03.21. THE UNJUST STEWARD

THE UNJUST STEWARD

Luke 16:1-13 The occasion, and therefore the intention, of the last Parables we considered — those of the preceding chapter — were obvious. They formed our Lord’s defense of His solicitude for great sinners. The occasion and intention of the Parables in this chapter are not so obvious. But it would appear that the same crowd was yet around Him. There were Pharisees still hanging about, as the fourteenth verse shows. But what our Lord had now to say was not addressed directly to them, as the three preceding Parables had been, but “to His disciples”; and very probably it was for the sake of the publicans and rich men among these disciples that His teaching took the peculiar cast it now did. These publicans and sinners had suddenly been made aware of the fact that the fraud, extortion, violence, and luxurious living which had made them outcasts from the purest Jewish society had rather attracted towards them an exceptional solicitude on God’s part. The place they still held in God’s love had been vividly set before them. The value He set upon them, the eagerness of His desire to recover them, the glad welcome and full forgiveness with which they were met, had been brought home to their hearts with irresistible force. Being but men, and men whose character had been sapped by constant familiarity with crime, and whose views of all transactions were determined by their own selfish habits, it was natural that they should be tempted to think less severely of their sin than was right. It is true that nothing so cleanses the heart as the knowledge of God’s love. To be overcome by God’s love is the only effectual cleansing and bar against sin. But as yet the holiness of God’s love had not been signalized in the cross, and there was a danger, as there is even now a danger, of the penitent luxuriating in the love of God, while oblivious that this love is consumingly holy. It is at last the holiness of God’s love that gives it its power; at last we come to see that His love and His holiness are one and the same thing; but at first we are tempted to forget that the love of God burns to make us holy as Himself.

Apparently, therefore, though not certainly, these Parables were spoken that the publicans might distinctly understand how their ill-gotten gains were to be used. They were to be taught that, though their past is forgiven, they have a duty to do with the gains they have made. And they are addressed as men thoroughly versed in all the ways of monied men, wide awake to appreciate hard work, vigilance, enterprise, and promptitude. And the aim of this first Parable is to impress on them the necessity of carrying over with them into the kingdom of God the qualities which had made them successful in the kingdom of mammon. They are to use the world’s opportunities, and especially what we significantly call “means,” with the same vigor and sagacity, but for higher ends; they are so to use their opportunities that, when they terminate, they shall have served to provide a competence for eternity. The figure or character through whom this lesson is conveyed is one with which they were perfectly familiar and had daily transactions. Indeed, it is not unlikely that when the unjust steward was described, significant glances would be exchanged by some of the crowd who had good reason to know how close to reality the description lay. He was a steward; not a farm steward, or a house steward, but, in modern language, an agent, factor, or “man of business.” He was apparently much employed in the receipt of rents, the tenants paying to the landlord not a regular sum of money, but a proportion of the harvest; and apparently, also, it depended on the tenant himself to say truthfully, subject no doubt to the inspection of the steward, what the crop of each year yielded, and how much was due to the landlord as his proportion. Each tenant gave in, it seems, a bill to the steward stating the amount as his debt to the landlord, as his rent due; so that it lay between the tenant and the steward to be true or to impose upon the landlord. The landlord would make it the steward’s interest to be watchful and faithful, but there might yet be some collusion between the steward and the tenants. They might agree to state the crop as less than it had been, and therefore the landlord’s proportion as less. And in this case, as the Parable also shows, the landlord had no redress. He had, in the first place, no direct means of informing himself of the real amount of the harvest in the olive yards or corn lands; and even if, as in the case before us, some interested party informed him of the fraud that was being practised upon him, he had no redress; for it seems to have been established by law that what the steward did the landlord did. There was no legal redress against a steward’s infidelity, no legal means of recovering from the tenants what had been kept back by the steward’s sanction. When this steward of the Parable was called to give an account of his stewardship, he at once saw that it was at least quite in vain to think of talking his employer over, so that he might still be retained in his service. Without a thought of idle lamentation he at once faces the question, what was to be done when discharged. A life of luxury had unfitted him for manual labor; he had spoiled his chance of getting any other such situation as he now held; and he who had been regarded with greater dread than his master could not bring his mind to begging his bread. He sees at once the difficulty of his position, and, displaying here a business-like promptitude, sets himself to devise some scheme for extricating himself. The stewardship would be his no longer; it was already slipping through his fingers, but out of this fragment of stewardship that remained to him he resolved to make for himself a competent provision. While his master was laying to his charge one defalcation after another, his quick apprehension was taking in every element in his position; and undismayed by the ruin that stared him in the face, he held his sagacity so completely at command that he lighted on a solution of his difficulty. As his employer came to the last item in his indictment, and was pronouncing his dismissal, the subtle and active and self-possessed steward was saying in himself, “I have it “; “I see what to do.” And he was confident that he had resolved aright; there is no suspicious flurry in his dealing with his lord’s debtors, but only the speed which he knew he must use if his scheme was to be of any avail. One after another of the debtors of his lord was delighted by having a large part of his debt remitted to him. They cannot but feel most grateful for something like the gift of half a year’s income; and the steward at once sees that he has secured the gratitude and goodwill of some well-to-do men, who in turn will stand by him. The plan was, of course, thoroughly unprincipled and dishonest. It was simply stealing, taking out of his master’s pocket, and banking the stolen money in the houses of these new friends. Yet the plan was admirably ingenious. There could not indeed have been any other extrication from his difficulty so entirely devoid of evil consequences to himself, so completely furnishing him with all that he aimed at. Had he perpetrated a direct theft, the law could have pursued him; but he acted still as steward, so that what he did must hold as law, and his lord had no redress. So felicitous was the device, that the landlord, though himself the loser by it, cannot withhold his admiration of this parting proof his steward had given him of his ready-wittedness. He had humor enough to enjoy the man’s cleverness, candor enough to praise his prudence. “His lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely.”

