Shrewd as Serpents

Silent Reflection

After reading the Scriptures for this week, take some time to simply pause and reflect before moving on to the remarks.

Remarks

As we read the stories of Genesis, it becomes clear that Abram and his descendants are, at times, and to put it mildly, a bit sneaky. Or, to put it less mildly, downright devious. Have you ever read about some of the things Abram or Jacob or any of the others in their families did and think, to put it mildly, “This is very unbecoming of a patriarch!”? Or, to put it less mildly, “I know used car salesmen who are less slimy than these ‘men of God’!”? (No offense, of course, to any used car salesmen reading this. I’m sure you’re used to being the butt of this particular joke enough by now that you know I don’t really mean it. Marty loves you. Bema loves you.)

But is there more to these duplicitous actions than pure deceit? Is there another way to perceive them? Not that we shouldn’t be shocked by what we read sometimes, but is it possible to say here that one man’s deviousness is another man’s shrewdness? Is it possible that there is something more than purely deviant behavior going on, something buried within that God even likes?

Just consider the awareness and planning that lay behind Abram’s decision to pass Sarah off as his sister or the way that he was committed to land deals (such as the treaty at Beersheba or the grave for Sarah at Machpelah). What about the numerous stories of Jacob and his “business dealings”? And let’s not forget that the idea of Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau wasn’t even his own — it was his mother’s! We could go on and on.

It’s understandable to want to resolve these tensions. We expect people in the Bible (at least the ones on God’s side) to model what we would define as upstanding character. So, when we read these scandalous stories, we naturally tend to try to explain why these interactions were not, in fact, as slimy as they seem, or else we completely demonize the characters for their selfishness and deception. The notion of clearly defined good guys and bad guys is comforting, sure, but in reality, their experiences were much like our own — a little mixture of both. I say all of this because there is one parable of Jesus that always throws me smack dab in the middle of this tension.

In addition to his teaching from Matthew (10:16) that instructs his disciples to be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, Jesus also tells the parable of the shrewd manager that shows up in our reading for today. Rather than outline a teaching in the written reflection about this parable today, I would encourage the groups to spend their time wrestling over the story of the parable and what Jesus’s teaching is. So I encourage you to read the parable together a few times out loud as you consider the reflection questions today.

Silent Reflection

Take some time to pause, reflect, and listen.

Response

Return to this week’s Scriptures each day as you respond throughout the week.

1. What do you find disorienting about this teaching?
2. What assumptions are you working with that add to the disorientation? Are there any assumptions in particular that need to be examined?
3. Is shrewdness a good trait or a bad trait in your mind?
4. What is Jesus’s main teaching point for his disciples? How do we apply this teaching point today?
5. How does “trusting the story” influence our interaction with shrewdness? Does any of it affect the previous question?