A Perspective on: The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
What is a parable?
A parable is a story with the intent of informing the listener something about life. The parables that Jesus spoke compared earthly life to the Kingdom of God and the way to salvation. Many stories throughout the Bible have a ‘punch-line’ in order to: surprise, amaze, shock, awaken, laugh, cry, or as a focal point for discussion and teaching. The parable of the Shrewd Manager has a progressive build-up of the story arriving at a timely punch-line.
Did you hear the punch line in the parable?
Verse 8a is the punch line where Jesus says, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly”.
There you have it. To paraphrase the parable: the manager has been caught fiddling the books and is about to lose his job. To make things worse, he accelerates giving away his masters wealth before he goes. Then the master praises the outgoing manager for swindling him of even more money. “What’s going on?” you might ask. The master’s response was back the front, upside down, opposite to what one would expect. Such a person would normally be thrown into jail. Jesus wants us to see a comparison of how we live our life and how God would like us to live our life.
Let us have a closer look at the parable as it demands, and have a closer look first at the rich man. The rich man, like all of us whether rich or poor is a sinner by nature. The root cause of most of our heart aches, grievances, and alienation from God and others is our self-centred nature. It is a corruption of the original DNA that was first made perfect at the hands of our Creator.
Our self-centred nature has a tendency to draw all things to one self with the intention of creating wealth and power. We live in a society that is made of other self-centred people and I am indeed counted amongst them. We all share in a common culture that believes that wealth is good, greed is good, pleasure is good, and accumulating material wealth is good. It all has one direction and that is towards self.
Many people think nothing of it that a CEO of a large company gets paid millions of dollars a year, many multiples of someone on the minimum wage. They think that is great and wonderful that such a thing can happen. Others gamble and play lotto in the hope of becoming wealthy. Throughout history, a measure of wealth has been the size of a person’s garden. Others live in slums, refugee camps, or in the new wall to wall housing estates that lie on the fringes of many cities. I myself have a garden with the mandatory fence around it.
Our work culture has developed from our self-centred nature. We understand that the employer, boss, or the rich man has a desire to accumulate wealth and we are there to enhance the process in every way. We are there to manage wealth creation for the rich man. In our culture, we respect that as we also desire it for our self. We are so entrenched in our self-centred culture that we find it very hard to move wealth away from us in the other direction. This is most evident as many people dislike paying taxes; avoid giving to charities, and only place small change on the collection plate. It is a hard thing to do to share one’s wealth and blessing and move it in the other direction.
More than likely, it will probably cost you something when you open your hand to someone who is in need. It may cost you time, money, or both. For Jesus, it cost him his life so that many may have eternal life. The four letter word ‘cost’ is well entrenched in our language and culture which reinforces the idea of personal ownership and discourages parting with wealth.
In brief, the following are some of the hazards of wealth accumulation: larger fences are required to keep the needy out, greater home security; it raises emotions of jealousy, fear, anger, and hatred; it can lead to loss of friends, civil unrest, and eventually war. Therefore a manager of wealth needs to be very shrewd in order to survive and be happy.
The problem of the rich man in the parable was that he had forgotten who he was and his place in life. In like manner, the rich man’s manager had also forgotten who he was and his place in life towards his employer. The rich man had succumbed to his own self-centred nature and had forgotten God who had created him and created him for a purpose. Likewise, God has created each one of us and created us for a purpose.
That purpose can be discovered first in the Creation Story at the very beginning of the Bible. The Creation story contains many symbolic references to the main themes that occur throughout the Bible. There, God created the first human beings and placed them in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it (Gen. 2: 15). Through Adam and Eve, God was calling all people to manage his estate, to take care of all His creation on the face of the earth so that all creation may prosper in their own way and have life abundantly.
The calling of Abraham to be the father of many nations is also a calling to his descendants of faith to carry on caring for all nations as if they were the father to many children. Later, the calling of Israel to be a priestly nation amongst nations is also a call to carry on taking care of all nations so that they may prosper and have life.
