Playing with Humor<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nThis parable (as with other stories Jesus tells in the gospels) provides an opportunity for the storyteller to experiment with humor. Jesus presents the manager as a comic character who deflects blame, wallows in self-pity, and hatches the nonsensical plan to account for his poor management with more dishonest management. The language of his interior monologue (16:3\u20134) invites a melodramatic performance, and his interaction with the debtors suggests intriguing possible subtexts. Are both debtors present at the same time so that the second debtor hears the offer made to the first? If so, what does the second debtor think about the inferior discount the manager offers him? Might he get angry that his bill was reduced <\/span>only<\/span><\/i> 20% after watching the first debtor\u2019s bill be cut in half? (If so, this parable might connect to themes in the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matt 16.) Is the seemingly arbitrary discount further evidence of the manager\u2019s incompetence with money, or is there some evil-genius logic behind his offers? In my first performance, I have only begun to explore these kinds of questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nThe Last Line<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nHow should the last line of the parable proper (Luke 16:8a) sound? In my initial performance, I try to highlight the shock I think the narrator\u2019s summary should have on an audience. The master <\/span>commended<\/span><\/i> the manager? A pause and a shift in facial expression both attempt to drive home the surprising twist for the audience. As I continue to study the story, however, I need to explore other possibilities. How can \u201ccommend\u201d fit with \u201cdishonest\u201d and \u201cshrewd\u201d? How does Jesus hope this line will impact his listeners? How does Luke hope it will impact <\/span>his<\/span><\/i> audience?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nAn Ambiguous Ending<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\nFor this first performance, I chose to end the parable at 16:9. In future tellings, however, I will explore different possible endings. Other commentators have raised similar questions about the ambiguity of 16:8\u201313. When does the parable end, and when does the commentary begin? Who is offering the commentary? As noted above, the parable proper (the story) comes to a close in 16:8a; then, 16:8b\u201313 includes a series of proverbs that are positioned as commentary on the parable. Did Jesus offer these proverbs as an explanation for his parable? Or, did Luke append these teachings to add context to Jesus\u2019s disorienting parable? (Since this parable is unique to Luke, we cannot compare the literary context of the parable in Matthew or Mark to help answer these questions.) What difference does it make for the meaning of the parable if an audience hears the story isolated from the proverbs? For that matter, should we hear Jesus\u2019s interaction with the Pharisees in Luke 16:14\u201315 as the conclusion to the parable or an isolated conflict story? By performing the parable with different endings, I can further explore these kinds of questions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Performance Notes:\u00a0 The so-called \u201cparable of the dishonest manager\u201d found in Luke 16:1\u20139 is among Jesus\u2019s most shocking and confusing teachings. So, when prompted to explore a biblical story as part of my participation in the Academy for Biblical Storytelling, I decided to use performance as a way to wrestle with this parable, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[198180,198157],"tags":[198162,198180],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-luke","category-performances","tag-cliff-barbarick","tag-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8023"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/storiesforthesojourn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}