The steward is a figure who comes up in many of Jesus’ parables—a “stock character,” we might say, who would have been very recognizable to Christ’s listeners. What did stewards do, in the time of Jesus? What made them so interesting to our Lord?
***
A Father’s Love
Sunday of the Steward
The steward is a figure who comes up in many of Jesus’ parables—a “stock character,” we might say, who would have been very recognizable to Christ’s listeners.
What did stewards do, in the time of Jesus? What made them so interesting to our Lord?
They were, first of all, servants. But a special kind of servant: They were caretakers, or business managers, as we might say today. They were not owners; but the true owner, the master, had given the steward responsibility and authority. And to be given such things meant that the steward was in a position of trust.
Clearly, Jesus saw this special relationship of “stewardship” as symbolic of the greater dynamic between God and man. In the deepest sense, we are not the owners of the good things in our lives: our families, our healthy bodies, our heritage, our church. To be sure, we are indeed responsible for all these things, and we cannot neglect our responsibility. But our highest responsibility is not really to satisfy ourselves, but to please God.
Jesus’s parable about an unjust steward who was accused of cheating his master (Luke 16:1-17—the reading for the third Sunday of Lent) is famous for being difficult to understand. But it gives us some very concrete clues about what it means to be a “good steward.”
Jesus tells us: “He that is faithful in a little, is faithful also in much” (Lk 16:10). He asks: “If you have been dishonest with another man’s belongings, who will give you something of your own?” (Lk 16:12). And he concludes with the famous saying: “No servant can serve two masters” (Lk 16:13).
These words of wisdom should be “food for thought” for us, during our journey through Lent.
But the most important words in the parable come at the very beginning, when the Master asks the Steward: “What is this I hear about you? Give me an account of your stewardship” (Lk 16:2).
Surely, this is the larger point Jesus was making throughout his teaching on stewardship. God has entrusted us with many serious responsibilities. He has given us many beautiful gifts and blessings. But we are called to make an account.
When our Master does so, will we show ourselves to have been good stewards? Or neglectful ones?
But let’s return for some final thoughts on the parable of the Unjust Steward. As mentioned, it’s difficult to understand. Some interpreters strive mightily to make the desperate, swindling steward into an exemplar of moral conduct. But these attempts are unpersuasive, given Jesus’ larger themes about what constitutes being a “good steward.”
Perhaps a key to its meaning can be found in an overlooked point in Luke’s account. We learn (Lk 14:14) that Jesus was addressing the Pharisees: the religious teaching authorities of Jesus’ time, entrusted with the job of telling the people what God wanted from them. But in order to make themselves popular, they had “watered down” the message: like the unjust steward, they had “discounted the debt” that man should rightfully owe to God.
Through the parable of the Unjust Steward, Jesus seems to have been warning the Pharisees—and all authorities in positions of trust—that while this might make them welcome in the homes of men, eventually there would be an accounting—and did they think that God would congratulate them on their shrewdness?
In this reading, Jesus is being ironic when he says (Lk 16:8), “The lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely.” But that mood certainly fits better with the stern lessons about honesty, integrity, and the impossibility of serving two masters, which immediately follow the parable.
Read the passage for yourself. What do you think?
Unjust Steward
Yorumlar kapatıldı.