Shrewd Manager Parable

Shrewd Manager Parable

         This week, as I’ve had the privilege of studying Jesus’ parable of the Shrewd Manager, I’ve begun to feel like someone watching a 3D movie without 3D glasses. 

I can see the image itself, the parable itself, but on either side of it are two rather different interpretations, two different ways of reading this parable. 

Each follow the contours of Jesus’ story, but one focuses on the human need to get right with God, and the other focuses on who Jesus is for us. 

         That these two intertwine together and are found in tension should be a surprise to no one
—the Word of God is both Letter and Spirit, Law and Promise,
both a signpost pointing to our Sin, and a love letter from God!

         Let us pray.

         Today’s parable is truly at home in Luke’s Gospel.

         Luke’s Gospel that kicks off with John the Baptist declaring that the one who baptizes with Holy Spirit and Fire is at hand, and so we are called to turn our lives around,
called to repent, called to live out our roles rightly and our relationships in a way that is concerned with the least, last, and lost,
we are called to not be possessed by our possessions.

         Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus preaches good news to the poor and gives the benediction “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God”,
where Levi and Zacchaeus follow Jesus by giving up all ill-gotten gain,
where the parables of the man who dies after building a bigger barn for all his stuff is paired with the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus…

         Yes, a parable where a manager is called to account by his master’s presence… where he is called to repent.

A parable where that repentance includes a shift in his business practices to not gain on the backs of debtors

—a parable that is surely good news for the least, last, and lost… 

a parable where by letting go of possessions the manager is no longer possessed by the sheer terror of homelessness and hunger…

Yes, such a parable fits Luke’s gospel like a glove.

This man has shifted his goal from collecting power to gaining favor
—and Jesus points out, how much more ought we, who regularly pray “thy kingdom come”… how much more ought we use our time, talents, and treasures to move toward that Kingdom. With all we have and all we are, we ought to make God our goal, recognizing our wealth as means to an end, not an end itself.

         Jesus calls us, through this parable, to a repentance that will be good news to the least, to a way of being in the world that recognizes wealth as a means to an end, a thing to be used justly. That is how this parable points out Sin.

         

         Today’s parable ALSO pushes forward the story of Jesus and his love!

         You see, the Religious Authorities of Jesus’ day accused him of squandering God’s possessions. Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to sinners & tax collectors, to those unwelcome at God’s table… or at least at their own.

         Jesus responded with parables about lost things, animals, and people. He tells them, “I associate with the least, last, and lost because God is like a woman scouring her house for a single cent, a shepherd venturing out to find a single sheep, a father embarrassing himself for his sinner son’s sake.

         You all, however, are acting like a jealous brother, pouting outside a party, refusing joy.”

         And then Jesus turns to his disciples and tells today’s parable to drive home the point. He does so by taking up his opponent’s perspective…
As strange as it might seem, I believe Jesus is playing Devil’s Advocate… he tells a counterfactual parable…

         Imagine if the Religious Authorities are right… do you know what that would mean? That would mean God rations resources and hordes heaven… It would mean God entrusted Jesus with a limited amount of divine love, and Jesus blew it… Jesus gave it away hand-over-foot, he gave away the store… 

Jesus forgave, when he should have retained.
He searched for the lost, when He should have cared for the sedentary and satiated.

He associated with the destitute, dispossessed, and disposable, when he should have stuck with the wealthy, well-off and well heeled.

For that matter, Jesus healed the sick when he could have hung out with the healthy.

         And God is so mad now! God only has so much love to go around, and is greedy to keep the coffers of the Kingdom closed…

         In fact, God has taken Jesus into his office and raked him over the coals… “You didn’t charge interest on that grace, and didn’t watch out for the bottom line!”
God wants to see the books at once!

         And so Jesus called up the unclean masses he’d given over God’s grace to, the man with a demon, the whole pile of people healed at the house of Peter’s mother-in-law,
the lepers… there sure were a lot of lepers, weren’t there?, that paralyzed fellow, the centurion and slave, the widow and her son… all of them!

         All those Jesus helped in the name of God, and he said to them, “What do you owe God? 100 pounds of praise? Make it 50?”

         And to another, “You owe thanksgiving 100 times, let’s make it 80.”

         And we all know what happened, people respond to mercy and forgiveness and healing… there is more joy in being forgiven than being excluded.

         The whole of Judea and Samaria was overjoyed by the unexpected generosity of God—this God they’d been told was cold and uncaring, this God who held tightly onto mercy and required so much for so little… 

         But ours is not such a God, ours is not mammon, not wealth, but instead the God we find in the person of Jesus!
 He is our eternal home,
his faithfulness is great,
he is true riches,
he is our own!

         Truly God’s Word exposes sin, and forgives it!

         Dear friends, our Lord is near,
repent,
in all you do do justice, especially for the least, last, and lost,
serve God, not wealth.

AND 
Dear friends, the God we see when we see Jesus is more caring that you can ever imagine or ever will be told, forgiving you your debts before you even know what you owe.
He loves you so!

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