Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And 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. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
That’s not fair! We hear that from kids a lot. If your sister gets a big present for Christmas and you don’t… that’s not fair! When she got the front seat to the grocery store you got it on the way back. That’s just fair! But it’s not just kids, is it? Did you hear all the cries of “It’s not fair!” from supposedly grown adults when student loan forgiveness was announced? We want what’s fair and that’s why this lesson is so hard. The story begins with a manager squandering the boss’ money. As the story continues it looks like the guy’s going to get what’s fair… he’s going to get sacked! But then… THEN he gets praised instead! What the what!? You know why that doesn’t feel fair? Because its not fair! It’s completely and totally unfair! Jesus… what are you doing?
What Jesus was doing is telling a parable. A story that starts out by settling us all in for a nice little Sunday morning ride in Jesus’ Parable Truck through the country. But then, out of nowhere, Jesus hits the gas and cranks the wheel and we either hold on for dear life and come away with a radically new understanding of God… OR we get slammed against the far window where the door pops open and you roll out of the truck onto the road as Jesus speeds off in a different direction.
There was once a financial manager who managed the accounts of a wealthy person and all their business. For some reason the rich guy lost confidence in this man and told him to turn over his books and get lost. This seemed like the end of the world to the accountant. He was dead. He’d never get another accounting job, he didn’t exactly have a laborer’s build and sleeping on the street would not be good for his back at all. So he figured as his last act as manager he’d use some of that creative accounting he’d been accused of and endear himself to the people in town. So he took the bills people owed and he doctored them. You owe $1000 bucks? Scratch that out. Now you owe $50. You owe $10,000? Let me take off a zero in quickbooks. There… now you owe $1000.
That was NOT how his soon to be former boss liked business to be done! He was strict. He kept accurate records to the penny. People have a debt. They pay the debt. No exceptions! That was the bosses rules. But now this accountant, with his future buried six feet under, thought it was time to change the rules so that he would have a place to stay that didn’t involve a cardboard box or a dumpster. The accountant changed the rules and then (hold on now, here comes the whiplashing turn) his old boss tells him what a great job he did and gives him back his career and his life. What, the, WHAT? THAT doesn’t make sense. It’s not fair. Well…
In this parable Jesus is the unjust steward. Jesus is that weasel of an accountant. His boss is God and you and I are the ones who are impossibly in debt to the big guy. God, the big boss, had always run his business the same way. The fair way. Break the rules, pay the price. That’s fair. God kept very good and perfect books down to the last penny.
Now comes Jesus with his long hair and funny cloths and he starts keeping the books for the boss. He gets fired, his career is dead, he is crucified but in that death he is free to do some creative accounting that he could never have done alive. And that is just what Jesus did. He fixed the books for us all, taking away all the records that the boss had been keeping on us. Erasing forever all the records of all the stuff we owed. Why did he do that? He did it for the same reason the Unjust Steward did it in the parable. He did it for the relationships. Jesus desperately wants to have a relationship with each one of us. He wants to be invited into our homes and into our hearts.
Jesus took his death and with that death changed the accounting rules forever. He not only lowered our bills, he erased them completely… forever. And then, just like in the parable, Jesus is praised by the Big Boss and brought back to life again because, as it turns out, the Big Boss is WAY more interested in being in relationship with you and me than being paid back. It turns out God’s not fair. Of course if God was fair we’d all be doomed. None of us can keep up with those payments and those who think they can are fooling themselves. Yup, the lesson of this parable is that God is completely and totally unfair. Thanks be to God. Amen
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