How to Survive the End of a World - A Parable of Christ 

Catholic here. But I love listening to Jonathan and Fr Spyridon 🙏

It’s crazy how much Jonatan helps me get grounded. Sometimes it feels like I’m a chicken with my head cut off preoccupied with fallen things and then he drops a gem like this and get my gaze back on Christ. Hope everyone is having a good lent☦️

Yay cant wait for this. For me It’s been so unbearably stressful and felt like we’re in the end of times the last decade. I’m so grateful for people like Jonathan and Jordan Peterson who give real advice for real problems. Returning to the Orthodox Church this year has only improved my life as well and I’m so happy to see more people are becoming Orthodox.

Red thread redemption

The final book in the Narnia Chronicles comes to mind. The world folds into the barn and unfolds out to the new world. The people who come into the barn are the seeds for the new world.

I’ve just been wrestling with my desire to protect my energy and attending to the needs of my children. Hearing this message clarifies how my actions today will seed into the next life and I can use this parable to quiet my mind when it yells at me! Ha

I have been building my “Ark” now since 2021. On my 3rd season growing food in my garden. Focusing on learning skills to survive and developing a local community and network. It helps me feel hopeful.

In our end is our beginning.

We assume that what we have is ours, but every good thing comes from God, and in that sense, we are stewards. By leveraging what we have for the good of others, we bring about love for ourselves and God whom we image and represent.

I suppose the pillaging of Egypt before the Exodus would be another example.

Harmless as a dove and cunning as a serpent.

Why Jonathan, you’re saying what Jim Elliott was saying: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Or as the Puritans would have said, “We live in view of Eternity.” And as Sarah Orne Jewett wrote, in the voice of a wise old country doctor, “We’ve got to live in this world, and for the next one.” That’s laying up treasure in Heaven, I believe. I’m unspeakably delighted that the Gospel seminar was a wild success. I prayed earnestly that it might be. I can’t wait to meet you in Boston, dear Jonathan. I’m coming to see Dr. Peterson speak and bringing a friend and I’m so eager. The times are such that my heart needs this. With love from Ruth Anne

I understood the parabole differently: I thougth the manager took out his own profit out of the bussines (his cut) in order to compensate his master. At the same time, being just he also made friends with other clients, so even if his master did not forgive him, he could get a job with a friend. More than being just, he was prepared to suffer unjustly under his master, he was prepared for the worst.

While reading to my son, I suddenly came to and realized the tender quietude we had enjoyed could end at any moment. It was like I had been asleep in the dream of bedtime stories. This was an unpleasant feeling. The tenderness we had enjoyed could soon pass away. But I realized, in part due to chewing on the topic of this video, that in the ending of this one little world, there was opportunity. I also saw gratitude for the tenderness, and I savored it more while it continued. But I became awake, and looked about me. And when he turned to me and asked me a question about the book, I was completely there. I caught it like I had been waiting for it all day. I’m not sure if I carried something forward from that little world, but I certainly knew how to navigate its ending.

Beautiful! ❤ Thank you, sir!

This reminds me of Fr.Stephen’s summit talk. If all you seeded was an onion chances are that isn’t enough for your identity to persist.

NO WAY!!!!!🎉🎉 Bishop Barron and Konstantin Kisin and John Vervaeke added to the JBP round table!! That Table is the greatest collection of wise minds and clarity on the internet - and all my favs in one place! CANNOT WAIT!!! We who follow your discussions around the Table and each of your independent works value all the incredible insights into Reality and the future of our crumbling civilization that you each bring, and we are excited to be a part of the emerging vision of the way forward into the new world.

The fluidity, creative and destructive power of wisdom

Wow, this was… prescient. Praying for a swift peace in the Middle East.

What a provoking parable. Interesting insight. Thank you, Jonathan.

Its just like saturday starts in friday , and the material world can be used to help our spirtuality if used correctly

I never expected to hear Konstantin Kisin working on this project! Thank you Jonathon for your insights, it is a difficult passage but it is crucial at this time.

As usual, Jonathan sees what others have not. An excellent explanation. My 2 cents, before this explanation, was that the parable was Jesus showing His followers how to operate in this world. When it comes to my neighbor, I strive to be scrupulous - the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. However, governments and corporations and those enforcers who are part of such bureaucratic systems are not my neighbor and are often my enemy. I owe them no quarter. Romans 13 is pertinent only as the system conforms to the laws of God and has been misunderstood by too many.

