*** w81 10/1 p. 20 pars. 5-8 “Who Really Is the Faithful Steward, the Discreet One?” ***
5 What the Lord Jesus Christ there said the apostle Peter called a “parable,” for Luke’s account goes on to say: “Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable [parabolé] for us or for all?’” (Luke 12:41, Revised Standard Version and other translations) So, logically, what Jesus said in reply would be considered a parable, which would picture or illustrate certain realities to come in the future. That is, Jesus’ reply in Luke 12:42-44 would form part of the parable of the “faithful and wise steward.” (RSV) As we now examine the parable, we should keep in mind Peter’s question, which carries over in its application to this follow-up parable, namely, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” (Luke 12:41, New International Version; The Living Bible) We ask, therefore, Does this parable of the “steward” apply to a class, an “us” class, the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, or to everyone then listening to Jesus and, today, to every individual reading Jesus’ parable, regardless of his religious connections inside or outside Christendom? Is the parable a class affair or an individual one?
“HIS MASTER”
6 Jesus did not directly answer Peter’s question concerning the preceding “parable,” but offered another parable in reply, saying: “Who really is the faithful steward, the discreet one, whom his master will appoint over his body of attendants to keep giving them their measure of food supplies at the proper time? Happy is that slave, if his master on arriving finds him doing so! I tell you truthfully, He will appoint him over all his belongings.”—Luke 12:42-44, New World Translation.
7 No one will question that the “master” of the faithful steward pictures the teller of the parable himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the parable that raised Peter’s question Jesus pictured himself as being a bridegroom, who, because of the marriage festivities, returns home at an uncertain hour of the night or early morning. (Luke 12:35-40) Certainly, then, those involved in the fulfillment of Jesus’ parable should keep on the watch, especially during the “conclusion of the system of things.”—Matt. 24:3.
8 In the case of the parable of the steward, the master has a “body of attendants,” of which the steward himself is one. This matches the fact that the teller of the parable, the Lord Jesus Christ, has a household in a spiritual sense. To that effect it is written, in Hebrews 3:4-6: “He that constructed all things is God. And Moses as an attendant was faithful in all the house of that One as a testimony of the things that were to be spoken afterwards, but Christ was faithful as a Son over the house of that One.” The prophet Moses was over the house of the 12 tribes of Israel at the start of that nation. Jesus Christ, as the Greater Moses, has been over the house of spiritual Israel from the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. down till now. Revelation 7:1-8 reveals that the “house” is made up of 144,000 spiritual Israelites, divided into 12 tribes of 12,000 each. This is a “house” made up of spiritual sons of God, like their Head Jesus Christ himself. These collectively compose the “little flock,” to whom, as Jesus said, Jehovah God the heavenly Father has approved of giving the celestial kingdom.—Deut. 18:15-18; Luke 12:32; Acts 3:19-23.