Biblical Text: Luke 16:1-15

The text is probably the hardest parable Jesus uttered. It doesn’t come with an explanation. The context immediately before and after it doesn’t really help. Or maybe I should say it would lead to an interpretation that would feel contrary to much of the gospel. And there really isn’t a “natural’ understanding that at least sets you on a fruitful path. It is as close to the feeling that Jesus said the parables were actually about (Mark 4:10-12) as you get – “Hear but not understand.”

I’m not so foolish as to say “I’ve got it the key.” But this sermon puts forward my understanding of the Parable of the Unrighteous Manager. And I think people shy away from this because it makes a comparison between Jesus and the unrighteous manager. They also shy away from it because it is explicitly Trinitarian. But Jesus compared himself to a thief entering the strong man’s house (Mark 3:27). And we Christians really need to drop the dregs of Unitarianism that we inherited. The Creed is the Father is the source, the Son was begotten of the Father before all worlds, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The sermon develops that and on into the parable itself.

The short key is that the Rich Man is the Father, the Unrighteous Manager is an incomplete Jesus in that he doesn’t trust the Father enough, and the debtors are us sinners. The encouragement is to trust the Father revealed by Jesus. We are never outside of the Father’s love. And there is no end to the Father’s bank account if you will. The unrighteous manager is like Abraham content with no destruction of Sodom if there are 10 righteous. We’ve all negotiated with God. It’s natural law-based thinking. And in the law we always sell God short. It’s his good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. And there we are trying to buy it. Jesus came and said to us, “write what you owe to zero.” And the Father accepted it. Because we are in his love. And it is all his anyway. You can’t empty his accounts. It’s been done, we just need to believe it.

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