An Unlikely Example
by Jim Westmoreland
The dishonest manager in Jesus' parable can help us see the role
of initiative and drastic measures in the life of faith.
Picture this: You and your spouse are sitting in the family room when your two children, ages 10 and 12, walk in. "We've got a question," the younger one announces. "We know you two are worth about 800 grand, and so Johnny and I were wondering about when we get our shares."
This question hits you like a tracer bullet between the eyes for a couple of reasons. First, you've never talked to your children about any financial arrangements more than when to expect their allowances. And second, this "800 grand" that little Chrissy just mentioned is remarkably close to your actual worth. So you sit there with your mind racing to comprehend where this conversation originated, but before you can frame a response, Chrissy adds, "I told Johnny that we each get our 400 G's when we turn 18, but Johnny says we have to wait until you both die. Who's right?"
You take a deep breath to steady yourself and to buy time to consider how to answer, and finally you stammer out, accusingly, "Just who says we are worth that kind of money?"
"Nobody told us," Johnny responds. "We used Google and looked it up on the Internet."
That's when you understand, again, that we're not living in granddaddy's world. We're not in Kansas any more.
While this conversation is an imaginary one, the technology it mentions is not. In fact, finding someone's financial worth on the Internet is increasingly possible because you no longer have to be a member of Forbes 400 or Fortune 500 to show up in databases. If you have stock options, a high salary or significant business sales, there's a good chance that at least some of that data is available online. And some kids have discovered that they can find those reports. The children of some executive parents are sifting through the filings of the Securities and Exchange Commission to locate that information. Others are using real estate Web sites like Zillow.com to calculate the value of the family homestead and vacation homes. Still others are scanning lists of donors to find out how much their parents are giving away, so as to estimate how much they have. And, even if the kids can't find a specific mention of their parents, they can still look up average salaries in the professions of their parents and make an educated guess.
Had the Internet been around in New Testament times, the central figure in Jesus' parable of the dishonest manager would surely have used it to his advantage as a kid. Now, as a grown man, he is the investment broker for a certain rich man, living well on his income from the rich man's properties, but not doing his duties diligently. As a result, the rich man isn't earning the level of return he expected. Worse yet, someone has whispered in his ear that his manager's squandering the property. In short, the portfolio is tanking.
So naturally, the owner demands an accounting of his affairs, which clearly the manager knows isn't going to be favorable. So, shrewdly, he calls in two debtors who owe a significant amount to the rich man, and he cuts what they owe. His intention is to gain friends who will be willing to hire him after his current master decides he can live without him, which is sure to happen.
This mid-level manager is a smooth operator, so smooth, in fact, that even the boss compliments the dishonest manager on his cleverness and initiative.
There's a problem with this parable, however. Unlike the other parables Jesus told, where the moral of the story is fairly obvious and in keeping with the general tenor of Jesus' teachings, this one's moral seems to commend dishonesty which doesn't fit with either Jesus' example or his message. This story is difficult to understand because it seems to have such an unlikely example.
Still, the parable is in the New Testament, and so for centuries interpreters have tried to make sense of it. This reading is often skipped, and some less troublesome text is used instead. But let's see if we can unpack this in a way that's helpful.
Many interpreters of the Gospels believe that Luke struggled to make sense out of it too, taking statements Jesus made in other places about wealth and attaching them here at the end of the parable.
The first of Jesus' interpretations is recorded in verse 8b: "... for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." That appears to be a cryptic comment on the naiveté of those who obey God, leading some subsequent interpreters to assume Jesus was saying that while his followers should not copy the dishonesty of the manager, they should emulate his shrewdness. The problem is that the Greek word interpreted as "shrewd" is the same word that the Septuagint uses for the behavior of the snake who was the tempter in the garden of Eden.
And if Jesus were speaking sarcastically, he could have been saying that those who use money to gain friends like the dishonest manager did face final condemnation and another kind of eternal home, an unwelcome one.
So nothing in this parable is as clear as we'd like, and if you read enough biblical commentaries, you'll find several different attempts to explain it. So let's stand back from the parable and think about what (besides shrewdness) the children of light should adopt from the children of this age, but for the right reasons.
If nothing else, this dishonest manager demonstrates initiative, and when put to the right purposes, initiative is a good thing.
Think about a kid who Googled his parents' wealth. We can imagine his mother saying to him, "Well, son, you've gotten into areas that are none of your business, and you are way off base if you are assuming you are entitled to something you didn't earn. But you've shown commendable initiative, so together we're going to look for some ways to put that initiative to constructive purposes."
We can assume from the parable that there's every reason to use our best and strongest abilities, including our initiative, for kingdom purposes.
And in that regard, initiative has a role in our life in the church. Think of how often we speak of wanting our memberships to grow, of reaching further into our community, and of making sure that the unchurched hear the gospel.
How far should we go to accomplish that? How many efforts should we make to reach the same people? Consider that the "children of this age" carry their initiatives pretty far when they want to reach us. Try letting your subscription to a major magazine or newspaper lapse, and see how many times you receive a contact of some kind from the publisher urging you to renew. In some cases, you'll receive between eight and 12 separate renewal pleas, usually by mail, but sometimes also including e-mail and in the end, even phone calls. And these contacts start well before our final issue and continue for some time afterward. In fact, in the magazine and newspaper industries, these contacts are called a "renewal series," meaning that they intend to take the initiative with us several times before giving up on us as a subscriber.
In our efforts to share the gospel, we who walk in God's light would do well to adopt the persistent initiative of the children of this age.
Another stand-back conclusion we can draw from this parable is that just as the manager resorted to drastic action to find a new place to land, so, too, drastic action is needed for us to land in the kingdom of God. If the direction we have been traveling is away from Christ or if we’ve been coasting, then it is time to take the initiative and make a drastic change in direction.
And "drastic" is not too strong a word for that. In other places, the Bible describes repentance as something quite radical and even severe. In writing to the Colossians, Paul said, "Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly" (Colossians 3:5). In other words, kill it before it kills you.
Of course, neither Jesus nor Paul was talking about saving ourselves, but rather our taking the initiative to respond to God's greater initiative in sending Jesus to us with the Good News message.
There's a story about a husband and wife who were out in their car on some errand, with the husband doing the driving. The wife was sitting at the other end of the bench seat, by the passenger door, and she was in a pensive mood. She said to her husband, "Remember when we were first dating? When we went anywhere in your old car, we sat as close together as we possibly could. Sometimes you even put your arm around me. What has happened to us? Our relationship doesn't seem as close as it used to."
Now, there is much more to relationships than location, but location can tell us suggest things about our relationships. The husband considered her comment, and then he said, "Well, I haven't moved."
If we think of God still sitting in the same place, meaning that he has not withdrawn from us, and we feel some loss in the closeness, then we can better understand who needs to make some movement.
Could this parable on initiative with an unlikely example lead people like us to hear the invitation of God and slide across the seat, or take a step forward, toward him to accept his invitation to Life? Amen
Century Christian Church, September 23, 2007 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
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