From Life @ St. David's

Today’s gospel is one of the most difficult passages in all of scripture. One must know something of ancient business practice to understand it.  More importantly, one must be willing to here what Jesus is trying to say in it. 

It appears at first glance that Jesus encourages dishonesty. Jesus says, “If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?”  What can this mean? 

The story, though difficult to modern ears, is very simple to the people who heard it.
A business owner employs a manager who runs his operation.  It involves trading commodities (oil and wheat).  In the ancient world credit functioned by promising a return of a greater volume of product. 

If you give me 50 containers of wheat in exchange for 50 jugs of oil, I know that I can trade the wheat for 60 jugs of oil.  I don’t have 50 jugs of oil, but I can borrow 50 jugs from the oil merchant next door, with the promise of returning the oil merchant 55 jugs of oil.  I profit 5 jugs of oil. 

I do that enough I will become a very wealthy man. 

Now I have a steward who works for me.  He figures out that he can get 70 jugs oil for 50 containers of wheat.  But he does not tell me.  He knows I am happy with a 5 jug of oil profit.  He collects the extra 10 jugs of oil for himself, gives me the 5 jugs I expect, and everyone is happy. 

Everyone is happy until I discover he is taking advantage of me.  I fire him and tell him to hand over the books.  But before he hands over the books, he goes to my clients and gives them deep discounts.  He takes off his cut, but I retain my profit. 

He loses his money.  But he has a larger goal in mind.  He wants to keep his job.  So he has cooked up this scheme.  Having received deep discounts, my clients now think I am a generous man.  What do I do?  If I follow through and fire my manager, everyone will think I fired him because he was the one being generous, and that I am really just a greedy, power-hungry jerk. 

So instead of firing him, I commend him for his shrewdness.  And the truth of the matter is I want people like that working me. 

Jesus’ lesson is simple.  A faithful person must not be naïve and simplistic in their understanding of the world.  If businessmen are willing to think hard about dishonest wealth and act with shrewdness for the sake of making money, ought not faithful people be willing to think at least as hard, and act with even greater shrewdness for the sake of saving souls?

To act shrewdly requires that a person look closely at the human experience to understand what makes people tick.  We can not truly love one another, unless we are willing to stop, look, and listen.  We must truly understand the challenges of people’s lives, before we can truly support them in the place where they need it the most.

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