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CHAPTER THREE

THE UNJUST STEWARD PARABLE IN LUKE 16:1-13

Timely Action BEFORE TIMELESS CONSEQUENCES

THE POINT AND PURPOSE OF PARABLES

The path of pilgrimage in Christ is intensely interesting, gloriously fascinating, as truth always is, BECAUSE God is its heart, source and basis, and in Him it lives that others may know it, and He is utterly glorious, better to be known than all things, warmer than the warmest, more tender than the most perceptive, purer than spring waters, wiser than all human knowledge, its criterion and basis, the binder of all things with the LOGOS, the cause, reason and comprehending expression of God, sent incarnate as the Saviour, Jesus Christ,  without whom man both is and shows himself lost.

Therefore, what has been left out in ways for Him to be found ? If you had a son who had all his life failed to see, and been born blind, and then it was found that there was a strangely simple rather  than simply strange missing connection which was readily fixed, and the surgeon was there, ready to act: what then ? Would you not go to some lengths to inculcate into the mind of your son that despite the practice of all those years, he had now only to open his eyes!

If now he declined, saying that you were mocking him, would you not seek ways of helping him to realise, that sore though the issue had been in his mind these many years, yet sight was not a matter of mockery, but available ?

So here. Parables are one of those ways to help people to open their eyes; and to be sure, it is not God who is listless or apathetic in His searching for the lost, blindly stumbling as they go, whether in exasperation, bitterness and grief, or puffed with pride, pumped with self-will, scrutinising all things with the distemper of the doomed. Parables may awaken.

Parables in general are not intended to be theological expositions of finesse where every word is a container unit for some evocative aspect. They are specifically pieces of imagination; and in the parables presented by Jesus Christ, there were circumstances to accentuate this feature.

Why did He use them so much ? He  declared that it was in view of the hardness of people's hearts that they were given so prominent a place (Matthew 13:10-17); for the illustrations being pointed and perhaps even exaggerated in impact - not precisely like a cartoon, but yet with humour on occasion, or shock, so they were known.

They could be seen to be devices to awaken and to bring perspective by artistic artifice into lulled, lolling or unruly hearts.

The implicit parable, or the point which would so readily have leant itself to parable, concerning a man who notes with distaste a splinter in your eye,  and trying to remove it while harassed with a PLANK of wood jutting perilously from his own, as he turned his head to help you, is of this character (Matthew 7:1-6). It is hilarious and obviously exaggerated so that the blind might see! The sudden fantasy quickly evokes thoughts of the entire unreasonableness of much too forward criticism, and unfeeling verbal assault.

Thus man is challenged to recall his own attitudes, with realism bred of mirth and sharpened by conscience! He may even become aware of the trickery of Satan, the quirks of the psyche and the grandiose false assurance to which man may become so readily addicted. More, there is here the special case, religious prominence, in which the passion for good, if distorted by error, can become all the less compassionate and the more ludicrous, the more so when the entirely obvious, as in the case of Christ as God in the flesh, is yet fixedly ignored!

Again, what of the parable of the wheat and the weeds, with an enemy sowing his horrid weeds amid the crops (Matthew 13:34ff.), subtle and devious, so that all your effort may be spent not least on what is detrimental to your efforts, so misdirecting and tending to exhaust you, and confuse ? This has almost a cartoon-esque feeling. Yet it grips the emotions and alerts the mind, which is thus stirred itself to envisage the SORT of thing being exposed and the sort of subtly vicious danger being exhibited. Indeed, Satan can be vicious to the point of cynical burlesque, incensed odium and undeviating devotion to doom.

You see examples of this style of thing in war, as in Bomb Hunters, a recent work of journalist Sean Raymond, who from living in the British war zone, shows the Taliban, seeking to repel international forces, attempting to deliver Afghanistan from its ruthless and ferocious, woman-downgrading grip, as if these were mere possessions of men. In this war, there are thousands of planted bombs, to explode on you as you walk.

