In addition to being a great story-teller, Jesus Christ was an astute observer of human behaviour and a shrewd judge of character. This parable shows both of these skills and in addition suggests an application for us as we consider the predicament in which we find ourselves of having a limited life-span and much to do for God in association with other people.
In the past, this parable has made many readers in Western civilisation rather nervous. Yet, the Palestinian church with its Eastern civilisation would not react as we do. To the middle Eastern peasant at the bottom of the economic ladder such a parable would have been pure delight. An Aladdin-type anti-hero who sneaks his way to success against all odds was a popular character in oriental story-telling. We Western audiences may be surprised at the use of a dishonest man as a hero, but ironically, the oriental audience would be surprised, *not that* Jesus used such an anti-hero in his story, but rather that Jesus stigmatised him and called him ‘unrighteous’ as Jesus did. It should be noted that this parable is not unique in containing some unsavoury characters. Consider Jesus’ use of such characters as an unjust judge, a neighbour who does not want to be bothered in the night and a man who pockets someone else’s treasure by buying his field! If you look at it closely, you will see that it contains much imagery similar to the familiar parable of the prodigal son: The steward, like the prodigal son, betrays a trust ( the word for wasted property in both parables is identical). Like the prodigal son, the Steward offers no excuses. Like the prodigal son, the dishonest steward experiences extraordinary mercy. The narrative of this parable abounds with subtle detail: ‘Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man who has a steward and charges were brought to him that he was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him ‘what is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward’. The rich man who is the steward’s boss (apparently a landlord over tenant farmers) is clearly a master who expects obedience and faithfulness and acts in judgement when his agent, the Steward, is wasteful and disobedient. Yet, he is capable of unusual mercy and generosity even to that dishonest steward. When the steward hears his boss’ words we note that he is speechless. The steward knows that he is guilty. He knows that the boss knows the truth – he know of the steward’s guilt. The landlord expected faithfulness and betrayal meant judgement. He also know he could not get his job back by offering a series of excuses. Yet, the steward notes that his boss is strangely merciful. He did not arrest or imprison the steward, as he could have done. He merely relieves him of his position. This merciful way the master handled his dictated the strategy the unrighteous steward would use as he attempted to save his future in the community. The steward’s plan is to risk everything on the quality of mercy he has already experienced from his master. If he fails, he will certainly go to jail. If he succeeds, he will be a hero in the community. Whatever he did, it had to be done quickly before word got out that he had been sacked and had no authority to act on the landlord’s behalf. This explains the haste described in the parable. The steward said to himself, ‘what shall I do because my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I know what I’ll do so that when I am put out of the stewardship, others may receive me into their own homes’. So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6 He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7 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.' All along, as he was handing out these great deals to his master’s debtors, he could get much of the credit for the deal by giving the impression that he had interceded on behalf of the debtors to gain such valuable concessions for them. Soon the steward’s boss found out what was happening. He found out about the scam through the celebration of his generosity that was breaking out all over the place. There were only two reactions he could have. He could go back to all those debtors and explain that it was all a fraud and the villager’s joy would turn to anger and curses. Or he could keep silent, accept the praise that was being showered upon him, and allow the clever steward to ride high on the wave of popular acclaim. We are told that the landlord chose the latter action and even praised the steward who had cheated him but brought him great popularity at the same time. Jesus concluded the parable by saying: ‘8 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 The steward was not praised for his dishonest conduct, but for his wisdom in knowing where his salvation lay. His skilfulness is in self-preservation. He was sensitive to the hopelessness of his situation. He was aware of the one source of salvation, namely, the generosity of his master. The point of comparison in this parable for us is what is called a comparison ‘from light to heavy’. If this dishonest steward solved his problem by relying on the generosity and mercy of his master to solve his crisis, *how much more should we come to terms with our predicament as we head toward eternity and look to the mercy of God?