[NYer]

Awesome!

[the invisib1e hand]

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

great line. I don't do scifi, but great line.

[Nosterrex]

I preached on the pericope last Sunday, and I did not find it very difficult at all. I would suggest that consulting Matthew to interpret Luke is never a good idea. The point of the parable is the difference between the way the world thinks and the way that the children of light think. It is not that hard of a parable.

[nkycincinnatikid]

mark

[annalex]

The master of the steward has enough common sense to realize that, crook though he was, the dishonest steward at least knew the moral of the parable of the sheep and the goats: that if you hope to come to a happy ending when (not if) your luck in this world runs out, then you should do your best to get in good with the ones with whom the Judge will consult when He is deliberating His verdict about you on That Day: the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, and imprisoned.

Yes. It is not that mysterious.

The manager does something good and something bad. The good that he does is firstly, good in the economic mundane sense: when a business is burdened by "bad debt" -- that is, debt that won't be repaid because the debtor is too poor, -- it is good business practice to discount debt, that is, write off a part of the principal in order to motivate the debtor to uindertake the repayment of the rest. This is why the owner praises the manager.

The economic good is also a spiritual good, as it is an exercise of charity. Inadvertently, the self-serving motivation that the manager had turns out quite valid. This is why Jesus praises the manager indirectly advising us to make friends with "the mammon of iniquity".

But the manager did his discounting dishonestly: instead of suggesting that as a strategy to the owner, he falsified the records. Therefore, the parable concludes with the exhortation to honesty.

[Raycpa]

The simplest way to look at this is the steward is called dishonest from the start, this means he was likely overcharging or taking a larger share of the transaction than he should have. An indictment of the religious ruling class of Jesus time would also be that they high priests were taking a larger share of both the offerings and of God’s grace than they should have been doing.

A parallel indictment could have been made of Judas who was also dishonest with both the money and the grace entrusted to his care.

Jesus says the master was impressed with the steward when he returned this excess to others. You and I may be misers when it comes to using our gifts for others and we may overcharge for them until we realize that we are going to account for our actions to the master. When that realization, we should do our best to return the grace and gifts God has given us.

[QBFimi]

Mark for Isaiah study later.