “he who can be trusted with little can be trusted with much” thing comes into play. Jesus says, “How can anyone who can’t be trusted with earthly wealth be trusted with eternal wealth?” If we find ourselves worshipping the gift, and not the giver, we start running into problems.
That’s what the last bit of the gospel is all about. Money is a tool in our service of God. It’s a means, not an end by itself. It gets very messy for us in this country — Capitalism is, in essence, the worship of money. Our culture tells us that we need more and more money and more and more stuff that we bought with our money. But that’s not the Christian life. That’s the life for the “people of this world”. Ours is a life of service to God and neighbor–not a life of hoarding earthly riches.