Luke 16 (1)

Pray Psalm 110.1-3.
The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.

Sing Psalm 110.1-3.
(Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation)
“Sit by Me at My right hand,” the LORD says to my Lord,
“until I make Your foot stand on all who hate Your Word.”
From in His Church the Savior rules all His enemies;
while those who know His favor go forth the Lord to please.

Read and meditate on Luke 16.1-8.

Preparation
1.How did the unjust steward protect himself?

2. How did the master respond?

Meditation
Jesus commends neither of the two characters in this parable, nor the course of action of the steward. The main point of this parable is that of stewardship. God has entrusted us with much. He’s seeking a return on His investment (1 Cor. 10.31). We were lost, now we’re found. A great celebration of angels and departed saints accompanied the work of salvation God applied to us. He has endowed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, and He calls us make the most of our time and resources for the progress of His Kingdom. We have a stewardship from God, and we must give all diligence to fulfill it.

In the world, people know about stewardship. Most jobs come with standards and evaluations. Ignore the standards or fail the evaluations, and your stewardship is revoked: You’re out of a job.

A day of reckoning is coming, when everyone will render an account of the use they made of God’s gifts – time, wealth, relationships, opportunities, resources, and more. The unjust steward knew he needed to prepare himself for that reckoning. The point of this parable is that we need to do the same.

We who have been saved by grace and celebrated in the eternal throne room of the Lord must give all diligence to make our calling and election sure by working to be good stewards of the treasure God entrusts to us. Works without faith won’t save us. Neither will faith without works (Jms. 2.14-24). Knowing we have an eternal Master Who graciously rules and generously endows us, we must not waste His resources, but must apply ourselves diligently to make the most of them all (Eph. 4.15-17), so that He might receive glory and honor, both now and in the day of reckoning.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
In the book Words Fail Me, Patricia O’Conner wrote, “Every playwright knows you don’t put a gun onstage unless you intend to use it.” In this parable Jesus placed onstage a man accused of wasting his boss’ goods, an angry boss, and debtors to the boss.

What did Jesus intend to do with all these characters?

Well, the dishonest employee knew he’d been caught because he was making plans for after he was fired. His plans included helping the boss’ debtors owe less by changing their bill before his exit (stage left). Both debts were lowered: one to fifty percent, the other to eighty. In the wings we have extras playing the parts of gleeful debtors making merry and having pleasant thoughts toward the dishonest steward.

But here is the climax to this tale: The boss commended the employee, who was ripping him off, for being shrewd. Why?

Jesus introduced all these worthless characters into this plot line so that we would be spellbound by His story and would learn something about our relationship with Him.

We are that unjust employee. We stand guilty as accused. But we also made a good decision, just like the almost-fired employee, to shrewdly fix things.

Our “shrewdness”, however, consists of God’s mercy and grace flooding down upon us, giving us His mind and a new heart, to make amends with Him and share this bounty with others. We are as worthless as the employee. Furthermore, what we have to give away is not even our own stuff. It belongs to God. We are merely spreaders of all His gifts – the joyous salvation that He lavishes upon those who would receive it. And maybe in the process we make a few grateful friends along the way, who will rejoice with us on the great Day of Reckoning.

“Break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity” (Dan. 4.27).
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God” (Ezek. 36.26-28).
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5.8).

Jesus put all those characters on the stage, and He used each one: the rotten employee, the gleeful debtors, and the benightedly unwise boss. But as it turns out, the denouement is key. The final resolution and clarification of this dramatic work is that we, the dishonest, unjust, undeserving, are saved by His grace. He is not a benighted or unaware God; He just happens to be merciful.

Let us rejoice in this: that when we failed at successfully running our own life, He received us into His everlasting home (Lk. 16.9). “Ready for the Reckoning.”

For reflection
1. What is stewardship? Over what has God placed you as a steward?

2. What does God expect of our stewardship?

3. What’s the best way to prepare each day for the final day of reckoning?

The [rich man] referred to in this parable commended not the fraud, but the policy of the steward. In that respect alone is it so noticed. Worldly men, in the choice of their object, are foolish; but in their activity, and perseverance, they are often wiser than believers. The unjust steward is not set before us as an example in cheating his master, or to justify any dishonesty, but to point out the careful ways of worldly men. It would be well if the children of light would learn wisdom from the men of the world, and would as earnestly pursue their better object. Matthew Henry), Commentary on Luke 16.1-8

Pray Psalm 110.3-7.
Pray that God will make you a good steward of the time and opportunities He gives you today.

Sing Psalm 110.3.-7
(Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation)
Filled with the Spirit’s power, in holy robes of love,
from early morning’s hour they serve their Lord above.
Christ reigns a priest forever, the King of Righteousness
and King of Peace who ever His chosen ones will bless.

The Lord at Your right hand, LORD, in wrath shall shatter kings,
when judgment by His strong Word He to the nations brings.
Then, all His foes defeated, He takes His hard-won rest,
in glorious triumph seated with us, redeemed and blessed!

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available free by clicking here.