If a bomb disposal unit, where such things, implanted in the earth, remove one, two or three limbs from the agents of deliverance, leaving hundreds of partially destroyed human remnants, changes its procedure, then often secretly watching Taliban fighters proceed to work out ways to adapt to this, and disrupt them differently to bits of body or hunks, by making NEW methods of inciting explosion, trick by trick. It is unremitting as these predators seek to impose their ideas by force, in the modes of Al Qaeda, which objected to Israel being helped, preferring it to be destroyed. Here extremist assault is desired, on whoever or whatever arouses ire, and US desire to prevent more multi-murderous assaults on her land, is resisted with passion.

There are ever so many of these horrors in this world, and there is no answer but repentance and restoration on the part of those who, in this case, have come to conjoin - a policy spectacularly invoked by Obama - with SOME Islam against OTHER Islam, as if it would not lead to such an unsublime joke as arose with the chief murderer, Bin Laden. Here he was, protected under the shadow of a military camp in Pakistan, a nation then ostensibly a US ally against terrorism, and even a recipient of vast US funds, just a stone's throw away. Relativistic religion, not least,  has led to this, will lead to more of it unless those concerned repent! It is necessary at times to incite understanding by parables. It is both kinder and better than bombs...

In such circumstances, with such purpose, at times almost like shock treatment to awaken the wilfully blind, as in Matthew 13, who SHUT their eyes, there is the endeavour to shock into awareness, to stop the normal bypass twist in the mind.

Thus the trappings of the parable may not be to the point, though at times they may in a magnificent manner extend it; but generally are mere extras, backdrop. This is  by no means to imply that the parable is capable of ready misunderstanding, for the point of cartoons, to take a parallel case, is usually not at all difficult to discern and dissever from various possible additives.

If they happen to be there, well, a deeper smile may be forthcoming; but it is not a matter of systematic search for each point in each thing as in an almost specific challenge to the mind, upon finding the POINT, THEN to see any further applications OF THIS VERY POINT, which may happen to be in the parable.  It may be rewarding, but such is not inherent in all parables, which have their own integrity.

THE PITH OF THE UNJUST STEWARD PARABLE

The basic meaning of some parables is intensely impactive. In that of the unjust steward, as in Luke 16, appears clear, remembering that there is usually one or a clear set of points, a particular perspective in view in a parable of this genre. It may focus tragedy, humour, folly or pity. Thus  in the parable of the unjust steward, the central figure fails to be careful with his master's affairs, is found out, readied for dismissal, and then turns to set right the mess by masterly and immediate settling of all outstanding accounts, with discount for speed in payment. Driven by the horror of having to dig or beg, having limited alternative skills, he acts with resolution and speed, and the thing is set right, although of course, at that, with considerable loss. Yet the loss is contained. Make friends for yourselves with the unrighteous mammon, Christ applies the point, so that when you fall, they may receive you into everlasting mansions! 

Thus the 'mammon' in view, though in point, money, is not limited to just this. It is the whole array and nexus of worldly occupation and labour, the meeting place with this world for anyone, be that person Christian or not. It is there, out there, and it readily works the devil's way, however vainly, and it notes.

The message in this Luke 16 parable then appears to be this. In ALL your dealings with this world, its ways, its requirements, its media, its meanings and meetings, vain as they may be, yet face them with an impeccable justice, unerring virtue, incontestable honour and honesty, immovable grace and wisdom, imagination and resource, so that whatever THEY may be, your attestation of life and personality, values and priorities, character and virtue may be of just acclaim, whatever some may think.

Then, with such a testimony in the tests of your life, when you go to heaven, those already there (for though mammon is faithless, many who have had to deal with it faithfully, will be in heaven, a remnant), those who have known you on this earth, will rejoice to see  you, recalling the fragrance of your life, the consistency of your dealings, some the refreshing they may have had in considering what you did and the way that you did it. With joy they look to welcome you to be with them, in the Lord.

