(Was Jesus having a bad day?)
Luke 16:1-13 Gospel reading for Sunday 19th Sept 2010
Everyone has bad days. Every teacher, every school leader, indeed every human being has bad days. When Jesus the master teacher told this parable of the shrewd manager, was he having a bad day? Was he still riding the crest of the wave of the classic gospel stories of Luke 15, having unfolded a superb triptych which spells out how God operates, as he searches for us and ultimately welcomes us home?
On the surface, this parable seems to make no sense at all. In short, Jesus commends a crook for fraudulently rigging the books (v8) with an underlying motive that is driven only by the need to look after himself. To quote one commentator ... "The parable of the Unjust Steward may well be the most difficult of all the parables of Jesus".
Where then is the Gospel in this story? If we get stuck on the illogical nature of the master commending the dishonest steward we probably have missed the fundamental point of the parable. Let's pull out one single thread of thinking ...
The steward forgives debts. Even though he does so as a person with an image lacking respectability and credibility, he forgives things that he does not need to forgive and would appear to have no right to forgive. He forgives for no reason at all. He forgives not because the forgiveness is warranted, he simply forgives. Sound like a description of someone we know? A logical flow on from Luke 15? That's our God. The God who has forgiven us (past tense) for no reason at all! Fortunately for us, we are not dealing with a just steward!
The parables are full of twists and surprises and this one is certainly no exception. The danger always lies with taking too much of a literal or real life view of the story. The Parable is certainly not a call for Business Managers in our schools to cancel debts of people for no reason at all! We often make the mistake of interpreting the parables as instructions to us about how we should conduct our lives. In this case, it is yet another vivid illustration of how our God thinks and acts in our world. It is this image of God that we need to make sure underpins our thinking as we strive to connect young people and families to Jesus in our school communities.
Was Jesus having a bad day? I don't think so ... He just moved us up a level and given us only the cryptic set of clues to work with!
Nev
That's a great point about the debt cancellation. Interestingly, Jesus didn't commend the crook - the manager in his parable did.
ReplyDeleteI think Jesus often tried to shock or challenge with surprising comparisons.
e.g. calling himself the 'good' Shepherd when shepherds in Jesus' day were notoriously ‘bad’.
or – Matt 7:11 “if you who are ‘evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him." etc.
Heather.
I think that what Jesus tells us in vs 9 has been a significant impact for me.
ReplyDelete"make friends for yourselves with worldly wealth, so that when it gives out, you will be welcomed in the eternal home." (read from the Good News translation)
For me, being a Christian has been more about relationship than programs, than buildings and even more than how many attend.
Using our worldly wealth to form relationships and then in those friendships find opportunity to share Jesus forgiveness (The Only thing that gets us into heaven) with the friends who don't know, or who find it difficult to forgive.
James