Levi was puzzled. The last time Jesus told a story about a rich man whose steward was mismanaging the estate while the owner was away, the owner kicked the guy out and brought in a new men. He understood that. It was like God was the rich man and the Pharisees and the priests were the stewards, and Jesus’ followers were the new staff who were going to do everything right, and the Pharisees would be sorry. But here Jesus is talking as if God was going to let him get away with it! He’s talking as if there was some kind of an out for the bad guy. He knew he wasn’t the brightest lamp in the room, but he knew numbers. After all, he’d spent his whole life - until Jesus called him, that is - juggling books for the Romans, and he knew when things just didn’t add up. Finally he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Jesus, I don’t understand,” he said hesitantly. “Why did the owner give the manager any warning? Why didn’t he come in with a team of accountants and catch this joker red-handed? As it is, he cheated even more! And then he compliments the guy!”
Peter was glad someone else had asked. He was usually the first one, and he was kind of tired of being the singled out for being thick-headed. “That’s right, Jesus,” he chimed in. “It’s very confusing. That manager bilked his boss out of 50 extra jugs of olive oil and 20 containers of wheat. You can’t mean we should pocket a bit of the take for a rainy day, I mean, you’re always telling us not to worry about tomorrow! But it sounds to me like you’re telling us to hedge our bets, you know, have a second string to our bow in case the first plan doesn’t turn out right.”
“Don’t be dense, Peter!” said Andrew, giving him a brotherly thump on the arm. “He just told us yesterday that anyone “who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is [not] fit for the kingdom of God.” [Lk 9:62] If we try to keep a foot on two boats we’ll wind up getting dunked!”
“Well, if you’re so smart, you tell us what it means!” Thomas chimed in.
“Boys, boys,” said Jesus. “I want you to think, not squabble.”
“I’m trying to,” said Levi, “But it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. It may be smart, what he did, but it’s not good. And you keep telling us that it’s more important to be good than to be clever. Well, not in so many words, but you know what I mean.”
“Go back to the beginning,” said Jesus. “What’s the first thing that happens?”
Levi answered him, “The owner hears that the manager is wasting his property.”
“Right,” said Jesus. “Go on.”
Thomas said, “Are we supposed to take that personally? I mean, is this a message for all of us sinners or just the ones with power, the ones God put in charge who’ve blown it - like King Herod or the other rich Jews who cozy up to the Romans?”
“At this point you in the story you can say it applies to everyone,” he answered. “OK, what happens next?”
Levi said slowly, “He’s supposed to account for what he’s done. I mean, he actually is going to have to sit there and listen to the boss point out every underhanded or incompetent deal he ever made. He won’t be able to make excuses or explain anything away.
“That sounds like judgment day to me!” said Peter with a shiver.
“It can’t be,” said Levi, still thinking. “When judgment day comes there won’t be any time to fix things. No, it’s got to be something else.” He glanced up at Jesus, who nodded encouragingly at him. “He knows something bad is coming. He knows he can’t escape it, his life on easy street is over... Oh! I’ve got it! It’s not just life on easy street! It’s life in general! Are you telling us to be prepared for death?”
“Very good, Levi,” said Jesus.
“Wait a minute,” said Peter. “We’re all going to die, whether we’ve been honest or dishonest. So what’s the big deal about how he’s been a good manager or not? And what does it have to do with the bad guys being smarter than the good guys?”
“It’s about how he feels,” said Andrew, getting into the spirit of things. “If he’d been good at his job, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about, he wouldn’t have gone scurrying around like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter, and there wouldn’t have been a story. He had to be dishonest to put him in the right frame of mind.”
Levi agreed. “I can tell you right now, if the Romans had caught me skimming more than the usual I wouldn’t have just been out on my ear, I’d have been strung up for the crows. But if they had just pulled my contract, nobody I knew would have done anything but cheer - or laugh - if they saw me starving in the streets. That manager needed to make friends in a hurry.”
“That doesn’t explain enough,” said Thomas. “If the story is for everyone like Jesus said then it’s for honest people as well as dishonest ones.”
Andrew said slowly, “Is anyone honest enough - or skillful enough - that he can be sure the manager won’t find fault? And besides, people can lose their jobs for all kinds of reasons, it doesn’t even have to be something they did wrong.”
