This is not a sermon, just some comments on a difficult passage of the New Testament - Luke 16:1-13
I have drawn largely on the insights offered by BJ Malina in his Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. And also on one of my honours papers in which I did a socio-rhetorical exegesis of the parable of Lazarus and Dives.
Buy it here (The Malina Book)... (but its out of stock at the moment)
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First of all, I would take this reading through to 16 and not 13 - I'm sure we can bend the lectionary a bit.
The pericope is part of a larger set running from 15:1 through to 17:10 - they are all united by location and separated by addressee. Jesus addresses the lost sheep, coin, brother/son parables to the Pharisees (Who grumble about him because he loves people whom they consider to be rejected by God.)
Within earshot of the Pharisees he then addresses the shrewd manager parable to the disciples, the Pharisees ridicule Jesus and he responds (to the Pharisees) with the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
(Remember that Luke is quite sophisticated in the construction of his narrative - this grouping together of parables and addressees is therefore quite significant - a better understanding of each element is gained through a reading of the whole scene!)
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About the parable (some social analysis):
The rich man's manager is probably a slave born into his household, he is dependant on the rich man for everything - food, housing, livelihood, therefore losing his job as manager (seeing as he is good for nothing other than being a manager) will render him destitute and homeless.
He comes up with a clever plan, his rich man has rejected him, he needs a new household of which to be a part. Unfortunately his role as the rich man's debt collector would have made him quite unpopular in the community; so he tries to win favour with other rich people and shrewdly reduces their debts to his rich man, his plan is to gain favour with them so that they will employ him (welcome him into their houses) because in this C1 Mediterranean society one good turn deserves another (there is certainly no such thing as a free lunch).
The thing is - debts can never be written off - they simply change form... instead of owing the rich man wheat or oil (and lots of it) the people indebted now owe honour and fidelity to the rich man...
By writing off debts the manager has indebted the debtors to himself - but seeing as he is the rich man's property this credit is automatically bestowed on the rich man - who is now held in high esteem probably by a whole village of people (the amounts owed are similar to what a whole village might owe in taxes).
The rich man is pleased because the people honour him and he is forced to keep his manager because his manager is the custodian of the debt owed to him now owed in a different form, loyalty and honour.
(It's all a bit of a mind bend because we do things quite differently in C21 SA!)
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So far in this set of parable pericopes Jesus has used examples from life to illustrate what kind of heart God has: What shepherd in his right mind wouldn't rescue a lost sheep? What women wouldn't turn the house over to find a lost coin? What father (in his right mind) would not welcome his own child home?
These commendable things that people do must always be trumped by the goodness of God, because God is better than people.
The parable of the shrewd manager is another illustration from life... and Jesus ends it with: "...the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." Is Jesus showing the religious establishment of the day that the realm of commerce is also a moral example to them?
The Pharisees are not happy about Jesus who acts as the shrewd manager did in winning favour for Yahweh... He is being too merciful, forgiving too many debts hanging out with tax collectors and sinners! But how much more merciful will God be if a rich man, a lover of wealth can forgo his love of money and act mercifully.
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Later, verses 19 to 31 tell the story of the rich man and Lazarus - the rich man never offers Lazarus grace and is therefore condemned to 'hell' - separated from Lazarus and Abraham by a wall he created (very brief exegesis).
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The Pharisees are not prepared to offer the kind of grace (dishonest wealth) which God has offered, they cling to it as if it were their own to hold on to. Not willing to share it with tax collectors and sinners they are not willing to act as brokers of God's grace to the world; Israel was called to be a light to the world (the children of the light) yet they serve power and status - unwilling to compromise any of these for the sake of God's love to all peoples.
And so Jesus concludes and let me take it to 16: "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; Good news of the Kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force..." (Everyone!) But (and I imagine Jesus shaking his head - it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.)
You Pharisees still cling to the letter of the law! But God is reaching out to the lost and sinful and showing them how much he loves them.
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I think this parable is teaching us to be good custodians of God's grace. To take the free grace we have been given (the dishonestly gained wealth) and offer it to others - in that way we gain honour for God!
(Why is so little made of Jesus final command to the disciples - to go and do what he has been doing - and that thing is to forgive people... what you forgive on earth will be forgiven because you are the custodians of God's grace.)
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