Here we have
the case of a steward who has been found out.
A steward is
a caretaker of someone else’s goods. One who oversees the wealth or resources
of another. One who’s wealth is not their own but someone else’s. A resource or wealth manager.
So we can
imagine how serious it would be to be found out. To be found to be unjust, or
to have been caught misappropriating wealth that does not belong to him.
This has
been the case of many in the news. Investment brokers who have created Ponzi schemes
or fraudulently used monies of those who have trusted them, or worse –
politicians who have grossly mismanaged the wealth that flows into the
government on the backs of the people.
Yet in this
example Jesus observes the shrewdness of a corrupt steward who is busted.
This unjust
steward who is about to be removed from his stewardship because of his
impropriety quickly goes to those he has been ripping off and makes ‘conciliatory’
deals with them in the hopes of winning their favor. He drastically cuts the
debt they owe his master.
The
summation of this parable is one cannot serve two masters. Either you will
serve money, or you will serve God – but you cannot serve both.
How
interesting Jesus places this parable in such a worldly setting, revealing the
extreme self-interest demonstrated by the unjust practices of this steward, and
how this man so quickly moderated his stance when his future was on the line.
We see a
picture of our lives, in that we tend to act as though the things we possess
actually belong to us – just as the unjust steward did. The truth is, everything
we possess belongs to God, and we must treat all our resources as though they
are His. Properly understood, we are to employ God’s riches to win the favor of
those around us for God, rather than hoarding the resources He provides for
ourselves. This is the result when we focus on our eternal future rather than
on the very temporal wealth which doesn’t belong to us anyway.
-Pastor Bill
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