* You may also see yourself in this parable as the master, rather than as the dishonest steward. Then use Jesus parable to realise anew what is truly important to the Christian: not material wealth, but the Christian's relationship with his neighbour, the Christian's reputation as being gracious and merciful, responsive to his neighbour’s need. When you understand that, the entire topic of stewardship falls squarely into place. You stop wondering, "How much must I give?" and you start wondering, "What does my neighbour need, and what can I do toward filling that need?" You stop thinking of Christian giving as an obligation that you dislike, and you start looking at it as the one of the best chances you will probably get in this life to show undeserved mercy toward your neighbour, as God has loved you. Consider how God has been both a God of judgement and mercy to us. God's stewards (us), because of our evil and disobedience are caught in the crisis of the answering to God for our sins. Excuses will be useless to us. Our only option is to entrust everything to the unfailing mercy of a master whom we know to be generous. In fact, we can be confident that He will accept the responsibility and cover the cost of our salvation. In the middle-east the story is told of the condemned murder during the days of the famous sultan Saladin. The killer was condemned to death yet kept appealing and crying out ‘I want to see the Sultan’. Finally he was taken into the presence of the great Sultan where he cried out: ‘O most gracious Sultan, my sins are great but the mercy of the Sultan is greater’. That attitude gained the man a pardon from the Sultan. He knew the Sultan’s reputation for mercy. The steward knew the landlords’ generosity. He gambled on it and won. That clever rascal in the parable was wise enough to place his total trust in the quality of mercy experience at the beginning of the story. That trust was vindicated. Disciples of Jesus Christ need the same kind of wisdom as they approach the predicament we call life. The definition of a predicament is a troublesome, trying or dangerous state or condition. This is how Jesus would have us regard life in this world. Consider what he meant when Jesus said that ‘the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the children of light’. Could it be that the children of light, those who have Christian faith, tend to lose some of their shrewdness with regard to the very conduct of their lives? That would certainly serve the devil’s interests if that were the case. In other words, if Christians felt that with Christian faith came a certain naivete and lethargy toward the urgency , challenges and the troubles of this life, then the devil could walk all over this world without any interference from Christians. And he would dearly love that. But Jesus urges us to have a different view of life. He wants us to appreciate that life is dominated by a predicament - a troublesome and dangerous situation which we have brought upon ourselves by our disobedience toward our master and our wasting of his resources. Jesus wants us to know that our conduct displeases God. At the same time Jesus wants us to understand that our Master is merciful and generous nevertheless. Our misconduct does displease Him. But if we trust in (indeed gamble on) His generosity, we will arrive at the only solution to our predicament – faith in Christ crucified. In Jesus Christ we see that God is prepared to absorb the cost of our predicament and save us from our man-made disaster. Thus, we should trust in His mercy now and live by His generosity all the days of our lives. We should plan our strategy according to the generosity of God. That is how one might describe living by the Gospel. There are other ways of living with our predicament. People all over are trying to make excuses for themselves, justifying themselves by their own futile efforts – juggling their disobedience and evil deeds over against their obedience and ‘good deeds’, or ignoring the predicament altogether (the latter being the most popular approach to the problem at the moment). But none of those ways of live are living by the Gospel. The Gospel describes the generosity of God and how, out of love for His disobedient world, He sent His eternal Son, Jesus Christ. The Son of God covered the cost of our guilt by taking that guilt and paying for it with His life, when He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead and proclaims even now that those who trust in that expression of God's generosity are justified and cleansed from all their sins. This is the light that illumines our predicament. And as for us children of light, we proclaim Him whom we know to be a generous God to a dark and despairing world. And we celebrate the mercy of our merciful god. That is living by the Gospel. If a steward can tell his master’s debtors to delete their debts and write in smaller debts, we, who know the Gospel can tell sinners to consider their debts of guilt and sin deleted completely and paid in full by a loving God through Jesus Christ His Son, our Saviour. Amen. -- *The Revd Dr Jonathan Naumann* Senior Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church & School 1261 Pennsylvania Avenue, Oakmont, PA 15139-1195 Internet site: redeemer-oakmont.org e-mail: [email protected] Tel. (412) 828-9323 Ext. 10 Cell. (412) 983-9922 Naumann Park 782 15th Street Oakmont, PA 15139 Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.naumann Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pastorjcnaumann Informal blog: engelein.blogspot.com E-mail: [email protected] The information contained in this e-mail is intended for the named recipient only. It may contain privileged and confidential information and if you are not an intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. Connections via the Internet are not secure unless otherwise stated therefore I cannot accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message, including any malware that may get through our screening process. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Redeemer Lutheran Church and School.
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