PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE DISHONEST STEWARD
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 16:1-13
JANUARY 10, 1999
In this parable, Jesus speaks of a rich man who has a steward. The rich man has entrusted to the steward the management of all of his financial dealings. But the steward is dishonest, and he is guilty of embezzlement. He has pilfered some of the rich man’s profits. He is living the high life. He wasted his master’s goods. But the master found out about it, and he summoned the steward and he said, “What’s this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship. You can no longer be my steward.”
The steward panics. He thinks, “What am I going to do? My master is taking the stewardship away from me. I’m too weak to dig. I’m too proud to beg.” But he was also shrewd. He was clever, and he devised a plan whereby other people would provide for him when he was put out of the stewardship. He summoned his master’s debtors one by one. He restructured their loans, thereby befriending them. One debtor had the debt reduced by 50%. Another debtor had his debt reduced by 20%, But we are to understand that he called for all the debtors and he restructured all of the loans, thereby saving the debtors money, thereby befriending them, so that when he was put out of the stewardship, they would receive him into their houses and provide for him.
When the master heard about this, when the rich man heard about this, there was nothing he could do. The steward had operated within the law. He was still steward for another day or two. He had not yet turned in the account of his stewardship. It was within his power as steward to restructure these debts and loans. And so, the master wound up commending the steward on his cleverness.
Now, this is an unusual parable, certainly the most unusual parable told by our Lord Jesus. He told this parable to His disciples, and He has two teachings for those of us who believe. The first teaching concerns wisdom. At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus made this statement: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than are the children of light.”
In the Bible, the children of this world are non-Christians. In the Bible, the children of this world are non-believers. In the Bible, the children of light are Christians. The children of light are believers. Jesus is saying to us, “There’s a sense in which non-believers are wiser than believers.” He’s saying, “There is a sense in which non-Christians are wiser than Christians.”
The first message of Christ to His people through this parable is, “wise up!” But we need to understand what Jesus means by the word wise. In the Bible, there are two Greek words for wisdom. The first Greek word is the word “sophos.” This word sophos refers to philosophical wisdom, the wisdom of the Greeks, the wisdom of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle. In the Bible, the word sophos refers to theological wisdom. It oftentimes refers to doctrinal wisdom. It refers to the wisdom of believing the right things. Jesus does not use the word sophos in this parable. That is not the word He uses in this teaching because He’s referring to a different type of wisdom.
The other Greek word for wisdom in the Bible is the word “phronemos.” Phronemos refers to practical wisdom. It refers to a wisdom that is reflected in actions and behavior, in plans and strategies. Most Bible scholars believe that contextually the word phronemos in this parable should be translated by the English word “shrewd.” So, Jesus is saying, “There is a sense in which this world and the people of this world are shrewder than are the children of light.” Non-Christians tend to be a little shrewder than Christians. There’s a sense in which Jesus is calling upon Christians to be more shrewd.
Hundreds of years ago in England, there was an animal that lived in the British forest. It was a rodent-like animal with a sharp nose, and the British people called it a shrew. The shrew had two characteristics. It was pugnacious. It was argumentative. It was quarrelsome. It would constantly get in fights with other animals, even with other shrews. The shrew had a second characteristic and that is that it was venomous. At least, it was believed to be venomous. It was believed to be poisonous. It was believed that if a shrew bit you or even touched you that you would need to take preventative measures. There were superstitious rituals that the British people performed hundreds of years ago whenever they came in contact with a shrew.
The word shrew passed into the English language in such a way that it referred to people who have these qualities—the quality of being pugnacious or quarrelsome or argumentative, the quality of being venomous. The word shrew was particularly used to describe women who have these qualities. A woman who was quarrelsome or venomous was said to be a shrew. Obviously, this was a negative word, but the little creature that lived in the forests of England was believed to have a third quality. It was pugnacious and venomous, but it was also believed to be crafty. It was believed to be clever. It was very difficult to ensnare a shrew. It was believed that the shrew was very clever in its foraging for food.
