The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
September 19, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 37
This may be the most ornery of Jesus’ parables, the Dishonest Manager who is praised by the Master/God for shrewd dealings. Good church folk may be involved in such wheeling and dealing, but never would admit its legitimacy. Yet here it is the Gospel. Have all those business schools that have mandated Business Ethics courses read Luke 16?
After reading one of the Gospel miracle stories of Jesus some readers work mental overtime trying to figure out a rational explanation for what had been miraculously reported. Such explanations - explaining away the miracle - work for some, but always seem to miss the point and we are left with a limp parable that no longer says much. Many readers of this parable cannot believe that Jesus didn’t make a mistake, or at least that Luke didn’t hear him right. They miss the point. It’s not about doing things right, it’s about being in the right, and with God that is not always right the way we expect.
This parable immediately follows the most famous of parables, the Prodigal Son, in which “what’s right” is turned on its head. The older son who has stayed at home and behaved himself is the one who is right by our standards, but there is more joy in heaven (where things are Right!) over a lost sinner now found than over the ninety-nine who have done nothing wrong back home.
Jesus’ most vicious enemies were the ones who prided themselves in being right, and therefore righteous. Being shrewd, conniving, crafty, perhaps a little over the edge is what he admired, and all those movies and TV shows about police and detectives who stretch the rules catch our fancy because these shrewd ones were totally engaged in getting it finally right.
Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan