Red-handed

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110725.cfm

Have you ever been caught red-handed? Maybe in a small way (hand in the cookie jar) or maybe in a more significant way. How did you respond? There are many options for response. One is to insist it didn't happen. One is to throw yourself on the mercy of others. One is to admit that something wrong happened and minimize the damage. It is this last option that the subject of today's parable pursues.

First off, we have to understand the steward's role. He made his living charging a fee over and above what people owed his master. Jesus is derided for associating with these sort of people, but the story would be applicable to His audience. Let's break down what happens with the dishonest steward. We have to first understand that this 'steward' made his living on the extra amounts he was able to collect over and above the actual level of debt. The servant, over the years, grew fat on the overages he charged others.

So when he is confronted with hopelessness, he gets creative. He decides to play on his strengths. He has for years charged them 20, 30, 50 percent over what was owed to his master. He decides that in order to gain favor with them, he will forego his cut in order to ingratiate himself to the people he once punished. This allows him to do several things simultaneously: 1 - he reduces what people owe 2 - he improves the image of the king 3 - in the process he improves his standing.

We can perhaps see why he was lauded. He may have discovered the extent of his treachery. It's easy for us to be on a slippery slope of faith in God, or in our activities that are actually evil. As the steward slowly increases the demand on the people he should be serving, it is an insidious beginning. It starts with a modest amount but grows and grows , This is the nature of sin all too often. It starts modestly and seems to be justified, particularly in the view of the world, but then it grows. Step by step it can become very consuming, and perhaps we become reliant on it. Addicted to it even.

What we might not realize is that it can work in the other way as well. We do something 'a little' good, and it can leader to greater and greater things. The steward does something that for the first time has benefit for others as well as himself - perhaps it's a start. Maybe it's even more than that. The steward has discovered what it means to forego instant gratification for a future something. A lesson very few people come to understand.