“It’s true that when something bad happens you start thinking about your future,” said Peter. "Remember a few years ago when I broke my ankle? If I hadn’t had a family business - you know, been able to count on you, Andrew, and the cousins, to take up the slack - I would have been in really bad shape. Rivka couldn’t have coped. You can’t go it alone in this world, and that’s a fact.”
Thomas objected. “You don’t buy friends and family. You can’t treat people like dirt for years and then expect them to turn around and like you just because you do them one favor."
“How could they trust him?” asked Levi. “They’d expect him to cheat them the minute their backs were turned, just the way he cheated his master. I still get the cold shoulder from most of the people I knew back in the old days, even though I’ve been with Jesus almost three years now. If I weren’t part of the package, so to speak, no one would give me a drink of water, let alone have me in their house.”
Nathaniel entered the conversation for the first time, “Well, he doesn’t know that! If all he’s ever thought about is money, maybe he thinks that money is how you get friends. Maybe he just didn’t know any better.”
Thomas, “There you are, Nat, always thinking the best of people, even scoundrels!” He appealed to Jesus, “It didn’t work, did it? He didn’t wind up buying his way out of trouble, did he?"
Andrew objected, “It must have worked. Jesus said the owner commended the manager for making friends with his dishonest wealth.” [v. 9]
Levi said slowly, thinking, “Maybe that’s not the point... He said ‘the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.’ [v. 8] The only smart thing the steward did was to take action when he saw the axe about to come down on his head.”
“That’s it!” exclaimed Peter. “It’s not so much what he did, it’s the fact that he acted at all. I’m right, aren’t I?” he asked, turning to Jesus. “It’s that he took the threat seriously and did something.”
Thomas added, “And it’s true that some people can be bought.”
Andrew laughed. “Not on my wages, they can’t! I’ll have to think of another way.”
“But why does that make the steward and people like him wiser than the all decent, good people who wouldn’t cut a corner if their life depended on it?” Peter demanded.
“It’s not about honesty. It’s about making friends,” said Levi. “All those decent good people you’re talking about? You don’t see it so much because you’re on the inside, but I’ll tell you there’s more backbiting and bickering at the village well or in the gate than I ever saw in a tavern with the rogues and grifters. I mean, they may sell you out when their own skin is at stake, but they’re good company on the whole. You can relax with them, and they’re always good for a round if they’ve got a full purse.”
Andrew said, “We were pretty nasty to you when Jesus invited you along, I remember. He came down really hard on us for that. Jesus is always looking out for people who no one else would spare a glance for.”
“Even children!” said Nathaniel, and they all laughed.
“Remember what he’s always saying, ‘The last shall be first’? [Lk 13:30] I think Jesus is saying we have to make friends with people we wouldn’t normally bother with because they’re likelier to get into heaven than we are.” Thomas said thoughtfully.
“But if that’s so what he’s trying to say is that we should use money to make friends. How did you put it, Rabbi? “Make friends for yourselves by means of ... wealth.” I still don’t like that idea,” Peter said. “Thomas was right when he said you can’t buy friends. Or if you can, the kind you can buy aren’t ones you really want.”
“It’s like those tavern rogues Levi mentioned,” said Andrew. “When their purses were full, they spent it on their friends, and when their friends were flush they’d return the favor. I’ll bet they didn’t keep accounts on a tablet to make sure they stayed even.”
“That’s what I meant,” said Levi. “Keeping their friends sweet is important enough to be worth a handful of coins. Oh, I’m not talking about all of them, you understand. Some of my old crowd would sell their grandmother for a copper and were always answering a call of nature when their turn to buy came around. What I’m saying is that when you know you’ll have to depend on your friends when your luck goes sour, you build in as much good will as you can along the way.”
Thomas objected, “But you just said that if the Romans had fired you, you wouldn’t have had a friend in the world.”
Levi shrugged. “Nobody likes tax collectors. They just drink their wine.”
“It’s all about loving your neighbor,” said Nathaniel suddenly. They all turned and stared at him, and he blushed, but went on. “What I mean is, if you love your neighbor, you’ll share whatever you have - money or food or your spare tunic - if your neighbor needs it. You’re not buying a friend, you’re being one. And a friend is one of those heavenly treasures Jesus talked about last week.”
They all sat still for a moment, and then as one turned around and looked at Jesus. He was smiling.
