The crafty steward
1 At another time Jesus told his disciples, “There was a rich man whose steward was reported to him for fraudulent ser vice.
2 He summoned the steward and asked him: ‘What is this I hear about you? I want you to render an account of your service for it is about to be terminated.’
3 The steward thought to himself: ‘What am I to do now? My master will surely dismiss me. I am not strong enough to do hard work, and I am ashamed to beg.
4 I know what I will do: I must make sure that when I am dismissed, there will be some people to welcome me into their house.’
5 So he called his master’s debtors one by one. He asked the first who came: ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 The reply was: ‘A hun dred jars of oil.’ The steward said: ‘Here is your bill. Sit down quickly and write there fifty.’
7 To the second he put the same question: ‘How much do you owe?’ The answer was: ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ Then he said: ‘Take your bill and write eighty.’
8 The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the people of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light.
9 And so I tell you: use filthy money to make friends for yourselves, so that when it fails, these people may welcome you into the eternal homes.
10 Whoever can be trusted in little things can also be trusted in great ones; whoever is dishonest in slight matters will also be dishonest in greater ones.
11 So if you have not been trust worthy in handling filthy money, who could entrust you with true wealth?
12 And if you have not been trustworthy with things that are not really yours, who will give you the wealth which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters. Either he does not like the one and is fond of the other, or he regards one highly and the other with contempt. You cannot give yourself both to God and to Money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved mon ey, heard all this and sneered at Jesus.
15 He said to them, “You do your best to be considered righteous by people. But God knows the heart, and what rises high among humans is loathed by God.
16 The time of the Law and the Pro phets has ended with John. Then comes the proclamation of the kingdom of God and everyone tries to enter it by force.
17 It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single letter of Scripture not to be fulfilled.
18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries a woman divorced by her husband also commits adultery.
The rich man and Lazarus
19 Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day.
20 At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores,
21 who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores.
22 It happened that the poor man died and angels carried him to take his place with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 From hell where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest.
24 He called out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus with the tip of his finger dipped in water to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire.’
25 Abraham replied: ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort and you are in agony.
26 But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you or from your side to us.’
27 The rich man implored once more: ‘Then I beg you, Father Abra ham, to send Lazarus to my father’s house
28 where my five brothers live. Let him warn them so that they may not end up in this place of torment.’
29 Abraham replied: ‘They have Mo ses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
30 But the rich man said: ‘No, Father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 Abraham said: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be con vinced even if someone rises from the grave.’”
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Comments Luke, Chapter 16
• 16.1 Jesus is not concerned about condemning the improper actions of the administrator, but rather points out his cleverness in providing for his future: this man was able to discover in time that friends last longer than money. In the same way, in promoting a new way of living, the people of light must strip money of its halo as Supreme Good. It seems that putting money in a safe place is the best way to assure our existence and our future. On the contrary, Jesus tells us to use it and to exchange it without hesitation for something much more valuable such as bonds of mutual appreciation.
We are not owners but administrators of our wealth and we must administer it for the good of all. Money is not a bad thing as long as we use it as a means to facilitate exchanges. Jesus, however, calls it “unjust” (we use the word filthy) because money is not a true good (it is not money that makes us just before God); and because it is impossible to accumulate money without failing in trust in the Father and without hurting our neighbors.
Money is something that peo ple acquire and lose; it does not make anyone greater. Therefore, money is not part of the goods that are our own (v. 12).
THE RICH
• 13. The Pharisees, heard all this and sneered at Jesus (v. 14). More than the other evangelists, Luke notes the incompatibility between true religion and love of money. The Pharisees could justify their love of money by quoting some sayings from the Bible. In fact, in the beginning the Jews saw wealth as a blessing from God. It seemed just to them that God should reward in this way those who are faithful to him when they know how to deal with the riches of this world. Then, with the passing of time, they came to see that money was more of a danger and that, often, it was the privilege of those without faith (Ps 49, Job).
Nevertheless, as soon as someone has money he is convinced that he possesses truth, and thus the Pharisees felt authorized to judge and decide on things of God. After them, many Christians belonging to influential circles have wished to use money and power for the service of the kingdom of God and quickly established themselves as managers. Mon ey in turn possesses those who possess it. Very soon one is ready to approve a moral order that justifies one’s own privileges and forgets the Gospel values of justice, humility and poverty. In the end, it is the Church itself that is despised by those who seek God.
Why have so many people of hum ble origin felt inferior to the rich in the church? They got used to seeing the rich heading church organizations and accustomed to receiving the word of God from them, in spite of Jesus’ warnings.
THE LAW
• 16. We are about to read three of Jesus’ sayings whose only connection is their reference to the Law. The Law meant the laws that God had given to the Jews. Besides, the Law and the Prophets was a way the Jews used to refer to their Holy Writings that we call the Old Testament. Jesus uses this expression here to point to Old Testament times, to all that prepared for his own coming.
For a single letter of Scripture not to be fulfilled (v. 17): that means that everything in it had its significance even though Jesus states that the decisive point has come with him. The Law was needed to prepare for his coming, but it will no longer be observed in the same way as before (see Mt 5:17-20).
For Jews who observed the Law and in particular for those who had followed John the Baptist, another step was needed: faith in Jesus and, by this, to conquer the kingdom of God (Lk 7:24). Despite appearances, it is much easier to follow religious practices, to observe laws and to fast, than it is to believe and to risk the unknown by following the crucified Je sus.
• 19. This parable deals with the worldwide gap between the rich and the inhumanly poor. There is a deadly law of money which makes the rich live separately: housing, transportation, recreation, medical care. The wall the rich man willingly built in this life becomes, after his death, an abyss that no one will be able to bridge. The one who accepts this separation will find himself on the other side forever.
A poor man named Laza rus: Jesus names the poor man, but not the rich one, thus reversing the order of the present society that treats the well to do as a person but not the ordinary worker. We also see that, on dying, Lazarus finds many friends: the angels, Abraham, the father of believers. The rich man finds neither friends nor lawyers to relieve his situation: hell is isolation.
Some people would like to know what was the rich man’s sin for which he was con demned to hell. Was it that he denied some crumbs from his table to Lazarus? The Gospel does not say this. Instead it shows that the rich man did not even see Lazarus lying at his door: Remember that in your lifetime you were well off.
The La za rus of today are legion and are already at our door; they are known as third or fourth world. On a world scale it is the more advanced countries and the privileged minorities that have taken possession of the table to which all were invited: the real power, and the culture imposed by the me dia. The national industries and sources of employment have been destroyed by a free exchange unimpeded by any social or moral restraint. Hundreds of millions of “Lazarus” people are marginalized and rejected until they die in misery, or through violence arising from a dehumanized life.
Modern-day Lazarus are kept at a distance from the residential areas by police, dogs and barbed wires. They would like to get their fill of the crumbs that are left over from the feast, but there are few scraps falling back to the homeland, after everything is wasted on imported products or deposited in foreign banks. Laza rus lives among dogs and rubbish: he becomes a prostitute, or a pickpocket, until a premature death enables him to find someone who loves him: at the side of Abraham and the angels.
Meanwhile, the rich person works hard, not so much to enjoy life as to convince himself that he is right: even the Church should justify him and the separation. It is this perversion of his mind that takes him to hell, after having inspired in him hatred or contempt for all those who proclaim the demands of justice taught by Moses and the pro phets, that is to say, by the Bible.
The Gospel, in its desire to save the rich as well as the poor, asks us to work with a view to removing the abyss that separates them. The time for breaking down the barrier is in this life.