In the forty or so parables that Jesus tells in the first three Gospels there are lots of twists and surprises along the way – but perhaps none is quite as perplexing as the one that we find in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the unjust steward. It is enough to give a moralist apoplexy – why does it seem that Jesus is praising the actions of this man who has been dismissed from his employment for being wasteful with his rich master’s estate, and how can he tell us to use money to build eternal dwellings? One of the difficulties is that the parable is so far removed from our common experience that the basic meaning is difficult to ascertain, leading to all manner of interpretations across the years from both scholars and saints.
Recorded at St Paul’s, 8am (9’26”)
Sunday 25, Year C. Luke 16:1-13.