The word also passed into the English language in the form of the word “shrewd,” meaning someone who was clever, someone who has a clever kind of wisdom. The problem of course is that the word shrewd is still associated with the negative qualities of the shrew. When we think of somebody as shrewd, we think of them as clever and crafty, but we also think of them as perhaps a little manipulative. If we think of them as shrewd, we think of them as clever but perhaps a little dishonest, maybe even a little evil. There’s this connotation associated with the word.
When we come to this parable and we think of the dishonest steward as shrewd, it fits. He’s clever but he’s dishonest, and the word shrewd seems to really fit him. When we think of the children of light, when we think of those who have committed their lives to Jesus, the word shrewd seems a little less appropriate. We need to understand the sense in which Christ is calling us as His people to be shrewd. He doesn’t want us to be evil. He doesn’t want us to be manipulative. He doesn’t want us to be dishonest. In fact, at the conclusion of the parable, He condemns dishonesty. He’s calling us, calling upon us, to be shrewd without being dishonest. Shrewd without being dishonest.
We need to go back to Matthew’s Gospel in the 10th chapter and the 16th verse where Jesus said to His disciples, “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” The word for “wise” in Matthew 10:16 is this word “phronemos,” the same word used in our parable for today. “Be shrewd as serpents but innocent as doves.” The word for innocent means “just and fair.” You see, there’s a certain purity that Christ wants us to bring to our shrewdness. He wants us to be shrewd, but He wants us to be pure. He wants us to be blameless.
When we were on staff retreat a few months ago, Dave Meserve, our singles pastor, gave a wonderful teaching on Matthew 10:16. I’ve asked Dave to give it to all of you, and at some future date he will do that, but for this Sunday, just remember that shrewdness is to be combined with innocence or it’s not Christlike. Shrewdness is to be combined with innocence or it’s not Christlike.
I hold in my hand a book called “Rating the Presidents.” This book reflects the opinion of 719 historians and political scientists. They have assessed the 41 presidents who have served this nation and rated them. The book claims to be impartial. Of the 719 political scientists who were interviewed, some of them were Republicans, some were Democrats. It claims to be impartial. Of course, we all bring bias to whatever we do.
They have rated the presidents on the basis of varying qualities, from character and integrity to skills and strategies. For instance, they rate Jimmy Carter 19 amongst the 41 presidents. They rate him very high on character and integrity. And indeed, Jimmy Carter has great character and integrity, and I respect him tremendously. But they rate him low on some of his skills and strategies, and so he comes out near the middle.
They rate Bill Clinton 23rd amongst the 41. And, of course, this book was written two years ago before recent events in Washington. They rate him 23rd, and again, they rate him very low on character and integrity but very high on skills and strategies. They rate Richard Nixon 32nd, very low on character and integrity but quite high on skills and strategies. They rate Warren Harding the worst president out of the 41 that we have had. They rate him low in character, low in integrity, and low in skills and strategy.
They rate Abraham Lincoln No. 1. They rate Abraham Lincoln as the best president this nation has ever had. They rate him very high on skills and strategies, and they rate him very high on character and integrity. So even in the world, people acknowledge and recognize that wisdom and innocence must be combined. Even the world understands this. Wisdom and innocence must be combined.
This is extremely important to God in the lives of His people. He wants us to combine wisdom and innocence. He wants His church to be characterized by wisdom and innocence. He wants the church of Jesus Christ serving the kingdom of God in this world to combine wisdom and innocence. Of course, when we look at history, too often the church has been neither wise nor innocent.
