Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
February 12, 1984
The Shrewd Manager
Luke 16:1-9
Bad people sometimes do bad things well. A while back the Reader's Digest had an intriguing story about a computer expert named Stanley Rifkin. Stanley wanted to get rich quick, so he devised a brilliant scheme. He knew that the headquarters of Security Pacific National Bank in Los Angeles wired hundreds of millions of dollars every day to banks around the world. It was a computerized system and he thought he could manipulate it.
On October 25, 1978, the chubby computer expert entered the bank's wire transfer room posing as a consultant. He interviewed a worker in the room and found out the routing instructions, transfer routines and the day's security code. A short time later he walked outside and placed a phone call to the wire room. He gave all the codes and then calmly said, "The bank is Irving Trust in New York City. It's to pay Wozchod Bank, Zurich, Switzerland. Amount: ten million two hundred thousand even."
"Okay, and what's the interoffice settlement number?" Rifkin was stumped. He didn't know the number. "Let me check. I'll call you right back." He phoned a different number at the bank. Pretending to be from the wire room, he asked for the settlement number. They gave it to him, and he called the wire room back. The clerk typed his order into the system. It was as simple as that.
He acted quickly. Two days later in Switzerland, he picked up $8,000,000 worth of diamonds from a representative of the Soviet Union and paid them with the Swiss bank account. He knew that raw diamonds were easily sold and couldn't be traced. He would have bought more, but that's all they had. After picking up the diamonds, Rifkin bought a ticket to Luxembourg. He knew the customs inspectors there were very lazy. The next day in his Luxembourg hotel room Rifkin looked in disbelief at his bed. More than 250,000 diamonds were poured on top of it. Almost 9,000 carats. Nearly four pounds. And the Security Pacific bank didn't have a clue that anything was wrong. It was one of the most successful bank heists in American history. [1]
Stanley Rifkin was a bad person. He stole money and that's a bad thing to do. But he sure did that bad thing well! You almost have to admire him for it, it was so clever.
Jesus once told a story about a clever person like Stanley Rifkin and it is one of the more interesting parables. It is about a certain rich landowner and his steward. The landowner was probably never around his property. He paid the steward to look after things so he could spend his time in Florida. One day the rich man came back all heated up. He had heard that the steward washing his possessions. Maybe he was a lazy manager but there are hints that he was ripping off the rich man. The rich man gets right to the point - "You're going to tell me where every nickel is because you're fired."
The steward was in quite a dilemma and he knew it. You can't get an unemployment check if you're fired, only if you're laid off. He was too soft to dig ditches and too proud to beg. What would he do? Suddenly it came to him. Even if he got fired, he could still have friends to take care of him. Here's what he did: he called in all the people who owed money to the rich man. Two typical ones are described. One of them owed 100 measures of oil - that's about 800 gallons. The steward told him to redo the old bill and make it out for only half as much. Another guy owed a hundred measures of wheat - about 1,000 bushels. He was told to make out a new bill for 800 bushels. Both reductions are worth same amount in cash terms.
Somehow the rich man found out about this scheme; and what did he have to say? Surprisingly, the rich man congratulated the dishonest steward for acting so wisely or shrewdly. His next statement goes something like this - the children of the world are more shrewd among their own kind than the children of light are, that is, those who trust in God.
In verse 9 Jesus himself applies the parable. He says we should make friends by means of Mammon. Mammon is an Aramaic word for money. The NIV has a good translation here; it says, "Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves." Here's why. Someday you will die and your money will be useless but all those friends you made with money will welcome you into heaven.
The point Jesus is making is obvious - if you want to be saved and go to heaven, you'll have to lie, cheat and steal so you can bribe your way in. That's what makes this parable so interesting. It kind of goes against some of the things you're taught in Sunday school.
Scholars disagree about what is exactly happening in this parable. There are two main interpretations. One of them focuses on the way the steward cuts down the bills. In those days Jews were not allowed to charge interest on a loan. It was against the Law of God in the Old Testament but businessmen had a way of getting around this. When they made loans they demanded that they be paid back with goods like oil and wheat. If the businessman loaned you $1,000 you had to pay back $1,500 worth of wheat. This way they made money without charging real interest. According to this interpretation, the steward is knocking off the extra charge, which was illegal anyway. The debtors are happy and the rich man can't do anything about it.
There are two problems with this interpretation. For one thing, it's too complicated. The parable has no hint that the rich man was ripping people off with high interest. For another thing, verse 8 calls the steward unjust. This means the same thing as dishonest.
This brings us to the second interpretation, which is the traditional one. In this view, when the steward reduces the bills he is cheating the rich man. His only goal is to make friends of the other debtors. To me, this interpretation makes the most sense of the text. There's only one problem - why should the rich man congratulate someone who is stealing him blind? To a lot of people, this doesn't make any sense. Jesus doesn't seem to criticize the steward either. Does this mean he likes crooks?
The key to this dilemma is to read the conclusion in verse 8 very carefully. The rich man commends the unjust steward not for being unjust but for acting shrewdly. He was threatened by an imminent disaster and he did something about it. Jesus taught that all mankind is threatened by a greater disaster than bankruptcy - the Judgment Day is coming! We need to get ready for it now with all the means at our disposal. If you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, it would not be shrewd to wait any longer.
This parable also applies to the church. Jesus is right on target when he says the children of the world are shrewder than believers. Instead of thinking clearly and acting decisively, we tend to form a committee. That's why churches move like glaciers. It isn't helped when believers channel their resources and talents into worldly pursuits. One person who never understood this was a man named Douglas Hyde. Mr. Hyde was a dedicated communist who lived in France. He devoted his whole life to producing communist newspapers. He worked long hours for little pay and constantly encouraged those in his cell group. Years later he became a Christian. For all his effort, communism never filled the spiritual vacuum he felt. Jesus Christ did. Mr. Hyde came to the Lord but was always astonished at how lazy Christians were. He never found the commitment and drive that he had experienced as a communist.[2]
Christians should be dedicated to the Lord's work for some obvious reasons. The key one is found in verse 9. On the surface, this verse sounds like salvation can be bought. It can't, of course. What this verse means is that by using our talents and resources wisely, we can influence other people for God's kingdom. Our shrewd investment in God's work will earn eternal rewards. This kind of dedication is not the way to get saved - it is the evidence that you are saved! How shrewd are you? Saved? Working for God?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. Kerux illustration #2119, "The Flawless Heist," by Bruce Henderson and Jeffrey Young, Reader's Digest (condensed from an article in Esquire magazine), September 1985, page 85.
2. I no longer recall the source for this illustration, but I believe it was from a pamphlet I read in seminary. My original sermon erroneously named him as "Thomas Hyde."
These illustrations and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Typed on September 26, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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