Creative reflections, thoughts and ideas on the parables Jesus told.
An extract from the book
The Dishonest Steward
The manager puts down the phone and frowns. What to do now? Soon he will be without a job. Soon he will need the help of others. He studies the pile of money on his desk and smiles. That’s it, that’s the answer. Everybody round here is broke due to the cost of living, they could all do with a handout. So he'll take a risk. He’ll use his boss’s money to make everyone look good.
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The popular tale of the prodigal son is closely followed by one of the least popular, the parable of the manager (or steward) who gets sacked and so goes round cutting everyone’s bills in half. It’s a challenging one. So I am very grateful for a helpful talk I heard from David Cook. It turns out that the star of this parable is not the ‘rumoured to be dishonest’ manager, or his boss who acts without properly investigating the hearsay. So who is the star here in this Luke 16 tale?
The steward’s boss only hears a rumour about the steward’s dishonesty, and sacks him on the strength of that. The boss doesn’t investigate or have a proper conversation with the steward. He believes the hearsay. So the boss doesn’t come out of it with too much integrity. The steward may not have been dishonest at all. He certainly was shrewd though. He quickly starts visiting all those people who owe his master money. Those people would have been relatively poor. They were not well-off and anyone reducing the bills they owed would have been doing them a great favour. A huge favour.
As a result of the steward’s radical actions several things happen. The people praise his boss for being generous. The people themselves are financially helped. And the steward is applauded for his behaviour. Everyone comes out of this looking good. So who is the hero here? Drum roll… the money! The money has been a source of blessing for everyone.
It has made the boss look generous, it has gained the steward popularity and friends, and it has relieved the financial burden on the people of the town. Money is powerful, we all rely on it, and here is a tale where it has been used for good.
So how does Jesus wrap up this strange tale? By talking of generosity, and encouraging us to use money positively. I recall a conversation where a few of us discussed the question – ‘If we won the lottery how much would we give away?’ My reply was along the lines of, I’d give away more today in this conversation, than I probably would if I actually won the lottery. In other words, the theory of radical generosity is wonderful, until we have to apply it!
Jesus goes on to talk about being faithful in the small matters of life, so that we will be faithful in the large ones. This reminds me of his comment at the end of the parable about the talents given to servants. Those using what they have wisely are told that they will be given more to look after, as they have been faithful in the small things.
Jesus says one other thing here, he focuses on the true riches of heaven. Our generous living on earth stores up treasure in heaven. Treasure that will never be stolen or destroyed.
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The Cleaner
The boss’s phone has been ringing all morning. People are so grateful for the way he has slashed his prices in half! They can’t believe it, but in this time of high inflation it changes everything for them. The irony is, it isn’t the boss who’s slashed the prices and made his shop so popular. It’s his store cleaner. The woman he has thought about sacking. But he can hardly let her go now. She’s a hero. And she has made him look better than ever. And his store is now packed with grateful customers.
Luke 16 vv 1-13, John 7 vv 37-38
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A Parable Prayer
A servant loses their job due to a rumour, but instead of hitting out, they go around reducing the bills of all those poor folk who owe their master money. Thus making the master look good, and blessing the poor folk too.
Lord, money governs so much of what we can or can’t do. Save us please from making it our focus. Show us how we can use our gifts to bless and affirm others, and so bless you and ourselves. Please open our eyes to those things we have, whether they feel ‘spiritual’ or not, those things in our lives which can be channels for your living water, to revive others and shower kindness on the world around.
Amen
The Lost Sheep/Phone/Keys
A while back a builder appeared on a famous talent show on the TV. He had come on with a simple but catchy little rap. It was about him losing his keys and his phone and asking everyone where they were. The great thing about his rap was that it was repetitive and before long the audience were all joining in with him. And it struck me that it was their story. They’d all lost their keys and phone at some time. We all have. So we can easily join in with this. It has real life resonance.
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Jesus often told stories that came from ordinary life. No doubt people lost their valuable sheep and would go out searching. You know what sheep are like. They’re famous for wandering off. The grass is always greener beyond the fence. So Jesus took this image and told a story that would resonate with his listeners, it would make them laugh too, because they knew all about lost sheep. Not only that but the next time they lost a sheep, or saw someone else searching, they would be reminded of Jesus’s story, and the God who has come looking for us.
If Jesus were here today I believe he would be telling the story of the lost phone, or the lost keys, or the lost contact lenses, or the lost glasses, or the lost USB stick, or the lost... (feel free to fill in the blank here). The kind of story that resonates with us, the kind of story that we will live out in a few days’ time. The kind of story that will regularly remind us of the God who has come close to find us and rescue us.
The man in Jesus’s story of a lost sheep is quite wealthy. You had to be to have a 100 sheep. Was he foolish to leave the 99 on the hill? Did he have hired workers who would take care of them? Either way he was willing to take a risk and go hunting himself. He wanted to be the one to find his precious animal.
The Lord is our shepherd we are told in Psalm 23. God is our good shepherd we are told in Ezekiel 34 v 11. And in John 10 v 11 Jesus echoes this, reminding his listeners that hired workers don’t care for the sheep like he does. In Isaiah 53 v 6 we are told that we have all gone astray, not just one lost sheep but the whole flock. And so the good shepherd has come looking for us. He will not only find us and carry us home, he has taken the pain and the punishment and the burden of our meandering and wandering. Of our mistakes and regrets. He has jumped over the fence and left the safety of the field, searching in the wastelands and war zones of life to find us and bring us home.
