The Unrighteous Steward

Introduction

There’s world of the dog treasure on that way. No, firmware the little PAL perfectly shot on that before.

Okay, that’s what I know the APOS. Oh, everything that was pretty good.

Well, I’m not bad, but it’s all on the door. And I’ll try to be more expecting the I don’t know.

And now we’re talking about it.

Oh, maybe I’m all over the five hours.

And then I have a time spelling motorbug.

Just stop a little bit.

Oh, well, you’re going to quote the energy is a little bit of a pencil.

Well, I’ll have to go over. Okay, we got a few ass wear that quote.

I miss the singing here. It’s good to be back with you this evening. I’m glad that you came back. Those of you who heard me preach this morning, I’m especially glad that you came back. Let me get you to open your Bibles if you would to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. We are making this a day of parables, lessons from parables. This morning we spent our time in Luke chapter 15 in both the Bible class and the morning worship. And as was a nap, this evening we’re going to begin by taking a look at a parable that the Lord tells that we refer to as the parable of the unrighteous or unjust steward. I will tell you up front that this parable is considered to be one of, if not the most difficult of the Lord’s parable to understand.

At least that is its reputation. One Bible scholar who I do not know, but I read something that he said, a fellow named Dungan said of this parable, and I will quote, the parable of the unjust steward has perhaps given more difficulty to critics and commentators than any other. Many strange translations have been proposed to get rid of imaginary troubles of the figure. It is maintained by some that the rendering generally makes the Savior recommend the dishonesty and theft of the man. Whereas instead of being held up as a model, he ought to be regarded as the most errant of names. Hence, instead of the common translation of verse 9, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, they make it read, make to yourselves friends without the mammon of unrighteousness.

But I’m going to suggest to you this evening that this is a parable like other parables, and it can be understood as long as we kind of try to hold to what we talked about this morning. Look for the main purpose, the main meaning of the parable, and try to find that meaning within context.

And this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager. The manager said to himself, What shall I do? Because my master is taking the management away from me. I am not strong enough to dig, I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes. And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, How much do you owe my master? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.

Then he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?

1. The Context of This Parable

And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. What is the context of this parable? One of the first things we usually do in trying to figure out context is to look at what happens right before these words that we find in the Bible are there. And of course, these follows the parable, which is the last parable in chapter 15, which is the parable of the prodigal son. A portion of which did involve a man’s younger son who had squandered his inheritance, who had failed to be a very good steward of that which had been entrusted to him.

But I’m going to suggest to you that perhaps, and this word perhaps is really important, okay? Perhaps the impetus for this parable goes all the way back to the first part of Luke 15. It may go all the way back to those first two verses in Luke chapter 15, which we talked about this morning, where the scribes and the Pharisees are grumbling against the Lord because he is spending time with, even sharing a meal with sinners. Now that may be the case.

And we’ll talk about that in a moment.

They should understand the importance of being good stewards. And maybe that’s what he’s trying to impress upon them. Again, the word is perhaps there. As far as who’s being addressed here in chapter 16, the first verse says he’s talking to his disciples. And that’s certainly true. But we didn’t read this verse, but look at verse 14. This is important, I think. Verse 14 says, now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him. Usually we go to the what’s before something to set the context. In this case, the wiser course might be to look at what’s said after it. Because even though he is talking to his disciples, it seems somewhat clear that the Pharisees and the scribes were the audience he’s really directing these comments to.

2. The Manager Called to Give an Accounting

And I’m going to see if we can establish that. So the parable’s about a rich man, one who is probably the owner of a landed estate. The debtors referred to here are those who were probably tenant farmers, who are working the land that belongs to someone else. They’re doing this to make a living for themselves. What they do is they tend the land, they grow crops on the land, and they get to keep some of those. And the guy who owns the land is going to have to receive a portion of that for letting them use the land in that way. And that’s what’s happening here. This owner of the land has a manager who is managing his business affairs. And part of his job is to go around and collect from those who owe the landowner these proceeds from the land from time to time.

But the manager is called to give an accounting of his management. Apparently, some things have been said about this manager. He is squandering your resources. And apparently the landowner believes what is being said, and he calls the manager to give an accounting of what he’s been doing here. And he, I mean, we’re told right up front, you can’t be manager anymore, he says to him. So he’s going to lose the management. Well, this guy’s now got a problem. He’s about to lose his job. Not strong enough to dig. In other words, I can’t really work as a hired hand. I’m not strong enough to do that. Too proud to beg. Not too proud to steal his owner, his master’s money, but too proud to beg. So what in the world am I going to do?

