Rev. Rick Haverly
September 22, 2007
Lighten the Load
This has to be one of the most difficult parables that Jesus used for teaching. It seems like ministers dread it when it comes up and try to avoid preaching on it. Even Luke doesn’t quite know what to make of it so he tacks a bunch of miscellaneous sayings about money onto it. Much of the anxiety of this passage comes from the focus on the dishonest manager as the hero of the story. Jesus can’t be asking us to be dishonest managers, can he? So, we would rather not talk about it. There must be another meaning hidden in the parable.
Well most of the commentaries on this passage follow that line. They say the parable is about forward thinking, planning ahead shrewdly for the future, so that we are acting with an eye toward future consequences and realities. Or they focus on the money aspect, reminding us that it how we use our money that’s important. We ought to be using it for God’s kingdom and the way we use it will cleanse the evil of wealth from us. Those both may be valid explanations and if you like them you can let your mind wonder and follow those thoughts while I talk.
I found another meaning in here that I think is consistent with Jesus’ life and teaching. And I start with this disclaimer. It is the interpretation that I find of the parable and I really didn’t find backing for it in my research of this passage. So you can make the judgment at the end. Is it a legitimate reading of the parable?
First of all, in this parable, as much as Jesus does refer to money and how we are to use it elsewhere, here it is not about the money. The money is only used as an illustration in the story. It is representative of something else. The hero of the story, commended by the master at the end, is also described in other translations as the “unrighteous steward” or the “steward of unrighteousness.” And that is the focus I want to place on him. He is unrighteous. When he hears those words from his boss, “You’re fired!” he is hearing judgment for his unrighteousness. And it is a truthful judgment. He is unrighteous. He is a sinner. Everything else in the parable is a response to that judgment hanging over his head.
What should he do now? How should he treat others? He decides to lower the demands his master has placed on them. You could sum up this parable with a line form the Lord’s Prayer, not as we say it with “sins” not even as many of us learned it with “trespasses” but as the Presbyterians say it: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” That is literally what he is doing in this parable. He is forgiving the debts of others. And notice the order we pray it in too. We don’t say God first forgave us so now we forgive others. We say “God we first forgive others so now forgive us.”
The manager has made the determination that if he can’t measure up to the boss’s expectations, that others are also having a hard time and he is going to lower those expectations for them. He is going to treat them as he wishes he was treated. To put it in our terms, he is going to be merciful to them and he is going to offer them forgiveness.
One of my mentors is Dr. Leonard Sweet who is Professor of Evangelism at Drew University. He has a podcast reflection on this summer’s news about a beauty pageant contestant from South Carolina who just totally blew the answer to the question asking why many American Students could not locate the United States on a map. Listen to it
(You can find the entire podcast at http://www.fastcastblast.com/podcasts/info/3 episode “What Has Happened to Mercy?”)
He was reading about the young woman’s mistakes on AOL and found a poll asking do you sympathize with the contestant, a)a lot, b)somewhat, c)a little or, d)not at all. He decided to respond to the poll and having done so much public speaking himself and understanding how quickly you can make a mistake and put yourself in a whole he responded that he sympathized very much. When the results came up he was shocked to see that 56% of people sympathized a little or not at all. He asks, “What does that say about us that we can’t have sympathy for an 18 year old kid who makes a blunder in the midst of pageant pressure and the glare of the media?” What does that say about our ability to have sympathy and compassion? He goes on to talk about a study that most of the value of Fortune 500 companies, 65-75% was in their intangibles, not in their buildings or property or products. Their value derived from their brand and their reputation. Are we viewed as a nation as a people who are merciful or as a people who are hypercritical?
How are we known in the church? Are we people who are known for being merciful and forgiving, or are we people that heap on expectations and are harsh in judgment. Jesus, I think has a negative and positive parable on this question. The positive one is the current one. The negative one is the parable (Matthew 18:23-35) where a servant is forgiven a debt of thousands of dollars who then turns around and has another servant thrown in jail because he owes him hundreds of dollars. The master’s forgiveness is revoked because of his lack of mercy.
Despite our discomfort with Jesus making a dishonest manager the hero of his parable, Jesus is treated like a dishonest manager back in chapter 5 of Luke where a paralytic is brought by his friends to Jesus and Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven. The scribes and Pharisees challenge him and tell him that only God can forgive sins. (Luke 5:17-26). The subsequent healing of the man is proof that Jesus, the Son of Man, has the power to forgive sins. That is a power that we inherit as his representatives.
Are we people of mercy or people of principals and standards? We need to be careful because it looks like God’s treatment of us will be based on our decision. And it is true that our actions can determine our own treatment even in the present. How many public figures have fallen in recent years? But to name just a couple I think the problems of Sen. Larry Craig and Rev. Ted Haggard are similar. They both had reputations of being very critical, strict people so when their faults were exposed they were treated by that standard. They gained no sympathy from the media or other people because they had a history of not showing any mercy for others.
I believe that this whole parable is a call for us to be merciful and forgiving with each other and with all who come here. I think the more we are able to do that, the more life giving this or any church will be. We should be those who are lightening each others’ load in life. If we offer forgiveness for another’s mistakes and shortcomings their load becomes lighter. If we heap up commandments and requirements for others and are quick to point out when they fail we just crush people with their burdens.
I think it is one of the hardest things for us to do as individuals and as a church. I think we are more sympathetic if people make the same mistakes we do, but if we are not tempted by the same things, we have trouble understanding why they would act that way. Are people welcomed back here when they sin or do we give them the impression that they have breached our trust and it would be better if they just found the door and not come back here until they have changed and cleaned up their lives? In the concepts of today’s culture, we are in the business of debt restructuring. When people are overwhelmed with guilt and failure, we need to remove that for them and help them start again with more reasonable and attainable expectations. Like the characters in the parable, there still are expectations and obligations, they are just reduced and made easier. We are the people of God when we can realize our imperfections and the shaky ground on which we stand. We would not stand up to God’s unaltered judgment. Knowing that we become Jesus’ merciful disciples showing compassion to those who have failed as well.
So you are left with the question, “Does my interpretation of this parable make sense?” For me, I think it has gone from being one of the most dreaded to one of my favorites.
I would like to end with a poem by Kester Brewin that refers to Jesus mercy for the woman caught in adultery:
Stones: By Kester Brewin
Stones
If we could all
just stop throwing stones,
and stoop, knees bent
and write in the dust,
we'd see that the dust
was once stone -
grand, and hard, and proud, and tough -
now ground and dissolved
in grace and tears.
So... how much better to be a grain of dirt
on that kind prophet’s hands
than a stone
in the cold, accusing Temple
of the pure?
© KB 2007