Luke 16:1-13, the unjust steward had already made his choice long before the parable began, he was a slave to wealth and when wealth turned on him, he reached for the only savior a slave to wealth has, more leverage, more deals, that is the only kind of salvation money can buy, a few more years of comfortable dependence on the same system that just fired you. Jesus offers the disciples the other door, refuse to be owned, hold money loosely enough that you can give it away without bleeding, use it as a tool, never bow to it as a master. And when wealth eventually does what wealth always does, fail you, leave you, slip out of your grip in the exact hour you reached for it hardest, you will already be standing somewhere it cannot reach.
Now watch the proof arrive, Luke 16:14, and the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him. They sneered, the Greek word is “exemykterizon,” meaning literally, they turned up their noses at him and that sneer is the most important piece of evidence in the entire chapter. Because you do not turn up your nose at a parable that missed you, you scoff at the one that landed, the parable hit them precisely where they lived, covetous men who had spent a lifetime convincing themselves they served God while they served their money and the only defense they had left was contempt. Their sneer tells you the parable works, they felt the blade go in, that is why they flinched.
The unjust steward is not a parable for embezzlers, it is a parable for people who are quietly certain they can serve two masters, which is most of us. By every reasonable measurement, you are not the unjust steward, you are the responsible one, the careful one, the one the parable seems to be about other people, but sit inside the actual question Jesus is asking, suppose you were told tomorrow flatly, no appeal, that everything you currently hold would be taken from you in 30 days, the unjust steward got that exact telegram. Give an account, you may be no longer steward and the steward did not waste a single hour, he spent every remaining minute converting the temporary thing into the relational thing, friends, welcome, a roof on the far side of the cliff, he was dead wrong about the ethics, he was dead right about the urgency.
Now watch the proof arrive, Luke 16:14, and the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him. They sneered, the Greek word is “exemykterizon,” meaning literally, they turned up their noses at him and that sneer is the most important piece of evidence in the entire chapter. Because you do not turn up your nose at a parable that missed you, you scoff at the one that landed, the parable hit them precisely where they lived, covetous men who had spent a lifetime convincing themselves they served God while they served their money and the only defense they had left was contempt. Their sneer tells you the parable works, they felt the blade go in, that is why they flinched.
The unjust steward is not a parable for embezzlers, it is a parable for people who are quietly certain they can serve two masters, which is most of us. By every reasonable measurement, you are not the unjust steward, you are the responsible one, the careful one, the one the parable seems to be about other people, but sit inside the actual question Jesus is asking, suppose you were told tomorrow flatly, no appeal, that everything you currently hold would be taken from you in 30 days, the unjust steward got that exact telegram. Give an account, you may be no longer steward and the steward did not waste a single hour, he spent every remaining minute converting the temporary thing into the relational thing, friends, welcome, a roof on the far side of the cliff, he was dead wrong about the ethics, he was dead right about the urgency.