WHAT THE PARABLE DOES NOT SHOW

This parable however  does not commend the dishonesty of the unjust steward, but rather that he showed insistence on dealing with wisdom when the trial came, putting things right as he might, and suffering no diversion from this motivation. EVEN he, though unjust, received a commendation in this world, for the improvement, the address, the rectifying activity.

How much more will you, if just, receive welcome from those who have found you so. Indeed, he had hoped to be welcome into the houses of those clients of his master who had debts now discounted; but the people of the Lord will be welcome the more gladly, into the eternal mansions where there is no debt, but gratitude romps, and there is no loss, but mercy flourishes.

Yet notice the implication.  He not only acted, but did so under extreme constraint. In spiritual terms, in application, the message is that man should realise that he is not of upright standing before the incandescent righteousness of God, the more so when he does not even know, let alone follow the ways of God, and that like the steward, for all his pomp or pride or pretence or pretension or self-trust in his own ways, he is liable to dismissal before God, not only in time, but in eternity, for the indefinite and unredeemed future. Thus he should act with resolution, with single-mindedness to put right the accounts, the books, the realities of his life before God with speed and realism, repenting in ashes and receiving the Lord in His salvation with voracity, as one hungry, with joy as one relieved.

The parable does NOT ONLY show that it is all a matter of certain principles, though these are always in view with the Lord of creation and redemption. It is also implied, as an added application,  that there is a matter of realisation, repentance and single-minded action, receiving the Lord's own righteousness as a gift of grace (as in Romans 5:17), through pure mercy. NOTHING is to stop you from finding the Lord (John 5:39-40) and having direct dealings with Him, leaving what is evil, or inadequate, or self-founded for His pardon and acceptance, knowing that the whole life has been mis-wrought, mistaken, misaligned and ONLY God is the basis of acceptance in and for Himself, from whose work of creation you have come, to whose work of redemption you go, panting for peace, provoked by inadequacy before God, satisfied with His word, as you come to Him. If with selfish motive the man so acted, how much more does the sinner sincerely seek the Lord whose Spirit is Truth.

After all, the steward was subject to impending, status quo, dismissal. It was not a time to miss opportunity, for that time was gone, and without action, it would be an ache of memory, not an act of remedy. To be sure, in the parable, the remedy was  temporal, but in the meaning, the realm is spiritual; in the parable the motivation was in terms of the setting of the picture, but in the meaning it is in terms implied, of the God of all holiness.

The term, incidentally, for 'mansion' here is one which means dwelling place, and it is often used of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, as also when Christ in Hebrews 9:11 is said to have come in a more perfect tabernacle (that of His incarnation). Again, we find it in Revelation 21:3 where we read that the tabernacle of God is with men! He gives to them probationer bodies, then, arising in triumph over death because of purity and power, He provides the prototype for an eternal, constituted for everlasting life and victory in Christ. Then on His return (I Corinthians 15), this He apportions and to this He speaks, and it is to those in this format that speaks, and with them that He abides.

He abides with them, and they with Him (as in Revelation 7:13ff.), in the place He has prepared for each one (II Corinthians 5). The Lamb with the Father is forever praised, amid the glory of the Spirit, and those with whom He has His dwelling place, He is in Christ drawn with the cords of brotherhood, surveying with the discerning strength of the Shepherd.

Dishonesty is as far from all of this as is the mushroom cloud from health! The parable has nothing to do with 'grey areas', uncertain moral issues, confused ethics, combinations of surviving and reviving. These are in the mind only, and never is there ANY issue which has other ground at worst for compromise, than unwillingness to face reality, purity, holiness and its costs. That is just ONE of the reasons that you CANNOT be a disciple of Jesus Christ UNLESS you forsake ALL that you have, and follow Him (Luke 14).

