- Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
(Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Fr. Ron goes on to say, “The great Jewish prophets, the
forerunners of Jesus, coined a mantra which ran something like this: The
quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of justice in the land and
the quality of justice in the land will be judged by how "widows, orphans
and strangers" (biblical code for the poor and most vulnerable groups in
society) fared while you were alive.”
Amos (ca.750 BCE) issues a similar warning in Amos 8:4-7:
‘“Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the
land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah
small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the
poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings
of the wheat." The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely, I will
never forget any of their deeds.”’
That is, the rich who control commerce in the land are
tipping the scales, cheating farmers and other workers, and using the profits
to buy Jimmy Choos and Air Jordans, while even packaging the sweepings off the
threshing house floor as the next gourmet treat – that is they are cheating the
workers, the farmers and the consumers so they might have a Museum of Shoes such
as Imelda Marcos had. No letter of reference for them, says Amos. As Jesus
promises elsewhere, the Marcos Shoe Collection is today molding and rotting
away in storage. Says Amos, the titans of industry and commerce are not getting
a letter of reference! Their so-called “deeds” will never be forgotten. We
might think of farmers who have lost the Asian markets for their soy beans due
to the recent trade wars, auto workers who are seeing one plant after another
closed, and coal miners who see one mine after another closed.
It is difficult, due to poor translation, to see that Jesus
is making the same points as Amos Fr. Rolheiser in what first appears to be a
parable commending dishonesty in business dealings in Luke 16: 1-9. Nothing
could be further from the truth of this story.
To be clear, Luke in the gospel, and in his companion volume
The Acts of the Apostles, has a major theme: how money, wealth and possessions
are and are not to be used in what some call Kingdom Economics. Wealth is toxic
if accumulated and hoarded for oneself as in the story of the man who built
barns to house all his wealth and possessions only to find his life taken from
him just as he celebrates his achievement – by himself (Luke 12:13-21). He has
no friends but himself because he has devoted his life to accumulating wealth.
The counter-narrative is to redistribute money, wealth and possessions to
assist and support those in need – that is money and wealth need to be kept in
circulation for the common good of all people, rich and poor alike. The Common
Good is a virtue that has long been in decline in our society. Luke-Acts asserts
repeatedly that Jesus stands in the tradition of Amos and others who take
caring for the poor widows, orphans and strangers as the measure of a just
society.
Succinctly put, the Bible asserts that The Empire (Egypt,
Babylon, Rome) accumulates power, access and wealth for a few at the expense of
the many; while Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy), The Prophets, The Wisdom
Literature and the New Testament Documents all offer the counter-narrative of
shared wealth kept in circulation so that it benefits the whole community, not
just the few. Luke-Acts advances this Biblical counter-narrative in an
atmosphere that has seen the Empire destroy the Jerusalem Temple and all of Israelite
culture, accompanied by the severe persecution of the emerging community of
Jesus, what would become The Christian Church. The Bible’s strategy concerning
wealth is born of faithfulness to the traditions of Scripture, and a strategy
for survival against the oppressive, totalitarian machinations of the Empire in
any and every era.
Luke 16:1-9 is often referred to as the Parable of the
Dishonest Manager/Steward. The first thing one notices in the Greek text is
that there is no mention of dishonesty whatsoever. Dishonesty has been added to
modern English translations to try to make sense of a strange and offensive
sounding parable. The misdirection begins in the opening sentence that says, "There
was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man
was squandering his property.” Notice how different it sounds when the
corrected text reads, “There was a rich man who had a manager who had been
slandered for spreading his property around.” Suddenly, those who are
represented as calling the manager’s character into question (bringing “charges”
against him) are now revealed to be slanderers – that is they are the ones making
dishonest claims. The word regarding “spreading his property around” might
indicate squandering, but it most often means sowing seed in a field. That
could be wasteful scattering, but it could also be making the rich man’s properties
more productive. On the basis of the slander, for which there is no evidence
provided, we are told the rich man fires the manager, and demands an
accounting.
The manager then goes to tenant farmers who work the rich
man’s property. These farmers typically, due to bad growing seasons, often
ended up further and further in debt to land owners like the rich man in the
story. The manager’s primary job is to collect the rent, tithes and other
monies and produce owed to the rich man. This system often extracted unjust
sums of money and commodities, ensuring that the farmers become further
indebted. Unable to imagine himself becoming a beggar or day laborer, the
manager goes to the tenant farmers and reduces the unjust amounts to a more
manageable amount – reducing one client’s bill by 20% and another by 50%.
Some have suggested that he is merely reducing the bills by
the amount of the commission he legitimately could tack on to the bill – yet,
we all would like such a job! Commissions of 20% and 50% are virtually unheard
of accept among loan sharks, the mob and drug dealers. Grocery stores often
work on margins less than 5%, as do real estate agents. He is reducing what was
an unjust amount of rent and other monies due hoping that when he is unemployed
the people he has helped to retain more of the fruits of their labor will take
care of him when he is in need. He will get a good letter of reference from the
poor among the rich man’s tenants. The clue that the amount is reduced is not
his commission is revealed in yet another questionable translation when he
shows his accounting to the rich man. Reducing the rich man’s excessive accumulation
of wealth, itself evidence of injustice, the manager redresses the injustice by
that redistribution of wealth called “giving alms.”
In English the conclusion reads, “And his master commended
the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly…And I tell you, make
friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone,
they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” It sounds as if the rich man is
commending dishonesty. As already noted, the word “dishonest” does not appear
in the Greek text. Instead it ought to read, “And his master commended the manager
of unjust wealth because he had acted shrewdly…And I tell you, make friends
for yourselves by means of unjust wealth so that when it is gone, they
may welcome you into the eternal dwelling places.”
As Sharon Ringe, in her commentary Luke (Westminster
Bible Companion) concludes, “As a good manager, then, he has used the very
fruits of injustice in the forging of that new community of accountability
based on justice that already participates in God’s project or reign.” (p 214)
That is, the manager is getting a letter of reference from the poor, and from
the rich man! It does not take much time to ponder why the translators and
interpreters try to tame this parable.
Luke’s Jesus telling of this odd tale is not urging
dishonesty at all. In fact, the story means to call attention to the dishonesty
of those who have a monopoly on power, access and wealth. Instead, he is urging
the sort of redistribution of wealth and keeping money in circulation for the
benefit of the common good of the whole community. In Luke’s second volume, the
Book of Acts, he details how the early Christian community pooled their
resources and kept wealth and money in circulation to address human need. It
was the practice of this counter-narrative over against life in The Empire that
propelled the number of believers to grow as we read in chapter 2: “Awe came
upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All
who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their
possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day
by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number
those who were being saved.” [Acts 2:43-47]
This story of the “manager of injustice” urges us, like
Jesus, to work to end unjust economic practices and begin a modern era of
kingdom economics for the common good and survival of the whole community, that
is all people. The health and survival of the community, and indeed all of humankind,
all creatures great and small, and this ‘fragile Earth our island home,” depends
on our hearing and doing what Jesus and
the Prophets urge us to do: to strive for justice and peace for all people,
especially the poor widows, orphans and strangers in the land. In addition,
every church should be able to get a letter of recommendation from the poor in
their community.
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