25th Sunday of Ordinary Time
9-22-19
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The Unjust Servant
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When we read the Gospel of Luke 16: 1-13, we
hear about an employee who cheats on his employer. A manager who
manipulates his master’s money to make friends for his forced retirement
and a master with Jesus’ approval, praising the dishonest manager
because he acted shrewdly. What brand of business ethics is this? If you
know something about the economic realities at the time of Jesus you
would realize that what the manager is doing is reducing the interest;
interest that he would have undoubtedly shared in if he had remained on
the job.
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So, in fact, the master did not lose any of
his original investment, just the excess padding. The owner shakes his
head in admiration, clever little fellow. I fire him and he trades on
disaster to ensure his future. He approves. What precisely is Jesus
approving? What has this parable to do with the Kingdom of God?
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Simply this: the dishonest manager at a
critical moment in his life-when his entire future was at stake-acted
decisively to cope with the crisis. He planned shrewdly to secure his
future.
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So for Christians Jesus preaching of the
Kingdom brings a crisis in our lives. We have to act decisively, plan
shrewdly, to ensure a place in God’s kingdom. It sounds a little
abstract. What does it say to you? What does it mean in the here and
now? I think we might want to recall the end of the parable.
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There is the meat; no servant can serve two
masters. You cannot give yourself to God and money. For to this end
Christ died and lived again. Yet, the President of Harvard tells us that
the stated goal of the incoming freshmen is money, power and
reputation. I do not think that the streets of Cambridge are unique.
Money, power and reputation are not evil.
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Joseph of Arimathea, who boldly buried the
Body of Jesus, had money to burn. The Pope possesses incomparable power.
Mother Teresa had world-wide reputation years before she died. These
can be wonderful gifts; but also, perilous possessions. Why, because
they can lead to evil, to dishonesty, injustice and self-love. They can
lead to the devastation of the human spirit. This happens whenever goal
number one is not God but myself.
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Whenever you’re primary purpose is not
reverence and service to God my primary purpose is me. You and I may
never be people of great wealth, power or reputation. But we might have
false gods, someone or something that we worship other than the one true
God.
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Some of us do not feel worthy, to come
closer to God. One man said, “Some of the things that I get mixed up in
during the week are so bad. That I would feel strange going to church on
Sunday, even my family calls me a shady character.” Jesus often used
shady characters in His stories. And we have one today, but take a
deeper look at him.
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Yes, he is a crook; he is accused of wasting
the master’s possessions. The very same words of accusations used in
the parable of the prodigal son who wasted his father’s possessions in a
far country. Is this steward a sign like the prodigal son of the
incredible and underserved Grace of God? John Newton called it amazing
grace.
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And, indeed, it is; if our Lord knew us so
well why would He care enough to die for us? To that question, the
gospel gives one answer. There is no greater love than this to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends. Christ looked upon all our wheeling and
dealing that nailed him to the cross. And we expect Him to judge us for
our sin. Instead, He saves us with His grace. Jesus was considered
unrespectable during His earthly life. He was executed on a cross among
thieves.
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He was not afraid to eat with sinners, He
was not afraid to use sinners in His stories. For this we can be
grateful, what if God was like a respectable bookkeeper? What if all of
us ended our lives audited before a God who only rewarded those whose
accounts were paid in full? What if perfect lives only were allowed in
the record books of heaven? Think about your life, aren’t you glad that
Jesus can see good even in a crook? We are all called to be Saints and
what is a Saint? Just a sinner who keeps trying.
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