We have to stay on His path. Even if this means we have to keep distance from our beloved ones (children, parents ). We need to save our souls enev if this means that we have to suffer. May God gives us strength to endure the pain.

Man Dante’s Inferno is going to be very interesting. Thank you Johnathan. Channel’s awesome

Thank you for clarifying so intelligently this confusing parable.

I agree with the interpretation, but the steward is ascetically relinquishing his share instead of overcharging the debtors. You forgot that the debtors don't control their debt (the strong set the terms).

The end really helped my understanding. Thank you! ☦️

This is also present in the story of the six Days of Creation and the now era we are in, ..Which is the seventh day where God is resting from creating things. Historically it lines up good with the archaeological record where each era had a die off that led to the growth of a new thing.

"And now I will show you the most excellent way ... These three things will remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." Job thought his righteousness would save him from suffering. In righteousness, Jesus made himself nothing and suffered. We are to give to God what is God's, and Paul says, "For whose sake I have lost all things." "There is no fear in love." The abundant life that one is looking for is not a continuous completion of your own desires, but God's, Who is good, and Whose thoughts are good. "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." When you humble yourself like Jesus did, when you love each other as Jesus did, "To live is Christ and to die is gain."

🎶every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end🎶

Thats crazy, I just read this parable yesterday and was trying to understand what it meant. Thank you as always Jonathan!

Its the same as doing good works on earth and storing up treasures in heaven. This world will end but the Word of God stands forever.

Confusing in the way that R Rohr is. For better or worse, I have to think simply or, for me, everything just crumbles in on itself. I have to suppose that Christ is not just for the intellectually astute- not just for those who have the luxury, time - strength - to unravel complex ideas.

More parables!

Wouldn't it have been great of you consulted what the Church Fathers said about and how they interpreted the parable in Luke 16?

You just described the work done by the Tlaxcallans and La Malinche in the history of the Conquest of Prehispanic Mexico by the Spaniards. They "betrayed" their world, yet they were the seeds for the new world that was being born. Tlaxcallans ended colonizing the whole territory of nowadays Mexico and even some places in what is now the USA and Peru, the whole continent became theirs. While La Malinche ended giving birth to the sons of Cortés, a new Mestizo race from which Mexican Identity would be born.

Greed is the currency of Mammom. It is wise to never want to lose in this world, but it is unwise for what's coming.

Your translation gives us more hope in this world towards end. Thank you, and God Lord bless you☦️🙏

I thought that the "manager" there the Lord was talking about a priest. When feeling like he is failing, a priest goes and doubles down on his work, forgiving and helping people even more . And the unusual form of the parable? I was under the impression that, for some, it's easier to understand the Salvation as an exam, and the goal is to make the cut. And, even if you cheat your way in somehow :) that's worth it :) God would only appreciate that if such an approach would allow you to put more effort. The more you understand Love, the less important "Fairness" becomes to you.

I'm the 1000th like :) thanks Jonathan

I suppose that leaves a solid silver lining about gaining my understanding from all directions and not abiding by only one school of thought...

Yesi agree with that..the seeding ...

Thank you Jonathan. It was somewhat useful…however you did not elaborate on the end. "You cannot serve GOD and Mammon." I think this takes that parable, its seediness and ends in a BOLD & PROFOUND eclamation point!

It makes a lot more sense to me to think that the same as the steward, we don't give from what is ours. In the end, everything is God-given. So we'd better hurry up and share as much as we can from what was given to us with those who dont have much. Also, if you consider a woman forced into prostitution let's say. If while working she gives money away to the poor, perhaps some of her sins will be erased too, especially if she does it with kind heart and doesnt think about it transcactionally. I agree with what I read about this parable that Christ doesnt condone the moral wrong of giving away from someone else's fortune, but rather appreciates that even a morally gray person can do the right thing with his machiavellism.

This is basically the story of the Fall of Constantinople (or the end of the Middle Ages) and the beginning of the Renaissance (later to devolve into the Enlightenment w/o the right hemispheric Orthodoxy) because of all of the classical texts and scholars that made their way to broader Europe after

can't wait for the full episode.

uncannily relevant. exactly what i needed to hear today. thank you, jonathan (as always).

Pageau is making all of this up as he goes. I frankly do not understand his celebrity. Converts to Orthodoxy are particularly enamored with his silliness.

I've been struggling to understand this parable as well. Jonathan's explanation seems to be the best interpretation of the parable so far. Thanks

I’m not sure but I think it’s related: Christ telling his disciples to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves

Make friends with your enemy before he takes you to court and takes everything from you.

