The Dishonest Steward

Thank you all for the great discussion at the Session 19 bible study. Your thoughts on the Dishonest Steward were particularly interesting so I found some more commentaries for further thought.

From The Navarre Bible: St. Luke

16:1-8. The unfaithful steward manages to avoid falling on hard times. Of course, our Lord presumes that we realize the immorality of the man's behavior. What he emphasizes and praises, however, is his shrewdness and effort: he tries to derive maximum material advantage from his former position as steward. In saving our soul and spreading the Kingdom of God, our Lord wants us to apply at least the same ingenuity and effort as people put into their worldly affairs to their attempts to attain some human ideal. The fact that we can count on God's grace does not in any way exempt us from the need to employ all available legitimate human resources even if it means strenuous effort and heroic sacrifice. "What zeal people put into their earthly affairs: dreaming of honors, striving for riches, bent on sensuality! Men and women, rich and poor, old and middle-aged and young and even children: all of them alike. When you and I put the same zeal into the affairs of our souls, we will have a living and working faith. And there will be no obstacle that we cannot overcome in our apostolic works: (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 317).

Luke: A Devotional Commentary

Sometimes, we might not be clear about the point Jesus was trying to make when he told a parable or gave a sermon. The parable of the shrewd manager can be one of these cases. We know that Jesus was not condoning dishonesty of irresponsibility. And he surely didn't want to promote shady business dealings. So what was his purpose in telling this story? How do we apply it to our lives?

During Jesus' time, the type of steward described in the passage often earned his wages from the interest he charged his master's customers. Often, stewards would charge exorbitant interest as a way of creating a comfortable "buffer zone" for themselves against future misfortune. By reducing his master's debtors' bills, the steward was not cheating his master; he was reducing his own profit. Thus, with the debtors grateful to him for reducing their bills, the steward had new friends who could help him start a new life. From this perspective, the steward's action could be seen as an attempt to reform his life - and a very creative approach to a difficult problem. Rather than commending the steward's seeming dishonesty, Jesus was actually highlighting his ability to think quickly and overcome major obstacles.

How tempting it can be to give up when we encounter obstacles to daily prayer, evangelization, or reaching out to our neighbors! But with the example of the shrewd manager, we can take comfort that Jesus wants to help us find creative solutions to these obstacles. We can become just as shrewd as this steward, asking God to give us uncommon wisdom and the courage to take risks in new situations.

Ignatius Study Bible: St. Luke

16:1-8. The parable of the Unrighteous Steward is about urgency and preparedness. About to lose his position, the steward makes use of a pressing situation to find favor with his master's debtors and prepare for his future. Christians should take even greater care to prepare for life in the world to come. Mystically (St. Gaudentius, Sermo 18), the unrighteous steward signifies the devil, whose dominion over this world is nearing its end. Having wasted the Lord's goods by stripping us of divine grace and friendship, he now works anxiously to make friends be deception and empty promises of forgiveness. While his ardor and foresight are worthy of imitation, his wicked and dishonest tactics are not.

16:1 a steward: A head servant who handled the business affairs of his master's estate. Like the prodigal son, this manager wasted his master's goods.

16:8 his prudence: The master, although cheated by the debt reduction, commends the steward for his shrewdness. He recognizes that the steward's last-minute efforts proves successful in winning the favor of the debtors and making his financial future more secure. The unjust strategy of the steward shows that he was motivated by an entirely selfish concern for his own temporal welfare. Jesus points to the steward as both an example and a warning. As an example, the steward shows how to expend every effort in making use of our means to prepare for the future. Just as his cunning won him a comfortable living in the "houses" of his master's debtors, so believers are challenged to make friends by almsgiving in order to be received into "eternal habitations". As a warning, the steward is intended to characterize the attitude of the Pharisees, who have been listening to Jesus since 15:2 and who are charged with being "lovers of money" in 16:14. It is implied that the Pharisees are despising God by their devotion to mammon, i.e., they seek not eternal riches but the esteem of men and the temporal comforts of this world (16:13).