Luke 16:1–13 ESV – Bible Gateway
This passage from the Gospel of Luke has had a range of intepretations historically and seemingly more so in recent times. Some efforts, it seems to me, try to explain away instead of explain what seems to be Jesus praising the actions of the unjust steward. Brant Pitre often gives a reminder that Jesus’ parables often include a twist. Something unexpected to make a point. This parable likely has a double twist or an added stinger.
To start with let’s look at the historical context as pointed out by John Bergsma:
The role of steward in a large household was one of great responsibility but also one of wealth and prestige. The job went to the master’s most trusted male slave. As a result, enterprising young freemen in the Roman empire sometimes sold themselves as slaves to wealthy men in order to become stewards of their households.[1]
There are some interesting connections with some of the other parables in Luke as Brant Pitre writes:
… the Greek word for wasting, diaskorpizō, is the same word used of the prodigal son in Luke 15, who went off and wasted his father’s property. In fact, that’s the word that gets translated as “prodigal” in many of the older translations, so that’s why—following Fr. Anthony Giambrone, he’s a Catholic Dominican biblical scholar—he calls this the parable of the prodigal steward, because just like you had a prodigal son, here you have a prodigal steward, who’s wasting not his father’s money, but his master’s money … Now remember here that the Master’s money—the word for Master in Greek is kyrios—so he’s stealing from the lord, it’s the same word for lord.[2]
We can, to an extent, imagine the situation the steward finds himself in. The steward has been doing well for himself by mismanaging his master’s money purposely to his own enrichment. He was not living a life of hardship of day-to-day laboring continuosly seeking employment. He is too prideful to work as a common laborer and will continue on the same path that got him into trouble in the first place.
He’s not suited to any other way of making a living, and as a slave, he has no estate of his own. He’s been used to socializing with his master’s peers, although he is not truly their social or legal equals.[1]
In his panic, he plots what he can do to ingratiate himself with others so that he will have an opportunity to maintain his current lifestyle. There is no reflection on how his own dishonesty has led him to this point. Deciding to further defraud his master by reducing the debt owed by his master’s debtors. These debtors know what is going on and are willing to take advantage of this opportunity, but they also now know the dishonesty of the steward. The steward is fooling himself that he will find employment with them now that they know his corruption.
Some interpretations of this passage infer that the steward was only forgoing his own commission in changing these debts. This is just not supported by the text, especially considering that there are different percentages of reductions for the two debtors missing[3]. This explanation tries to explain Jesus’ praise of the steward’s actions in verses 16:8–9. Verse 8 can be easily understood as grudgingly acknowledging the steward’s cunning but not the action. Jesus says elsewhere, “be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Matt 10:16). An interesting aspect regarding this verse is that they are not expressions found in the Old Testament, but are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Brant Pitre comments:
“The sons of this world” are the ones who belong to this fallen world, or this sinful world. “The sons of light” are those who are destined to dwell in the new creation, or the “world to come.”[2]
It is 16:9, which gives us an added stinger that has been difficult to understand. “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
Just what is going on here? I think that both the literal and mystical sense of this parable points to seeing ourselves as the unjust steward. Everything we have has been given us by God, from our very existence to all the graces he has showered us with. Despite this, we often think only of ourselves and how we can use our talents to seek material pleasures. Even when we make attempts to acknowledge our role in stewardship of all he has given us, “We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:10)” All that God has given us does not belong to us, and we are meant to use those graces in the service of others. That we can pay down the debt of other people through intercessory prayer and using these gifts in the service to others. How much effort do we put into the salvation of souls and preaching the Gospel? Or is our cunning employed elsewhere? “A disciple who is a prudent steward will paradoxically give away wealth and remit debts, seemingly doing what the dishonest steward did but in reality enacting Jesus’ jubilee program.[3]”
Peter Kreeft writes about this proper ordering:
He tells us and shows us, by his example, how to be realistic, how to practice realism, and how to live in reality. In reality, there are only three levels, three radically different kinds of reality. There is God, who is infinitely greater and better than people or things. And there are people, made in God’s image, who are infinitely greater than things as well as infinitely less great than God. And there are things, all the things money can buy, both goods and services, which are good but not nearly as good as God or as great as people. So, in order to practice realism, in order to live in real reality and not in the false reality that we dream, in order to be sane, we must worship God, love people, and use things. First, we must adore and worship God, not ourselves or each other or things. Second, we must love people and use things, not love things and use people. Third, we must use things, as enterprisingly and cleverly and responsibly as we can, as means to those two infinitely more important ends. … That is living in reality; that is being sane. In other words, sanity and sanctity are identical.[4]
John Bergsma echoes this:
This is perhaps the key teaching of this entire reading. The world encourages an attitude in which we use people to gain things. Jesus reverses this: use things to gain people. If spending money and giving goods can open others to friendship with the Church and ultimately Christ himself, then spend the money, give the goods.[1]
There is some question as to how to consider verses 10–13 and how they are related to the Parable of the Unjust Steward.
… these verses probably aren’t meant to explain the parable that just preceded. Rather, they are a series of general maxims or teachings—proverbs, you might say—of Jesus about wealth, that are linked by catchword and theme to what precedes it.
We often try to divide our attention, trying to serve both God and mammon. We think we are generous when we tithe ten percent, or much less, of our attention to God. This is not the case for the Catholic both/and. I know it is a constant temptation to divide my attention thus and forget what Joshua said: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Jos 24:15)”
Catechism §2424 A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. The disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.
A system that “subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to the collective organization of production” is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism. “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Sources
- Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
- Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
- The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
- The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
- Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C, John Bergsma ↩
- Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre ↩
- The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz ↩
- Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C ↩
