by the Rev. Dave Sonmor

Luke 16.1-13:

Jesus said to the disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a steward; and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him, and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship; for you can no longer be steward. And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship 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 stewardship, they will receive me into their homes.' And calling to him each one of his lord's debtors, he said 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 said he to another, 'And 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 commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you? 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 hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 

The parable of the Unjust Steward is a difficult one to understand because it seems to contain a serious moral dilemma. The steward is charged with wasting the Master's goods and as a result he is fired; "What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." So the steward wonders how he is going to survive. "I cannot dig and am too ashamed to beg." So he calls upon his master's debtors and reduces, in his account books, the amounts that they owe. He does this so that these debtors will feel obligated to him when he becomes destitute and will then take care of him. It will be like an insurance policy. The moral dilemma then comes in to play, because the master apparently gets wind of this business, but instead of condemning and prosecuting the steward he COMMENDS him for his shrewdness. The steward is rewarded for his apparent dishonesty. Furthermore the Lord, in explaining the lesson, seems to be telling the disciples that this sort of behavior is alright and is justified, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous Mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations." Note that He said "When it fails" and not, "If it fails."

One obvious lesson is that good people, working for their spiritual future, should show as much ingenuity as is shown by worldly people working on their future. It is prudent for one to be concerned about the future and to use all of his or her resources in order to secure the future. But, we must still ask, "Is it right to be dishonest in this pursuit?" It also shows that there is a direct relationship between the things of this world and the things of the Lord's kingdom. Jesus suggests that we can use the things of this world in order to obtain spiritual life. The "unrighteous mammon" about which he speaks refers to money and earthly riches, which I think also includes human relationships and activity; and all the work we do to provide for our future, both immediate and long term. We have to think ahead or we might end up in great difficulty. However, we still see a moral dilemma, in the literal story, in the suggestion that there is reward in cheating or lying. To understand this we must remember that parables are not intended to be true by mere comparison, but show their full meaning through correspondences of natural and spiritual counterparts. The literal stories contain hidden lessons, which must be viewed from a spiritual perspective.

In the story the steward manipulated the books in order to get on the good side of certain people because his future was at stake. He demonstrated forethought, readiness and determination but his actions were illegal. In today's society and probably in the society of the Palestinians of Jesus time, there could be a severe penalty for such a fraud. These qualities though are the mammon that can be used to help us when we become concerned about our spiritual future. Forethought, readiness and determination. If we have these then we can also use them in ways that are not fraudulent. We can do acceptable things. Provision for our spiritual future involves growth of character. A person spiritually provides for the future by outgrowing evils, and growing into goodness. When a person who is growing spiritually finds himself or herself, in spiritual trouble by neglect of the interests of the spiritual master, they provide for the future by making friends of those natural and spiritual principles which will always feed them and provide for their future home.

Let us now examine some of the details of this parable. Who is the rich man? In the spiritual sense the rich man is the Lord and particularly the Lord in respect to His distribution of the spiritual qualities of good and truth which He constantly entrusts to, the care and use of all people. Who is the steward? In general, the steward is all people as we are all entrusted with God's goodness and truth to some degree. The steward is also the church; the church universal and particular churches, as they are made up of the people who are given spiritual riches and have formed institutions through which they can work together to use them, care for them, protect them, and invest them in future generations. The parable then is a challenge to us individually and collectively to ask ourselves what kind of stewards we are. How well have we cared for the riches of God's kingdom that have been entrusted to us? E.C. Mitchell in his book, Parables of the New Testament observes that, "In a general sense, the steward is the Church, dispensing the Lord's spiritual wealth. And in a limited sense, each individual person, as a Church in least form, is a steward of the Lord, having charge of the Lord's good and truth." The steward wasting the Master's goods would mean abusing and neglecting the riches of spiritual life, that is the knowledge's of good and truth. Mitchell says, "The Church collectively wastes the Lord's goods when it teaches false doctrine, encouraging a careless life." He contends that, "Throughout the whole history of the Church, the Lord has called it to account, for the abuse of its stewardship; collectively, through the Holy Word, and individually through the conscience of man."

When we are called to account our conscience leads us to examine what use we have made of the Master's goods. In the judgment, the Lord's truth calls everyone, and every Church to render an account of its stewardship. Every Church that fails to teach vital truths, finally hears the condemnation, "Thou may no longer be steward." Throughout history there have been several general churches or dispensations. In the promised New Jerusalem there is to be a final and enduring Church which teaches the Lord's truth from the open Word. We claim to be a vital part of that Church so we must ask ourselves what the quality of our stewardship is. Have we been wasting our Lord's goods? And if so; what are we going to do about it? The unjust steward in the parable sought to resolve his problem by developing an alliance with "debtors of the Master" he altered the amount of the debts so their burden would not be so great and then they would help him when he was in need. 

Each of the debtors have a debt identified as being one hundred units in size. The first owed a hundred measures of oil and the second a hundred measures of wheat. Oil and wheat, spiritually represent things of the Lord's heavenly Kingdom. Oil represents the good of charity, which is from Divine Love and wheat represents the truths of faith which are from Divine Wisdom. The number 'one hundred' is used because it represents all or everything and is appropriate when we think that we owe everything to the Lord because He has given us life and therefore everything that we have. The debt is reduced to 50 units in the instance of the oil because love and the things derived from it are reciprocal. We receive it from the Lord and then return it to Him by sharing it with others, so you might say we keep half and return half. Fifty represents what is sufficient or enough to be the equivalent of full payment. To the other debtor he said to change the bill to 80 units of wheat. Eighty represents the quality of our understanding of the Laws of God as they are written in the Ten Commandments and also the temptation not to obey them and the will to overcome those temptations. We must invest more of our-self in dealing with the temptations that would destroy our faith. The Lord is reasonable. He accepts a reasonable effort of repayment from us, knowing full well that we are incapable of repaying everything. But we must note that 'reasonable' is not 1%or 2% or even 49%. It is at least 50% or 80% of what we are capable of offering to Him. 

Jesus called to the attention of his disciples the fact that worldly people show more energy and wisdom of their kind and provide for themselves more prudently than spiritual people are likely to do while in the physical world. " For the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children than the children of light."

Making friends with Unrighteous Mammon means that we should use the riches of this world and the talents that we are given to the best of our ability. The world becomes our enemy spiritually, only when we love it for itself alone and thus forget heavenly principles. It becomes our friend when we use it as a training school for heaven. Financial and psychological wealth will be the "Mammon of Unrighteousness" to us if they are misused and loved for their own sake, but the same things, when rightly used for spiritual life, cease to be unrighteous.

Thus in this parable the Lord teaches us to have one well defined purpose in life. And that is to be regenerated. He teaches us that we should put all of our energies and skill into doing that great work. We must use the world as a friend and a servant of the Lord. If we do this then we can in some measure pay our debt to the Lord in and by our daily life. We can use the world as a friend,, that can help us attain a heavenly life heaven and not as an enemy. To do this we must also be stewards of the Lord's earthly creation and to His Church in the world. "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. If then you have not been faithful to unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?"

Artwork: Pools of Serenity  © Thomas Kincaid and is
used with permission. 
Christ-Centered Art Gallery

Music:  In the Garden
1999 Bruce DeBoer
Used with Permission