The “Shrewd” manager

Article for September 21, 2025

Luke 16:14–15 14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

How should we be taken into the future?  Some look towards technology, some look at a world of peace, others might look at populating the moon or Mars.  Still others are trying to convince the world to accept sin and those things that are unpleasant to God as being the good and the progress of the future.  Some say “that’s bad” or “that’s sick” to describe what is good.  Maybe they have it right.  That is, if the new good is sin.  Whatever happened to that’s cool or maybe even that’s good.  We are quickly falling away from the progress God intended us to have.

We have many who try to justify their sinful ways and want the world to cater to their sin so they can feel good about themselves.  Unfortunately, I’m not just talking about politicians or gender benders.  There are many sins in this world and too many politicians as well, whose ambitions to get votes is to cater to the sin.  It was just a few years ago we heard the term tolerate other’s sin and the world has been taking a nosedive ever since.

Jesus puts it right, “what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”  We think if we make everything legal then everything is going to be ok, and life will get better.  One of my problems I grew up with is that I tried to please everyone.  You just can’t please everyone; it really doesn’t work well.  I ended up not pleasing anyone including myself as I got caught up in the middle of everything and everyone I tried to please.  You truly can’t believe in everything or please everyone or serve every sin and every good.  What breaks is you.  I know from experience.

Luke 16:1–2 1[Jesus] also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

Do you realize that we are the managers of our government.  We manage through our vote.  It’s the manager’s fault; it is our fault.  We just don’t care as long as we escape the consequences.  Really, the consequences can catch up to you.  Don’t vote the bad ones back in and maybe we can clean up some of our government, some of our lives, and some of this world.  

We can be like the rich man in that we keep our riches in God.  We have many managers who are wasteful and uncaring as long as they reap more of the good stuff than they sow or deserve.  Bad managers are in such an abundance and we are those managers.

I contracted to a company that manufactured refrigerators for RVs.  Each of the assembly line workers all had the same scar on their hand.  They all ended up getting cut between their thumb and the palm of their hand.  They all showed me their scars.  I could not believe how many workers had the scar.

The refrigeration unit was designed in the USA and built and shipped in from Brazil.  Each unit came covered in a thick hard foam insulation.  The foam insulation was too big to fit in the refrigerator’s metal skin, which wasn’t observed until the final stage of assembly.  The assembly people would take turns at the end of the assembly line to cut the hard excess foam insulation off.  What was more shocking, but explains how they all got a cut in their hand was they used common dull kitchen knives to trim the foam.

I thought this was so horrible that I investigated the design, the shipping docks, and the quality control of their products.  What I found was that the units were accepted from Brazil even though they did not meet the criteria of the design.  I went all the way up to the president of the company who fired the VP, the Quality Control Engineer, the manager of the design team and a designer who drew pretty pictures.  All knew the problem, but no one would lift a finger to do something about it.

I don’t know if this company still exists, but the moral of the story is that sooner or later the ignorant and dishonest will be caught.  Who knows where these people are and what they are doing, but hopefully and prayerfully they learned good out of it all.  The other moral of the story is, don’t hire me if there is something you are hiding.

Luke 16:3–4 3And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’

This is most of the world.  What can I do to be accepted by the world.  I know, I’ll rob stores, kill people, make life fearful for others, mar up my skin pierce every part of my body, and tell everyone that this is cool, or bad, or sick, or this is the new right.  If I cheat a little, then I will cheat a lot.  That’s why when I cheat, I cheat fairly.  As long as I’m accepted, who cares if I am famous or infamous.  Just think being known is the most important thing in life.  NOT!

Luke 16:5–7 5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

Well, at least the Rich Man will get some of his money back if not the profit he was hoping for.  Remember, this manager no longer cares what this Rich Man thinks of him.  The manager at this point is looking for a means to be accepted by the world and in hopes of maybe being accepted by another rich man.

Of course, the “Rich Man” is God of His own making, and the “rich man” is an idol god of the worlds making.  What this manager is doing might look good on paper, but not so good in real life.  He certainly is pleasing the customers of the Rich Man, but he is not pleasing the Rich Man.  We might think we can fool God.  In truth, we are only fooling ourselves and when we do that, we bleed ourselves to the eternal death.  I think that is the time to wake up and know God by “His” Word.

Luke 16:8–9 8The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Indeed, this manager was a very shrewd person and not in a good way as he beckons to the salvation of the world.  Man is very shrewd in many ways and slick as they talk with a silver spoon in their mouths.  We are clever to those we can dupe but we are not so clever to those who follow in the true light of Jesus Christ.

We look at this last statement that says in other words.  If you run out of money your shrewdness might save you to the world and you will be received into the world’s eternal dwelling.  Let’s make sure we understand this “eternal dwellings,” Jesus is talking about.  This is not eternal life in heaven, it is however, eternal life in the hell-bent dwellings.

Luke 16:10–13 10“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”

Truly you can’t believe in everything or please everyone or serve every sin and every good.  What breaks is you.   But the one whom we can all believe, have trust in, and faith in, is Jesus Christ our Lord.  Jesus died for us, the world did not die for us, just Jesus alone.  His sacrifice is real and was done in the will of our God.  It is God’s will to save us; it is God’s love shown through the actions of Jesus His only begotten Son. The actions of Jesus is dying on the criminals cross and being resurrected for our eternal being.

Jesus died for our sins.  Jesus was raised from the dead so that we know there is eternal life in His dwelling.  And we know the dwelling place, that is, heaven of our Lord will always be filled with joy.  Our joy of our God and His joy of all His children in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Written by Pastor Curtis A. May