Chapter 39: How to Make Friends with Stolen Money. Love poverty and reverence poor people, for our Blessed Savior was one of their number, and you may make them all so many friends and advocates with God for you. William Law. When Mortimer Sly was a boy, his parents and teachers all told him he would never amount to anything, and they were right. He frittered away his time in school and barely finished high school. From the time he was a toddler, Mortimer had been a clumsy, awkward lad.
Once he was out of school, he tried to learn various trades, but he could never quite get a handle on any of them. The fact that he was incredibly lazy and undependable didn't help matters any. Happily for Mortimer, he had a rich uncle who took a liking to him. Nobody can quite figure out what Uncle Nick saw in Mortimer, but Uncle Nick had no children of his own, so he looked upon his nephew as a son. Uncle Nick was the president and chief stockholder of Middleton Savings and Loan.
His company held nearly a quarter of the home mortgages in the small town of Middleton. Taking pity on Mortimer, one day Uncle Nick gave him a nice cushy desk job at his Savings and Loan. In fact, in his generosity, he made Mortimer a vice president in the company, hoping that someday Mortimer could succeed him as president. But Mortimer never made much effort to learn the Savings and Loan business.
He took long coffee breaks, played computer games when he should have been working, and distracted the other employees with his constant chatter. Things went downhill from there. On a number of occasions, Mortimer neglected to file important paperwork, costing the company penalties and fines. He often charged personal expenses on his business account and took unauthorized loans. Finally, his uncle had had enough. "Mortimer, I really wanted to give you a chance in life by giving you this job," Uncle Nick began.
"We both knew you weren't qualified, but I hoped you would apply yourself and learn the mortgage business. Instead, you've played around and never made the slightest effort to learn the workings of the company. Your neglect, wastefulness, and outright dishonesty have cost the company tens of thousands of dollars. I had fondly hoped that someday you might replace me, but you've proved yourself utterly unworthy of such hopes. I'm terminating your position in thirty days." "But, Uncle Nick, what will I do?
I have no college education and no job skills," Mortimer protested. "I'm sorry, but you should have thought about that when you neglected your duties here. I gave you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you flung it back in my face." Mortimer went home that night visibly shaken. He lay awake most of the night wondering what he would do, if only he had some other connections in town. But he had none. There was no one he could turn to for help, unless...
"I have access to all the mortgage files," Mortimer suddenly realized. "I have the authority to adjust mortgages, mark them paid, and release them." He now grasped that he was in a great position to do some big favors. Mortimer showed up at the office as usual the next morning, but he left work early, with a briefcase full of mortgage documents. Instead of going home, he dropped by the restaurant owned by Enrico Rossi. Mortimer greeted Mr. Rossi as he was shown into his office. "Hello, Mr.
Sly," Enrico answered nervously. "I, uh, I think I know why you're here. Listen, I know we're past due on our mortgage payments, but business is slow right now, and, uh, we've had some unexpected medical expenses." "No, no," Mortimer reassured him, smiling. "That's not why I'm here. Well, at least I'm not here to talk to you about your late payments. The reason I'm here is that my uncle has just put me in charge of helping our distressed borrowers.
I've started a new program for families in situations like yours." Enrico's eyes lit up. "Yeah? Tell me more." "Well, here's how it works. Right now you owe $41,380 on your mortgage. Since it's past due, we could declare it all due and payable right now. However, if you can somehow scrape together a tenth of that amount, $4,138, I'll mark the entire mortgage paid and release the deed of trust." "You can't be serious," Enrico answered. "I assure you that I am." "But where would I get $4,138?
I'm broke." "Don't you have family or friends who might loan it to you?" "You're right," Enrico announced confidently. "I think my wife's parents will help us." "But are you really serious? I pay $4,138, and you'll mark the entire mortgage as paid off? Ten cents on the dollar?" "I couldn't be more serious," Mortimer replied. "Can you get it to me by the end of next week?" "I'm pretty sure I can," Enrico answered.
"I'll see you then." As Mortimer walked out the door, Enrico added, "Hey, listen, anytime you want a meal, just come to my restaurant. It'll be on the house. Come as often as you want." "Well, thanks," Mortimer replied with a smile. "I'm sure I'll take you up on that." Over the next couple of days, Mortimer cut similar deals with Bob Ingram, Wally Goff, and Elisa Martinez. Bob owned a hardware store. Wally owned an auto garage, and Elisa was a retired widow.
Bob promised Mortimer a job in his store if he ever needed one. Wally told Mortimer he could bring in his car anytime to be repaired for free, and Elisa promised he could live rent-free in the empty apartment above her garage if he ever needed a place to stay. Mortimer was all set. After all these mortgages had been released under the special terms granted by Mortimer, Uncle Nick found out about them. He burst into Mortimer's office one morning without knocking.
