Who is God? What is he like? Luke did not insert chapter breaks, so this story of the shrewd manager follows in a sequence. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The Pharisees and teachers of the law demonstrate that they do not have ears to hear: God obviously only favours respectable people like them. Jesus on the other hand tells the story of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Lost Sons (both the younger and the older, and at the end the status of the older is still in doubt), and finally this story of the Shrewd Manager.
“What is this I hear about you?” is usually the prelude to hard bargaining. The man is to be fired, but is expected to plead his case, fight for his job, and at least try to get compensation. His silence is an admission of guilt.
“What shall I do now?” He considers the options of labouring and begging, but he is unsuited for either. He is not strong enough to dig, but paradoxically, he does not have the handicap that would inspire pity and make him a successful beggar. He wants to be welcomed into another house, in other words to get another job. But there will be no reference.
Inspiration! The manager has only a little time, one or two hours at the most before he must hand over the account books. Only the master knows that he has been fired. He instructs servants to call in his master’s debtors; the servants will assume he is carrying out orders from his master, and therefore so will the debtors. Each debtor is instructed to write in his own handwriting a reduced amount. Are the debtor and the manager to divide the difference and make a profit? If so, it is a scam, and they are implicating themselves in it! Or are they innocently being involved in the manger’s machinations, blithely unaware? After all, the manager would never have done anything so radical unless on his master’s instructions, would he?
By the time the manager returns to the master to hand over the incriminating books, there is a hubbub of joy and celebration going around the village. Everyone is feeling better off as their debts have been written down. They are all saying what a useful fellow the manager is to know; a bit shady perhaps, but what a good chap to have working for you if he is so shrewd. And the master – well he is obviously generous and wise and good to know; his kindness will be the talk of the village for years to come.
What is the master to do? Legally, he could go throughout the village and explain the scam, and that the manager was acting illegally and beyond his powers, and that the debts still stood at their original amount. But his name would be mud.
Or he could do what the manager has gambled on. Ruefully, perhaps shaking his head, the master commends his roguish servant – not for his honesty or trustworthiness, but because the manager has accurately understood his master and how he would respond, and has risked everything on that.
His master is just and upright. He listened to claims that the manager was dishonest and, if true, act on them; the manager instinctively knew that there was no point pleading or making excuses. The master is also compassionate and merciful: he could have thrown the dishonest manager into jail, or sold him and his family as slaves to recoup his losses; he opts instead merely to fire him.
The manager sees that the way out of his predicament is to risk all on his master’s compassionate and merciful nature. He cannot earn his way out of trouble, or bribe his way. He cannot pull a fix. All he can do is put himself in a position of great risk, trusting that his master will be kind.
And, Jesus says, this is exactly what those who have ears to hear will do.
God is the one who loves the sinner and seeks us, like a shepherd searching for one lost sheep in a hundred, like a housewife who has lost the gold coin given her on her wedding day, like a loving father who will forgive his lost sons anything, like a landowner who is compassionate as well as just.
We can trust him. Indeed, we have no alternative than to trust him for nothing else we can do will bring forgiveness for our sins, bring us into a right relationship with God, help us to enjoy the life of God and his kingdom now here on earth.
To follow Christ is not the safe, soft option that we can do diplomatically, quietly, with no one noticing. Rather, we will risk all to know Christ and to be his. We will be excited by the prospect that our relationship with him will inevitably affect everything else – how we spend our time, how we react to other people, yes – and how we spend or do not spend our money. To pretend otherwise is to fool ourselves and demonstrate that the most important thing for us is our own wishes, our comforts and the respect and good opinions of those around us.
How much better to throw ourselves completely on the mercy and goodness of God? That way he will audit the books, and discover that Jesus has paid every debt for us. He is worthy to be praised!
Questions for discussion
1. Who is the hero of the story, and why?
2. What do you learn from this story about who God is?
3. How would you imagine that Jesus would like us to respond to this story, and how might our lives be different if we did? Would you welcome this?
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