So I read the footnotes that accompanied today’s Gospel reading and although I agree with the majority of what you said, I think your conclusion may be off a bit. I think what Jesus is relating to His audience is more of an observation rather than a recommendation. Apparently the practice of marking up prices for one’s own profit was commonplace and accepted. People of that time could relate to it. What Jesus notes is that in a time of crisis, deceitful people tend to handle it better than the righteous. I think Jesus is teaching His followers by using a “watch and learn” type of parable, even though it is a parable with a dishonest twist, not a parable about values. Ingenuity is given to both the good and evil, with evil seeming to better adapt at using it.

Maybe a better title for today’s reflection would’ve been the old quote:

If necessity is the mother of invention, ingenuity is certainly its father.

Mark