Chapter 16 opens out distinct and weighty instruction for the disciples, and this in reference to earthly things. First of all, our Lord explains here that the tenure of earthly things is now gone. It was no longer a question of holding a stewardship, but of giving it up. The steward was judged. Such was the truth manifest in Israel. Continuance in his old earthly position was now closed for the unjust steward; and for him it was simply a question of his prudence in present opportunities, with a view to the future. The unjust steward is made the vehicle of divine teaching to us how to make the future our aim. He, being a prudent man, thinks of what is to become of him when he loses his stewardship; he looks before him; he thinks of the future; he is not engrossed in the present; he weighs and considers how he is to get on when he is no longer a steward. So he makes a wise use of his master’s goods. With people indebted to his master, he strikes off a great deal from this bill and a great deal from that, in order to make friends for himself. The Lord says this is the way we are to treat earthly things. Instead of tenaciously clutching at what you have not yet got, and keeping what you have, on the contrary, regard them as your master’s goods, and treat them as the unjust steward in the parable. Rise above the unbelief which looks at money, or other present possessions, as if they were your own things. It is not so. What you have after an earthly sort now belongs to God. Show that you are above a Jewish, earthly, or human feeling about it. Act on the ground that all belongs to God, and thus secure the future.
This is the grand point of our Gospel, from the transfiguration more particularly, but indeed all through. It is the slight of present treasure on earth, because we look on to the unseen, eternal, and heavenly things. It is the faith of disciples acting on the prudence of the far-seeing steward, though of course hating his injustice. The principle to act on is this, that what nature calls my own is not my own, but God’s. The best use to make of it is, treating it as His, to be as generous as may be, looking out against the future. It is easy to be generous with another’s goods. This is the way of faith with what flesh counts its own things. Do not count them your own, but look at and treat them as God’s. Be as generous as you please: He will not take it amiss. This is evidently what our Lord insists on; and here is the application to the disciples: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail [or, it fails], they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” You are not going to be on the earth long; other habitations are forever. Sacrifice what nature calls its own, and would always hold fast if it could. Faith counts these things God’s; freely sacrifice them, in view of what shall never pass away. Then he adds the pregnant lesson—“He that is faithful in that which is least [after all it is only the least things now] is faithful also in much.” Indeed there is more than this. It is not only the littleness of the present compared with the greatness of the future, but besides—“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’s [I leave out the word “man’s,” it is really God who is meant by it], who shall give you that which is your own?” What can be of its kind a more wonderfully divine touch than this? Exactly, where man counts things his own, faith admits God’s claim, another’s; exactly where we might count things only God’s, it sees one’s own. Our own things are in heaven. He that is faithful in the little now will have much entrusted then; he that knows how to use the unrighteous mammon now, whose heart is not in it, who does not value it as his treasure, on the contrary, will have then the true riches. Such is the Lord’s remarkable teaching in this parable.
Next, He gives us the rich man and Lazarus; which brings all out to view, the bright and dark side, in appearance and in reality, of the future as well as of the present. See one sumptuously faring every day, attired in fine linen and purple, a man living for self; near whose door lies another, suffering, loathsome, so abjectly in want and so friendless that the dogs do the service which man had no heart for. The scene changes suddenly. The beggar dies, and angels carry him into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man died, and was buried (we hear not that Lazarus was); his funeral was as grand as his life; but in hell he lifted up his eyes, being tormented. There and then he sees the blessedness of him he had despised in presence of his own grandeur. It is the solemn light of eternity let into the world; it is God’s estimate underneath outward appearances. The truth is for souls now. It is given not to think of in Lades, but here; and yet we have, as most fitly winding up the tale, the earnest pleadings of the man who never before thought in his life seriously of eternal things. Hear now his anxiety for his brothers. There was no real love for souls, but a certain anxious desire for his brothers. At least one learns how real a thing his anguish was. But the Lord’s comment is decisive. They had Moses and the prophets; if they heard not them, neither would they hear if one rose from the dead. What a truth, and how thoroughly about to be verified in His own rising from the dead, not to speak of another Lazarus raised in witness of His glory as the Son of God! Those who believed not Moses rejected Christ’s resurrection, as they consulted to put Lazarus also to death, and sunk themselves under their own base lie (Matt. 28:11-1511Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 12And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, 13Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. 14And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 15So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. (Matthew 28:11‑15)) even to this day.