The Most Scandalous Parable - Sunday, September 11, 2016 - Pastor Steve Brown

The parable of the Unjust Steward may be the most difficult of Jesus’ parables to interpret, let alone find a life application. (Now, get ready for a really long, but magnificently crafted sentence.) But, if we see the Unjust Steward as Jesus who loses everything and is cast out (dies) from the employment of the rich man (God, the Father), becomes the hero (raised again) in the eyes of the rich man (God), brings all the scheming debtors (us) into the good graces of the rich man (God) by having our debt scandalously and fully paid (through his death and resurrection), and eternally changes the whole bookkeeping of the rich man (God) so that now all functions by grace (that always is disputable in the eyes of our karma-run world), then we have an interpretation that fits the context of Jesus heading to Jerusalem to die and rise again to scandalously make us right with God. A thing of beauty! This interpretation is for us incredibly good news and gives us a Savior that is considered “unjust” by the moral bookkeeping standards of the world but is a real Savior that we can connect with as one scoundrel to the other. Jesus became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law. (Galatians 3:13)

 

We hope you will thankfully accept that our “Unjust Savior” has scandalously gotten you off the hook so that you “will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” that the Holy Scoundrel himself has prepared for you.

 

Lessons: Matthew 18:21-35, Galatians 3:13-14, Luke 16:1-9