It is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe that it is merely the wisdom, the practical sagacity, the savoir faire of the steward that is commended to our attention and imitation. A bad thing may be well done. The most admirable qualities — industry, perseverance, bravery, quickness — may serve to accomplish a wicked as well as a righteous purpose. Few can withhold a tribute of applause from the forger who successfully copies a very difficult bank-note, or elaborates a professedly medieval document so as to deceive even the experts. No one commends the morality of David when he played the madman at Gath, and scrabbled on the gate, but who has not smiled at his skill in meeting the occasion, in overreaching all his enemies, and making them serve him by the simple device of hiding the brightest intellect of the age under the vacant, silly stare of the idiot? The wisdom of the unjust steward, which we are invited to admire, appeared mainly in his businesslike apprehension of the actual situation in which he was placed, and his sagacity and promptitude in making the most of it. He looked the facts in the face. He did not buoy himself up with delusive hopes. He did not waste his brief opportunity in idle expectations. He did not fool himself by thinking, “I’ll never need any other home than the one I now have,” but recognizing that he would soon be turned out of his present home and employment, and knowing that nothing is more desirable to a man out of a situation than a friend’s house where he can be quite at home, he takes steps to provide this for himself. He manfully faced the inevitable, and this was his salvation. The ability to do so is a great part of what is known as a strong character. It is a great part of that wisdom of the children of this world, which surpasses the wisdom of the children of light. It is this that makes the successful general, the trusted statesman, the skilful man of business. To be able to distinguish between what we would wish to be the case, and what actually is the case; j to be able to brush aside all that blinds, and look steadily at realities — this is the beginning of practical wisdom. The wise man may, for example, ardently desire that his son should enter a certain profession, but he will not allow this desire to blind him to the qualities which unfit the lad for it; he will not fight against fate. By holding up for our imitation this style of man, our Lord suggests to us to inquire whether we are thus apprehending the situation. The children of this world have a clear idea of what they aim at, and they steadily and consistently pursue their aims. Their aim may be wholly “of this world;” but they are not distracted by desiring one thing, while they profess to be desiring another. They make everything subserve their actual purpose, and do not disguise the facts. Are we as clear-sighted and as single-eyed? Here is one large fact, for example, regarding our condition in this world. We are stewards who must shortly give account of our stewardship. Our opportunities are rapidly narrowing down. We should have had a very short and strong term to apply to this steward of the Parable, if he had made light of the message his lord sent him, — if he had said to himself, “I have been so long my own master, not interfered with, allowed to do as I like, and live comfortably, that I don’t believe I am a steward. I am called a steward, but that is merely a title. If my lord does come, — though I do not believe he will, — it will be all right. He has always allowed me to do as I please, and I do not believe in this calling to account.” Our friend of the Parable was no such fool. He knew how the case actually stood; he had a very lenient master, but he himself was but a steward.

