Parable of the Dishonest Steward

Illustration by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

The parable of the dishonest steward is unique to Luke. It is one of the most perplexing of the Gospels: how can it be understood that Jesus praises a fraudster? The different titles under which it is known illustrate this perplexity: while the steward is commonly described as "dishonest," he becomes "unfaithful" in Catholic liturgy and "shrewd" in Protestantism.

While traditional exegesis vacillates between spiritual allegory (foresight for the Kingdom) and moralizing reading (condemnation of dishonesty), Maria Valtorta offers a reading that is both realistic and radical. For her, this parable reveals a law of the Kingdom: wealth, even unjustly acquired, can be a means of salvation if used for justice. Money is not evil in itself, but selfish use of it is. Holiness therefore involves an economic conversion: detachment, restitution, sharing, but also repair of injustices, etc., all the more difficult if one is wealthy because it requires a conversion that turns away from idolatrous money (Mammon) toward love of God and Neighbor.

Paradoxes raised by exegesis

Unlike other parables (e.g., the Good Samaritan), the parable of the dishonest steward does not give a clear answer. It invites interpretation on some paradoxical points:

1. Praising a fraudster

The master praises the steward for his dishonest behavior (verse 8: "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly"). According to traditional interpretation (St. Augustine): Jesus does not praise fraud, but the foresight of the "children of this world."

This is understandable, but the difficulty comes from linking dishonesty and shrewdness in the same praise, which can make shrewdness a synonym for cunning. How, under these conditions, can an act that sounds immoral become a model for the Disciples since it approaches a Judas the thief, who also became a dishonest steward? (John 12:6).

2. "Unjust" riches

Verse 9 ("Make friends for yourselves with unrighteous wealth") suggests using ill-gotten goods for Salvation. But what exactly is meant by "unrighteous wealth"? Does it mean profits from theft, a form of rehabilitation? Or does it refer generally to wealth opposed to true heavenly riches, as suggested by verse 11?

3. God and Mammon

The conclusion (verse 13: "You cannot serve God and Mammon") seems to contradict the beginning (using money to save oneself). Moreover, if money is diabolical (idolatrous money), how can it serve the Kingdom?

4. The Heaven of the rich through the poor

The promise of verse 9 ("They will welcome you into eternal dwellings") hints at intercession through the poor, an idea absent elsewhere in the Gospels, at least explicitly. Luke follows three parables about the rich: The Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21), the dishonest steward, and the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus that follows (Luke 16:19-31). What is the convergence of these teachings?

5. Who really is the "master"?

Is the parable's master a figure of God or a prototype of an ordinary rich man? Can God give an ambiguous teaching, and can the rich give a lesson in holiness?

6. The unity of the story

Verse 18 introduces a comment on divorce which is difficult to connect to the parable or even to the reaction of the Pharisees who "loved money" (verse 15). It is understandable that they ridicule Jesus' teaching on money: it involves a reproach against them (but which?). That Jesus then continues with a reminder of divine law is also understandable, but this transition from money to divorce raises questions.

7. A condensed narration

The parable (Mashal in Hebrew) traditionally consists of three distinct parts:

1. The announcement of the theme: it is the prologue or introduction that sets the subject, prepares the audience, and indicates the immediate purpose of the parable.
2. The parable itself: the narrative story using a daily event to illustrate a spiritual truth.
3. The commentary: the conclusion or explanation (exegesis) where the master reveals the Hidden meaning and draws the moral or theological lesson.

In Luke’s narration, the announcement of the theme is missing. It begins directly with the parable (verses 1 to 7) and concludes the teaching with key points (verses 8 to 13). The evangelist adds the reactions of the hostile part of the audience, which gives Jesus the opportunity to draw a new teaching, not about a parable but about the example set by his opponents.

What can thus respond to apparent paradoxes and show the overall coherence (and importance) of this teaching is found in the parts Luke has summarized or omitted.

The comparative approach of Luke and Maria Valtorta

Maria Valtorta’s narration includes all three complete parts of a parable: announcement, illustration, commentary. According to her, the scene takes place almost a year before Jesus’ Passion. It happens near Jericho, explaining the presence of a group of Essenes among the "great crowd [that] waits for the Master, scattered at the foot of the slopes of an almost isolated mountain." It is a crowd full of fervor in which a group of Pharisees mingled, the very ones who will intervene in the gospel narrative as well as in Maria Valtorta’s account.

