A Strange (and relevant) Parable (as all of them are)

Luke 16:1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures [8] of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures [9] of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world [10] are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, [11] so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is anothers, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant 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 money.”

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In a previous post I meditated on God's feelings about money. Coming back to that topic, I love this parable because he admits that dirty money is only good for one thing - advancing the Kingdom. Come hell or high water, we should do what it takes to help people know God loves them, even if we have to spend money to do it. Since you can't take it with you, might as well bless others with it; and in the case of this manager, we see that it isn't really money that we are dealing with, it's debt. Like our national economy, our own lives are not valued in how much we earn, but rather in how much we owe and to whom. in the realm of sin and forgiveness, paying off the bottom line is impossible. The best we can do is curry favor with others by forgiving their debts (and passing on the toxic loan to Christ to carry on his back). The irony is that the owner of the debt actually endorses this practice. Instead of scolding the manager for shortchanging him, Jesus is implying that God will say, "good job", your forgiveness of their debts was essential for your acceptance and understanding of my forgiveness of you.