Stewardship

The late Dr. Vernon McGee says that most parables are parables of comparison. Luke is the only gospel writer that gives parables in contrast. Having heard this, “The Parable of the Shrewd Manager,” made perfect sense to me. When I heard this, I also remembered the parable in Luke 11:5-13 and how Jesus concluded the parable with, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" In this parable, I think that Jesus is communicating something similar—He is contrasting God’s relationship to and with us and the relationships we that we have to Him and to one another.

The world is very clear in their intent and purpose. The world knows how to use people and their possessions to their advantage for personal gain. The worldly master in Luke 16 applauds the manager because he found a way to dodge the bullet. As Children of Light, I’m not sure that we have this clarity in our spiritual lives. We claim that we are the Lord’s stewards of all of our earthly possessions. In this theology, we are correct, but I wonder if we are really idolaters in practice.

If our Master should call us to accountability today—if He should say to us, “This very night your life will be demanded from you,” I wonder how many of us would be convicted of misappropriation of funds or embezzlement? On the other hand, if we were called to give an account today, I wonder how many of us would say, “I never understood why you wanted me to give ‘Caesar’ anything, but because You said so, I did.” I wonder if this response would cause our Master to marvel at how we were able to cut our losses and “act so shrewdly.”