Honestly Speaking

Can you be just a little dishonest?

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” - Luke 16:1-13

Jesus once asked which of the two sons did the work of the father, the one who said he would and didn't, or the one who said he wouldn't but he did.

Obviously, the one who refused but went into the fields was the one who did the work, but I wonder, which one was being honest and which dishonest?

At first, they answered honestly, didn't they?  One said he would go and the other said he wouldn't.

But later, something changed.  

I was watching a Netflix series called The Railway Men.  It is an amazng story of the men of the railway in India who went against their management to save people from a chemical leak that killed 15,000.  It is based on a true story.

At one point, the station master locks away money in the safe in his office.  A robber who knows this is where the money is kept pretends to be a police officer and has a plan to rob the money.

But there is a scene where the two are in the office and a woman who works for the station m aster comes in crying.  Her daughter is getting married and more guests have come so she needs to borrow money.

The station master gives all he has in his wallet and then asks the fake police officer to contribute the rest.  He looks at the station master and the woman, and he relents.  He gives the money and comments to himself that he is being a fool.

In that scene, we see temptation played out.

The station master is shown to be totally honest, giving from his own rather than from the money in the safe.  While the robber is shown to have a heart.

In the parable, Jesus gives us something to think about.  Who are we in this picture?  Are we the one who was given one talent?  What would we have done?

If we truly believed the master was cruel and dishonest, would we have buried the coin or invested it?

There are consequences to being honest in a corrupt world.  But there may come a time when we have to decide.  Do we go with the flow or go against the tide?

We may have to pay the price for making the decision to do what is right.  

I believe that is the point of the parable.

More to come...