I Let us also then be clear in our minds whether we are stewards or masters; whether we are to stay here for ever, or must shortly go hence and find another home; whether we are ourselves supreme, or whether we can be called to account. Let us face the facts of our existence here, and understand the terms on which we live in this world. If we are stewards, set here to act justly, and faithfully to use for higher interest than our own whatever is in our power, then let us recognize that it is quite in vain for us to think of working any other principle. You might as well build a house on the understanding that never more will there be either wind or rain. Nature pays no respect to your understandings, but acts out her own laws without warning and without apology. You do not alter facts by hiding your eyes like the ostrich. You are called upon to assert your manhood by ascertaining what are the facts and laws of human life, and by frankly accepting them, knowing that they not only are inexorable, but are also the best for you. If we do not ascertain the very terms on which we are living, and using what we use, the judgment we must pronounce upon ourselves is certainly that we are dishonest, and fools into the bargain. But our Lord makes a special application of the example of the steward: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” The steward made use of his departing power over his master’s goods with such skill and effect, that when this power was taken from him he found himself welcomed into comfortable houses. You, says our Lord, ought to make such use of your opportunities, and especially of your share of the unrighteous mammon, that, when it fails you, and you cease to have any power over it, you may find yourselves welcomed into everlasting habitations. Doubtless this is a Parable specially for rich men, specially for those whose opportunities are considerable, who may be called stewards as having manifestly a responsibility to God on the one hand, and to men of inferior station on the other. The Parable is full of encouragement to such. It reminds them that the opportunity given them by being rich and influential is no slight one, that the power of wealth does not terminate with this world, that they need not greedily and fearfully try to get the utmost selfish enjoyment out of their money while they have it, because it must soon be beyond their power; but on the contrary, that they may so use it as to secure eternal comfort. They can so invest it that the interest shall be paid them as regularly in the world to come as here. They may, in short, be eternally the better for being rich men in this world. The love of money is the root of all evil, but the possession of it is an opportunity of much good.

