First Steps, after Millet,
Painting by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890),
Painted in 1890
Oil on Canvas
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
First Steps, after Millet,
Painting by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890),
Painted in 1890
Oil on Canvas
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The master praised the dishonest servant
Luke 16:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘There was a rich man and he had a steward denounced to him for being wasteful with his property. He called for the man and said, “What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer.” Then the steward said to himself, “Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes.”
Then he called his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, “How much do you owe my master?” “One hundred measures of oil” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond; sit down straight away and write fifty.” To another he said, “And you, sir, how much do you owe?” “One hundred measures of wheat” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond and write eighty.”
‘The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.’
Reflection on the painting
About one in three of Jesus' parables mentions money (the lost coin, the parable of the talents, etc…). He understood that money, the lack of money, the abundance of money, the desire for money are all part of our human lives and affect us. So no wonder Jesus talks about it often. What is at first surprising is how today's parable seems to tell a story where everybody is somehow corrupt or even bad. The old employer even seems to compliment the dishonest manager for being shrewd. What the dishonest servant is doing, through, is reducing other people's debts. By doing so he gains favour with the master. It is maybe a story where small steps of conversion and repentance are encouraged. Ok the dishonest servant isn't fully honest yet, but maybe he is trying. And by trying, he is already changing some of the relationships around him, as for example gaining favour again with his master. Today's story encourages gradual change and taking small steps, which is better than taking no steps at all….
The spiritual journey is one of accumulated small steps. Little by little, step by step we try to make changes. What is important is to have focus and know what we want to walk towards. The destination is key: God. And God will give us the instruments and graces to keep us going on our walk, even when the steps can become heavy and we feel as though we are going through muddy places. Every small step can move us closer to God. The important thing therefore is to start moving and take our first steps towards God.
Our painting by Vincent Van Gogh (painted after a work by Jean-François Millet) shows a small child taking the first steps in life. The mother is gently releasing the young girl who with outstretched arms wants to leap forward towards her father. Maybe the child will fall a few times before reaching her father, but the main thing is that she is trying as hard as she can, with full enthusiasm. We are called to take the same small steps in our spiritual lives and keep moving towards our Father… however many times we may fall.
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No entiendo por qué el administrador se alegra de tener un mayordomo así de astuto que pide que los deudores del señor, escriban algo que no es cierto. Gracias
Tampoco quiero!
Maybe it is … The Lord God is totally in control so that if a poor but hard-working man and his family cannot pay the rent that week , through no fault of their own, the Lord God had already set in motion ‘denounced’ (pulled the strings) the means whereby he can pay the rent, ‘….sit down and write fifty’. I have heard testimonies and stories of this kind of thing but we call it Grace. I note that the Master said he was ‘wasteful’, he did not say ‘thief ‘and then was happy that in giving the steward a shove he had got the steward to get his act together so to speak which is the ‘mercy’ mentioned by Mike. I also have wrestled with this over and over, at one time i thought the ‘Master’ was the Lord God!
As i don’t know, i have been taking on board all your comments and i don’t disagree with any of them.
It is a beautiful painting and the warmth and love come though, yes, as our Lord Jesus would want us all of us to enjoy familylife like that. Thank you Reverend van de Vorst for your commentary and description of being in or finding the Way, it is an explanation which i hope to remember to pass onto others, indeed, sometimes i have been down to a slow shuffle. Although i connect the painting with the commentary i cannot relate it to the parable. Maybe one day you will enlighten js
I like your style Madeleine. A sort of tumbling through the gospel passage picking up nuggets in your stream of falling and eventually coming to a rest in a plea to js. Who he?
Yes, typing error, ‘js’ should read ‘us’, have no certainty about this parable at all.
Si, ¿puede ser que el administrador renunciara a su comisión y eso es lo que les perdona a los deudores?
Si, este es otro pensamiento, no lo se!
https://www.christies.com/auction/old-masters-part-i–20685-cks
Check out these beautiful paintings for sale. Perhaps we could all chip in for an Annunciation! Lol
Thanks for this, but we would a hell of a load of chips!
I don’t know what to make of today’s reading. I try to apply this stuff to both my human journey and my spiritual journey. It appears to me the servant is being totally self-serving. The servant is most interested in having a secure future. To me it seems like robbing Peter to pay Paul. I don’t understand why the master is willing to settle for less. That’s my take on the human part of my journey. Applying this to the spiritual part of my journey, it just might be something like I can only pass on to others a small part of what God has given me. Jesus tells us to go out and spread the good news. Maybe the good news is that God is not a punishing God as I formerly believed. Maybe the good news is that God is the compassionate God that I believe in today. Maybe spreading that good news is bringing that Light to others. Or, perhaps it is telling me God is willing to settle for less from me. I am a perfectionist; maybe this is telling I cannot be perfect, that perfection is not an option. I just don’t know. This is one Bible message I really don’t have much clarity on; this is me thinking out loud, so to speak. 😊
Well your thoughts are, at least, setting out the different ways the parable can be interpreted. I’m rather with you on all these different ways of looking at it. Let’s see what we think by this evening. 😄
Perhaps it’s about Jesus calling us to chase divine wealth and security with the same tenacity and commitment with which we pursue earthly wealth and security. Or perhaps it’s not.
