It's hard to read the parable without feeling there's something a bit shonky. Not just in what the apparently dishonest agent (I'll stick to that term) does when he discovers his cover's been blown. But also shonky in that Jesus, God, (the Master of the tale) approves the steps the agent takes to save his hide. Either we have a paradox, or we need to read the evidence differently.
Fr.Brendan Byrne ('The Hospitality of God - a Reading of Luke's Gospel', Liturgical Press, 2000, p.134....well worth buying) suggests that what the agent does is cut himself out of the deal as it had stood by removing his own earner, no doubt a well- padded one. That seems a clearer cut, better expressed 'solution' than most others that have been suggested. If that's what's in Jesus' mind, & why not, there's every reason the Master should praise the agent for being canny, shrewd, prudent, etc.. We have no dilemma any more. Jesus isn't embroiling us in a double standard. I know it's only a yarn, but even yarns coming from Jesus need to be consistent with our understanding of the nature of God & humanity, & the moral theology we derive from that.
To focus a little on one possible train of thought: God is always 'auditing' the way we live. Not because God is a super snoop, a Spy in the Sky, but because God is, by definition, all-knowing. More, God is still incarnate in us as Jesus' Body, by his Spirit, still involved at the grass roots. One way of thinking of our relationship is that I am, we are all called to be his agents. Stewards in the old language. I am faithful & honest (vv.10+) or I fiddle the books of life. The way I act is the measure & the evidence of my commitment to God as my one & only Master (v.13) or not. Any half measure & I'm caught out. Exposed.
Is there any better way of acting out our total faithfulness & honesty towards God, as well as those to whom we're called to act as his agent, than by removing any suggestion of our own cut from the equation? Then I can have some hope of being Christ -like. Like the one who never ever looks for his own cut from anything. From anybody.
