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This parable is always a good time! The first impression causes a spiritual double take as we try to figure out if Jesus’ praise of the dishonest steward is encouraging us to become shifty Christians. It reminds me of the story of a young lawyer who was sent to represent a railroad company being sued by a farmer. The farmer’s prize cow had gone missing, and he blamed the railroad. The clever lawyer convinced the farmer to settle out of court for half of what he originally wanted. After the papers were signed and the check was cashed, the lawyer couldn’t help gloating. He said, “You know, I couldn’t have won that case if it had gone to trial. The engineer was asleep, and the fireman was in the caboose when the train passed through your farm that morning. I didn’t have a single witness to put on the stand!” With a smile, the farmer said, “Well, I’ll tell you, young feller, I was a little worried about winning that case myself because that cow came home this morning.”
Both the farmer and the lawyer knew something about shrewdness and so did the steward in Jesus’ parable.
While Jesus is not praising dishonesty, he admires the steward’s cleverness and resourcefulness, his willingness to do anything and everything in his power to ensure his future well-being. Faced with a crisis, the steward used his wits to prepare for what comes next. Jesus’ challenge is simple: if people can be that clever about worldly things, shouldn’t his followers be at least that wise about eternal things?
If we take the time to think about it, we see Jesus’ point all around us. The “children of this world,” as Jesus calls them, the political elites, business tycoons, and most famous celebrities all spend enormous energy planning, investing, networking, and working to secure their future. They build their legacy, store up wealth, strategize for careers, and scheme to get ahead. Jesus asks us: do you put that same energy into preparing for eternity? Do you give as much attention to your soul as your investments, your job, your reputation and your hobbies?
That’s the first takeaway for us. Our faith is not something to be lived halfheartedly or with whatever is leftover after we have done everything else. If the people of this world pour themselves into worldly success, then we, the children of light, must pour ourselves into holiness, into building up the kingdom, into storing up treasure in heaven with all the ingenuity and scrappiness we can muster.
The second takeaway is this: everything we have is on loan. None of it is ours forever. Our money, our possessions, even our lives, all belong to God and we are stewards. One day we will have to give an account of how we used them. This is where the parable stings a little. Each and every one of us will stand before God. Each and every one of us will have to answer the question: What did you do with the time, the talents, the opportunities, and the resources I entrusted to you?
That thought should sober us. There is no such thing as working too hard to ensure eternal happiness and union with God. People will give years of their lives to build a career, decades to pay off a home, countless hours to maintain health and fitness. But what about our souls? What about eternity? That is the one future we can’t afford to neglect.
Here’s the good news: God most often asks us to demonstrate our stewardship by being faithful in small things we are all capable of doing. Most of our lives are made up of little opportunities: a kind word, an honest day’s work, a visit to the lonely, a helping hand, a thoughtful gift. Jesus tells us that how we handle the little things is the best test of how we will handle the big things. To be faithful in small matters is the path to being entrusted with greatest gift of all which is eternal life.
A third takeaway is generosity. Jesus is telling us to use our wealth, our resources, our gifts not to build monuments to ourselves but to establish holy relationships, to help the poor, to serve the kingdom. An old saying puts it well: money can buy everything but happiness, and it can purchase a ticket to every place except heaven. The true measure of our wealth is not what we keep, but what we give away. Every act of love is a deposit in eternity.
And finally, Jesus ends with the stark truth: No servant can serve two masters. We can’t hedge our bets. We can’t pretend to be Christians while serving money, comfort, or self-interest on the side. God wants all of us. Not part-time loyalty, but total devotion.
Today’s Gospel is a call to wake up. It is a call to be wise, to be shrewd in the things of God. To prepare for the ultimate future, which is not just retirement, but eternity. To live as stewards, not owners. To be generous, faithful, and single-hearted in our devotion to God.
Because in the end, each of us will stand before the Lord. We will give an account of our lives. And on that day, no excuse, no cleverness, no shifting of the numbers will matter. What will matter is whether we used God’s gifts for His glory, whether we were faithful in little things, and whether we lived with love.
So let’s not wait until the last minute to start preparing. Let’s begin now, faithfully, generously, wholeheartedly, so one day we may hear those words we all long to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy.”
