Before we have a look at another new parable for this Sunday, it would be helpful I think to take a little time with our first reading, this short passage from the book of Amos. If you don’t know Amos, he was a prophet who lived in the 8th century before Christ, and he preached in Northern Israel. One of the very important themes of his message is his cry for social justice, which is what today’s passage is about. Amos is writing in the post-davidic period (= The succession of King David), a time where the upper class in Israel had greatly increased its wealth in dishonest ways, mainly by cheating the poor. In our text, Amos accuses the merchants to trick their scales when they sell grains. He says that the merchants make the “ephah small” (the ephah was a dry measure, the size of a bushel) and the “shekel great” (the shekel was a silver coin). By this, Amos means that when the people came to buy food (or to sell their harvest), the merchants took advantage of them. Probably because the poor were unable to read, and therefore unable to check on the size or value of the goods, the merchants lied to them about the fairness of the deal so they could make the maximum profit. On top of that, when the poor got indebted to them (because of the high prices they practiced), they would literally sell them (as slaves), even if the amount of their debt was “a pair of sandals” – which was probably not a lot of money and also a first necessity. Amos points out the injustice of the system. He also accuses the merchants to sell “the sweepings of the wheat”, that is the food of inferior quality, the leftover they should have discarded or given for free – as God’s Law asked them to do.
Indeed, what maybe lost on us in those lines that would have been very clear to the people Amos was talking to, is how their dealings (and their deceit) were opposed to all that God’s Torah (= God‘s Law) taught them to do. Although those people acted religious, respected the Sabbath (the day of rest and the day of worship), Amos says that they could not wait for the Sabbath to be over so they could go back to making profits by cheating the poor – a hypocrisy that only aggravated their first misbehavior. Actually, God’s Law had lots to say about trustworthy markets and fair means of exchange: For example, we find in Deuteronomy (25:15) the following commandment: “You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure” (Amos accuses the merchants to do exactly the opposite). Also in the Law, the poor and wild animals are provided with food (Exodus 23:10-11), slaves are given release to freedom after six years (Dt 15:12-18), those in deep debt are forgiven their debts (Dt 15:1-11). Again, according to Amos, the merchants practice exactly the opposite of what God commanded them.
In this, their deception did not only cheat the poor but it cheated God himself in the first place. According to the prophet then, we could say that on the scales of God‘s justice, the merchantsare all found wanting.
We can be shocked by their behavior, and we should be, yet it should also be pretty obvious that it’s not only about the Hebrews in the 8th century BC, and the words of the prophet Amos have still something to say to us today. In fact, except for a few exceptions and new initiatives, our economy is still aiming at making the maximum profit or saving the most money, and this, even when don’t openly cheat, we try to make the most benefit or to save the most money at the expanse of the quality of our resources, the integrity of our environment, the well being of our cattle and the salary of the workers. Our relationships with money, the importance we give to money is sadly given priority over God’s Law that asks us to take care of the created world and of each other.
In this, as the Hebrew merchants of the 8th century BC, we are also found wanting on the scales of God’s justice. We are in debt for the ways we have been looking for our personal benefit, or would it be only our own survival, and ended up creating a society (and a world) that is deeply broken
This is I guess a good place to start with our parable today.And indeed we need some context, because this is a strange parable, isn’t it? Jesus tells to his disciples the story of a man who has mismanaged the property of his Master. Not just accidentally, because he was incompetent, but because he has been cheating his Master. Because of this dishonesty, the man is about to be fired. Instead of repenting of his bad dealings though, the man starts thinking about the ways he can save himself by making friends with his Master’s debtors, and adding to his first deceit, he falsifies the books to lower the amounts due by the debtors, so (he wishes) they would have pity on him when he loses all he possess, and out of gratefulness, they would grant him a job or at least some sort of material help and hospitality. Now what is really troubling is that Jesus seems to recommend to his disciples to act like this manager. Indeed, this is how the parable ends: “The Master commended the dishonest manager because he has acted shrewdly [and] I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of dishonest wealth so when it is gone, they may welcome you into their eternal homes.”
Is Jesus asking his disciples to cheat their Masters, to be dishonest in their dealings and to use money to buy people off? Probably not. I don’t believe so and most commentators and hearers of the Scriptures do not believe so either. Luke did not believe so. He actually adds a few lines at the end of the parable that are other sayings of Jesus that make it quite clear that Jesus never asked anyone to be dishonest. Quite the opposite, Jesus says: Be faithful in very little, be faithful even if wealth is deceptive in itself, serve God instead of serving money.
So what is the parable really about? This is where, I think, the context of the prophecies of Amos can really help us to get a better understanding. Like the dishonest manager, we are all in debt. On God’s scale of justice, we have all be found wanting as the man is found wanting in the management of his Master’s property. As we have already observed, when we read Amos, it would be very foolish of us to think those words are only for the Hebrews of the 8th century BC. We would be very blind if we weren’t able to recognize also the way our economy works most of the time: seeking the maximum profit and so on. It’s also a criticism of our own way of dealing with one another in everyday life: seeking our own advantage, our own survival instead of caring for one another. In this, we have all violated God’s Law and we are all deeply indebted to God – a theme that comes back very often in Luke’s parables as a metaphor for sin (cf: The parable of the unforgiving servant, Luke 6:27-38).
We have all a debt we cannot reimburse. The mismanagement of our resources on earth is a reflection of the mismanagement of the resources God has given us. Jesus is not talking about worldly economy but about divine economy of course, the economy of the kingdom of God. In God’s economy, according to God’s Law, we are all as doomed as the dishonest manager.
And yet. And yet Jesus says, although we can never pay God back, there is a way out for us. As the manager is smart by forgiving the debt of the other debtors of his Master, we should also forgive the debts of God’s other debtors, our neighbors, and make friends with them by seeking reconciliation. There may be no way we can make things all right with God for all the ways we have broken God’s Law, but we can make it better with one another and then maybe God will forgive as the Master did end up recommending the manager for being so smart. This is what we say in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins,for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us“ (Luke 11:4). This may mean the forgiveness of an actual monetary debt, but it is mostly about our willingness to not hold accountable those who have wronged us. Jesus tells his disciples that the “children of this age” are able to see their interest in making friends with letting go of financial arrangements, he asks his disciples if “as children of light” they will be able to see the benefit of seeking reconciliation with their neighbor so they can find reconciliation with God.
This should of course leave us with a lot to think about: Are we able to recognize the way we have dealt unjustly with the resources, gifts and opportunities God has given us and with the people God has put in our care? If so, do we use our own mistakes, our awareness of our own weaknesses and unfaithfulness to forgive the ways in which others have be unjust to us? If we lower their debts towards us, could they also lower our debts towards them and in the meantime the whole debt humanity has towards God? If we do so can we imagine a future in the “eternal dwellings” where we are all reconciled with one another? Jesus makes God’s forgiveness possible for us, but we still have to show in our dealings that this is what we are looking for.