In this parable about a manager and his master (Luke 16:1-13), we have one of the most resented parables in gospels. The reason for this is clear. It is a shockingly obnoxious story about deception that seems to say things about GOD we don’t like. Or worse, it leads good people to make ridiculous cover for it.

I contend that it doesn’t actually say this. Mostly because we impose a literary character to the parable itself, rather than the whole teaching. In fact, it is a clever means of getting us to see our own complicity in our world.

Eating Scripture is a short video series in which we explore the juicy and the crunchy in this week’s gospel in four minutes or fewer.