Luke 16:2

How is it that I hear this of thee? — (1) The opening words of the steward’s master imply wonder as well as indignation. They remind us so far of the words of the lord of the vineyard in another parable, “Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:4). Speaking after the manner of men, it was a marvel and a mystery that men with so high a calling as the scribes and teachers of Israel should have proved so unfaithful to their trust. (2) The words that follow, “Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward,” while they admit legitimately enough a personal application to each individual at the close of any period of trust and probation, and therefore at the close of life, are yet far from being limited to that application, and in their primary significance, do not even admit it. The close of a stewardship, for a party like the Pharisees — for a school like that of the scribes — for any Church or section of a Church — is when its day of judgment comes, when its work in the Kingdom is done, when history, and God in history, pass their sentence upon it. And that day of judgment was coming fast upon those who then heard the parable.