Many People are caught up on the idea of the dishonest
steward being dishonest that they miss the purpose of the parable altogether. So
here is my version of the parable. Not that I can improve on Jesus’ version. I
think some was lost in translation. In Arabic (which is close to Aramaic it’s a
little easier).
Jesus said many times that if you use your money here in
this world to build mansions they will be no use for you later. If you use this
money to build a treasure in heaven (by giving it to Jesus) it will be far more
valuable. So it is the wise thing to do. The exact same principle restated is
to use this money (which will soon be worth nothing) to make friends (like Jesus)
in the afterlife (again by giving it now to Jesus).
It’s like being the IT guy in charge of the website of a
very large bank. If he knew he was being fired tomorrow (for whatever reason. Let’s
say he was accused by the FCC and the bank would not spend money to defend him.
He might even be guilty. It’s not the issue here). But he figured I will never
get another job. I will have a criminal record. I will be on welfare for the
rest of my life. Today I control millions of dollars. Tomorrow I will have
nothing. I can’t transfer money into my own account. That will get caught. I
can only adjust other balances. If the computer has a glitch, takes away a
couple of zero’s from someone’s account, I fix that. It’s my job. So if you
have $ 1,000,000 and the computer messes up and makes it $10,000 I fix that. All
adjustments made by me being the IT guy are strictly “legal” and irreversible. Here’s what I will do I will add money to
these 2 guys accounts. They will each find an extra $ 5 million in their accounts
and they will know who did it. The first guy owns hotels. I am sure he will let
me stay at one of his hotels in Mexico for the rest of my life. The other is
the Mexican version of Sam Walton. He will let me shop at his stores for free
for food, clothes, and everything else. I will have zero cash, but, I will live
happily ever after. I cannot be prosecuted. I will have zero assets so they can’t
come after my assets.
The plan was so brilliant. When the board of the bank heard
about it they had a good chuckle. One of them said “I wish I was so smart when
I was his age”. Another said “It seems that these shady characters are smarter
than the more honest ones in their generation”.
So honesty and all that aside (We will talk about honesty
later because I do care about it) I just wanted to show you how giving your
money to Jesus is just simply the most brilliant financial planning.