Now, this is Sanctity of Human Life Month, January. It was in this month in 1973 that the Roe v. Wade bill was passed. Of course, abortion became legal in our nation. I think most of you know that since the passing of Roe v. Wade in ‘73, more than 35 million babies have been aborted in this nation. I think most of you know that almost 99% of the babies aborted in the United States of America were aborted not because of any danger to the life of the mother and not because of rape or incest or gross fetal deformity. Most of these abortions, almost 99%, have simply been belated efforts at birth control in an increasingly promiscuous society.
I think most of you know that abortion is legal in this nation for any and all reasons. Abortion on demand. Wholesale abortion, for any and all reasons, in any and all trimesters. But, perhaps you didn’t know that most recent polls and surveys indicate that only 22% of the women and men of America believe in wholesale abortion. Only 22% of the people of this nation believe in abortion on demand. So why do we have it? Why do we have abortion on demand? Why do we have wholesale abortion in this nation when only 22% of the people in America believe in it?
I think part of the reason is the children of light. I think the children of light have not been very wise. We’ve not had an innocent shrewdness in our strategies. Many people in the evangelical Christian community have taken an “all or nothing” strategy to this whole subject of abortion. We either eradicate all abortion from this nation or we accomplish nothing. As a result, we have accomplished nothing. Those who take this “all or nothing” strategy think that they are walking the moral high ground, but you’re never walking the moral high ground when you allow millions of babies to be slaughtered. I would submit to you that the church of Jesus Christ in this nation and all over the world needs to get a little wiser in the way we do things.
You know, in the first century church, there are examples of incredible wisdom. You look at the subject of slavery, for instance, and you see it. There’s no doubt when you come to the Bible, that the early church did not believe in slavery. You can look at Paul’s writing in the book of Philemon, and clearly Paul did not believe in slavery, did not think it right. You can look in the book of Galatians, and you can look at chapter 3, verse 28, where the Apostle Paul wrote, “In Christ there is neither Jew, nor Greek, nor slave, nor free, nor male, nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus.” Clearly, Paul did not believe in slavery. He viewed all people as equal in Christ.
You can look at Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 9, where Paul writes that there’s only one Master and all are equal. Slaves are free. We’re all equal. Clearly, the Bible does not endorse slavery. It condemns it. And yet the early church did not become an antislavery movement in the Roman Empire. In fact, when you go to the Bible (I’m sure you’ve noticed this) oftentimes the Apostle Paul and also the Apostle Peter exhort Christian staves to submit to their masters as unto Christ for the sake of the gospel. Slaves were actually told to submit to their masters for the sake of the gospel because they didn’t want Christianity to be viewed as an insurrectionist antislavery movement in the Roman Empire where there were 50 million slaves and the entire Roman socio-economic system was predicated on the existence and reality of slavery.
The groundwork was set for the ultimate overthrow of slavery, but there was a tremendous wisdom in the way the early church approached a subject like this. It was all led and inspired of the Holy Spirit. We need that kind of wisdom in seeking to better the world that we live in today and to serve Christ in the world we live in today.
Of course, as a church, I promise you, we seek to be innocent as doves. We seek justice and fairness. We seek to be holy and blameless before Christ, but we also want to be wise, wise to the world but not of the world. We want to be wise in the way we work in this world, and in every ministry department of this church we seek an innocent shrewdness as we seek to be effective in serving the gospel.
There’s a second teaching here. Our second teaching concerns money. At the conclusion of this little parable, Jesus makes a statement about money.
I’m sure that most of you have heard of Christina Onassis. Christina Onassis was, of course, the daughter of Aristotle Onassis. Aristotle Onassis was the Greek shipping tycoon multimillionaire who, at one time, owned Olympic Airways. At one time, he was viewed as the richest man (or at least one of the richest men) in the world. He named his yacht Christina after his daughter, but Aristotle Onassis was really more enamored with his son. When his son Alexander died, he said, “Why couldn’t it have been my daughter?” Christina Onassis was the quintessential “poor little rich girl.” She was given no emotional support by her father. There was no real relationship there, but he showered her with gifts.