Christian life:  is an adventure, a glory, a challenge, a fight, as well as a thrust of light into darkness. It is not a personal safeguard opportunity to make more of yourself for your own satisfaction. Taking up your cross (Luke 14) and being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) is NOT fulfilling yourself according to the flesh, but the END of lesser and intrusive ties. It is markedly present in disciples BECAUSE they refuse to cut corners, to weigh up moral problems,  as if a government would breach an agreement which kept it in power for  years, in order to survive a little longer yet. Such things are the opposite of this way. It is the recovery which is in point in this parable, not commendation of the disease! The willing of the will of God is a thrilling thing because He is pure delight. So follow not something hollow, but the God of all wisdom and glory. His way is incomparable. His worship is just.

In pursuing the teaching of this parable, we have come  to the concept of Christian life as including the element of adventure, that it is a glory, a challenge, a fight as well  as a thrust of light into darkness.

From this parable, also, we ask for elucidation again,  is the parable suggesting that you should give your boss short shrift in indulging his customers; for it is a case of a fortiori, that is, where the thing in view is surpassed and outclassed by what it signifies. Thus, if the steward gave joy to the customers, making the best of it, how much more would you give warmth of heart to comrades, those who have known you in this world in your spiritually enlightened dealings, as they find your deeds salty, your words gracious, your bearing congenial and your ways appealing!

How happy a thought to see you all, believers, later in heaven together, when some say, LOOK there is John Smith, how good to see old John, a brick, and such a man of foresight and so humble with it! How fitting it will  all be, and how comradely, and how pleasant the discourse and the relationships when, tests past, the testimony having spoken on earth, the spirit of relationship is happy in heaven.

As to the 'wasting his goods', the fault of the unjust steward in failing to give proper attention to the estate of his employer, that is, squandering his resources as supervisor, while in charge as a service to be performed (as some real estate firms supervise properties for the owners), the case was bad indeed. There has been inefficiency, probably dishonesty, perhaps there had even been illegal cuts taken, or gifts for deals favourable to customers, to induce him to give goods at lower prices. We do not know the exact elements of his mismanagement: only that it involved needless and improper loss to his master.

Perhaps he even winked at overdue accounts (and there seemed to be money owing enough) in order to retain the goodwill of some, or to exact favours in return. The point however is one: EVEN when the unjust steward, belatedly, with some loss, made some intelligent effort to rectify or reduce the losses, he was commended. HOW MUCH MORE will you be commendable and favoured - not on earth necessarily, but in heaven, in companionship and spirit - if you do not in the first place make a stink, a sickness, a false facade, a twisty course all too apparent, but give a clean and upright testimony, for long, one that cannot be condemned.

Hence, with penetrating power, use reliability in little things to secure the privilege to serve at spiritual levels, as in Luke 16:12.

Therefore, do NOT serve Mammon: its sound USE is anything but dominance. You use it, but never let it use you! Either God or Mammon has the mastery. There is no mystery about that. It is like an axe: letting it cut off your head - your principles, your priorities. That is one thing; but using it to establish what God gives man to do, as an instrument for the pursuit of righteousness, in the spirit of truth, that is another. You can have one or the other, the operational medium of this world as gauge and guide, consideration and constraint, mammon, or the mastery of Jesus Christ, God Himself as your criterion, constraint and light.

Never confuse these two, nor make the instrument the master, the means the character of your operation. Instead, in the body of Christ, be under complete direction from the Head. Avoid all headless monsters and false heads, but live under the heading of Christ Jesus the Lord! (Luke 16:13).

THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE

THEREFORE, be upright, be discerning, be diligent, be enterprising - oh yes, entrepreneurial wisdom is not missing in the applications of this parable - and let your reliability be so consistent that it speaks as by megaphone in a sports meeting. When the day of finality comes, when everlasting mansions are in view, for the purposes of divine grace without any question of justifying yourselves before men, but in its own free terms (Isaiah 54-55, Romans 3:23ff.), then what neighbourly kinship will be felt and what a savoury grace will surround the memories!