Maybe?
Or maybe it’s that we’re all saints and sinners and that God focuses only on our saintly qualities.
Only God is perfect. All of us, even the saintliest of saints, can never come near that perfection. What we can do is to let God do His work through us, and allow Him to do that by trying, even if we mess up. That’s as far as I can get with this.
My issues with perfection began in childhood. I was taught God is perfect and that to be with God I must be sinless, to me that meant perfect. As an adult I came to believe I am not perfect, and that God meets me where I am. A saying that applies to me in this regard is: “What we learn as children is written in cement. What we learn as adults is written in sand”. In the physical world, the distance from my head to my heart is about 18 inches. In my spiritual world, the distance is measured in years. Another saying I apply to myself is: “First thought, wrong thought”. My first thought almost always originates in my head, my second thought comes from my spirituality. This continues to be an ongoing struggle with me. Another one liner I like is: “The spiritual life is not a theory. It must be lived”. Perhaps some day I’ll live what I think.
Interesting parable, and rather odd. In the end, the master was being swindled by the steward, who was reducing what the other debtors owed to the master in order to curry favour with those other debtors.
What a pretty chocolate-box picture, not what one associates with Van Gogh. The greens and blues are very restful.
There is a saying “blue and green should never be seen (together)”. Not true, they go wonderfully well. They are a feature in Islamic art.
😀 One of my art teachers had a similarly silly rhyme:
“red, yellow, blue,
This will never do!
Blue, yellow, red
Makes the picture dead.”
Oh those misguided art teachers! I once asked mine to explain what was meant by light and shade. He just dismissed me by saying, ‘Oh you don’t need to know all that stuff!’
Some teacher!
Clearly not a vexillologist!
Did they never look at the horizon and see the blue sky against the green trees and mountains?!
Exactly…
Did they never look to the horizon and see the blue sky with the green trees and grassy mountains?!!!
And what did the master do, in the end? Did he keep the steward on, admiring his wiliness, or did he “let him go”? All I really get is the statement of fact: those who act according to the standards of the world, which can include dishonesty, are acting in their own interests, whereas those who follow our Lord and Master, may not be as self-interested, and so appear naive, and may lose out financially or in terms of position in business or social life. We have a choice, but then I remember the Lord’s advice: “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” – which sounds as if it could lead to hypocrisy!! Immediately afterwards Jesus warns “be careful of people”…..
I agree with your impressions, but I don’t see any hypocrisy. I think Jesus explains something about being shrewd when necessary. It seems that the Master will understand.
His parables are so challenging — Jesus is always turning things upside-down. ✝️ ⚓️ ❤️
I like your view, i think it is getting there!
I think what the parable is trying to say is that some people recognise an admire the the wiley ,albeit not always honest, skills of people in business and in management of their own affairs. A lot of people admire success. Donald Trump would probably admire another businessman who was equally able to dance with the law.
Whereas people who seek spiritual enlightenment are not equivalently smart.
I read the same as you Thimas. It seems to me Jesus was merely making an observation – much like you did with Trump. That’s the kind of person he is.
The message for us? I honestly haven’t a clue!
I like this, i agree with your analysis of Trump.
This parable reminded me of Matthew 10:16, when Jesus tells His disciples to be “wary as snakes & gentle as doves.” Jesus warns them that they will be like sheep among wolves in this world.
I think the Master in the parable is clearly pleased that his steward is shrewd, a problem-solver, and not perfectionistic. After all, the debtors he’s helped now have some obligations to him! That’s the way things work.
I don’t want my Christian faith to make me a schmuck. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is nobody’s fool. In this parable, it might be that Jesus is giving us another example of “rendering unto Caesar” and saying that’s alright with Him. 😉
“Ya no vas a ser mi administrador” Quedas despedido: Esto es el resultado de una mala gestión. Debemos hacer los cálculos oportunos para conseguir nuestros objetivos, creo que eso es lo que Jesús nos enseña con ésta parábola. Muchos se esfuerzan por mandar, tener, ganar. Pero nosotros los que hemos sido llamados a ser luz y sal ¿ponemos el mismo esfuerzo por iluminar a otros o escondemos la luz debajo de la mesa?
Creo que me llama a ser un administrador deshonesto sino a poner todo mi ingenio al servicio del Evangelio
Well said, Elvira