Quotation
by Joshua Blanchard
I am of two minds about whether verse 9 should be considered part of the actual parable. On the one hand, it shouldn’t: verse 8 makes a wonderfully crisp, snappy, Jesus-style ending all by itself. On the other hand, there is so little connection between verses 8 and 9 that I sometimes suspect that no one other than Jesus himself would ever have dreamt of putting them back to back. My solution? In months with 31 days, I read the parable as verses 1-8; in months with 30 days, I read it as verses 1-9; on February 29th, I read it as verses 1-13; and for the rest of February, I thank God it really doesn’t matter much how I read it anyway.
- Robbert Farrar Capon, Kingdom , Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus, on the “Parable of the Unjust Steward.”
A perfect distillation of my love for RFC
I think verse 9 was meant to go with verse 8. We think that we own the wealth that we have earned (or inherited). Be we are only stewards of it. So if anyone owes us money, they really owe the money to God. By forgiving their debt to God, we are really forgiving their debt to us. We are dishonest stewards if we use our wealth for ourselves, instead of for God.