This parable screams "LIFE ISN'T FAIR." I'm not OK with that being the lesson of this parable; there has to be more to it! The lesson Jesus is trying to teach is explained in the last 4 verses of this selection:
10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,[d] who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
But how in the world does Jesus go from "scoundrel winning" to "no slave can serve 2 masters"?? I don't have an answer to that except that it's a good question. There are more lessons to glean from this parable, though, even if Jesus does not state them explicitly here.
True Dishonesty
This parable is called " The Parable of the Dishonest Manager" (in the NRSV, at least) because of the phrase "And his master commended the dishonest manager" in verse 8. However, when Jesus talks about dishonesty here, he may be doing so tongue in cheek. In Jesus' context (time and place), there was hardly any middle class; the vast majority were either very wealthy or very poor. The very poor were oftentimes at the mercy of their wealthy landlords who required the best of their crops and the powerful (Roman) government who demanded unreasonably high taxes from them every chance they got. The landlord in this parable accuses his manager of wrongdoing on mere hearsay. So, knowing he is going to be fired, the manager acts "dishonestly," or "shrewdly" (or "cleverly") by reducing the debts owed to the landlord. By describing this situation, Jesus may be pointing out the harsh reality that there is no way to be honest in a system that is inherently dishonest and unjust. Telling this parable may in fact be Jesus' clever way to unveil this crude system of people who robs and cheats the poor on a daily basis. The manager acted shrewdly by showing judgment of a system that would have left him out in the cold had he not been so clever. His master praises him not for being dishonest, but clever. The manager in the story received no monetary gain from his dishonesty, so Jesus' comment in verse 9 is directed to the wealthy in the crowd listening to him. This approach and lesson of the parable begs the question: how do our economic systems make life difficult for some people (both for the poor, and for those who want to act ethically)?
The Master's Tools
In this parable, the manager forgives the amount of the debts by diminishing them, an action that would be unthinkable to the landlord. In some way, the manager is not only watching out for himself and his family, but he is also at the same time tearing to shreds the system the landlord operates in for gaining wealth. By reducing the debts, he is exposing the fact that the existing payment structure is unjust. He uses ehtically questionable methods to help break down a system built to receive debts by diminishing them and making friends and allies for himself. "He separates himself from a system of repression by cleverly undoing the system in a Robin Hood-like fashion" (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4, p. 95).
Many of Jesus' parables are written in order to portray what the Kingdom of God is like. In this realm, "tools" of oppressive systems are proven to be ineffective and flipped upside down. In this realm, debts are forgiven and slaves are set free.
Resources and Relationships
In this parable, we are given an inside peek to the manger's motivation. He is attempting to make allies and friends, so that if and when he is fired or otherwise becomes unemployed, someone else will take him in. One theologian, Christine Prohl, puts it this way: "Jesus does not commend the manager's practices, but rather his insight into the connection between resources and relationships. When we consider our wealth and economic practices---even the means we employ to accomplish good ends--- as peripheral to the kingdom, we are ignoring Jesus' warning that it is impossible to serve God and mammon (money)."
Loving and serving God, following Jesus ways, means that loving people is always the bottom line, So, Jesus' final words in this passage are fitting: you cannot serve God and money at the same time, for love of wealth has the potential to put loving others aside.
Prayer:
O God, just as the disciples heard Christ's words of promise and began to eat the bread and drink the wine in the suffering of a long remembrance and in the joy of a hope, grant that we may hear your words, spoken in each thing of everyday affairs:
Coffee, on our table in the morning;
the simple gesture of opening a door to go out, free;
the shouts of children in parks;
a friendly tree that has not yet been cut down.
May simple things speak to us of your mercy, and tell us that life can be good. And may we remember those who do not receive as much as we do:
who have their lives cut every day, in the bread absent from the table;
in the door of the hospital, the prison, the welfare home that does not open;
in sad children, feet without shoes, eyes without hope;
in deserts where once there was life.
Christ was also sacrificed; and may we learn that we participate in the saving sacrifice of Christ when we participate in the suffering of his little ones, the children of God, our neighbors. Amen.
from The United Methodist Hymnal, 639, slightly adapted.
In Christ,
Jack
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