Do you remember the Parable of the Unjust Steward? See Luke 16.
People miss the point because they aren’t willing to embrace the fundamental principle that Jesus taught in other ways, like in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:19-21). This is not just a homily; it’s a full-blown economic theory. It’s not simply a matter of where your heart is. Invest your money where your heart should be.
Recently thieves used explosives to steal ancient gold artifacts from a museum in the Netherlands. Why do humans put so much stock in those artifacts? Why are they so valuable? Is it possible to store them in a situation where they can be studied without the risk of loss? I’m not saying it’s utterly pointless, but that you should expect that kind of threat from those who worship Mammon.
And it applies to the whole gamut of human investment. The common ways of creating and preserving wealth are inherently immoral. Christians have no business putting their money into any market on those terms. When God grants you material resources, invest in people. The Unjust Steward was investing in the human component of economic activity. The welfare of your tribe is by far the most important investment. That’s the message of the Unjust Steward.
Don’t try to make parables walk on all fours. See the moral truth behind the particulars of the story. The steward made life better for some people, and they in turn would welcome him into their community and provide for him. Build communities based on God’s covenant, not on the man-made principles of greed.
God’s covenant says that the focus of your economic activity is not the stuff, but the people involved. You should strive to build communities and provide for their needs. Not the fleeting contract-oriented perversion of “community” but the lifelong commitment to each other. It’s part of the economic truth of God’s Word that you build covenant communities in the first place, not the isolated single-family households of western culture, in which law assumes that the primary meaning of a household is merely an economic unit. You cannot isolate the truth into little bits and pieces of proposition. It’s a tapestry woven into a whole.
It’s the image of God. It’s not impersonal; you can’t claim, “It’s just business.” Your decisions should not be based on a spreadsheet analysis of profit and loss. The Unjust Steward, worldly as he was, understood that it was better to take some losses in favor of building community. People come first. Build an ethical frame of reference that recognizes that, not a predatory dehumanizing pursuit of material wealth.
If you die, who will own all that stuff? Jesus asked that question in the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12). He was totally consistent in this warning that, in all your economic reckoning, your tribe’s welfare comes first. What most people forget is that you must have a tribe first. Your instincts should start with the assumption that life is not possible alone and that “standing on your own” as commonly envisioned in the West is anathema.
God promises that if obeying Him leads to economic ruin and even death, it’s far better to come into His Presence as a faithful steward. Live as if Eternity is real.