Those who would save their life will lose it.

There is some meaning lost in translation of the parable, please consult more translations, it's much more insightful and adds more to what Jonathan Pageau said.

Love the conclusion, executed perfectly

Hello, @JonathanPageau. Have you given any thought, in this context, to the fact that when Joseph got into Pharaoh's court, and also Daniel and his friends when they were accepted into the Babylonian seats of power, they received training in Pagan knowledge and were among the wisest and the most successful people in their respective empires, and yet that knowledge did not corrupt their unshakeable faithfulness to God? I was never able to relate these accounts to the Parable of the Unjust Steward, but once you've drawn the connection to Rahab, I myself started to wonder whether these accounts also relate to it as well, since they are using knowledge and connections to the Pagan, secular worldviews of their times to advance the Knigdom of God without actually tainting it. Following this train of thought it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to view the episode of St. Paul's ministry in Athens when he uses the "Idol of the unknown god" to persuade the Athenians to open their minds to the Gospel of Christ he was preaching as another example of that shrewdness. Or the historic episodes of the Catholic Church appropriating iconography and customs of Pagan societies that were already similar to the point the Gospels strived to make, without necessarily tainting the original message or the fidelity to God and His Message. Hmmm. I would really like to hear your thoughts on this...

Could you tell us, Jonathan, when the new powerhouse series will be released? Can't wait! Thank you for sharing the fruits of your insightful work with us! I love symbolism... and you are a master at it!

Jonathan, Romans 6 struck me this past Easter and was reminded of being baptized into Jesus’s death on the Holy Cross and our New Man rising with him. No disrespect, but your talk made me recall this and may suggest that as a more powerful (and personal) example of what you are pointing to-Any thoughts here?

I read Jeremiah 17 earlier this morning and find some echoes of it in your interpretation here.

I hope very much you do a longer video to articulate your insights into the parable of the unjust steward. You've described the challenge I face in understanding that parable, but I'm not catching what you're throwing in terms of understanding what it's telling us. It still seems like he's getting praised for spinning up a kickback scheme upon being sacked.

My mum did a painting of Rayhab holding a red tassel, she always thought the red thread was in some way related to blood, a bit like the blood covering on the doors in Egypt, I’m not sure but I’d like to know what anyone thinks

I think that smuggling Paul from Damascus over the wall in a basket echoes the story of Rahab in Jericho. Paul was a traitor par-excellance too from the Jewish viewpoint. There is time to seed the word and a different time to seed the blood which one has to discern with the help of the Spirit.

Here's another, and perhaps more powerful way to understand this: Jesus reminds us that ultimately everything is from God and belongs to God. We've got nothing "ours" to give away. And He reveals that us using what belongs to the Master in the way described in the parable is pleasing to Him.

Speaking of the end of a world and Jordan Peterson, Peterson is in for a big surprise when he discovers that the Zionism he’s sworn his devotion to is a major sign not of the world to come, but of the world that’s going to fall away, and take with it all who’ve pledged their loyalty to it.

Important to remember that it is: 1st. The formal accounting of and then, 2nd. The formal forfeiture of or sacrificial offering. The anti-christ will attempt to mimic this by skipping the 2nd part, or maintaining what has been accounted for in the first part.

In a way this is what it means to give your children an inheritance.

A beautiful unfolding of patterns as usual but in this instance it seems to be a very convoluted way of avoiding the straightforward reality of forgiveness and almsgiving in our stewardship of material goods which are not our own. Although cosmic/fractal layers are there to always further uncover from the words of the Word himself, let's not lose sight of the very simple and practical way of being that Christ offers us to our salvation.

Taking my daily work to seed my spiritual life to seed my next life. Something like that?

The bad steward parable where he writes down all his bosses debts before getting sacked, then gets praised for it has always puzzled me as well. I enjoyed watching someone else try to unpack it, but I'm not sure you really have. End of the day, he's getting praised for a kickback scheme. I hope you do a longer video on it, because I couldn't catch what you were throwing here.

Thank you very much. I think this was excellent. Because it’s just logical that if there is another world coming after this, we need to assimilate ourselves a little into it a bit don’t we? Into what might come? People might think that there is nothing coming, but maybe it would be a good idea to consider possibility. If we were going to move to another country, we might want to get information about that country and learn your language. Don’t you think? I love this I think it’s really great for having people think about heaven and dying, don’t you? wonderful!

Thank you.