As to the negative aspect, that it is by no means teaching that you GET to heaven BECAUSE of this consistent testimony under test, we find immediately after the record of this parable of Jesus, a pellucid word. When He spoke to Pharisees, notable for their love of money (they all lost all their treasures in A.D. 70, as the wheel turned and those who crucified were tragically ground down to earth), His words pierced. YOU, said the Christ, are those who justify yourselves before men. That is a detestable thing. Whatever might be their actual wealth, and their greed for gain, at least they wanted to APPEAR tops in moral regions. How ludicrous!

It is not at all to do, duty and reality, with what people think of you in terms of appearance, but what is the very spirit of your actions, the honesty and integrity of heart, the purity of motive. In fact, if it were just a question of what men TAKE as honourable, in the run of relationships and the deceived and deceitful dealings of this pagan and wicked world, then the opposite would apply. In fact, what men esteem highly, as a rule, is an abominable thing before God since man as such is so astray that he is deluded into praising the evil and hunting the good! (Luke 16:15). In our government, dishonesty has become such an active weapon, that it is found actively surveyed, so that  it is simply written that it is weighed against receiving votes!

RESOLUTION OF A PUZZLE THAT MAY ARISE FOR SOME

How then can the wise man make friends with unfaithful mammon and yet, if in spirit doing right, find this world is inclined to favour something very different! That is not the least of the point. Just as, given eternal perspectives, the pure and innocent purposes of the godly in heart, are to speak on when their day of comfort is past, an unyielding SPIRITUAL testimony to all, so that they may take it or leave it, so there is more. They may even hate it, so that in this world, how many may be the misconstructions, and how great the perverted dislike on the part of those who want you to share in their evil deals, annoyed because you will not do so!

Despite this, your action is to be spiritual, EVEN IF, as with the Pharisees, they generality are unimpressed because you do not share their evil, and like Daniel,  stand out to their detriment. That may occur, and the trend IS such; but it is the spiritual who later in heaven, in their everlasting mansions (cf. John 14:1-2, II Cor. 5),  are in view, who understand, and in sharp contrast to the hypocrites of this world, they at length realise the godliness, the goodness, the sheer fragrance of your dealings (II Cor. 2:14). How congenial WITH THEM will be the reunion, how fitting the meeting. Even where as with Noah, the flood of folly of the times makes it hard to be understood, there are some who know, and for those who endured, , "their works follow them," (Rev. 14:13), like an attesting spiritual wake, and their spirits declare His.

Thus the point in view here is not in the least, HOW to get to the everlasting mansions. This is taken, as in a play, a drama shown, as a backdrop, prepared and set up before the action. It is crucial, but it is not the point here. It is HOW one relates to the inhabitants in their own godliness, chosen by grace in fact as is always God's method (cf. Luke 15), when you get there. It is the sheer congeniality of such a meeting where truth has no shadow. Death, the fall of the race, will not lead to the exposure of deceit, but the composure with those who with you have loved the Lord, and SO sought to please Him in all things (Colossians 1:10). It is not the 'new creation' of II Cor. 5:17ff. here, but the shining of the light it emits that is in view.

Nor is it that they are those who receive you so happily at that time, are Governors of the place; but that where there is spirituality, there is recognition and where there is sincerity, there is joy in seeing reality, not mere appearance, as in this world. The very surrounds of the mansions are set in spirituality, and the Governor is Christ (Isaiah 55:4, Revelation 22:3) in the presence of the Father, as the Trinity is manifest and the truth is written not in mere paper, but in hearts, as visible on the very foreheads of the people (Revelation 22:4).

That is the unending terminus of life in life eternal, but on the way there are those trials and disjunctions from favour amid the sometimes incandescent follies of man; for after all, if that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination before God, the disparity cannot HELP but lead to collisions, a test of character, and an opportunity for testimony! Take the case of Daniel.