Furthermore, Christians are called by Jesus Christ, the Son of the Creator to be his disciples and to carry on to take care of each other so that each may have life and have it abundantly. We have been called by Jesus to help manage the Father’s estate. That is our purpose in life, to be good managers of God’s estate, his creation in all its forms.
How does it work?
God gives good things to all people all over the world whether they are Christians or not. He does so because he loves his creation and hopes that they will discover the blessing of giving. God blesses us with many gifts not for the purpose of keeping the entire lot for our self but to pass them on to those in need. In this way glory and praise is given to God. It is God’s desire for us to pass on the things he gives us, and they are things He wants us to manage. God has given us a lucky country to live in and also to share it with others. God may give others intellect or physical ability or artistic ability to share. God may give others free time and to share it with others. For others, God may give money and lots of it to share. For those who have been given power, authority, and responsibility they too are to be shared. We are God’s blessing bearers; we are his managers of his estate. As a result, the direction of wealth is no longer towards us but, away from us as we manage God’s property. Therefore, the word cost as mentioned earlier becomes more or less meaningless when managing God’s own property.
As inferred in the parable, a direct blessing of being a blessing bearer is the creation of enduring friendship and a welcomed invitation into someone’s home. Imagine, if wealthy nations shared their gifts with those in need, there would be friendship rather than hostility and war. Imagine sharing one’s resources and gifts within one’s own family, there would be peace, joy, and laughter within the walls. Another blessing and the greatest blessing that can be bestowed on someone in need is the blessing of forgiveness. The forgiveness of their debt in which ever form it takes gives back life. Since we have all received forgiveness and received it abundantly, we are also called to give it away and forgive others as God’s good managers of his estate.
From the Divine perspective, the rich man in the parable was indeed a corrupt manager of God’s property who needed to be thrown out. Like the rich man in the parable, people everywhere including Christians and myself find it too difficult to tear away from a culture and society that believes in greed. We are immersed in it and are too weak to do otherwise.
Who is there that can deliver us from want?
The good news is that we have a saviour in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He came down to earth to be the Divine manager of his Father’s estate. God gave his Son all power and responsibility to manage all things on earth. He came not to throw us out as corrupt managers but, to forgive us and to take us into his personal care. The responsibility of managing the welfare of God’s creation has passed on to Jesus, the Son of God. While he was on earth Jesus demonstrated his faithfulness in fulfilling the desires of God. He cared for all of God’s creation by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead, and above all the giving of himself into death so that we may all have an eternal life of joy and peace with him in heaven. Even today, Jesus continues his work of giving through the Holy Spirit. Jesus not only gives good things to his followers but also to all people so that everyone has the opportunity to receive a blessing by giving life in some way to another person.
What are we to do now that Jesus is the faithful Divine Manager of the Estate?
Do we sit and wait for his return?
Not at all.
The original call to Adam and Eve as it is to all people still remains that is; to take care of God‘s creation. We have been called by Jesus to be his disciples, his followers, his assistant managers. We have been called to love God and to love one another. Since we are immersed in the way of our culture and society it is a very difficult thing to do, to love one another. The advantage that Christians have is that we know that we have a saviour in Jesus Christ. We can call upon Jesus who is our Divine Manager for help. We can call upon Him to guide us, to strengthen us during times of weakness. In prayer we can call upon Him to direct His managerial skills in dealing with live giving matters at home, in the neighbourhood, or in a distant land. At one time, we were very limited in what we could do for others because; we were bound by the chains of self-centredness. Now as assistant managers to the Divine Manger we can through prayer change our culture and society so that more people may have life and give glory and praise to God.
A personal prayer that I have neglected but was very effective is of few words and is a prayer that I would like to share with you now, “Lord, deliver me from want and fill me with a generous spirit.” Amen.