In the year 1975 when Aristotle Onassis died, she became the heir to the Onassis fortune, and she began to receive an income of $50 million a year, but she wasted it. She did not establish any foundations for the good of humanity. She did not reach out to the poor. She did not seek to give to charity, either religious or secular charity. She was extremely damaged emotionally.
She loved Diet Coke. She drank 24 bottles or cans of Diet Coke every day. When she was in a country of the world where they had no Diet Coke, she would have it flown in on her private jet, a hundred cans at a time. When she was told, “Why don’t you just bring in more Diet Coke since you drink 24 a day?” she said, “I don’t want old Diet Coke.” So she would just bring in a hundred at a time. It would cost her $300 a can by the time it arrived to her.
She was married four times, once to a KGB agent. Her fourth marriage resulted in her only daughter, Athina. That marriage also ended in divorce. She later went to her ex-husband and asked him to father another child with her. At first he refused, but they worked out an agreement where he would provide his sperm in exchange for a Ferrari Testarosa.
Christina Onassis died in 1988 at the age of 37, perhaps as a result of yo-yo dieting and prescription drug abuse. I think the most tragic thing about her life is that she actually desperately tried to buy friends. She paid people to be her friend. She paid people weekly salaries if they would be her friend. She paid a guy a salary of $360,000 a year plus expenses to be her escort, she was so emotionally needy. Doesn’t it seem strange that anybody in this world would need to buy friends?
But you come to this parable that Jesus told, and He speaks of a man who also sought to buy friend. He sought to buy friends, not with his own money and not because he was emotionally damaged. He sought to buy friends out of his shrewdness, realizing that he was to be put out of the stewardship. He used the residual powers of his stewardship to call upon his master’s debtors, and he befriended them. He befriended them by restructuring their debt so that they would save money. Thereby he used money to make earthly friends who would receive him into earthly habitations.
We come to this parable’s conclusion, and Jesus makes an amazing statement. He says, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous mammo; so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal habitations.” Isn’t that a strange statement? “I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal habitations.”
“Unrighteous mammon” is simply a phrase that means money. In fact, the word mammon is simply the transliteration of the Aramaic word for money. It’s called unrighteous mammon, “kakía,” simply because money is foundational to this fallen world. It doesn’t mean money which is ill gotten. It doesn’t mean money which is gained through improper or illegal or dishonest means. It simply means money. And Jesus is saying, make friends for yourselves by means of money. But He’s speaking of very special friends. He’s speaking of friends who will receive you into eternal habitations if you look at the verse. “Make friends for yourselves by means of money so that when your money fails, they will receive you into eternal habitations.”
I probably have 20 Bible commentaries on the Gospel of Luke. In preparation of this, I’ve consulted them all. They all agree that Jesus is telling us to make heavenly friends by means of money. Some of the commentaries think that those heavenly friends are poor people. We give our money to the poor, and they’ll welcome us when we get to the gates of heaven. Some of the commentaries think that those heavenly friends are evangelized souls. We used our money to support the work of missionaries, and the gospel went forth, and all those who are saved through our support of the gospel will be there to receive us when we come into heaven. Most commentaries think that it’s simply the plurality of deity here, that the heavenly friend is simply God or perhaps God and the angelic hosts. But all the commentaries agree that Jesus is saying, “Use your money to serve heaven.” Christ would ask you today, “Is that what you’re doing? Are you using your money to serve heaven?”
I have a book at home called the Encyclopedia of Jokes. I have rarely consulted it. It’s a big thick hard bound book. It’s edited by a Jewish man, and a lot of the humor is ethnic humor. There’s a chapter in there on religious humor. I was just flipping through it, and I saw this joke. It’s really not that funny, but it kind of illustrates a point. Maybe not.
