Author Rick Lawrence discusses Jesus’ teaching on being shrewd in service to the kingdom of God in Shrewd: Daring to Live the Startling Command of Jesus (David C Cook, August 2012). We continue with further questions about the book here:

 Would Jesus’ disciples in New Testament times have found this a startling command?

Absolutely. When Jesus told His disciples the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, they were surrounded by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law—their own private “wolf pack” encircling the “sheep.” In the midst of this pack of predators, Jesus turns to His disciples and tells them this startling, scandalous, but crystal-clear story—a story that challenges everything we think we know about Him. He chooses His words, and His setting, well. He’s essentially pointing to the “pack” and outlining for His disciples exactly how to defeat its tactics and innate superiority. They are, He asserts, just like sheep—an animal that is wholly helpless to defend itself against predators. When Jesus ends His story with a pointed reference to “the people of the light” and their “shrewdness deficit,” He’s not only telling them something that is shocking to their sensibilities, He’s likely offending them with His assessment of their abilities.

Does His command apply to Christians today?

Anything Jesus says to His Disciples (the Twelve), applies to His disciples—that’s you and me. The reason that Jesus’ behavior often seems erratic, counterintuitive, and even incomprehensible to us is that He never says or does anything that isn’t shrewd. He is all the time and everywhere leveraging people and situations to His “favored” direction, even (and especially) when He is tender, sensitive, and kind. And He wants all of us to follow His example—that’s why He tells us the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. As His disciples, people who acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus in our lives, our response is to grow as practitioners of shrewd. And if we are truly “like sheep running through a wolf pack” (Matt. 10:16 MSG), we ignore His imperative to grow in shrewdness at our own peril.

You are the executive editor at the youth ministry magazine Group. Does your work there feed into your book writing?

I’m still deeply embedded in the world of youth ministry. This year marks my 25^th year as editor of GROUP Magazine. Youth ministry has been the perfect community for learning about the confluence of life and the power of the gospel of Jesus. I’m around people who, every day, are working to translate Jesus’ life and message and calling into real-world situations. In the end, the key to an effective youth ministry is in making Jesus the “orbital center” for everything you do—and my role in youth ministry (and in the rest of my life) is to reveal the beauty and worth of “the pearl of great price” and “the treasure in the field.” Once you understand the inestimable worth of the treasure, it’s simply human nature to “sell everything you have” to buy the field where that treasure is buried.

Do you see Shrewd as a book that will appeal to young and old?

Because I’ve already had scores and scores of conversations with people, both young and old, about the truths in this book, I know age has no bearing on a person’s interest in Jesus’ command to grow in shrewdness. People of all ages have experienced repeated failure in their frontal, conventional approaches to problems and challenges in their life. They’re frustrated and lost. And when I simply walk them through a Jesus-centered process of thinking and acting more shrewdly, it’s like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz moving from her flat, black-and-white world into the 3-D colors of Oz.

• Prev
• Next