The Unjust Steward
THE UNJUST STEWARD
LUKE 16:1-13
In what ways could we be more like the manager and look ahead, providing for the future?
The story of the unjust steward is an excellent illustration of the basic principle in the interpretation of parables. The parable must not be pushed beyond its specific purpose. In other words, a parable is not an allegory. In an allegory every portion has symbolic significance. It is important to understand the difference. In the Oxford English Dictionary “allegory” is given as one of the meanings of “parable.” This does not apply to the New Testament. None of its parables is an allegory.
The story is true to life. Among the papyri recovered from the sands of Egypt are many which illustrate such corruption. A hoard of letters found as part of the packing of a mummified crocodile proved to be the office file of a scamp named Menches, who held a petty official’s post in an Egyptian town in the second century. It is obvious that he was busy with embezzlement, took bribes, and used his position for base monetary ends.
The unprincipled fellow in the Lord’s story was just such a man. He miscalculated, as such villains sometimes do, and saw retribution coming. With wicked agility he set to work to use his master’s money to secure advantage after his inevitable dismissal. The “lord,” note carefully, was the master of the man, not Christ.
But the whole point of the story is that worldly rogues will use money to secure friends. On the basest levels of humanity money is seen to be useful only for what it can do. And yet there are those who should know better who seek money for its own sake. Christ despised money. That fact is evident everywhere. Jolting his hearers to attention with the strange story, Christ is asking them why they are not as inventive in a better cause. Earthly wealth is a loan and a trust which may at short notice be withdrawn. Heavenly possessions do not diminish nor fail. The Christian is expected to manage well and honestly the getting of money, to use money sanely, generously and usefully, but never to love money, never to trust it, never to use it for base ends.
Notes 16:1: unlike chapter 15 this is addressed specifically to disciples. 16:6: the “measure” (Gk. baton) was about 22 litres. 16:7: “measure” (Gk. koros) about 86 gallons. 16:9: “mammon”—an Aramaic word meaning money; the opposite of “true riches” in 16:11. 16:13: “hate”—see 14:26.