I know what I’ll do. Here’s what I’ll do. I will work out a plan to ingratiate myself with those who have a debt to my master. I’ll get them beholden to me so that whenever I’m in a real problem here, they’ll take me into their home. They’ll take care of me. They’ll give me what I need. I’ll make friends with them in this kind of way. Now, we’re only given two specific cases, but apparently this fellow does this for many, if not all, of the debtors who owe the master proceeds from the land that they’re working. The two specifics that were given. In one case, the owner was owed a hundred measures of oil. We’re probably talking about olive oil here. And the manager says to the debtor, Well, take your bill and write down 50.

Well, the guy’s happy to do that. I mean, that’s that’s a lot less he’s got and he’s got to give, so okay, I’ll do that. He goes to another debtor and he owes a hundred measures of wheat. Okay, take your bill quickly and write down eighty. Well, that’s still a significant saving piece. He’s willing to do that. Apparently, he goes to all the debtors and he gets he reduces their bill. Basically, that’s what he does. He reduces their bill. You ever wonder whether or not these debtors realize that something crooked is going on? I don’t know that they necessarily would. Apparently, it’s not unheard of for the owner to send the manager to reduce the bill. During times when the weather wasn’t very cooperative and the land had not produced very much, the owner had enough good sense to realize if he got the full payment, then the people who are working the land are going to starve, but they’re not going to be able to work the land anymore.

3. The Master Praises His Shrewdness

This is somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. So he reduces the payment in occasions like that. Sometimes a landowner might simply be somewhat generous. And he wants to help his people out a little bit in some particular given circumstance. So they may not have had any idea that the manager was acting on his own authority instead of the landowner’s authority. I’m sure they were more than willing to reduce the bill the way that he suggests. When the landowner, the master, hears about this, what is his reaction? That sturdy scoundrel. What we’re told is he praises the man for his shrewdness. Oh, wasn’t that clever of him? Look what he had done. He doesn’t praise his dishonesty. He doesn’t praise his thievery. What he praises is his shrewdness.

And notice what is said there in verse 8. His master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. The sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. Is there anything that we’ve read that would make you believe that Jesus is approving of this kind of situation? And telling this parable, if he’s suggesting that what this manager did was a good thing to do. That it was a right thing to do, that it was a righteous thing to do. There are people who read this account and they believe that it sort of has Jesus approving of what this guy’s done.

4. Make Friends by Means of the Wealth of Unrighteousness

There’s nothing here that suggests that. The only thing that is being approved of is how clever this guy was. And it was a pretty clever thing to do, wasn’t it? It was a clever thing to do. There’s no doubt about that. He kind of helped to secure his own future when he couldn’t think of anything else that he could do. It wasn’t right, it was definitely wrong, but he did at least accomplish his goal of trying to secure for himself some kind of future. Then, Jesus says this. He says that his disciples, verse 9, I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwelling. Now I said at the very beginning that this is considered to be a difficult parable.

This is probably the verse. This is probably the at least one of the verses that makes it so. What is the Lord saying here? Make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you that everything hinges on the eternal dwellings.

Who are the friends under consideration there? Make friends for yourselves. Now, what this guy did is he went out and made friends for himself. He used somebody else’s money, actually, to make friends for himself so that he would have sort of a secure future. But Jesus says, of these friends, make friends for yourself so that, well, by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwelling. Whatever else we can say about these friends, they have the ability to receive you into the eternal dwelling. We’re not talking about earthly friends. That’s not what we’re talking about here. They will receive you into the eternal dwelling. We’re talking about heavenly friends. We have to be. So the Lord is not saying to us, well, we should be like this guy.

We should be worldly minded and crooked and look out for ourselves and be shrewd in our relationship with one another. What he is simply stating is the obvious fact that in worldly matters, worldly people make wise decisions, but in spiritual matters, it seems as though the sons of light don’t act nearly as shrewdly as they should in securing their eternal future. And yet we should. I mean, the Lord recommends that if they could use their physical resources wisely, if they could make friends for themselves through the wealth of unrighteousness, use the things that you have wisely, do good unto others, serve other people, make service to other people, then they’re making friends. But it’s not the earthly friends under consideration. They’re really making friends in heaven by doing those things with the things that they have.

Now, if that seems like a weird idea to you, it’s not the only place in Scripture we can read about that. Turn if you would to Matthew chapter 25. In Matthew chapter 25, let’s read, starting in verse 31. Matthew 25, verse 31, but when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was a stranger and you invited me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer, Lord. When did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you, a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When do we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. By taking of their physical possessions, the quote unquote wealth of unrighteousness.

