Parable of the Unjust Steward
Mironov, Andreĭ (Andreĭ Nikolaevich), 1975-. Parable of the Unjust Steward, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57060 [retrieved September 16, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%87%D0%B0_%D0%BE_%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D1%83%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5._%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0_XXI_%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%B0..jpg.
Exploring the Text: Is Jesus advocating cheating
This parable was one of Jesus’ more challenging ones for me personally. At first it seems like Jesus is advocating cheating and dishonesty. That doesn’t seem to align with anything else Jesus said or did or the rest of Scripture. What is Jesus saying here?
Jesus doesn’t always tell the meaning behind his parables. This one he does, however. In verse 9 he tells us, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.” Basically, he is telling us to use our temporary blessings to impact people for eternal results. We sometimes have a tendency to love money and use people. Jesus tells us to do the opposite, to love people and use money.
He goes on to say that you cannot serve both God and money (verse 13). When you use money or other possessions to serve people we are giving to God (Proverbs 19:17). God gives us financial resources so that we can help others (Deuteronomy 15:7-14, Matthew 25:34-40). Jesus’ strange parable illustrates this truth; people are more important than money.
This parable was one of Jesus’ more challenging ones for me personally. At first it seems like Jesus is advocating cheating and dishonesty. That doesn’t seem to align with anything else Jesus said or did or the rest of Scripture. What is Jesus saying here?
Jesus doesn’t always tell the meaning behind his parables. This one he does, however. In verse 9 he tells us, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.” Basically, he is telling us to use our temporary blessings to impact people for eternal results. We sometimes have a tendency to love money and use people. Jesus tells us to do the opposite, to love people and use money.
He goes on to say that you cannot serve both God and money (verse 13). When you use money or other possessions to serve people we are giving to God (Proverbs 19:17). God gives us financial resources so that we can help others (Deuteronomy 15:7-14, Matthew 25:34-40). Jesus’ strange parable illustrates this truth; people are more important than money.