Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, March 6, 2013 Read - Luke 16:1-15 If chapter 15 is one of the masterpieces of Luke’s gospel, chapter 16 has left most of Luke’s readers scratching their heads. That is at least true of the first half of this chapter. Once again Luke is mostly striking out on his own. Our reading for today is found only in Luke. One of Luke’s themes has been the perils of wealth. That is clearly the focus in this chapter. Those of us who live in prosperous countries may find Luke difficult to hear – maybe that’s why this chapter is so confusing. Many have observed that the chapter seems disjointed. Luke has brought together a variety of material. That may be true but there is one observation that links things together. Twice Luke begins by saying, “There was a rich man…” (Luke 16:1 & 16:19). Luke means all of this to fit together and the parable at the end of the chapter may well be the key to understanding what comes before it. That parable is another of Luke’s great stories. What troubles most of us about today’s reading is that Jesus seems to praise a scoundrel. Many have attempted to portray the steward as something other than the scoundrel he was – but Luke clearly tells us he was “dishonest!” He was a scoundrel no question about it! His actions upon getting caught do set him up to prosper even after he is dismissed – and there is something amazingly crafty about that. But shouldn’t such a one be condemned? Of course it is his employer who commends him for his brilliant scheme and not Jesus or Luke, but then why does the story end by advising the hearers to “make friends for [themselves] by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may be receive into the eternal habitations?” (Luke 16:9).What can that possibly mean? No commentator I have read seems to know. We are all left wondering. One is also left wondering exactly where the story ends and the commentary begins. Does the story of the dishonest steward end at verse 8 – or perhaps even in the middle of verse 8? Does it end with verse 9? How do verses 10-13 fit together with what has come before? Has Luke joined things once separated together to try make a point? There is the possibility that Luke does share one small part of what he says with Matthew. Luke ends by saying, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount had said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). I must say that this is one of the most confusing pieces of scripture to me. Thankfully, it is not one of the more important pieces of scripture and I am sure that we can get along just fine without being able to understand it. Anyone else like to venture an interpretation? Luke does end this section by pointing out that the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, scoffed at Jesus when they heard it. Maybe they didn’t get it either. Maybe I am too much like the Pharisees since I don’t seem to get it either. The last sentence lifts up one of the points that Luke has been making all along in his gospel – God is about lifting up the lowly and bringing down the exalted. I get that. And perhaps when we look at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we will understand a bit better.