"A Most Difficult Parable"
"And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; . . ." . . . Luke 16:8
Clarence Jordan once said that Jesus' parables were like Trojan horses - looks great on the outside, but you let it in, and then, bam, it's got you. But today's reading? Looks great, you let it in, you poke around inside the thing, and . . . ut oh! It just doesn't make sense to our under-standing of fairness or ethics. Then you begin to think that maybe - Jesus, or Luke, or the Holy Spirit (while overseeing the grander formation of scripture) put this parable in, fully aware that it is incomprehensible, just to keep us humble, lest we think we might fully understand God's Word.
Let's look at the Scripture for it is "the most difficult parable". In effort to understand it Henry has written a skit that is taken from both Scripture and from Clarence Jordan's Cotton Patch Version of the Bible.
The Bad Manager - Luke 16:1-8
Narrator: Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There once was a rich man who had a manager. He got wind that the manager was making a mess of things, so he called him into the office and said,
Rich man: "What's this I hear about you? You haven't collected from those who owe us, and you've squandered my wealth. You're fired. And not only that, I want a complete audit of your books.
Narrator: Then the manager said to himself,
Manager: Self.
Narrator: He said,
Manager: What in the world am I gonna do? I've lost my job as manager. I'm not strong enough to do labor and I'm too proud to beg. I've got to think of something
Narrator: He said,
Manager: I've got it! It's sure worth a try, and if it don't work at least I'll go down swinging, and at least some people will like me.
Narrator: So, he went at it. He called up each of his bosses customers and said to the first one.
Manager: How much do you owe my boss?
Debtor #1: A hundred jugs of Olive Oil
Narrator: The manager said to him,
Manager: What in the world's he want 100 jugs of Olive Oil for? Oh well, never mind. Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write us a check for fifty and we'll call it even.
Debtor #1: Schweet!
Narrator: Said debtor #1. Then the manager asked another debtor,
Manager: And how much do you owe by boss?
Narrator: The debtor replied,
Debtor #2: A hundred sacks of wheat.
Narrator: Then manager said to him,
Manager: Look, Just write a check for 80 and we'll call it paid in full.
Debtor #2: You da man!
Narrator: Said Debtor #2. Now here's the shocker! The boss, (who some say may have been drinking) commended the bad manager for pulling such a slick trick,
Rich man: "Wow, you're amazing! You pulled off a real slick trick! You're really shrewd and street-smart!"
Narrator: Why? Cause 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.
Miss Lillian was a faithful Sunday School teacher was also one of the leaders of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She ended every Sunday School class by saying, "Now boys, stay away from that demon rum." One day the Scripture lesson happened to be the story of Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding reception at Cana in Galilee. When a more adventuresome student asked Miss Lillian how one explains that story about Jesus, she replied defiantly: "I don't know how to explain it. But I do know I'd have a lot more respect for Him if He hadn't done it."
Miss Lillian's attitude is how many Christians feel about this parable of Jesus, . . . "I don't know how to explain it. But I do know I'd have a lot more respect for Him if He hadn't told it."
The behavior in this parable is just not "Christian".
Compounding this is that this parable is regarded by biblical scholars as one of those most certainly authentic to Jesus' teaching. There is no doubt among them that this is an authentic teaching of Jesus.
On the other had, the bad news is that scholars are more divided over this text than any other Gospel reading as to what it means.
Given that scholars regard this as an authentic teaching of Jesus we need to struggle with it. On the surface Jesus seems to be condoning dishonest, deceitful, thieving behavior. And that just doesn't seem to fit in all that we call holy. Surely there has to be a way of understanding this story. My suspicion is that it may have to do more with "what we call holy" than it does to the Scripture itself.
I'm not sure I have a final answer today.
I don't know what to make of this story except that it must apply to many of us in terms of our understanding of what is proper Christianity.
Now I know that there are a few of you whom I know are really holy and noble, and you always do God's will, so this parable is not for you.
This parable, then, may be for the rest of us who are like - at least a little - this dishonest manager. The great, traditional Communion prayer of confession says it well, "We have done those things we ought not to have done and we have left undone those things we ought to have done."
And, faced with my failures, if you're at all like me, occasionally you may have a real religious moment, and think, "I'll go home and be like Mother Teresa. I won't be materialistic any longer. I'll pray five times daily for an hour. I'll be a saint."
But experience proves that I never make it past lunchtime.
Maybe God understands. Maybe the God, Whom we, however lamely, try to serve, is a God who's merciful.
And in that case, perhaps this parable is for me! For it is when we are faced with the worst that sometimes we are inspired to take steps forward - even if they are feeble baby steps.
Let's take a look at the parable. First of all, it is important to remember that this parable comes directly on the heels of the three parables in chapter 15 dealing with lostness - the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost - or so-called "prodigal" son. Those stories were told to the Pharisees and the scribes who were grumbling because "Jesus welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them."
Upon the conclusion of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, today's lesson begins by changing the audience, "He [Jesus] also said to the disciples." The word "also" indicates that Jesus still had the same subject in mind - namely the concern that Jesus welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them.
At the beginning of this parable we are told that there was a rich man who had a manager managing his property and business. The rich man heard reports that the manager had squandered his property and wealth. So he summoned the manager and told him that he would be dismissed. Fired! Of note to us, and perhaps a key for interpretation, is the word "squander" - it is the same word that is ascribed to the younger son's actions in the Parable of the Prodigal son. In neither case are we told how the manager or the younger - or prodigal - son squandered the money.
