The Tale of the Cheating Servant

This story was given in place of a sermon at our 10:15 service on Sunday 22nd September. The gospel that day was Luke 16:1-13, a particularly tricky parable of Christ's in which he commends a cheating manager for looking out for his own future. Lots of very learned people have written lots of clever stuff about the passage, and the one thing that people agree on is that it is just very hard to understand!

In the past few weeks, I've read lots about it, and tied my thoughts up in knots! One piece I read compared the parable to a particular trope in Roman comedy, in which a cunning servant tricks his master, and everything works out fine in the end (think Frankie Howerd in 'Up Pompeii'). There does seem to be a similarity, and that got me wondering whether the parable might actually have been based on a play that Christ saw. I then (in turn) reimagined that as a real-life situation that Christ happened to come across, and... well, the result is below. I hope that for you, it's at least a starting point for thinking about some of the themes I've tried to pull out from the parable. Enjoy!

Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii

My name is- actually, no. My name, in the grand scheme of things, is not important really. In reality, I’m just a slave. I’m a good one, mind; a clever one. I’m not one of the field-workers – you only need to take a look at me to see I’m no muscle. No. It’s my brains and my wits that make me useful; not my fists. I manage the books for my master, looking after everything that’s coming in and going out. It’s an important job. But even so, there’s no point me telling you my name. You wouldn’t know it.

It’s not me that people know. My master – he, on the other hand – he’s the real deal. He’s the one who people know.

I work for a man called Cassius. Cash to his friends. And, to be honest, Cash to those who aren’t really his friends too, those who owe him, whether that be money, or a favour, or some other form of debt. Everyone knows Cash.

He’s the big man. All of this round here? Cash owns it. He owns it, and I look after it. I collect the rent, and what’s owed. And what is owed is a lot. Once you owe my master, you’re in it for life.

And that’s the background to my story. So, let me tell you the rest.

It was a few months ago now. I was working late in my little office one Friday evening when one of the house-slaves burst through the doorway. I was partway through tearing a strip off him for his rudeness when he handed me a note and then fled the room.

That note changed my life. It was, of course, from Cash.

I don’t know how long I sat there reading and re-reading it, but by the time I’d finally come up with a plan of action, the morning sun had just started to creep through my window.

It wasn’t a long note, but it didn’t need to be. In its handful of words, it said more than enough:

It has been brought to my attention that you have been cheating me.

Prepare the accounts for a final examination first thing Monday morning, and pack up your things.

Cassius

And that was that. My whole world, crashing down at my feet.

No job. No home. No possibility of future employment, for who would want to employ the slave flung out on his ear for cheating Cash? I had to think fast.

And I did. I told you I had brains. I came up with a plan. That night, I did just as the note had asked me to; I prepared the accounts for a final inspection, but not for my master, I did it for me.

I went through all those ledgers and all those debtors, and I found what just I needed; people with debt. Not just the odd missed month of rent, or a handful of coins, but real debt – the sort of stuff that would take an entire lifetime to pay back, maybe more. I found people who hadn’t managed to make a payment in years, people who must have been drowning in misery and despair, and, come the morning, I scooped up my books, grabbed my cloak, and I went visiting.

At each house I came to, I sat down with my accounts and theirs, and I wiped years off their payments. If I were going to be fired for cheating my master, well, I might as well go the whole hog, right? Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a goat!

One estate produced olives, and over the years had built up a debt of about one hundred grands’ worth of finest olive oil. I took both our ledgers, and halved the payments that were owed, then and there. Nearby was a large grain farm, who in turn owed about 275 grands’ worth of wheat. I quickly knocked 50k off what they needed to repay. And so on, throughout all that weekend, I went visiting those people who owed my master a crippling debt, and I decimated it.

You’ve never seen a happier bunch of people. It was like every single one of them had won the lottery. I left each house, with songs of praises in my ears, to me, and to my ‘most generous’ master. I even got a few gifts to take home, and – of course – the promise of repayments to restart immediately in each case.

And so, that Sunday night, when I sat down in preparation for that fated meeting the next morning, I allowed myself a little smile. Whatever now happened to me, I would be ok. I’d made some friends – yes, it was all at the expense of my master, but I doubted he would notice. Those sums, an immense fortune to most people, were peanuts to him. But now, even after my promised sacking the next day occurred, surely one of my new friends would hire me to look after their accounts? I’d done them all a great service, after all. And, failing that? Well, none of them would let me go hungry for long with the amount of money I’d saved them all.

But, come the next morning, I realised I had not been quite as clever as I thought. You see, in my certainty of my own cunning, I had underestimated my master’s. It was foolish of me really. No-one ever really cheats Cash; he always comes out on top. Of course he noticed the reductions in payments I’d authorised. But…

But, to my surprise, he wasn’t angry. In fact, he smiled and congratulated me on my cunning. He knew what I’d tried to do, but he was still in an exceptionally good mood. That morning, you see, as he explained to me, he had received more payments in rent than he had done in years. Each of those debtors I had been to see had restarted their payments to him, and he could now invest that wealth, gaining more from the interest than whatever lost income I had wiped from the slate. It was, it seemed, smiles all round. I was not fired, and Cash was a happy man.

I left that day, relieved and impressed by my own good fortune. I had twice as good a reason to be in a good mood, as one of those debtors whom I had freed from their debt had invited me round to eat at theirs that evening. In their own gratitude, they had offered me the best seat at the table. It was at that meal that I met the Teacher.

Over dinner, I regaled the room with my story, and the Teacher was intrigued. He, too, congratulated me on my deeds, but not for my cunning in looking out for my future, or my good fortune in earning my master more money, but for the relief I had bestowed on those in Cash’s debt. 

Having congratulated me, he turned to his followers and held me up as an example. “Look how this man, a servant of money, whilst only trying to look out for himself, even so managed to bring such relief and forgiveness to those suffering under great debt. Imagine what relief and forgiveness you, as servants of God, looking out for your fellow brothers and sisters, could bring to those same brothers and sisters?”

He turned back to me. “Follow me,” he said. “You have forgiven many people much of their debt; leave your master and follow me, and have all your debts forgiven.”

I turned him down at the time. It would take a good deal to wipe my slate clean, and nothing in this world is free, after all. If he taught me anything, Cash taught me that. It’s all quid pro quo.

I do keep thinking about it, though. After all, those people whose debt I forgave didn’t do anything to earn that forgiveness, did they? I just picked those who owed the most. Freely, they were forgiven, with no requirement for them to do anything else.

I forgave debts on behalf of my master. Can my own debts to others be forgiven in the same way?

And so, I keep thinking about it. What about me? Can I leave my master to follow this Teacher? Can I stop serving Cash and serve the God this man follows?

I’ve been thinking about this question for months now. I guess I need to come up with an answer soon. My name may not be important. I think this question is, though.