It need scarcely be said that, if money is to serve this eternal purpose, it must be invested with some better feelings than the mere selfish foresight of the steward. And here lies the difficulty; a man may have love enough to give away a little, but he who has great wealth needs great love. It is like every other great opportunity, it needs some greatness in the man to use it greatly. At the same time it may be questioned whether in our day there is not just rather too much said against doing good for the sake of reward. The selfishness which buys an eternal inheritance at the price of great earthly advantages is not so very common a failing that much need be said against it. And, to say the least, the selfishness that can sacrifice money and earthly comforts for the sake of future and heavenly happiness is a nobler thing and a much better thing for the community than the selfishness which spends on display and pleasure without a thought of the future, or hoards with a view to satisfy the vulgar ambition of being rich, or without any view at all. But although this Parable was spoken to rich men, and for their special good, we have all more or less of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon is just the Syriac word for money, and it is called “unrighteous” or “unjust,” because those to whom our Lord was speaking had made their money by injustice. It was as little their own as the unjust steward’s was. The steward was unjust because he had not regarded himself as a steward; and in so far as we have forgotten this fundamental circumstance, we also are unjust. We may not have consciously wronged any man or defrauded any; but if we have omitted to consider what was due to God and man, the likelihood is we have more money than we have aT right to. The name, indeed, “unrighteous mammon,” is sometimes sweepingly applied to all wealth and material advantages, because there is a feeling that the whole system of trade, commerce, and social life is inextricably permeated with fraudulent practises and iniquitous customs — so permeated that no man can be altogether free, or is at all likely to be altogether free, from all guilt in this matter. Take any coin out of your pocket and make it tell its history, the hands it has been in, the things it has paid for, the transactions it has assisted, and you would be inclined to fling it away as contaminated and filthy. But that coin is a mere emblem of all that comes to you through the ordinary channels of trade, and suggests to you the pollution of the whole social condition. The clothes you wear, the food you eat, the house you live in, the money you are asked to invest, have all a history which will not bear scrutiny. Oppression, greed, and fraud serve you every day. Whether you will or not you are made partakers of other men’s sins. You may be thankful if your hands are not soiled by any stain that you have wittingly incurred; but even so, you must ask, what compensation can I make for the unrighteousness which cleaves to mammon? how am I to use it now, seeing I have it? Our Lord says, “You are to make friends with it who may receive you into everlasting habitations.” You are so to use your opportunities that when your present stewardship is over you may not be turned out in the cold and to beggary, but may have secured friends who will give you a welcome to the eternal world. It is the same view of the connection of this world and the next which our Lord gives in His picture of the last judgment, when He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.” Those whom we have done most good to are, as a rule, those whom we have most loved; and what better welcome to a new world, what more grateful guidance in its ways could we desire than that of those whom here on earth we have loved most dearly? Can you promise yourselves any better reward than to meet the loving recognition and welcome of those who have experienced your kindness: to be received by those to whom you have willingly sacrificed money, time, opportunities of serving yourself? The parents whose closing years you watched and sheltered at the sacrifice of the opportunities of your own youth, the children for whom you have toiled, the friend or relative whose long sickness you brightened and retarded by unwearied affection, the acquaintance you kept from poverty by timely intervention, the lad whose whole life you lifted to a higher level by giving him the first step — all those whom you have so loved here that your service of them has been ungrudging and unthought of — these are they who will receive you into everlasting habitations. But if any one staggers at such a reading of the Parable, there is no necessity that the “friends” be considered as persons. The word “friends” is used only for the sake of keeping up the figure introduced by the Parable, and may be legitimately applied to anything on which you spend yourself, and which you should like to renew acquaintance with in eternity. It is possible, this Parable reminds us, so to spend the time of our stewardship here that we shall hereafter live upon the happy results of what we have here done. The happy idea of the steward was to spend what was left in his hands, not on himself, but on those with whom he would have to do after he was ousted from office. It was this which showed his business capacity. An ordinary rogue would merely have exacted more from his master’s debtors and decamped with the whole. But far deeper was the plan of this astute individual; he would not eat his seed-corn in this rough style. The little he could make out of the few remaining transactions he could do for his master, he handed over to others, knowing that their friendship and good-will would return him a hundredfold. And you may do the same. Your life you may either spend or invest. You may use it either as seed or you may devour it. You may so live that death will close all and shut you out into outer darkness, or you may so live that death shall usher you into an everlasting home, peopled with familiar faces that recognize and reassure you, and show you that in substance eternity is not so very different from time, and lead you to and assign to you your exact position in the eternal world and your real place among men. These brilliant and memorable apophthegms which form a kind of appendix to the Parable can be only briefly alluded to. The Parable is forgotten in the momentous reality it has served to set before our minds; and the great law is enounced, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Here are two great truths suggested to us: 1st, That we are here in this world merely on trial, and serving our apprenticeship; and 2d, That it is our fidelity that is tried, not so much whether we have done great or little things, but whether we have shown the spirit which above all else a steward should show — fidelity to the interests entrusted to him. The two verses following, in which this is applied, may best be illustrated by familiar figures. “If,” says our Lord, “ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust that which is real?” He considers us all in this world as children busy with mere playthings and toys, though so profoundly in earnest. But looking at children so engaged you can perfectly see the character of each. Although the actual things they are doing are of no moment or reality, although, with a frankness and penetration not given to their elders, they know they are but playing, yet each is exhibiting the very qualities which will afterwards make or mar him, the selfish greed and fraud of one child being as patent as the guileless open-handedness of the other. To the watchful parent these games that are forgotten in the night’s sleep, these buildings which as soon as complete are swept away to make room for others, are as thorough a revelation of the character of the child as affairs of state and complicated transactions are of the grown man. And if the parent sees a grasping selfishness in his child, or a domineering inconsiderateness of every one but himself, as he plays at buying and selling, building and visiting, he knows that these same qualities will come out in the real work of life, and will unfit their possessor for the best work, and prevent him from honorable and generous conduct, and all the highest functions and duties of life. So our Lord, observant of the dispositions we are showing as we deal with the shadowy objects and passing events of this seeming substantial world, marks us off as fit or unfit to be entrusted with what is real and abiding. If this man shows such greed for the gold he knows he must in a few years leave, will he not show a keener, intenser selfishness in regard to what is abiding? If he can trample on other people’s rights for the sake of a pound or two, how can he be trusted to deal with what is infinitely more valuable? If here in a world where mistakes are not final, and which is destined to be burned up with all the traces of evil that are in it, — if in a world which, after all, is a mere card-house, or in which we are apprentices learning the use of our tools, and busy with work which, if we spoil, we do no irreparable harm, — if here we display incorrigible negligence and incapacity to keep a high aim and a good model before us, who would be so foolish as to let us loose among eternal matters, things of abiding importance, and in which mistake and carelessness and infidelity are irreparable?

“And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” A merchant sees among his clerks one whose look and bearing are prepossessing, and he thinks that by and by this lad might possibly make a good partner; he watches him, but he finds him gradually degenerating into slipshod ways of doing his work, coming down late in the mornings, and showing no zeal for the growth of the business, and so the thought grows in his mind, “If he is not faithful in that which is another man’s, how can I give him the business as his own?” I can’t hand over my business to one who will squander what I have spent my life in accumulating; to one who has not sufficient liking for work to give himself heartily to it, or sufficient sense of honor to do it heartily whether he likes it or no. Much as I should like to lift him out of a subordinate situation, I cannot do so. Thus are determined the commercial and social prospects of many an unconscious youth, and thus are determined the eternal prospects of many a heedless servant of God, who little thinks that the Master’s eye is upon him, and that by hasting to be rich he is making himself eternally poor, and by slackness in God’s service is ruining his own future.