It would be helpful if you were to explain what is the problem with this parable. Your explanation is very good, regardless. Thank you.

Jonathan, I admire your work… You’re doing a great job, to be honest. The work that you were doing resonates a lot with what I'm trying to do., which is helping people and showing the incredible energy of the holy spirit. Is there any way you can direct me through the sacred movement you were saying at Ralston College? Timestamp 56:36. I would love to be part of it.

A lot of private-practice dentists are selling to DSOs (larger dental groups backed by private equity). I think there are some parallels.

Crazy syncronicity. I just heard this story and was trying to understand it. I had the same problem as Jonathan as it seem to go in opposited direction as all the other teaching of the bible, to be honest, to stay true, etc.

In other words, stockpile books.

God is basically telling the unjust servant to live it up and join the world because they love the world more than God

That's what we call 'a bit of a stretch'. More likely to be some bad copying of a bad copy or a mistranslation of a mistranslation.

Isn't this also the story of St Thomas, who takes the wealth of the Indian ruler and gives it to the poor, to build him a palace in another world?

Thanks

If there's full controller support and good localization, I'm definitely interested.

Hey Jonathan can you talk about autism. I mean what's up with observing the world, spatial Awareness, being too aware of the surrounding and the symbolic world? Thanks

Think Scarlet in Gone with the Wind

Like if you understand symbolism

Is this the concept of the remnant. In the fall of one nation and the rise of the next, the remnant of the previous is always present. The aim being to be part of the Godly remnant, not the evil.

In todays times, the old world of valuing money / material is ending and opening up a new one that will sacrifice money for virtue...

I very much liked the link to Rahab seeding into the new world. In gaining wealth two other OT stories, first the Hebrews leaving Egypt with much wealth that was not theirs, and Abram also going to Egypt using the Sarai deception, then coming out with more wealth than when Abram went in. What do you think Jonathan?

so helpful🙏❤

Who wants to help me keep count of the number of times Jonathan uses the word literally?

0.23 seconds in that edit is crazy 😂

And like the children of Israel " jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing" from the Egyptians before they head off into freedom. Their new world.

I don’t understand why you didn’t include verses 10-13, which end with: “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” I have only a limited knowledge of the Bible, but it seems to me the lesson is that, as a servant of God, you have to participate in this world in a trustworthy way, even though many people are not trustworthy. I don’t think the master and the manager are servants of God in this parable.

The problem with your understanding AND explanation is that like many other teachers- you are NOT reading the whole passage. Just the part that you wish to dwell on and to use for your point. I'm NOT saying that you are not onto an interesting idea etc or that your concepts are hogwash- but read the whole section about the Master. And the whole chapter to get a better understanding. Jesus CONTINUES saying that you cannot serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other. He continues to say- you cannot serve both God and Man. The master was shrewd, but sinful. He should have received rebuke from his Master and learned to be better. Instead by lying he doubled his sin before the Master. Jesus is also saying, you CAN use this technique to gain friends, with wealth and then implant some truth here and there for their eternal well being. He is also suggesting that one should use their worldly position of influence to also gain the attention of higher ups to bring them into the kingdom also. I think this preacher is interesting. But is he an intellectual believer? Or with a contrite heart? Is Jesus The Son of God? Or a philosophical teacher? Hmmm? Just asking.

ZYN IN THE LIP

I understood the parable to be about forgiving others . Rahad reminds me of what Biden is doing .

The way to move in the new world is to take the strength of the world that is ending and buy Bitcoin so that when the fiat world ends you find a place in the new world.

Did Prager and Shapiro also participate this time in the Gospel Seminar?

What about the rest of the parable? Verses 9-16 are missing.

❤

Johathon, have you ever thought about the "every knee shall bow" moment of Jesus's return and end times that maybe that includes Satan and the fallen ones? I have been wondering about the destruction of Evil and Satan in the abstract possibility that it is the end of Entropy, No more tears, no more suffering. And in that way the Lion lays down with the Lamb... What if the following Jesus and the Ephesians 1 unity is climaxed in our maximum Forgiveness of them in parallel to what Christ has done for us, thus undoing all of evil, fallen ness and brokenness because we are one with Christ. There is a lot to be said about us Judging the angels, I know it;s way out there. But I am not afraid to look at the love your enemies principles of Christ extended to it's maximum expression, I mean look at Enoch, he tried and failed but God absolutely loved the dude so much he never died.... maybe there is something there. Curious to hear your thoughts. So surviving the end of the world is conquering all evil through Christs, love in us.