Tag: Parable of the Unjust Steward

A Parable Comes to Life

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of embezzling

In Luke 16:1-13, Jesus tells the story of a crooked steward who has been wasting his master’s money and is going to be fired. To cover himself, the steward quickly meets with certain individuals who owe his master and arranges for the debts to be greatly reduced. After he loses his job, these men will owe him favors. He won’t starve. And the master, surprisingly, commends the dishonest steward for his shrewdness.

That parable came to life this weekend.

Suddenly the click-bait was on fire with allegations that Paul “The Weasel” Ryan, about to retire as Speaker of the House, has been getting together with a lot of fat cats to get an illegal alien amnesty passed before he leaves, providing the fat cats with cheap labor and the Republican Party with a one-way ticket to oblivion. The idea is that the fat cats will make Ryan a generous payoff and “welcome him into their houses” for years to come. Like, he’ll screw America to feather his own nest.

To understand this in light of the parable, simply substitute the American people for the master who’s being cheated.

I don’t believe, for a minute, that any amnesty will happen. But a lot of people do. I can’t imagine how angry the people would be if this were actually to be attempted. Sounds like a good day to stay indoors!

I’m in no position to say as a matter of fact that yes, Paul Ryan has met with some greedy rich SOBs to cook up a plan to sell out our country.

But if the parable ever were to come to life, that’s what it would look like.

A Real-Life Parable (With Dental Floss)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of prisoner escaping by rope

Reading this morning, in John MacArthur’s Parables, about Jesus’ parable of the crooked steward (in Luke 16) reminded me of a news story from back in 1994: a prisoner escaped from jail in West Virginia by painstakingly braiding dental floss–dental floss, complete with minty flavoring!–into a sturdy rope which he used to get over the wall and out to freedom ( http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/prison-escapes-west-virginia ).

Remember that? I never forgot it. Imagine the labor of fashioning bits of dental floss into a rope sturdy enough to hold a full-grown man! That’s like something out of The Count of Monte Cristo. Imagine the patience, the self-discipline required!

You’d think that with such a combination of ingenuity, boldness, persistence, and attention to detail, a man could accomplish almost anything. He ought to have come up in the world, big-time.

But five weeks after his incredible escape, he robbed a drug store and wound up back in prison: this time, I presume, with only a limited supply of dental floss.

The crooked steward in Christ’s parable had all those qualities, and successfully used them to evade the worldly consequences of his crimes. But he was, like that mug in West Virginia, totally incapable of using his resources to accomplish anything good in God’s service or his fellow man’s. So he escaped for the time being… but I think we can guess where he wound up for all eternity.

More on That Puzzling Parable

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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I would be a fool if I told you that now, after two hours’ study, I fully understand the Parable of the Unjust Steward in Luke 16. But maybe it would be fair to say I misunderstand it less than I did when I read it first thing this morning.

Pondering the meaning of Christ’s words is not just something to do on a Sunday. As Psalm 1:1 puts it, we are to “meditate day and night” on God’s word. And because it’s convenient to post it here, let me offer you some of Matthew Henry’s meditations on this parable ( https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/Matthew-Henry/Luke/Parable-Unjust-Steward ), courtesy of the Bible Gateway.

I got off on the wrong foot with this parable, thinking Jesus was still talking to the Pharisees, to whom He told the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. I just kept reading, and missed the significance of the opening sentence of Luke 16: “And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward,” etc. Jesus has turned from the Pharisees to address His disciples. But the Pharisees were still there, as v. 14 tells us: “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.” The Pharisees heard the proverb, too, and laughed at it. They didn’t listen.

So the parable is spoken to those who are disposed to listen, and who will make an effort to understand it, as we ought to.

Can I tell you, yet, what the parable means? I must confess, not really. Not without more study, more meditation–and more discussion, too. But I think I can say that Our Lord is comparing the believers’ carelessness, when it comes to the “true riches” of the Kingdom, with the great and energetic care taken by worldly folk to pursue their worldly goals; and that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” The crooked steward’s master commends the prudence and ingenuity of the steward, although it was used for a dishonest end; and we ought to take equal care in seeking the Kingdom of God.

And now I’ll read these posts to my wife and see if I’ve made any sense to her.

P.S.: I remember a news story from some years ago, about a convict who spent a long, long time carefully and ingeniously fashioning a rope–out of dental floss!– which he used to escape from prison (only to be caught again pretty soon). And I remember thinking at the time, “If this guy had ever devoted that much labor and persistence to some honest work, he would have accomplished much.” I think that story has some relevance to this parable.

A Puzzling Parable: The Crooked Steward

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

In Luke 16 Our Lord tells an audience of Pharisees a rather difficult parable. I’ve read it many times and am still trying to understand it.

In this parable, a rich man finds out that his steward has been cheating him, so he tells the steward to prepare an accounting and then get lost. Faced with the loss of his position, the steward solves his problem by cheating his master yet again. He tells the master’s debtors to finagle their accounts so that they save a lot of money and the master gets rooked again. That makes these persons beholding to the steward so that, when he gets kicked out of his master’s house, they will take him in.

And yet, when the master finds out about this last bit of skullduggery, he commends the crooked steward for having done wisely…

Okay, I’m lost.

So I’m going to study this parable this morning. I now have books about the parables, by Chenevix Trench (19th century) and John MacArthur (modern), and there’s Matthew Henry (Puritan) on the Internet.

Some of Jesus’ parables were simple. Others were very hard, and He had to explain them to His disciples afterward.

I agree with MacArthur that Jesus often wished His hearers to inquire further into the meaning of a parable–which is just what I’m gonna do today.

I’ll be back later.