Ok, I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t fully get the parable of the Shrewd Manager. To me it seems like the manager did something wrong and cheated his master out of what was rightfully his. It’s not until we get down to verse 13 that we start to understand where Jesus is going, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” The point is that money can either be used for personal gain or to further the kingdom of God. In this case, the servant was able to use money to gain influence for himself and, more importantly, for his master. When we use what God has given us to advance His influence, we are being shrewd. It is less important how much money or influence we have and more important how we use it.
2012 Day 58 – Luke 16
27 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Daily Reading
Daily Devotion 
Yeah, this passage has always left me wondering, as well. But today, as I read it, vs. 8-9 really made an impact on me. In the Message version Jesus says, “”Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
Essentially, Jesus was describing himself. He didn’t follow rules. He was shrewd. He knew how to outwit the Pharisees and others who were after him. He was streetsmart. He didn’t just, as he said, “complacently” get along on “good behavior”. He was a renegade. A rebel with an actual cause. What does this mean for us today? He’s not telling us to break all sorts of laws, because he tells the disciples to be this way, “but for what is right”. He didn’t walk around breaking laws. But he did walk around breaking people’s perception of the law. He didn’t sit idly by in a religious system. He didn’t just follow the rules of the established religious system. He broke into that system and exposed it for what it was – a place of rules, regulation and spiritual death. Does this story have implications beyond the religious realm? I don’t know. Something I need to ponder. Definitely an area where the Holy Spirit must guide each of us, as it does seem rather gray. But I think it’s worth rethinking our blind following of rules simply because they are put in front of us or so we can be “good” people and not cause a scene. The established German state church did just that under Hitler, and that complacency played the most integral role in allowing the holocaust to occur. Read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s biography. It actual grapples with this issue. What is the role of the church under the thumb of such an oppressive, evil government perpetrating such massive injustice? Much to ponder.
Another thought. Jesus follows up this story by addressing the Pharisees directly, disrupting their religious thought, their religious law. Their response to him was, “14-18When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.'” Jesus breaking their “law”. Jesus breaking their perception of how things are. He follows this with, “What society sees and calls monumental,
God sees through and calls monstrous.
God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;
Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news
and compelling invitation to every man and woman.
The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve
before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.
Using the legalities of divorce
as a cover for lust is adultery;
Using the legalities of marriage
as a cover for lust is adultery.”
He turned everything they understood as correct and right on it’s head.