Jesus told this story to His disciples:
“There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’
The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’
So the manager told him,’Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons. ‘
‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man.
‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘
Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’
The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Luke 16:1-13)
Luke
I told you yesterday, there is a major difficulty with this parable, which has generated lots of debate over the years.
- Did you notice what it was?
- Does it leave you with questions?
- Do you have a reaction to this parable when you read it?
Most people do. This is not a parable that you will hear preached much. The preacher has to deal with the difficulties hidden within and be able to explain to the hearers or readers what is going on here, without being seen to condone dishonest practices. How on earth can Jesus praise this waster? In Jesus own words this man is a waster! He is a cunning, shrewd, dishonest rascal. How can Jesus praise him? It has caused many over the years to question the integrity of Jesus teaching. If He condones this kind of behaviour, is He worthy of worship? Is He even a good teacher? Surely this is immoral at least, if not plain criminal. The manager should be locked up and perhaps Jesus should be hauled before the sermon police of your denomination for preaching such stuff. Think about it seriously. You have to be able to explain what is going on here or take your scissors and cut the parable from your Bible, as some have recommended over the centuries.
There are commentators who lay the blame for the reaction to this parable at the feet of the translators who convey the sense that Jesus commended the scoundrel for his dishonesty.
I will give you all the pieces and then let you make up your own mind. I will leave you overnight to let it percolate.
The key words in this parable are as follows:
- [diaskropidzo] waste, squander, dissipate, scatter, winnow
- [epaineo] – praise, commend
- [adikia] – dishonest, unjust, unrighteous, false, crooked
- [oikonomos] – steward, manager
- [phronimos] – shrew, prudent, wise, clever, cunning
Some interesting translations of the elements here can be found as follows:
- Message: “Now here’s a surprise . . . “
- “take advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses . . .”
- “knew how to look after himself, on constant alert looking for angles.”
- “praised for looking out for himself so well.”
Ponder what you think about it and how you might be able to harmonise this so that it doesn’t seem to betray Jesus’ biblical standards. There are two ways of looking at this to harmonise it with what we know to be Jesus standards. I will cover both of them in the subsequent days but first what do you think? I would love you to interact with me and tell me what you think the answer to this “problem” is. I will share any good insights you have with your fellow Gemmers. [I know that may put some of you off saying anything. I also know that is a challenge for others of you to “finally make the Gems”.]
God’s standards:
Don’t figure ways of taking advantage of your neighbor when he’s sitting there trusting and unsuspecting.
Proverbs 3:29
Riffraff and rascals talk out of both sides of their mouths.
They wink at each other, they shuffle their feet, they cross their fingers behind their backs.
Proverbs 6:12-13
Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.
Proverbs 13:11
Switching price tags and padding the expense account are two things GOD hates.
Proverbs 20:10