1. The announcement of the theme

Jesus announces salvation for the sinner caught in the net of riches. "Man, free but imperfect, wastes God's gifts." God has given everything to man—freedom, belongings, advice—so that he could choose the Good. Yet man acts "as a child might for most of humanity, or as a fool, or as a criminal for the rest of humanity." But the hour of truth comes: death arrives, and the divine Judge demands accounts. "How did you use what I entrusted to you?" Then, riches, honors, and pleasures will be worth no more than a straw before eternity. Impossible to deceive God...

Yet, there is a way out: even corruption can serve salvation. The poor who do not curse their misery, the rich who give instead of hoarding — all discover a secret: Mercy transforms traps into paths, and our weaknesses into levers for the Kingdom. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," Jesus announced at the start of his ministry (Luke 5:31-32).

This is the key to the parable and the teaching that develops it. The steward will be the man to whom God has entrusted spiritual and material wealth, and to whom He will demand accounts at the end of his life. Not a steward adorned with all Virtues, but a man prey to worldly desires.

"It would be beautiful if man were perfect as the Father in Heaven desires. Perfect in all his thoughts, affections, deeds. But man does not know how to be perfect and misuses God’s gifts given to him. God gave man freedom to act, yet commands good things to him, advising perfect things so man should not say: "I did not know."

How does man use the freedom God gave him? As a child would for most of humanity, or as a fool or criminal for the rest. Then comes death, and man is subjected to the Judge who will ask sternly: "How did you use and abuse what I had given you?" Terrible question! How then will the goods of Earth appear less than straws for which man often sins! Poor in eternal indigence, stripped of a garment nothing can replace, he will remain humiliated and trembling before the Majesty of the Lord, finding no word to justify himself. On Earth, it is easy to justify oneself by deceiving poor men, but in Heaven, it is impossible to deceive God. Never. And God does not stoop to compromise. Never.

How then to Save Oneself? How to make serve salvation everything, even what came from Corruption that taught precious metals and gems as instruments of wealth, that ignited desires for power and carnal appetitess? Will man not be able, though poor, who can always sin by excessively desiring gold, honors, and women — and thus become a thief to get what the rich possessed — will the rich or poor ever fail to save himself? Yes, he can. And how? By making wealth serve Good, by making misery serve Good. The poor who does not envy, does not curse, does not harm others’ property, but is content with what he has, makes his humble state serve for his future holiness, and indeed most poor know how to act thus. Fewer can do so among the rich, for whom wealth is a continual trap of Satan, of the triple concupiscence.

But listen to a parable and you will see that the rich also can be Saved while rich or repair past mistakes by rightly using wealth even if it was ill-gotten. For God, the Most Good, always leaves many ways for His children to save themselves."

2. The parable

Facing imminent judgment, the steward realizes he must find the ultimate way out. Working is beyond reach: he is "no longer used to work and burdened by good living." Begging alms seems "humiliating." He decides therefore to "repent" by rendering service to build a network of friends: "He who renders service always has friends."

In this spirit, he contacts his master's debtors. Maria Valtorta’s work names two of them, the same as Luke (she simply mentions all others as well). She adds a motivation not explicit in the evangelist but serving the final teaching: compassion. The debtors have faced life’s trials and fallen into debt. They face their situation with dignity and also shoulder family responsibilities. The steward shows compassion and adjusts debts according to the difficulty: fifty measures of oil instead of one hundred for the first; eighty measures of grain instead of one hundred for the second. It is this compassion, enacted practically, that elicits the recognition of the two debtors.

A child of the world

But the dishonest steward is not a model of holiness: he is a "child of the world": he only thinks about living off a powerful man by cunning, with no other goal than material pleasure. He disparages his master to elevate himself. He makes his interlocutors believe his downfall is due to courage. He does not consider work or begging but continuing to live off the debtors he helps. He masks his self-serving attitude behind a feeling of compassion, more calculated than sincere. The exegesis concluding that the spiritual lesson is to be found not in what the steward does but in what he shows is relevant. The steward is not a model to imitate but an inspirer of a path for "children of the Light." This thesis is expressed by Luke and developed by Maria Valtorta: "I exhort you," Jesus comments in Maria Valtorta, "to be at least like the children of the world, shrewd with the means of the world, to use them as currency to enter the Kingdom of Light.".

This duality between "children of the world" and "children of the Light" was particularly meaningful for the audience of the time. Jesus addresses a Jewish audience familiar with these oppositions. The expression "children of this world" is rooted in an ancient Jewish tradition where "olam hazé" (this world) designates the present era marked by corruption and mortality. This is important for understanding the reactions of the Essenes and Pharisees, who will express themselves after this parable.

