QC online session (17/4/20)

We looked today at the gospel writers' accounts of the empty tomb and noted that they differed slightly but were not in direct conflict with one another. So the first verses of Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 all have details that differ, but which are not impossible to harmonize. So the number of women who went in the early morning is different and the number of angels was different. But 3 gospels (except Matthew) make it clear that the stone was rolled away by the time the women arrived. They rushed back to tell Peter, who ran with John to the tomb. When the 2 men left, Jesus then appeared to Mary Magdalene, who had stayed behind.

The gospels often differ in details, for many possible reasons. These include the fact that eyewitnesses to the same event may pick up different details, the different target readers of the  4 writers, and the fact that Jesus was an itinerant preacher who would almost certainly have repeated slightly different variations of the same teachings to different people.We know that the gospel writers were selective in the material they chose (c.f Jn 21:25).

We also considered the the Parable of the Dishonest Manager (Lk 16:1-9). This parable presents some difficulty in that the master (Jesus?) seems to be commending dishonest behaviour by his manager. In considering this parable, we should note that almost all the parables have a single point to make. Here, the main point is in v. 9 ("And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."). Jesus has told this parable because he says in v.8b that "the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light". And he continues the parable with a further discourse about our attitude to wealth from v.10-13.

So, some points to note:
1. The master is not Jesus. 
2. The manager is said to be "wasting"  his master's possessions (v.1) and dishonest (v. 8a).  We are not to follow him in this regard.
3. And yet the manager is said to be shrewd (v.8a), which is a quality worthy of commendation. We are to follow him in his clever use of money.
4. Non-Christians are better at using their money for earthly purposes than Christians are at using their money for heavenly purposes.
5. The main point of the parable is that earthly riches must be used to benefit others ("friends") who can then welcome us to heaven. In other words, money should be used to bring people into God's kingdom.


Jesus then continues his discourse by implying that the steward was not only dishonest in his work, but faithless (v. 10) to his master. The Lord gives 3 pictures of earthly wealth as opposed to heavenly wealth:

Earthly wealth is:

• "very little" (v.10)
• "unrighteous" (largely, I think, because wealth has a corrupting influence on us, competing with God for our allegiance and making us seek to get more of it, v.11, 13)
• "that which is another's" (because we are stewards of God in this life, v.12)

Heavenly wealth is:

• "much:" (v.10)
• "true riches" (v.11)
• "that which is (our) own" (given to us as reward by God (v.12).

Jesus then ends by reminding us that as slaves (Gk doulos), we cannot belong to 2 masters.

The take home lesson for us, I think, is to remind us to use our money generously for eternal purposes. In this time when the livelihoods of many are affected by the COVID pandemic, we should look for ways to help them with our money.