Circle of Days: Reflections on the Church Year
Proper 20-C
A parable is a small story with a large point. The point of the Unjust Steward is that it’s better to be a resourceful rascal than a saintly schlemiel.—Fredrick Buechner.
Following the three comforting parables in Luke 15 about a loving God who welcomes the lost, the unsettling story of the dishonest manager comes as a shock. There is something very different going on here as Jesus seems to condone immoral, or at the very least, questionable behavior.
Addressed to his disciples, this parable about a shrewd steward is unique to Luke. The story involves a rich man who entrusted the day-to-day oversight of his property to a manager who acted as his agent for business transactions. However, the rich man learns that this steward has been “squandering his property.” The exact charges against the manager are not specified; but the word squander in the preceding parable of the prodigal son was used to indicate waste and carelessness (15:13).
When the rich man confronts the manager and asks for an accounting, he declares that the man can no longer be his agent (v. 2b). The main issue in the manager’s dismissal is not necessarily corruption or dishonesty, but his failure to carry out his duties competently. The manager does not dispute the charges against him or plead to be restored.
As the manager assesses his situation (vv. 3-4), Luke takes us into the man’s inner thoughts (cf Lk 12:17-18) as he ponders what he will do now that he is unemployed. He acknowledges that he is not physically suited for manual labor, and he does not want the social stigma of becoming a beggar. Thus he decides to take actions to insure that he will not become a social and economic outcast.
In verses 5-7, he quickly puts his plan into action by contacting his master’s debtors and reducing the amount they owe. It was accepted practice for a manager to collect a commission on repayments to his master; so perhaps the steward has in effect relinquished his own commission. In any case, the steward has now put the master’s debtors under future obligation to him because of his leniency toward them. Thus they will be forced to reciprocate his generosity, and he will be welcomed into their homes (v. 4).
Surprisingly, in spite of the steward’s original mismanagement, the master commends the manager for acting shrewdly (v. 8a). The manager’s actions have not only restored his credibility with his master; the reduced debts also make his master look generous and benevolent. In the final analysis, everyone involved—the debtors, the master, and the manager himself—have all benefited from the manager’s scheme. Although we do not know whether or not the manager got his job back, he was nonetheless praised for his ingenuity under pressure.
In an even more unexpected twist in verse 8b, Jesus upholds the shrewdness of the manager as a model for the disciples—i. e., “the children of light” (cf 1 Thess. 5:4-5)—because the steward was adept in assessing a dire situation and acting accordingly. His example of taking bold initiative to turn failure to his own advantage could make a difference for honest people as well. The followers of Jesus cannot hold themselves apart from the world, and, in fact, can learn from the prudence of the “children of this age,” or people of the world. They are to use the things of the world in the service of God as astutely as the wiliest of schemers would use the resources at their disposal.
Verse 9 is especially puzzling and can be interpreted to have eschatological implications, as the disciples are encouraged to make use of their material possessions now. Through almsgiving they will be welcomed into “the eternal homes.” The use of the phrase “dishonest wealth”—i. e., worldly possessions, here and in verse 11, is a warning about the potential for money to become an idol. Wealth in itself is not evil, but the personal corruption that can accompany the pursuit of wealth can separate us from God.
Verses 10-13 are further evidence of the early community's struggle to make sense of this paradoxical parable by contrasting faithful and unfaithful use of possessions. Good stewardship is equated with faithfulness and vice versa. If one cannot be trusted with worldly possessions, how can one be trusted with the true riches of eternal life?
The final verse is a general warning against putting too much reliance on possessions: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (v. 13; cf Mt. 6:24). Faithful stewardship is an act of service to God, and God alone is to be served. Jesus further emphasizes this point in comments directed to the Pharisees “who were lovers of money” (v. 14): “For what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God” (v.15b).
He is not poor that hath not much, but he that craves much.—Thomas Fuller.
Amy-Jill Levine, writing in Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (New York: HarperOne, 2014), reminds us of the inherent challenge and paradox of understanding Jesus’ parables. “If the interpretation does not raise for us more questions, if it does not open us up to more conversation, if it creates a neat and tidy picture, we need to go back and read it again.” Moreover, a parable should disturb. “If we hear it and are not disturbed, there is something seriously amiss with our moral compass.”
The parable for today (Lk 16:1-8a) and Jesus’ concluding statements (vv. 10-13) echo themes of reversals and the right use of wealth and possessions that are familiar in Luke’s Gospel. But we are taken aback when the underhanded actions of the manager are praised (v. 8b). With unquenchable hopefulness in the face of calamity, he has turned a potentially career-ending predicament into a win-win situation for himself, his master and his master’s debtors. In spite of ourselves we can grudgingly admire the ingenuity of the manager. His actions anticipate the advice of Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince centuries later: “Spending what belongs to others rather enhances your reputation than detracts from it; it is only spending your own wealth that is dangerous.”
But verse 9 really trips us up as Jesus seems to condone the unscrupulous actions of the manager as he tells his disciples to “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” This is certainly not what we would have expected Jesus to say.
There are many theories among commentators concerning the meaning of the parable. Robert Farrar Capon, writing in Parables of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Erdmans Pub. Co.,1988), offers his perspective that the parable says in story form what Jesus himself said about his life. Jesus is not “respectable”—he broke the Sabbath, consorted with known sinners and died as a criminal. Thus “in the light of this parable, we see why he refused to be respectable: he did it to catch a world that respectability would only terrify and condemn. He became sin for us sinners, weak for us weaklings, lost for the losers, and dead for us dead. St. Augustine said the cross is the devil’s mousetrap, baited with Jesus’ disreputable death. And it is a mousetrap for us too.” Jesus threatened the accepted order of the world, thus the forces of the worldly righteous got rid of him.
Capon further suggests that Jesus’ “parables are not so much word-pictures about assorted external subjects as they are icons of himself. Like good poems, they not only mean but be: they have a sacramental effectiveness. Whether we get them or not, therefore, they remain first and foremost his way of getting to us.” What we do with them may make us ultimately appreciate them to a greater or lesser degree.
In the final analysis, this parable defies any fully satisfactory explanation, and perhaps that is the point after all. For the questions and issues raised by the actions of the manager and the response of Jesus cause us not only to take another look at the story itself, but to also look deep within ourselves as well. Was the manager dishonest or shrewd, and does it make a difference? Perhaps we need to read the story again.
St. Augustine commented: “Why did the Lord set this before us? It is not because that servant cheated but because he exercised foresight for the future. When even a cheat is praised for his ingenuity, Christians who make no such provision blush.”
Readings for Proper 20-C: Jeremiah 8:18—9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
This reflection is adapted from Circle of Days: A Church Year Primer – Year C by Paula Franck and Isabel Anders available in print and ebook formats from circleofdayspublishing.com or amazon.com.