Luke 16:1 – 13
We've just heard the parable of the
unjust steward. Saint Augustine wrote a commentary on this parable,
in which he said he could scarcely believe that Our Lord said these
words. Saint Augustine was taken aback by the fact that Jesus seems
to be praising someone who is dishonest, and furthermore, tells his
followers to make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth. And
if you can't be trusted with dishonest wealth, who will trust you
with true wealth? You can see where Saint Augustine was having
problems. But he isn't the only one. If you look at others who have
commented on this parable, they are all over the map about what it
means. And I don't know which interpretation is right either. But I
think that's the point of Jesus' stories. They all deserve to be
thought about, pondered over, and we should never stop at the first
interpretation that comes to mind.
Jesus' audience lived in a time when
there were very very rich people and people who had very little.
They took that for granted; there wasn't really a middle class. The
rich man was probably a land owner and had tenant farmers. They were
allowed to grow things on his land provided they paid the rich man a
commission – usually a large one, but what choice did they have?
The rich man was probably barely able to read and do any kind of
accounting, so that's what his manager did. And the manager made his
living by taking part of what went to the rich man. Some people say
that when the manager writes down the debts of the tenants, he is
basically writing off his share of what they owe. Others say that he
is playing fast and loose with his master's wealth, and that is
probably what got him in trouble in the first place. But I don't
think that we need to dwell on that. Some writers say that the
steward is unjustly accused; after all, the master is acting on
rumors and fires his manager without allowing him to respond to the
rumors. But of course Jesus later refers to him as dishonest. But
that is not the point either. I should point out that the word
“dishonest” is a translation from the Greek word which literally
means “unjust”. Luke has made it clear in other parts of his
gospel that he thinks all wealth is somehow “unjust” because as
long as some people have more than others, there is injustic in the
world.
The point is that the steward found
himself in trouble with a very bleak future. He was still the
manager of his master's wealth, because his employment would seem to
be terminated when he gave his master an accounting for his
stewardship – so he used that position to prepare for the future.
And what he did was pretty clever. First, he used his position to
bring about gratitude in the tenant farmers. He knew, even if he was
dishonest, that if you did something that made another person
grateful, they would most likely feel that they were in your debt.
When we feel in someone's debt, we are uneasy until we pay them back,
and if we can pay them back with something more valuable, we feel at
rest. So the steward brings about gratitude – probably
significantly, because these were desperately poor people. But the
other thing he accomplishes is to leave the impression that what he
did was ok with the master. The master saw the cleverness of the
steward, and that's probably why he commended him. If he had gone to
the tenants and said that the steward was not acting on his authority
and he wanted the originally agreed upon commission, it would stain
his reputation; he might lose the tenant farmers to another rich
person and he'd be in trouble. He would be seen as untrustworthy.
So his only choice would be to smile and keep quiet when people told
him how great he was for forgiving part of the debts that were owed
him.
The steward is shrewd and clever, and
takes care of his future, at least his future on this earth. And
when Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves with dishonest
wealth, so that when it fails you will be welcomed into eternal
dwellings” it isn't that you are supposed to become friendly with
it, but use it to make friends with those who can welcome you into
eternal dwellings – and we know from other places in the gospel of
Luke that he is talking about the people who can't pay us back on
this earth, the poor, the outsiders, the abandoned; it's another way
of saying “lay up your treasures in heaven”. And when he says,
“If you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust
you with true wealth?” he is pointing out that what has been given
to us by almighty God, which we tend to think of as somehow related
to our talents, our efforts, our cleverness, is not really ours –
and we are stewards who will have to give an accounting.
And Jesus leaves us with that saying
that always makes me nervous: “You cannot serve both God and
Mammon.” Because the real lesson of the parable is that the
steward used all his resources, all his cleverness, everything under
his control, to achieve an end which at best would keep him in
comfort for the rest of his life, or at least till he had another
job. And because of Original Sin, you and I are always tempted to
pay a lot more attention to the things of this world than those of
the next. Here we are – and we are at least here giving an hour of
our week to God. And here we are – and we are at most giving a
small fraction of our income to build up God's kingdom; and the rest
of our time and our treasure will be used to further the material
goals of ourselves and our families. I'm not saying that's a bad
thing; I'm simply pointing out that there is a danger here, because
Our Lord makes it clear that there is no in-between position. Even
when we are immersed in our day to day lives and have forgotten about
Sunday Mass and the parables of Jesus, we must still be putting His
kingdom as our priority. What he has given us must, in the long run,
be used to serve Him.
So this is a good week to reflect upon
our relationship with our money, our possessions, and indeed, the
poor and the outcasts who have a claim on our wealth, because after
all, what we do for them we are doing for Jesus Himself.