In contrast, the coming age (Olam haba) designated God's world. An example can be found in Matthew 12:32. In a dictation from January 11, 1944, the Apostle Paul speaks of "children of the world" opposed to "children of the world to come: the eternal."

Jesus reworks this dualistic framework with a typical reversal of His teaching: where Jewish apocalyptic texts condemn "this world" irrevocably, He makes it a pedagogical mirror. Thus, the dishonest steward, representing this materialistic world, paradoxically becomes an inspiration to be adapted for "children of the Light."

The Gospel shows that Jesus did not hesitate to use "counter-examples" in His teaching: such is the case of the parable of the Good Samaritan or the prodigal son, both reported by Luke.

3. The commentary

All this is found in the final lesson.

"And what the rich man said, I too tell you: 'Fraud is not good, and for it I will never praise anyone. But I exhort you to be at least like the children of the world, shrewd with the means of the world, to use them as currency to enter the Kingdom of Light.' That is, with earthly riches, unjustly distributed and used to acquire transient well-being, of no value in the eternal Kingdom, make friends with them who will open the doors for you. Do Good with the means at your disposal, restore what you or others of your Family have taken improperly, detach yourself from unhealthy and guilty affection for riches. And all these things will be like friends who at the hour of death will open for you the eternal doors and welcome you into blessed dwellings.

How can you demand that God give you His paradisiacal goods if He sees you do not know how to make good use even of earthly goods? Would you want, an impossible supposition, that He admit dissipative elements into the heavenly Jerusalem? No, never. Up there you will live in charity and generosity and justice. All for One and One for all. The Communion of Saints is an active and honest society; it is a holy society. And no one can enter it if he has shown himself Unjust and unfaithful.

Do not say: "Up there we will be faithful and just because there we will have everything without fear of any kind." No. Whoever is unfaithful in small matters will be unfaithful even if he possessed Everything and whoever is Unjust in small things is Unjust in large things. God does not entrust true riches to one who, in earthly trials, shows that he does not know how to use earthly riches.

How could He entrust you one day in Heaven with the mission to support your brothers on Earth when you have shown you only know how to extort, cheat, or greedily keep? He will therefore refuse you your treasure, the one He had reserved for you, to give it to those who have been wise on Earth, making unjust and unhealthy things serve just and healthy works.

No one can serve two masters. For he will hate one or love the other. The two masters man can choose are God or Mammon. But if you want to Belong to the first, you cannot wear the uniforms, listen to the voice, or use the means of the second."

The parable centrally addresses man's relationship to earthly goods: what he does with them and how he lives them. Thus reconstructed with its three parts, it transposes the practices of "children of the world" to "children of the Light." This conversion rests on a goal and three means:

The goal:

• "of no value in the eternal Kingdom, make friends with them (earthly riches) who will open the doors for you."

The means:

• "Do Good with the means at your disposal,"
• "restore what you or others of your Family have taken improperly,"
• "detach yourself from unhealthy and guilty affection for riches."

The social teaching

In several respects, this teaching on wealth prefigures the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC), especially in one of its affirmations: "if dedicated with the faith, hope, and charity of the Disciples of Christ, the economy and progress can also be transformed into places of salvation and sanctification; in these areas too it is possible to express a love and solidarity beyond the human and contribute to the growth of a new humanity, which prefigures the world of the last times."

For Maria Valtorta, man is not the owner of earthly goods, but their steward (manager). This is developed in the Church’s teaching: Earthly goods have a universal destination with a preferential option for the poor. God denies any claim of absolute property.

Mercy

In Maria Valtorta’s explanation of the parable, the debt remission — transposed to the "children of the Light" — takes a central place. It is no longer the steward’s self-interested shrewdness but becomes a figure of an act of compassion. The biblical tradition gives this remission a strong theological significance: it evokes the Jubilee, where God commands release of debts and slaves so that His people are never prisoners of economic enslavement. This reference was certainly very present in the contemporary audience. Jesus uses this language to show that the use of earthly goods must always be directed toward Neighbor.

Mercy, in this context, goes beyond simple economic calculation. It introduces a logic of gratuity reflecting God’s very Heart: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful"". The steward, by reducing the debt, sketches an attitude where compassion prevails over strict contractual justice. This gesture aligns with the Church’s social teaching: to be just, the economy must open to charity, become solidaric and attentive to the weakest. Thus, the parable highlights the redemptive value of an economy imbued with mercy.

