25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C)

For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

Lk 16:1-13

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FROM MOBILE GABRIEL

* 16:1-8a The legal system of the time allowed the steward to make agreements that were binding on his master. Although the practice of charging usurious interest was forbidden by the Old Testament it was quite common in first century Palestine. Typically, the interest was not indicated separately on the agreement. The original amount owed (principal) and the interest were added together and only the total "owed" was shown in the contract. The steward is accused of squandering his master's property (Luke 16:1) and not of any subsequent graft or theft. It was the job of such an agent to make money for his master.

* 16:1 The rich man seems to be an absentee landlord. They were no more popular in ancient Israel than they are today. The Greek word used here for charged or accused or reported is "diaballo" which means to accuse with hostile intent. He may well have been innocent of the accusation. In terms of the story it doesn't matter.

* 16:2 The master believes the accusations and prepares to dismiss the steward.

* 16:3 The steward's soliloquy acts to engage the hearer into identifying with him and to show that he will not waste time feeling sorry for himself or protesting the master's action. Rather he will take decisive and immediate action to secure a place for himself somewhere else.

* 16:5-8a Here the steward instructs the debtors to rewrite the contracts so that only the original amount owed is shown without the master's usurious profit. Although it is often stated by commentators that the steward was foregoing his commission, there is no evidence in the text or in what is known about the practices of the day to support this idea. In fact the text says twice that the sums are owed to the master. The manager gets even with the master and ingratiates himself with the debtors at the master's expense.

* 16:6 The amount is literally, "one hundred baths." A bath was a Hebrew unit of liquid measure which equaled about eight or nine gallons.

* 16:7 A kor was a Hebrew unit of dry measure for grain or wheat which was equal to ten or twelve bushels.

* 16:8 The term "dishonest" is used of the steward. This is not a simple repeat of the charge in verses 1-2 where dishonesty was not the charge. Rather it refers to his actions in verses 5-7. The master here is the rich man of verse 1 and not Jesus. The steward is not punished but praised. Prudent refers to practical action toward a particular end. It does not necessarily refer to virtue in the sense of justice.

* 16:8b-13 Luke has gathered together several originally unconnected sayings of Jesus and used them as conclusions of application to his story.

* 16:9 We are told by Jesus that we (the children of light) must be at least as clever and enthusiastic about the things of heaven as the children of this world are about the things of earth. The Greek words translated here and in verse 11 as "dishonest wealth" is literally, "mammon of iniquity." Mammon is the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew or Aramaic word that is usually explained as meaning "that in which one trusts."

* 16:10-12 Jesus urges constant fidelity as an absolute requirement for those in positions of responsibility.

* 16:13 Dependence on wealth is opposed to the teachings of Jesus who insists on complete dependence on the Father as an important characteristic of the Christian disciple (Luke 12:22-39). A disciple must give complete and exclusive loyalty to God or he runs the risk of being enslaved by mammon. One shows this loyalty to God by sharing mammon (wealth) with others.