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The Farmer
I was out a-walking,
just the other day −
When I saw a man across the road, across the way.
He was looking down, well,
he was looking bad.
He was looking like he'd lost the only friend he had.
He said he was the farmer,
he said he was the boss.
He said he was the best sheep farmer that there was.
But he'd gone an' lost a lamb –
it had run off in the heat,
and all that was left was the droppings in the street.
We headed out of town,
checked the restaurants too;
and we looked for the joints serving up lamb stew.
We searched high an' low
till the day was gettin' dark,
and the wolves began to howl and the dogs began to bark.
And it was gettin' scary
and it was gettin' weird −
when the bright eyes shone and the rabbits all appeared.
But he didn't give up,
not a chance, not a shot;
he was looking for the lamb like the only thing he got.
And at last − what a shock!
Siree − what a fright!
When we heard this bleatin' come a-beatin' through the night.
We found this lamb just
a-quakin' in a rut,
with his nose all bashed and his ears all cut.
And the farmer he just
reached down from above,
and he picked up the fella and he gave him a hug.
And his big old eyes
they filled with tears:
he'd found his sheep and he'd lost his fears.
And as I strode home
I thought about the lamb,
an' I thought about the day, an' I thought about the man.
And I said to myself −
as I raised my hat:
‘I hope somebody cares for me like that...’
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Wandering
A sheep wanders off and is ambushed by troubles. It stumbles into a ditch and gets snagged in a wiry hedge. Distracted by the wide open spaces, it forgets which way it came. How it needs the good shepherd to come and find it, to break the barbs that hold it captive, to carry it home and restore it. How you and I need that shepherd, in this world where so much can lead us astray, trap us and stop us from moving on.
Luke 15 vv 1-7
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A Parable Prayer
Thank you Lord for this story of the shepherd who will risk everything to bring rescue, looking high and low, day and night, for the one who has slipped away. The shepherd who has come to search for the lost.
Thank you that you keep on searching us out, looking for the lost parts of our lives, offering rescue and redemption. Unafraid of the danger and the dark. Help us please if we feel lost, helpless, or weak today. Restore and give us moments of calming green pastures please.
Amen
The Two Builders
You have to dig down to reach the good stuff. The rock. Start building too soon and there’ll only be sand under your home. There’s bound to be a storm sooner or later. There always is, everyone knows that storms come. So she has to keep digging. Even though her aching bones are crying out for her to stop. Keep going, she tells herself. It’s worth it. If you want the house to stay up, you have to keep going down. She takes a break and glances across at the wreckage across the way. The remnants of lives and sandcastles in the dunes and on the beaches. Skeleton homes. Precious bits strewn like broken bones across the sand. She returns to digging.
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This parable only works if you read the three chapters that lead up to it. Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Three chapters in which Jesus speaks about peace, mercy, justice, persecution, anger, lust, temptation, revenge, enemies, giving, praying, fasting, money, worry, criticising, perseverance, the way to heaven and bearing fruit. This parable about building our lives on a good solid foundation relates to taking note of this teaching and doing our best to apply it, with his help.
It relates to other teaching too, of course, but it specifically comes at the end of this extensive list about following Jesus.
Building on sold rock is constant work in progress. Feels like that to me anyway. At times I have the kitchen and the lounge on a good footing, but the downstairs loo and the garden shed less so. My office can feel like it’s perched on a precipice at times. Sometimes I have the energy to keep digging down into the solid foundation of God, and sometimes I settle for the easy but perilous way of the world.
The writers of the Bible are honest about this. In Acts chapter 10 Peter has his startling vision about eating all the wrong food. This is to prepare him to reach across boundaries to share the good news with gentiles. Something he does brilliantly. But we hear that later he reneges on this and stops eating with the gentiles. Paul writes about this in Galatians 2 vv 11-13. Peter had been a radical example of what it was to share the good news of Jesus with those who were different, now here he is pulling back from this and influencing others too. He had been standing on solid rock in Acts chapter 10, but he had wandered into a sand dune in Galatians 2. It happens to us all.
The great news is we can always head back in the direction of rock whenever we look down and find sand in our shoes.
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The Rock
They are arguing now. About rock, and what it looks like. He says it’s soft and warm and grainy and orange. She says it’s hard and cool and solid and grey. But he likes soft, warm, orange stuff. He wants to live there. So he has convinced himself it’s rock. And he’s sure he read somewhere that this is rocky enough to build your life on. But she is adamant. Soft, grainy, orange stuff is not rock. No matter how attractive it is. No matter how many other people say it is rock. No matter how many houses are being built on it. So they agree to differ, and start building two houses. And every so often he takes a break and wonders about those two huge ominous clouds in the sky, surely that means good weather’s coming. Doesn’t it? He’s sure he read that somewhere.
Matthew 7 vv 24-25
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A Parable Prayer
Lord, in this age of storms of all kinds, thank you that we can build on you. And thank you that we can set our lives on the foundation of your presence. Show us what that means today, save us from building on sand, and keep on leading us to the rock of your rescue, love and salvation please.
Amen