And using those things to help other people. Those other brethren, those people who belong to the Lord Jesus, they were making friends for themselves. No doubt they were making friends for themselves of those people who received the help, but they were also making friends in heaven. They were laying up treasure in heaven. And so whenever the judgment comes, the Lord says to them, You come. Come and enter into the kingdom. Because you helped me. You did this for me. They used the wealth of unrighteousness wisely to make friends for themselves, so that those friends would then welcome them into the eternal dwelling. That’s what I would suggest to you as being taught there in Luke chapter 16. If the whole idea seems to be, what you have, use it for the Lord.

5. You Cannot Serve God and Wealth

What you have, use it in the way that He would have you to use it. And then Jesus makes some more comments after what we’ve read through verse 14 in Luke 16 that I think sort of helped to nail this down. Well, we find starting in verse 10. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. He who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you’ve not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust true riches to you? And if you’ve not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. I mean, it seems pretty clear from these verses as well that the contrast here is between having a worldly focus, the focus on this world which is not our home, versus having a focus on the next world, the world to come, which we will all enter when we pass away when the Lord comes back. Whichever comes first. There’s the contrast. And what he is teaching here is use what you have to secure your spiritual future rather than your physical future. No, I don’t think he’s saying, don’t make plans here on this world, don’t try to succeed, don’t try to be successful. He’s not saying that. But he is saying that the sons of light, I wonder who that would be.

They’re not thinking about their spiritual future. They’re thinking about their over future. We don’t need to fall into that trap. We understand, I hope, what a trap material things can be for us. They can they can divert our attention from what is really important to things which are not really nearly as important. And I said at the very beginning, perhaps, the context of our way back to chapter 15, those first two verses. But I will admit to you, that seems a little strange to me. But if you look at the next two verses 14 and 15, after the parable. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and were stopping at him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

It just seems pretty clear that they’re the ones to whom this teaching is being directed. They’re the ones who have their focus in the wrong place. I mean, they’re stopping at him for making these remarks. They were lovers of money. The Holy Spirit adds this little description for us. They’re lovers of money. Why would the Pharisees be lovers of money? Well, they look at it this way, and unfortunately, sometimes we will fall into this trap too. If I have a lot, it’s because God has blessed me. He’s blessed me with a lot. And God would not bless me in this kind of way if I wasn’t righteous, would he? Surely it’s because I’ve been trying to do so good that God has blessed me the way that he has.

The Pharisees certainly looked at it that way. And they saw all that they had as an indicator of how righteous they were. And they were very concerned about how other people saw them, and the more that they had, the more others would see them as being righteous. And so they loved it for that reason as well, because they had reputations and they wanted the praise of other men. And the Lord, I believe, in telling this parable, is saying to them, Your focus is in the wrong place. It’s in the wrong place. Take the things that you’ve been blessed with and use them to make friends at heavenly places, so that they might receive you into the eternal dwellings. I believe that’s the idea here. And if I could, I want to read some more out of this chapter, which I think makes another connection to this thought.

6. The Rich Man and Lazarus

And I will confess to you that I don’t think I saw this connection for a very long time. I think I’ve only seen it somewhat recently. But starting in verse 19.

And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, so he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things.

But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. And he said, Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them, so they will not also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.

We’ve studied those verses probably in many different Bible classes, heard sermons about this. Typically, when we look at those verses, what we’re talking about is the idea of the afterlife. What happens after this life is over. This place where the dead go, where there’s this great gulf fixed between them, and those who are being comforted and those who are being tormented are kept apart from one another, and there’s no way to cross over. And so we want to make sure that we live our life in such a way that we don’t go to the place of torment, the place of agony where Lazarus is. I’m sorry, where the rich man is.

I mean, he realizes he’s messed up, but he doesn’t want his brothers to have to endure the same faith. And that’s worth talking about too.

But what I think I failed to see for the longest time is the connection between this and what he’s taught before. Think about this rich man. And here’s Lazarus at his gate. Every time he passes through those gates, there’s Lazarus. He saw him probably on numerous occasions. It might be the kind of thing where he saw him so much he got to where he couldn’t see him anymore. I don’t know. But how many opportunities did this rich man have to make use of the wealth of unrighteousness to help Lazarus? There’s no telling how many opportunities he had. Lazarus crumbs. If he could have just gotten crumbs, he’d have been happy with that. And apparently he never got any assistance. He never got any help, never got any notice.

