The Parable of the Managers and Administrators

A righteous king went away and left his land in the hands of certain managers and administrators. A first manager gave away lots of money and engaged in a costly war, and there was a great crisis of money in the land at the end of his time. A second manager and he stabilized the land by rescuing the greatest business holders.

But this left the land in even greater debt. So a group of administrators arose saying, "We must be very careful with our money, and bring our spending under control. This is the most important thing." At one point they even shut down the government, saying, "Even though we have said we will pay our vendors, we must not pay them to bring our spending under control."

Then the people of the land chose a very rich manager, and the religious leaders of the land strongly supported him, because they thought he would give them what they wanted. Like the first manager, he gave away lots of money, principally to his rich friends. Curiously, the administrators who had previously complained about the debt of the land were some of his greatest allies. Not only did they vote to increase the debt, but they voted to increase it tremendously.

At the same time, the third manager determined to kick everyone out of his land he could who was not of his kind. He despised the peoples in his land who did not look like him. When it came time to pay the vendors, another group of administrators said, "We must make a way for people to stay here whose parents brought them to this land as children. They have no other place. We will not vote to pay our vendors until they are taken care of."

To be continued...