“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails you may be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
A Curious Parable
Today’s opening statement from the gospel is actually a continuation from yesterday’s gospel, which is for me the most curious of all Jesus’ parables. A steward, an administrator who is about to be fired, reduces the debts of people who owe money to his master, so that they might welcome him into employment in their estates.
It seems that Jesus is praising fraud.
We are Dishonest Stewards
I think, in reality, that Jesus is pointing out that we are all like the dishonest steward. We have all been convicted of sin, and we are going to be fired: we will suffer death.
The dishonest steward made use of the time he still had in his master’s house to create friends for himself ‘on the other side’—in the world outside his master’s estate.
We need to do the same. All of us still have time left in this world. We need to make use of this world’s goods in such a way as to prepare for ourselves a good life ‘on the other side’—in the next life.
Of course we do not do that by heaping up material riches for ourselves. We do not do it by becoming a fine conoisseur of food or other transitory things and enjoying the very best of them. We do it by helping the poor, by supporting good causes with the wealth we own in this life.
Acorns
I once saw a TV show about spies, and in it a North Korean spy who had immigrated to America as a youth was now active in spying for North Korea. At one point a fellow North Korean tells him: “The Americans are on to you. They know you’re a spy. You’ll have to go back to North Korea before you get arrested.”
He responds: “I don’t want to go back to North Korea. They’re eating acorns over there.”
The other spy answers: “But you’ll be a national hero. You’ll get more acorns than anyone else.”
To us Americans, of course, the thought of getting more acorns than anyone else is a pathetic form of well-being. But this is how the angels and saints in heaven view us. When they see us gearing our lives around the pursuit of material, transitory pleasures, they are astounded at our lack of wisdom. We make supreme effort in the pursuit of things that are little better than acorns. They would like to see us use what we own in this life to store up for ourselves treasure in heaven, treasure that truly satisfies and which lasts forever.
Thank you
This helps, but ever time I hear this parable proclaimed, I scratch my head and ponder.