The most remarkable part of the parable is the praise for the steward’s shrewdness that Jesus puts into the mouth of the landowner, who symbolizes God. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, God is the one who takes the initiative. God is the first to cancel our debt, and so he expects us to do the same. In the parable of the dishonest steward, it is man who takes the initiative. He is the first to put the Jubilee into practice by obeying the messianic call and remitting the debts of those who are debtors to God, as well as debtors to himself. Consequently, God praises this man for practicing the redistribution of wealth even before being touched by divine grace. He was able to read the signs of God’s kingdom and understand that the rule of unjust riches is over.
These two parables coincide with and confirm the inferences of the speech at Nazareth, the Lord’s Prayer, and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was indeed proclaiming a Jubilee, consistent with Moses’ sabbatical instructions, a Jubilee capable of reversing the social problems of Israel at that time. It would abolish debts and set free the debtors whose insolvency had turned them into slaves. For Jesus, putting such a Jubilee into practice was not optional. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” was one of the prerequisites of his kingdom. Those who refused to take heed could not enter.
The Redistribution of Capital
The Gospels clearly indicate that Jesus voluntarily accepted poverty in view of the coming kingdom. He also commanded his disciples to practice the redistribution of their capital. During the time of Jesus, land and flocks were the people’s only wealth, or in today’s terminology, “capital.” Yet Jesus taught, “Seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Luke 12:31–33). Does this mean that Jesus commanded a blanket redistribution of wealth on the part of all his followers? Or did he mean it to be only a “counsel of perfection” applicable to a select number of saints at certain times?
Traditionally, the church has chosen the second interpretation, the easy one. Only the person with a particular vocation, such as the monk, is called to abandon all his possessions. The ordinary believer can be content to “give alms,” that is, to distribute part of his income to the poor.
Such a position would be quite justifiable had Jesus not been so harsh toward those very people who in his own day were complacently satisfied with their almsgiving – the Pharisees. They gave one tenth of all their income, no mean accomplishment in light of the taxation requirements of the Romans. But Jesus did not believe that this was enough: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill, and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matt. 23:23). This confirms Jesus’ radicalism; he did not want to abolish the Law, but fulfill it by exercising justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
What did Jesus mean by these three words? Everything points to the fact that he meant the gratuitous act by which his disciples ceased planning for their own futures and gave away even what they needed for themselves. “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).
Consider the following incident. One day, as Jesus was comparing the generosity of the rich, who ostensibly put large gifts into the offering box, and that of a poor widow, Jesus exclaimed, “This poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:1–4). In other words, it matters little how much one gives. What matters is what one gives. If it is just a part of your income, it isn’t justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
This is not to say that Jesus prescribed some kind of socialist communism. If he had done so, he would have left with his disciples either monastic rules similar to those of the Essenes, or some constitutional order to be implemented within a collectivist Jewish state. He did neither of these things. Forced collectivism was contrary to the spirit of the Mosaic Law, not to mention Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom.
When Jesus commanded, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor” (a better translation would be, “Sell what you possess and practice kind deeds”), it was neither a counsel of perfection, nor a constitutional law founding a utopian state. It was rather a joyful announcement to be put into practice here and now in A.D. 26 as a “refreshment” foreshadowing the restitution of all things. “Give what is inside,” as in Luke 11:41.
Such a redistribution of capital every forty-nine years, out of faithfulness to God’s justice and in the hope of the kingdom, need not be utopian, nor forced. Many bloody revolutions might have been avoided had the Christian church alone, with all its holdings, practiced the jubilean ideal.8
When interpreted in light of the Jubilee, many of Jesus’ other teachings fall easily into place. And none of this takes away the spiritual force of Jesus’ message. For surely when Jesus announced the inauguration of the Jubilee he was also thinking about the salvation of his people. He consistently made a rigorous equation between the Jubilee practiced here on earth and the grace of God. “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Luke 18:22). “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted…” (Luke 12:33).9
The redistribution of capital as taught in the above verses could be misconstrued to encourage selfish acts with the aim of securing one’s place in heaven. The believer thus rids himself of all his possessions in order to purchase his salvation. In reality, however, compassion for the poor precedes the acquisition of treasure in heaven. What matters primarily to God is the lot of the poor. It is for them that the “rich young ruler” must sell his possessions; doing so is the treasure. To practice compassion is to reestablish the poor in the condition God willed for everyone. God will, one day, entirely reestablish the poor, with or without the help of the rich. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” If it does not happen in this life, it will be realized in the next, as expressed in Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19–31). In the end, those in a precarious situation are not the poor, but the rich who refuse to put the Jubilee into practice. If they don’t distribute their capital now, it may be too late tomorrow. “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” A tremendous chasm separates the kingdom of God from the place where the rich like to enjoy themselves in pleasure.
The power of salvation is such that it brings with it acts of liberation. Consider the examples of two people to whom Jesus proposed a jubilean redistribution: Zacchaeus, who accepted, and the rich young ruler, who did not.
The former belonged to the scorned class of publicans and usurers whose activities are described above. Zacchaeus had become rich by lending money at usurious rates to the insolvent poor with one hand so that they could pay the government taxes he collected with the other hand. Before meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus had probably already heard rumors about his proclamation of the Jubilee. All the unjust riches he had acquired troubled Zacchaeus’s conscience. The story tells us that instead of fleeing from the prophet, he climbed a tree to see him. Jesus called Zacchaeus down because he wanted to stay in his house. His sheer presence compelled Zacchaeus to see that his wealth resulted from robbery. Applying to himself the commandment of Exodus 22:1–4,10 which tells the robber to return four for the one he stole, Zacchaeus cried out, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19:1–10).
By this action Zacchaeus was joining the great movement of jubilean reform undertaken by Jesus. He was practicing what Jesus preached by abolishing his part in the