Holy Bible Chapter Luke 16:1-13

In this parable there are four characters, namely the Rich man, Steward, Debtors and the Mammon. These characters can be related to God as Rich man, Minister of God as Steward, Unbelievers as Debtors and Satan as Unrighteous Mammon.

And there are some other people in that house of the rich man who have complained that the steward was wasting the goods of his master’s house.

Now this Steward was wasting the goods of the rich man. And wasting of goods by him is not about the inability of the man but that he was being unfaithful in performing his duties. And this was brought to the notice of his master. The master asked to give an explanation about this to the steward but, since the accusation was a true one, he did not try to give an account of his wrong doing, thereby accepting the accusation to be as true. He very much knew that he cannot win favor back or fool his master with his tricks any more. 

This made him to explore other possibilities to survive when after he is thrown out of the stewardship. As a part of exploration he sees himself begging and he obviously did not want to do that. Then he sees himself hiding his face deep inside the mud out of shame for he did not find anyone to support him and rather ridiculed for his actions, and this he did not want to happen at any cost. Then he hatches a plan to woo the debtors, because they are not the friends of the rich man. And at the same time can do favor to him if he helps them. 

When he approached the debtors, they welcomed him and acted according to his plans to change the original bills of debts with the false values. These debtors who were till then only poor, but were not the lawbreakers became part takers of sin with the steward, and both the steward and the debtors combined together to cheat the rich man. They are selfish. Steward and debtors alike are unfaithful to the rich man. Nobody wants their unfaithful deeds to come to light, so they conceal it and maintain friendship to keep it concealed. 

This is how the world is living. Rich and poor alike are combining together to make an unlawful deeds contrary to the truth by having an agreement among them and to support each other in order to survive in this world as they are. 

Coming back to the parable. The master is observing the steward do all these and he commended steward for his far-seeing and act of intelligence. Though the master applauds the steward, he does not retain him in the stewardship.

Why is it like that?

Let us try to understand this by reading Luke 16:10-12 

Jesus says,

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?”

In this parable the steward is placed in a highly respected position. He has the authority over all of the matters concerning the rich man's house. He lacks nothing. Everything is provided by the house for his comfortable living. Inspite of all the good life that he is enjoying in the rich man's house, he is not doing his duties with the same sincerity. He is relaxing himself too much to let the goods be wasted. 

Now when the master asked the steward to show his work, he kept quiet and did something that showed the kind of a person he was. The steward took the help of the finances to make friends for himself outside the house. Money was of least value to the rich man, but he had even bigger things which were of more valuable and important. Therefore the master was convinced beyond doubt that the steward was in fact being unfaithful to him. After finding what the steward did, the master though he applauds him for his shrewdness did not retain him due to his unfaithfulness. 

The steward is very intelligent and also well-educated to attain such a position and is worthy of having such an office, but due to his unfaithfulness he was thrown out that position. 

That is the reason Jesus compares the faithfulness to the saltiness of a person. If there is no saltiness in the grains of the salt, what benefit is that going to give the food? Same is a person who is not having faithfulness in him. He is not going to benefit anyone and especially to the Kingdom of God.

We know that money has a greater power in providing comforts to people in this world. But it is the least valued in the kingdom of God. And it is also a litmus paper to test the faithfulness of the servants of God. 

Jesus through this parable is telling that if one is not faithful in the matters of money, then it is sure that the person will fail in other matters as well. Even Iscariot Judah for the sake of 30 shekels of money handed over Jesus to the Roman soldiers and he failed to continue in Jesus Christ's ministry of Good News. 

If we really want to know how much our faith is, we need to introspect ourselves; we need to look at our finance management. Our dealings should be always fair and just when it comes to MONEY. 

Suppose a shopkeeper might return more than required balance to a buyer and the shopkeeper is unaware of it. What will a faithful buyer do? He will definitely return the extra amount to the shopkeeper. Whereas an unfaithful man will silently move away as though he did not notice it. There can be many more examples given to illustrate different kinds of unfaithful acts regarding money. Children cheating parents, rich exploiting the poor, bribery, robbery, unwanted expenditure on lavish life styles, etc. can be regarded as unfaithful acts in handling money that is given by God for our needs and to share our things with the needy. 

Everybody is being tested. Even the poor are tested by God in matters of money. No poor man is supposed to take that extra balance given by the shopkeeper mistakenly. And the shopkeeper is always welcome to give that extra money willingly to help the poor. There is so much of happiness in doing good than doing what is bad. 

And if a penny is found in our pockets that is not ours, let us give away four folds to the one we cheated so that we may receive salvation.

Luke 19:8-9 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;

Therefore if we recognize our sins and repent and do the act of faith in Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved and become a son of Abraham in accordance to faith to be able to claim the promises of God given to Abraham.

Let us keep our hands open towards Heaven so that we might receive more. And when we receive, let us use it for our needs and for the poor and after that save it wisely for the benefit of all, so that we might have open hands to receive again from God. 

Prayer:

Blessed be the Name of the Almighty God and Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ Please give us the discerning minds so that we do not remain unfaithful and that we might repent and receive Salvation today.

In Jesus Holy name we pray.

Amen.