Compassion is the ability to perceive or deeply feel the suffering of others wanting actively to remedy it. Mercy surpasses compassion by becoming compassion in action on a more universal scale: it sympathizes to indulgence and forgiveness toward sinners who repent. At humanity’s scale, Mercy is a fundamental attribute of Christ who declares in Matthew 9:13 that He desires "mercy, not sacrifice."

The communion of saints

Jesus’s expression: "all these things will be like friends who at the hour of death will open the eternal doors and welcome you into blessed dwellings" echoes Luke 16:9: "that they may welcome you into the eternal dwellings." It opens the parable toward an eschatological dimension. The poor recipients of debt remission paradoxically become the "guarantors" of entrance into the Kingdom for those who shared their goods. This reversal recalls the teaching of Matthew 25:40: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

In this perspective, the parable illustrates the communion of saints: a mysterious solidarity where material goods, when shared with love, become seeds of eternal life. The poor welcome the rich in heaven because they have been mediators of a Grace received through their liberation. Thus, the management of earthly goods marked by mercy finds its fulfillment in the communion of saints, where sharing here below transforms into Home in eternity.

4. The audience’s reactions

The first remark comes from an Essene. According to his belief, he denies free will: "Man is not free to choose. He is forced to follow his destiny." To which Jesus replies with God’s justice who cannot condemn an innocent embryo who has not yet committed anything. It is a revenge of God against the offense He received, argues the Essene. No, Jesus responds: God does not take revenge. "God has given His sons freedom to choose Good or Evil." This second affirmation of free will provokes a reaction from a scribe: "He tempted us beyond our power. Knowing us weak, ignorant, poisoned, He exposed us to Temptation. This is recklessness or malice." Jesus replies by highlighting Man’s merit, which the scribe finds useless.

The Essene advances a second objection: the soul is immortal, but resurrection of the flesh brings nothing. "But does it not seem just that, just as flesh and soul have been united in the Struggle to possess Heaven in this day, at the Day of eternity flesh and soul are united to enjoy the reward?" Jesus replies, referring him to the Essenes’ asceticism. This is a pretext to revive antagonism between Essenes and Pharisees: "To be more a noble man, justifies the ascetic, above other animals who irresistibly obey their desires, and to be superior to the majority of men stained with animality, even if they wear phylacteries and fringes, tassels and wide clothes and call themselves 'separated ones'." The attack is frontal. The Pharisees appeal to Jesus for their defense. He sends them back to their hypocrisy and launches this call to the crowd:

"It is never over for one who wants Good! Listen, oh you sinners, oh you who err, oh you, whatever your past. Repent. Come to Mercy. She opens her arms to you. She shows you the way. I am the pure spring, the spring of life. Cast off the things that misled you until now! Come naked to the bath. Put on light. Be born again. You have stolen as thieves on the roads, or like great lords cunningly in trade and administration? Come. You had vices or impure passions? Come. You have been oppressors? Come. Come. Repent. Come to love and Peace. Oh! but allow the love of God to pour out upon you. Ease it, this love anguished by your resistance, fear, hesitation. I beg you, in the name of my Father and yours. Come to Life and Truth and you will have eternal life."

The Pharisees murmur against Jesus and despise him as a "merchant of illusions and heresies," as a "sinner pretending to be holy." Jesus then resumes a plea for God's Kingdom which fulfills the Law that the Pharisees distorted:

"Come, oh little ones of Israel. The Law is love! God is love! It is thus that I speak to those you have frightened. The strict law and threatening prophets who foretold me but failed to eliminate sin despite cries of their anguished prophecies stop at John. After John comes the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of love. And I say to the [[Humility, humble|humble]: 'Enter it, it is for you.' And let all who have good will strive to enter. But for those who refuse to bow their heads, to strike their chests, to say ‘I have sinned’, there will be no Kingdom. It is said: 'Circumcise your Heart, and no longer stiffen your neck'. [...] I restore the Law to its original form which you have distorted. For it is a Law that will last as long as the Earth, and heaven and earth will disappear before even one of its elements or counsels disappears. And if you change it because you please, and if you argue to seek loopholes for your faults, know it is useless. It is useless, oh Samuel! It is useless, oh Isaiah! It is always said: 'Do not commit adultery'", and I add: "Anyone who divorces a wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery, for what God has united death alone can separate."

It is therefore these reactions from the audience most impacted by the teaching on wealth that give coherence to Luke 16:14-18.

Notes and references

Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992).