"I've been doing some inquiring, and I found out about the deals you cut with Enrico Rossi and the others." Mortimer gulped, dreading what was about to come. But to his great surprise, his uncle smiled broadly and said, "You know, that's the smartest thing you've done since you came to work for me. I'm glad to see you're finally using your head." With that, Uncle Nick walked out the door, quietly closing it behind him. What About Reality? You're probably thinking, "That's the most outlandish yarn I've ever heard.
It's not even remotely plausible. If you're going to make up an illustration, at least come up with one that's believable." Well, yes, you're right. This story is simply too flaky to be believable. In fact, now that I think about it, it's beyond fiction. It's in the realm of fantasy. Except for one thing: it happens to be true. I don't mean that Mortimer, Uncle Nick, and Enrico Rossi are real people. I mean that this story happens in the real universe.
In fact, you probably recognize this story as a modern adaptation of Jesus' parable of the unjust steward, recorded in Luke 16. Uncle Nick represents God the Father. He allows us to give His property away to others and then turns around and commends us for doing it. In fact, He not only commends it, but He says we will be given an eternal home for giving His property away. What does all this mean in real life? It means that everything we think we possess on earth is really God's.
Even though we work hard to acquire the money and material possessions we have, we're using resources that actually belong to God. We've already talked about the fact that without the resources God provides, the farmer could grow nothing. Think of how many millions of people on earth, besides farmers, earn their living through agriculture.
Picture the people who work in grocery stores, restaurants, food processing, canning factories, bakeries, butcher shops, pet food factories, feed stores, and so many other places connected with the food industry. What about the millions of people who earn their living from products that come from petroleum, products like gasoline, plastics, paint, fertilizer, carpets, roofing, materials, tires, styrofoam, synthetic fabrics, solvents, linoleum, anesthetics, eyeglasses, insecticides, and thousands of other products?
Think of how many industries depend upon trees: logging, carpentry, furniture making, forestry, lumber yards, paper mills, newspapers, book publishers, print shops, pencil factories, and cellulose production, just to name a few. Similar things can be said about jobs connected with fishing, metals, water, solar power, chemicals, medicines, minerals, and wind. In the end, few people can earn a living without either directly or indirectly using the materials that God has created.
Yet no one pays God one cent for these resources. We've accumulated our possessions using His resources. So when we give to the poor, we're actually giving His money to the poor, not our own. Yet the poor are grateful to us for giving them God's money. And God turns around and rewards us for the dishonest thing we've done. It's exactly like Mortimer Sly and his benefactors. What is too absurd to be true in earthly things is precisely real in the realm of eternity. Listen to what Jesus says.
This time I want you to hear the story from Jesus' own lips. There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." Then the steward said within himself, "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg.
I have 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 master's debtors to him and said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said to him, "Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." So the master commended the
unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.
For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. Luke 16:1-10. Like many other Christians, I had read this parable a number of times. However, it never meant much to me. It seemed a strange parable without any clear application. In fact, I remember once hearing a sermon about it.
When the preacher reached the final sentence, where Jesus explains the whole point of the parable, he rushed through the words. "I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home." The preacher brushed these words aside by shrugging and commenting, "I have no idea what that's all about." I certainly didn't have a clue either until I read the early Christian writings. The early Christians talked about this parable a lot.
To them, the meaning was obvious: we can take God's money and use it to help the poor. Because of our kindness to them with money that's not ours to begin with, we will be received into eternal homes when both our lives and our possessions fail us. This shouldn't sound strange, for Jesus essentially says the same thing in his description of Judgment Day, when he separates the sheep from the goats.
The only criteria he mentions in that description are whether or not we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, took in the stranger, and visited the sick and imprisoned. He says, "Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me.
I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.'" Matthew 25:34-36. I remember the first time I preached a sermon about the parable of the unjust steward. I don't think I've ever seen so many furrowed brows and faces expressing disbelief. A person would have thought I had made up this parable myself. That was the first of many similar experiences when I have preached the same message that Jesus preached.
I have to admit that when I first read what the early Christian writers said about this parable, I had trouble accepting it. Teachers, authors, and preachers had drummed into my mind that giving alms has nothing to do with salvation. In fact, for a person to even talk about giving alms makes his orthodoxy suspect. We are justified by faith alone. We've all heard over and over. But nowhere in Scripture does it say we are saved by faith alone. In fact, the Bible expressly says just the opposite.
"You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only." James 2:24. Martin Luther said we are justified by faith alone. Jesus did not. Whom are we going to believe?