This prophet passed through much with much disapproval and several sever dangers of death in his consistent witness when exiled; yet for all that, he was invulnerable, not to suffering, but to derangement of the fact of his godliness. If he was to suffer, it was for that; for he did not yield to his environment or imbibe his culture to condition his heart. In fact, God brought him through much to attest the power and reality of God, to many, and in many cases.

So does God choose, but this is conspicuous in the method and the point. The cry of Nebuchadnezzar to whom had been given the amazing gift of seeing the miracles and deliverances in person, of Daniel,  the honest imperial cadet, was again and again in due course, to acknowledge the God of Daniel. Thus,  contrary to the warp of this world, the light shone in the darkness, and though the darkness knew it not, it yet felt the impact; and in this case, great was that! (Daniel 2:46-49, 4:28-36).

How impactive was the voice of Daniel, how grizzly was the graceless assault, whether from godless law or godless envious schemers! How confirmed was the testimony in how many ways! There was a saltiness in his ways, versus savourless taste, a grace versus rotten malodour for his witness, an integrity in the only One where this is to be found. As one designed and freely loving His Designer, this man of God was rich in his accord with Him, the Lord Himself,

 both in depth as well as breadth, and appeal despite the revulsion of the worldly. It spoke when they were left speechless. 
 

 THE JOY OF THE LORD

There are some overtones in this parable. Thus how PLEASANT it is for this grimy individual, the steward to find that despite all his misdealings, now that he has put his mind to the thing, he is not only apparently still in his job, but he is even congratulated on having put things if not right, then at least into some kind of order, spring-cleaning the mess.

Now this is not to say that if you are shrewd, you will be an applicant for heaven with good odour. It IS to say that if EVEN when the steward was merely self-interested in seeking to get out of trouble, in cleaning things up, he were congratulated, HOW MUCH MORE is the true citizen of the kingdom of heaven to be received with joy that is fitting, that is comradely, that has kinship with his spiritual colleagues (whether or not he even knew them personally on earth). How happy is the thought, how appealing the savour, and how it draws the spirit into grace!

Further, though the master in this parable case may be himself merely a worldling, if EVEN HE could congratulate for so little, a deft hand at last, how much MORE does the Lord bless, He who sees and knows all, and treasure what is done, despite sin, in spiritual grace and love, as His servants turn evil to good, and mess into order.

How pleasant are the ways of the good Lord, how compassionate is He, how merciful, how appealing, how good are His principles and how eminent is His kindness, that we should seek Him and finding Him, in repentance serve Him (also mirrored a little in this parable, in the case of the steward, though here of course in terms of the nature of the parable and its actors).  This, it is not action with mere order, but with relish, rejoicing of heart, He the eminent desire of it. Let therefore none who reads these things, fail to find Him, and repenting of sin, to rest in His grace, make employment for His mercy, and seeking Him with all the heart, find by HIS GRACE a place by His side! He bought the privilege (Matthew 20:28); we consort by gladly given grace.

Hard ? Not at all, but seek Him with zest, as the steward acted with acumen and attention. Therefore let no one half-repent, be half-hearted, give some attention to the matter. It is with the whole heart and the whole mind that one must seek God, as one seeks to breathe when drowning; and if this is not the way in view, there is no point.  ASK, SEEK and then KNOCK.

Be aware of your heavenly accounts and of the answer to the question whether you have the merits of Christ to set against your sins, those of spirit and mind and heart, of body and of purpose, instead of neglect of God altogether except at most, formally! Then if not, now act, and receiving His good righteousness as a gift, rely on Him only and absolutely (Romans 5:1, 5:17, 5:9-12);  for great is His love to man and His desire to forgive,  purchasing the justice to show mercy by His own personal sacrifice for sin (II Corinthians 5:17ff.), then imparting the light of His grace to His people, that they be fearless, fragrant in truth, eminent in peace though active in overcoming evil with good.