The Puzzling Parable

Dear members and friends of Grace Baptist,

This Sunday we continue our journey to Jerusalem in the Gospel of Luke be encountering one of the most, if not the most puzzling of Jesus’ parables found in Luke 16:1-13.  The parable has been given any number of titles: The parable of: “the unfaithful steward,” “the dishonest steward,” “the shrewd steward,” or “a bad man’s good example.”  In the parable the steward of a large estate is first accused of squandering his master’s property.  In response he hatches a plan where he squanders the master’s property.  But the surprise ending of the parable is that upon learning of the steward’s actions, the master commends the steward for his dishonesty.

When Jesus told this parable, I imagine the hearers were left wondering whether Jesus was commending dishonesty.  I imagine like us they wondered, “why would Jesus tell a story about a lying manager of someone else’s wealth, who is praised for acting shrewdly.”

We are not the first generation to be puzzled by this parable nor will we be the last.  Even the writer of the Gospel of Luke struggled to make sense of this parable—as seen in the series of Jesus’ sayings that follow the parable in verses 9 to 13.  Many interpretations have been suggested to understand and apply the meaning of this parable.  This Sunday we’ll seek to understand this puzzling parable by understanding its social setting.  We’ll then consider points of application for us in our roles of stewards.

See you on Sunday,

Pastor David

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