This man was rich. He didn’t do anything to help him. He didn’t make friends in the heavenly places. And when he died, there was no one to welcome him into those heavenly places. And so I see this whole story, perhaps. Although it has this the information for us about the afterlife, that the real intent of this is to reinforce what he has just taught in the parable of the unrighteous steward. And so I would see all of this as trying to get across to the Pharisees and the scribes, who is already chastised about not wanting to go out and reach out to those who are sinners who need to be told to repent.

Conclusion

And they need to change that. If they want to make friends, that will be able to usher them into the heavenly places. That I believe is the main purpose of the parable. I think that’s why he’s teaching it here. And I think the idea of the rich man of Lazarus just reinforces that. Now, what about us? What’s the lesson for us out of this? Well, we know about materialism. We probably talk about it on a fairly regular basis. We know about the dangers of things that take our eyes off what is really important. Oh, what is it? This is the 7th of November, is that right? Something like that. We’re getting a month and a half away from the most materialistic time in the year.

We have to be careful during that time of year. We have to be careful all the time. You know, we live in the richest land in the world. We are blessed in incredible ways. Compared to most people in the world, we have incredible riches. Which means that we have incredible opportunities to use those things to help other people, to serve God in the way that he would have us to serve Him. And it’s too easy for us to be like those Pharisees to just go about our business and not think about opportunities like this. We don’t need to do that. We too need to be using the wealth of unrighteousness. Why do you think he calls it the wealth of unrighteousness? Is there anything inherently unrighteous about wealth?

I don’t know of anything that’s inherently unrighteous about it. At the same time, though, I don’t know of anything inherently righteous about it either. And that’s probably why he refers to it that way. It’s just what it is. It can be used righteously or unrighteously, but it’s just what it is. Let’s use what God gives us for his glory. Let’s use it for his people. Let’s use it for his cause. Let’s use it in ways that will make friends for us. So that when it fails, and physical things are going to fail, aren’t they? Eventually they’re going to fail. So that when it fails, they, those friends that we have made, will welcome us into the heavenly places. Pick your song with that if you would, please.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that understanding of that parable or not. And I’d be happy to talk to anybody who might have a different view of it. But it sure seems consistent to me with what the Lord was doing all the way from the beginning of the chapter through the end of the chapter 16, in terms of understanding it in this kind of way. What we have been talking about then, if you boil it down to its essence, is trying to do what’s right. Trying to do what’s right. And hoping that if we serve God faithfully, if we’re faithful at little things, that’ll lead to us being faithful at big things and being faithful all of our lives, and the Lord saying to us, as we saw there in Matthew 25, come, ye blessed of my Father, and of the kingdom prepared for you.

I think the song that’s got picked out has the word come in it. If I remember, right? Jesus, I come. And so this invitation is being extended to those who have not obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ to answer not our invitation, but the Lord’s invitation to come to Him. Now that requires a few things. In order to be faithful to God, we have to come to Him in the way that He proscribes. And He says to us that we have to come in faith. We have to believe what He teaches. We have to believe what He says. We have to trust that He is the Lord and that He knows what He’s doing, and we simply obey what He says. Come to Him in faith.

Turn away from sin. Confess His name before others and be baptized to have our sins washed away. There’s where some of that trust has to come into play for some people. I don’t understand what baptism has to do with it. I don’t see why being buried in water, dumped into water, how does that save me? I don’t see why the Lord wants to do it that way. What does it really matter? If he is the Lord, if he is the Lord of glory, if he is the Son of the living God, if He is our Creator, if He is our Savior, then does it matter? This is what He says we must do. And if we believe that He is those things, all we can do is humbly obey.

Then we have to live a life of faithfulness. Try to be as faithful as we can, not like that unrighteous steward. We don’t use lying and thievery and other things to try to accomplish things that we think will take care of us. We want the Lord take care of us in the ways that he says that he will. So is there someone here tonight who needs to obey the gospel? We would sure like to help you do that. If you believe, and if you’re willing to change, and if you need to be baptized, we’d love to help you. For those of us who are here tonight who are Christians, I hope that the words have been somewhat helpful to us. I know that we understand this world’s in our home.

I know that we understand the dangers of things, but this is one of those things that, in my humble opinion, I think we need to be reminded of somewhat frequently. But it’s easy to get comfortable in this world, especially in this country with all the things that we have. And we don’t really need to be comfortable. We need to remember that what we have, we need to use for him.

So let’s resolve to use what we have for him. And if someone who’s fallen short, you’re a child of God, you’ve fallen short, you need to be restored, then of course we want you to come forward as well. Let us help you. Let’s all stand, let’s all sing, and come to the Lord if that’s your need.