Here
are some suggestions some of which I found on the internet:
Maybe
the point of the parable is not the servant's dishonesty, but his wise
decision-making in the time of crisis. His whole future depended on quick thinking
and immediate actions. He’s an example of decisive thinking and action to save yourself
which the coming of Jesus invites.
Or
is the servant, as a man of the world, an example of diligence? What if we had
the same diligence about God’s kingdom as we do towards our work or hobbies? It
raises an issue of how much the church best uses business sense - can
congregations learn from successful restaurants? What makes a restaurant
successful?
What wise decisions help make it succeed – and so on?
Maybe
the parable is Jesus’ pure irony. The idea that the master would commend this
servant for such unjust behaviour is so absurd no one would believe it. It's a
story about a cheater who expects to be commended for his dishonest actions.
Understood this way, perhaps Jesus is attacking the Pharisees who made a big
show of giving a little money to the poor. You can't carry the name
"Christian," and cheat.
Another
interpretation more favourable to the steward is that he was acting within his
legal rights reducing the debts as he did. Wealthy landowners would sublet
their land to men like this steward. The steward would let out the work to
other workers. Sometimes the steward would loan the workers money and charge an
exorbitant interest. So, in the parable, the steward is cancelling his high
interest on the note given to the workers. Maybe Luke 16 is a parable against
excessive profits, the same kind of judgment uttered by Amos in the first
Lesson (Amos 8:4-7).
Or
then maybe the best interpretation of the parable is about the right and wrong
use of money. The steward gains friends by sharing the profits and helping out
the poor debtors. He’s an encouragement to make loving use of financial gain so
as to ease the plight of the poor, even if the issue of his right to do so
remains.
Commentators
on this passage suggest we shouldn't get caught up in the legality or morality
of the servant's actions, but see the point of the parable as tied up in the
term "shrewd" which occurs twice in verse 8 of Luke 16 his master commended the dishonest manager
because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in
dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
This
summer we’ve been reading through the central section of St Luke’s gospel which
has a lot of Jesus’ teaching about the use of money. You may remember last
month I spoke about the parable of the Rich Fool in Chapter 12 which warns that
one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions and challenges us to ponder our mortality. God
calls the rich man a "fool," because he considered his life to be in
the abundance of possessions. His thoughts are centred on getting for himself.
In
today’s parable the shrewdness applauded is about thinking or planning ahead financially
in a more correct manner through consideration for others which is always
repaid. What the manager did was to
guarantee his own future. By reducing the creditors’ large debts he supposes
he’ll gain their favour, running with the shrewd assumption that a benefit
received invites the giving of a benefit in return.
All
of these thoughts from the most challenging of bible passages. Let’s pause to
see what the Holy Spirit is saying to us individually through the passage
because, even with its apparent commending of dishonesty, it is part of Holy
Scripture with something from God for us to hear this morning.
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