Understanding of the bible

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In a message dated 11/10/98 9:21:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, WBERNE@aol.com
writes:

<< Ron, you say that the bible is not supposed to be understood, that that's
what
 Jesus did in his parables.  I would like you to cite me a parable in one of
 the gospels that is not clear or hard or impossible to understand.
Regardless
 of what Jesus said, his parables are quite clear.   >>

CHARLIE
Well, if Jesus said they weren't supposed to be clear but they were, then
Jesus was wrong.  If Jesus didn't actually say they were supposed to be
unclear, then the evangelist was wrong.  In any event some parables are
clearer than others.  A rather murky one follows:
Luke 16:1-13 (NRSV)  Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man
who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was
squandering his property.  So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this
that I hear
   about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be
my manager any longer.'  Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do,
now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough
to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.   I have decided what to do so that, when I
am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'   So,
summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do
you owe my master?'   He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to
him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'   Then he asked
another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied,  'A hundred containers of
wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'  And his master
commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the
children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than
are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by
means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into
the eternal homes.  "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in
much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust
to you the true riches?   And if you have not been faithful with what belongs
to another, who will give you what is your own?   No slave can serve two
masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

It sounds like Jesus' admonition to "make friends for yourselves by means of
dishonest wealth" is a moral he states is to be drawn _from_ his story, rather
than being a metaphorical _part_ of the story.  I would think that believers
in the Bible would say that it deserves much discussion as to what is meant,
so it's not clear.

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