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34th Sermon of Jesus... The Parable of the unjust Steward
(April 11, 1872)

Luke 16:1-13
"And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much! If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon."

This Gospel deals with an unjust steward who, after his lord had been told about his dishonesty, endeavoured to secure himself a loophole so as not to become destitute and be compelled to earn his living by hard labour.

I gave the Pharisees and scribes this parable because they, most of all, paid homage to the money or mammon and in order to obtain plenty of it were not ashamed to use any means to achieve their purpose.

What the unjust steward did in this parable, namely, reduce by half the debts owing to his lord so as to win favour with his lord's debtors, was also done by the Pharisees in their religious laws. They were strict with the poor and lenient with the rich, as is still the case today with your priesthood.

The precepts I taught My disciples: My advice to win friends for themselves with the mammon so that they need not suffer hardship in times of need; also the following verses: 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much!' 'If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?' 'If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?' 'No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or the other way round', which in the spiritual sense means: 'You cannot serve God and mammon', - all these verses contain - with only slight differences - one and the same. Only the ninth verse seems to contradict the ones following it because it advises to win friends with the mammon so that in times of need a friend may assist us, whereas in the other verses the emphasis is on the fact that one cannot serve two masters, with the thirteenth verse clearly stating: 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon'. How can a person win friends with mammon and still serve God? You can see that there appear to be contradictions in this; for God and mammon - or the material world with its riches and pleasures - are surely quite opposite things, and it is obvious that he who pays homage to mammon and the world cannot at the same time love God and follow His precepts.

In order to clarify these contradictions, let us have a closer look at these verses and endeavour, notwithstanding their apparent contradiction, to find a common striving for the one goal.

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