This parable of the unjust Stewart is one of the harder parables of Jesus to understand. God seems to praise the character of a person who by all other understanding of scripture will stand under God's judgment. So what is going on here? Augustine points out that even the wicked plan ahead when things are looking bad, but there are times when the children of light are really, kind of, clueless (my word not Augustine's). Jesus isn't in favor of cheating. Jesus is in favor of us preparing for what is to come. Jesus wants us to realize the best use of wealth is to make friends but untimely that won't help us. We need to prepare for eternity. As Augustine says, "Would you not insure yourself for eternal life?"(Sermon 359AD).
So how do we prepare? Not by trusting in wealth (verse 13, 25) and not by trusting in yourself (verse 15) but by trusting in the good news of the kingdom (verse 16). If you trust in wealth you will be eternally bankrupt (verses 19-31).
Photo by Jingming Pan on Unsplash
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