This is a very difficult parable to interpret. It is found only in Luke and not in the other gospels. Not found probably because it seems that Jesus is praising dishonesty.

Over the centuries, scholars have offered several explanations of why Jesus praises a dishonest accountant.

In the gospel, there is an audience for this story: the Pharisees. The ones who follow the Law of Moses – all 613 Commandments – to the letter. Actually, if one were to follow all 613, one would be tied up as it were in excessive legalism. And legalism would be the goal, not a means to a goal.

You are football players and you have to follow the rules. If you don’t and the refs see it, you get penalized. That’s what keeps football from becoming a free-for-all.

It would be a mistake to take that fact and make it an analogy for one’s spiritual life. There are rules of behavior in life. And there are consequences for bad choice, and bad behavior. The punishment is in the behavior – and, if serious enough – can be even more serious.

But there is something in the parable that can be a corrective to our sense of guilt when we do break the rules – I’m not talking here about football infractions, such as off-sides or unnecessary roughness. I’m talking about the larger consequences of serious misbehavior of the category we call sin. God wipes away our guilt in such matters whenever we ask him.

We are alive by God’s will and God intends that we live with him forever. In the meanwhile, we have to live our lives here on Earth in order to be ready for life after our time is up.

That means in large part how do we handle the necessary details of life – for students that means more than just academics, graduation, and our future professions. It means becoming the full, complete human person we are destined to be.

One of the goals I hear often from students is they want to be successful. That’s a noble aspiration. However, the key is what will one do with success? Will it be for oneself, or for the benefit of others? Will we give of our talents and abilities to make this world – often called a valley of tears – into a more loving, caring world – a world where hatreds are so deep and irrational that people are mindlessly killing one another?

I don’t think that the steward (or in modern terms, the accountant) in this story did a bad thing. In order for the master to know about this, he must have been present. He saw what the servant was doing and did not object. Perhaps he knew he had originally overcharged his debtors and the servant was doing him a favor. And the servant was making friends by lowering their debts, although I wouldn’t trust those friends once I lost my job.

What the servant is doing is making the master look good.

The point of the story is much beyond changing promissory notes. He is preparing for a new life of honest behavior. The money saved should go to the poor. He has made that possible.

In a like manner, how we handle the gifts we have – and everyone has talents – is our preparation not only for a guilt-free life, but a life of service to others, a proper use of what ultimately belongs to God.

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