Plot Twist by Father Ian Maher There is something quite exciting in reading a book or watching a film that catches you unawares with an unexpected twist in the plot. The twist demands a rethinking and reevaluation of what has gone before. It can subvert expectations and challenge assumptions.
The twist comes in verse 8, which shows that the rich man had discovered the crafty measures taken by his manager before presenting the books. Perhaps one of the tenant debtors had reported him. Yet rather than being outraged further, the rich man commends the manager for his actions.
Jesus knew this well as evidenced by his masterly use of parables. Repeatedly he leads his listeners along in telling every day stories, but then leaves them to ponder the implications of a conclusion that defies conventional wisdom.
This suggests that rich man was not a straight arrow himself. He was certainly breaking the spirit of the law about usury if not the letter. Magnanimity may have been more prudent than raising questions about his manager’s dishonesty, and maybe even his own.
Luke 16.1-8, a story about a dishonest manager, is one of Jesus’ most uncomfortable parables because he seems to be setting up the unlikeliest of characters as someone to follow as an example.
All in all, the parable cannot be about seeing the dishonest manager as a moral example. What Jesus is doing is posing a challenge by means of a contrast. Anyone hearing the parable then or now will know all about selfinterest. It is the closeness to home of the parable that disturbs and pushes us to ponder just what is being commended if not dishonesty.
It tells of how the manager of a rich man’s property seems to have been caught out in some dodgy dealings, and who engages in further dishonesty by writing off some debts of tenants, hoping for their goodwill towards him after he, presumably, is dismissed by the rich man.
I believe what Jesus is doing when he contrasts the ‘children of this age’ with the ‘children of light’ is highlighting the ingenuity and resourcefulness that is channelled in to our material ambitions, compared with the relative lack of such qualities in relation to furthering the values of the kingdom.
Taken at face value the parable flies in the face of the whole thrust of the Bible where dishonesty and false dealing is condemned repeatedly. So what are we to make of a parable that has a villain as its hero? - 68 -
