Some of Jesus’ parables just don’t sound right the first time you read them. Take for instance the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16:1-9. The manager of a rich man’s estate heard that he was going to be fired. While he still had control of his master’s accounts, he went to several people who were in debt to his master, and reduced the amount of their debt. His reasoning was that by doing so they would owe him favours, which he could cash in on after he was let go. Now for the puzzling part – the steward’s master praised him for acting shrewdly! At this point I’m expecting Jesus to condemn the steward for his dishonesty, but instead he says, “the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of 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.” (Luke 16:8b-9). Think on that for a minute…
Here is my take on it: The point of the parable is not “the dishonest get ahead”, but be smart (shrewd) about how you handle money. People in the world, the sons of this age as Jesus calls them, use money to their advantage to get ahead in this life. All they have is this life, so they are acting wisely in that respect. Of course from an eternal perspective they are acting foolishly, but that is addressed in some other parables. Jesus then shifts to us, the sons of light, and tells us to use money, the mammon of unrighteousness, wisely. Handling money wisely is using it to make friends who will receive us into their eternal dwellings. Those of us who are followers of Jesus have a place prepared for us by Jesus in the Father’s house. I think that when we get to heaven we will recognize each other, and remember aspects of our life as it now is. I plan to get together with those in the church I've known and loved, and celebrate all that we did together. There are specific people that have invested in my life, who have helped me at a difficult point in my life, that I want to thank and bless for all that they did. Our actions do matter, and that includes how we use resources (money and other resources) that we have at our disposal. The more we give, the more we invest in others, the more we will have to celebrate with them in heaven.
We as Christians can invest our money in our churches, missionary work, and good local ministries like Youth For Christ. We all have a certain amount of money at our disposal, the question is, how are we using it? But let’s not stop there, we all have time, talents, and skills that can be used to bless others. The men of Hope House, a local inner city ministry to those dealing with substance abuse, found out that I regularly go backpacking. “Oh, we sure would like to do that some time.” I then had a choice to make, would I take the time and make the effort to take them or just tell them, “well, maybe someday you will get the chance to go.” So I pulled all the equipment down from the attic, set up five backpacks for them, and off we went for a three day hike on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. They had a great time – so great that they want to hike the whole 2000 mile trail, and use it to help raise money for their ministry. What can you do with what you have at your disposal? What’s in your wallet? What’s in your attic?
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