But both characters have something in common. They experience a serious kind of death - not a physical death, but a death in the way they lived. Life, as they used to know it, is now gone. The younger son has to resort to feeding swine, not a good thing for a Jewish boy. In today's story the manager says, "What will I do?, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg."
Then the unjust manager comes up with a plan and says to himself, "I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes."
So he calls in his master's debtors and settles accounts with them at considerable write-offs: he knocks the bill of one of them down by half, the bill of another by a fifth. It's not his money, it's his master's; but he does it so he will look good in the eyes of the debtors - so they may take him in when he is fired. He is dishonest on two counts: the manager had squandered his master's money, and then when confronted he continues to misappropriate his master's money by lowering the bill owed.
And now the parable gets real difficult. Because as dishonest as the manager is, somehow it impresses the master. Lo and behold, in verse 8 the master commends his unjust, dishonest manager "because he had acted shrewdly."
"Shrewdly?!?!?" The guy is a thief! He's dishonest! He cheated his master! Somehow, between verse 2 ("What's this?!? You lost my wealth! You're fired!") and verse 8 ("You're a genius! You acted shrewdly!") the master has turned from an unforgiving bookkeeper to a happy-go-lucky celebrator of any new interest that comes along.
Perhaps the master has undergone a transformation - like changing from one who abides by the letter of the law, to one who offers grace.
Somehow grace is at work here. We know that because the master forgives his unjust steward. But how? Let me suggest that grace works only on those it finds dead enough to raise. Grace can only come to those who can be receptive to it. In other words grace comes to those who are hurting, guilty, or are totally desperate and just need a way to survive. This may be the clue that helps us understand this most difficult of all parables.
Carlyle Marney, a great preacher of a generation ago preached an Easter Sermon at a college Chapel. He began his sermon by stating something like this. "You people (college age students) know nothing of Easter. You have not known failure, you haven't lost a job, the death of a loved one; you haven't known sickness. Only those who have known defeat and failure can know resurrection."
The manager knew failure. He tries to redeem himself - figuring he is forever lost to his master, he connives to come up with a way to look good in the eyes of those who hadn't paid their debts. They were losers too. Maybe, at least, they will take him in.
But somewhere along the line, the master changes his mind, and blesses the manager for his "shrewdness."
Could it be that the unjust steward can be a Christ-figure? First of all, he dies - he gets fired; and then he rises - he gets blessed by the master. Second, by his death and resurrection, he raises others (the debtors get off the hook, the master recoups some of his lost money). But third and perhaps most importantly of all, the unjust steward is a Christ figure because, like Jesus, he is now identified with the sinners and the disreputable of society. And to those people, he is approachable.
With this in mind, perhaps the unique contribution of this parable is its insistence that grace cannot come into the world through respectability. Respectability regards only life, success, winning; it will not pay heed with the grace that works by death and losing - which according to our Christian faith, is the kind of grace Jesus brought to us.
Resurrection only happens when there first is a death. New life can only occur when the old way of living, the defeats of our lives, can inspire to live differently.
This parable, therefore, says in story form what Jesus Himself said with His life. He was not respectable. He broke the rules of the Sabbath. According to the Pharisees and scribes He consorted with crooks (tax collectors and sinners). And he died as a criminal. Now we see why He refused to be respectable: Jesus did it to save a world that respectability could only terrify and condemn. He became sin for us sinners, weak for us weaklings, lost for us losers, and dead for us dead.
Is this disturbing to us? Do you think it lowers the standards and threatens good order? Of course it does! And that is precisely why the forces of righteousness got rid of Jesus. Remember the continuity that holds this section of Luke together. "The Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, saying, "This man welcomes tax collectors and sinners and eats with them." It was in response to that charge that Jesus addressed the Pharisees and the scribes with the three parables of the lost - the coin, the sheep, and the prodigal son. In each case, God rejoiced like the shepherd, the woman, the father, who found what they thought had been lost. And now the story of a dishonest manager who is blessed by his Master for his shrewdness; perhaps because he had recouped some of the wealth that the master had thought was lost.
But that only explains the story, the hard part is to accept it. And this is where the church has had trouble, especially since time began. The church has tried to be respectable, as a matter of fact the church tries to be the most respected of all institutions. The church can hardly resist the temptation to gussy Jesus up into a respectable citizen.
But as scholars tell us, "Jesus wasn't crucified because of bad theology or bad politics. Jesus crime was that He ate and drank with sinners." And while that shatters our penchant for respectability, it also means Jesus, Who died in disgrace, knew our griefs and our sorrows and therefore is available to us, not as some perfect deity, but as truly and fully human.
And therefore Jesus is the only mediator and advocate we will ever be able to trust. Because like the unjust manager, Jesus is no less a loser than we are - and like the unjust steward, Jesus is the only one Who has even a chance of getting God to give us a kind word - to forgive us.
"And his master praised the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly; . . ." (Lk. 16:8a)
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth (John 1:14) . . . and His own people did not receive Him (John 1:11)."
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son . . . not to condemn the world, but that we might be saved Through Him." John 3:16-17
That's how it is when we deal with an unjust manager.
Lucky for us we don't have to deal with a just manager.