So scattering is OK. But where does it go? The son in last week’s story had nothing to show for all his scattering. The steward in this week’s hopes he will. He is a bit more canny than last week’s young man.
Jesus thinks the second man is a model for his disciples. Not in his dishonesty, but in some other way. Jesus makes a link between heaven and worldly wealth. This is a link that many Christians don’t make. That they don’t want to make. It kind of spoils the idea of heaven. It spoils the idea of a good spiritual Christian life too.
It also messes up the two-box theory of the Christian life. Christian life in one box and world life in another. In this theory money always belongs in the world box (with perhaps a small percentage sent across to the other box).
But neither Jesus nor the Bible in general has a two-box theory of life. Jesus thinks that maybe in the real one-box world that the disciples live in, they will distribute their money like the first young man, and end up with nothing.
His preference is for them to scatter their money (is it theirs or are they just stewards) in canny ways that will have eternal consequences.
One day our Master will ask us to hand over the books and give an account of the worldly money he gave us. Will we have anything to show for it?
Dale