{"id":11252,"date":"2025-09-16T11:47:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=11252"},"modified":"2025-09-18T18:37:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:37:04","slug":"wealth-redistribution-gospels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2025\/09\/wealth-redistribution-gospels\/","title":{"rendered":"Wealth Redistribution in the Gospels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Wealth
Image by Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our reading this week is a story about wealth redistribution in the gospel of Luke:<\/p>\n

Then Jesus said to the disciples, \u201cThere was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, \u2018What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.\u2019 Then the manager said to himself, \u2018What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?<\/p>\n

Welcome Readers! <\/i><\/b>Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is Part 1 of <\/strong>The Parable of the Dishonest Manager<\/b><\/p>\n

I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.\u2019 So, summoning his master\u2019s debtors one by one, he asked the first, \u2018How much do you owe my master?\u2019 He answered, \u2018A hundred jugs of olive oil.\u2019 He said to him, \u2018Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.\u2019 Then he asked another, \u2018And how much do you owe?\u2019 He replied, \u2018A hundred containers of wheat.\u2019 He said to him, \u2018Take your bill and make it eighty.\u2019 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, a who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.\u201d (Luke 16:1-13)<\/p>\n

Our story this week is one that scholars have offered multiple interpretations of. They have spiritualized the story, taken it literally, and sought to apply the story to our context today, but most interpretation give me the feeling that something is being left on the table. One interpretation I find most convincing is by William Herzog in his classic book, Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. <\/i>Herzog looks at various parables from the gospels through the lens of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire\u2019s work Pedagogy of the Oppressed.<\/i><\/p>\n

With this lens, <\/i>let\u2019s begin with the context that the manager in this story would have found himself in, in Part 2<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiritualized this story of wealth redistribution givess off the impression that something is intentionally missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":11255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[732,729],"tags":[1356,3800,2720,284,194],"class_list":["post-11252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-liberation-theology","tag-debt-cancellation","tag-dishonest-manager","tag-lectionary-reading","tag-liberation-theology","tag-wealth-redistribution"],"yoast_head":"\nWealth Redistribution in the Gospels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A shrewd manager, unjust wealth, and Jesus\u2019 challenge\u2014Luke\u2019s parable invites us to rethink power, justice, and faith.s off the impression that something is intentionally missing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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