There were three men, a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew. They were all devout. They were at an interfaith congress. They were in conversation, and they were sharing about how they became devout in their beliefs. The Christian said, “Well, I was on a plane. There was a horrible storm. We were flying over a wilderness area. There was lightning and thunder and wind. The pilot told us to brace ourselves for a crash. I got down on my knees and I prayed to God. Suddenly, for a thousand feet all around me there was calm—no wind, no rain, no lightning—and we were able to land safely. From that day forth, I’ve been devout as a Christian.
The Muslim said, “Well, I was on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and there was this horrible sandstorm. I began to be buried, and my camel began to be buried. I managed to kind of crawl out and then prostrate myself over the sand, facing Mecca, and I prayed to Allah. Suddenly, for a thousand feet all around me, there was a great calm, and the sand ceased to blow. I was able to arrive safely, and I’ve been devout ever since.”
The Jewish man heard all of this, and he nodded in understanding and then he told his tale. He said, “Well it was the Sabbath Day, and I was coming out of the synagogue. I was walking home, a short walk, and I saw this huge bag of money. Obviously it had been abandoned and it was there for me to take. But it was the Sabbath Day and it’s not right to earn money on the Sabbath, and it’s not right to bear a burden on the Sabbath. It was against the Sabbath law, so I fell down on my knees and I prayed to Yahweh. Suddenly, for a thousand feet all around me, it was Tuesday! “
Is it not true that all people, regardless of their religion or their ethnicity (or at least many people) seem to be willing, at times, to flex their beliefs and their spirituality and their religion in order to accommodate their desire for money? Is that not true? Is it not true that many people are willing to kind of flex their religious devotion in order to accommodate their desire for money?
Have any of you ever watching religious broadcasting on television? Have you heard “prosperity teaching?” Prosperity teaching would lead us to believe that if we just did certain things for God, He’s going to give us tons of money. He’s going to make us prosperous. That’s prosperity teaching. They almost use God to serve money. You hear it on TV all the time. Using God to serve money.
You see, Jesus is telling us in this little parable that the opposite is true. We’re not supposed to use God to serve money. We’re supposed to use money to serve God. That’s what He’s saying to us. Use money to make heavenly friends. Use money to serve heaven. Use money to serve God. What Christ would ask us this morning is, “Are we doing that?’
Most churches speak of tithing, and we have spoken of tithing on many occasions in the past. I believe in tithing. I believe that giving 10% of all that we make is a minimal standard of devotion to God. But really the issue is not tithing. The issue is whether we are serving God or money. The issue is whether we’re using our money to serve God. That’s the issue. Christ would just ask you this morning, “Is this a reflection of your life as you’re using your money to serve Him—your time, your talent, and your treasures to serve Him.”
You know, I was very blessed and privileged to grow up in a Christian church and have a Christian family. As a young person, I attended Sunday school classes at Glendale Presbyterian Church and really grew in my knowledge of Christ there at that church, and grew to love Christ and understood what it meant to serve Christ through that church and its ministries. I thank God that my parents took me there. I know my brothers feel the same way. My mom still goes to Glendale Presbyterian Church, and my oldest brother is on the staff there at that church. Every time I go back to California, I look at that church building and am so thankful for those people who gave their money to make that ministry possible so that somebody like me could be so blessed through that church. I’m so grateful.
I’m grateful for all of you who have given your money faithfully to support this ministry. As you look at that ministry center out there and you see it going up, and you realize that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of children are going to hear about Jesus there. And they’re going to grow in their love of God there, and they’re going to understand what it means to serve God there. Hopefully, thirty or forty years from now, they’ll grow up and come back and look at this church and they’ll say, “Thank God for those people who were willing to give, that that ministry might flourish.”
You see, the call of Christ is to use your money to serve heaven. Use your money to serve heaven. Support church and parachurch. Any effort that serves the kingdom of heaven, support it, and do it joyfully and sacrificially.
So we have these two teachings, one concerning wisdom, the other concerning money. They’re related, because if we’re wise we’ll use our money to serve heaven and make friends there. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.