16:1,2
In some ways this is a rather strange parable. The audience for the parable consists of Jesus’ disciples and the Pharisees (v14). The rich man has a manager who looks after his possessions. However, the manager was accused of being wasteful. So the manager is called in to give an account and basically given the sack. We will all be called to give an account for our lives, and for the use we have made of God’s possessions. We will also be found to have been wasteful with at least some of it.
16:3-7
It seems that the manager had a short time before the sacking took effect, he wasn’t required to vacate his desk immediately! The manager essentially had no other career that he could fall back on, not even begging. So instead he works out a plan to ensure that others will treat him kindly. So he called in all the debtors, those who owed money to his master and drastically reduced the debts of these people. Now I immediate reaction is that he is acting dishonestly. Within the authority that he still had he was allowed to do this, but it would not be considered good business practice! Given this, and in attempt to get round the basic dishonesty of the actions, various attempts have been made to explain this. These include the manager not taking his commission, or reducing the debts to levels that the people could actually pay (better to get half the debt than no debt at all). All these attempts are rather silly. This is just a parable, and one with a single main point, so the manager did what the story tells us he did.
No comments:
Post a Comment