The Unbeatable Deal
Julián Carrón - What Jesus brings into history is so unique that it needs to be understood. To do that, He adapts to our capacity for comprehension, which is one of the reasons He speaks in parables. A parable is an image accessible to everyone and generally doesn't require any special intelligence to be understood.
One area of particular interest to people is money and business. In the parable of the hidden treasure, Jesus tackles a hot topic: He compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure hidden in a field. Whoever finds out about it immediately sells everything they have to buy that field where the treasure is hidden. Who wouldn't do that? If someone understood the value of the treasure that Jesus proclaims, they wouldn't hesitate to sell everything to obtain it—not because they're particularly "religious," but because they've grasped the value at stake.
Selling everything for the Kingdom isn't an act of heroism or willpower; it's the most sensible thing to do, not in "religious" terms, but because it's a great deal. An unbeatable deal. It requires no voluntarism, no special energy, no moralism—just a realization of the scope of the deal.
At certain moments, life doesn't spare us challenges, and each of us is called to choose. Even those who listen to Jesus and see the novelty He brings—the greatest promise a person could receive: "Whoever follows me will have a hundredfold in this life and eternal life"—find themselves at a crossroads.
This is what happens to the steward accused of squandering his master's possessions. This is one of the most surprising and debated passages in the Gospel because it seems like Jesus is praising a dishonest person. "What will I do now that my master is taking the stewardship away from me?" the man in the parable asks himself. "Dig? I don't have the strength. Beg? I'm ashamed." It's a risky situation that, as he well understands, demands an urgent response.
So he called in his master's debtors one by one. He said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" The man replied, "A hundred barrels of oil." The steward told him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" He replied, "A hundred measures of wheat." The steward said, "Take your bill and write eighty."
In the face of this quick action, the master praises him. This praise directed at the dishonest steward can leave us perplexed if we're not attentive to the reason. Why does Jesus praise him? Because he had acted shrewdly. In reality, the point isn't the dishonesty but the shrewdness with which the steward faces the loss of his privileged position.
This parable, like the vast majority of the words in the Gospel, isn't an "atemporal" image or story independent of the situation. The historicity and historical context in which Jesus pronounces the parables make their value even more challenging.
Jesus proposes this parable, like the others, to those who have before them nothing less than the Kingdom of God: in His words, in His gestures, in His miracles, and in His person. Yet, faced with this "deal," they don't follow Him, despite having the greatest treasure that could ever come their way before them.
For this reason, Jesus says, "The children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light." As if to say—if for earthly goods a person is capable of such ingenuity and decisive action as that steward, how much more astute should the children of light be toward the Presence before them, so as not to lose the Kingdom of God because of an attachment to possessions.
If they understood (if we understood) the value at stake—participation in something incommensurable compared to riches—they would know how to act in the right way; they would go along with it and follow Him. But, not recognizing the value of the Kingdom of God that He brings, they miss out on the best. They're not as shrewd as "the children of this world" are in their affairs.
Jesus certainly doesn't invite us to imitate the fraud but to take an example from the promptness and cunning with which the steward secures his future and his present. Ultimately, a person's actions always reveal what they consider most important in life.
In fact, Jesus concludes the parable with these words: "No one can serve two masters, for either they will hate the one and love the other, or they will be devoted to the one and despise the other."
Just as the people of Jesus' time had to decide when faced with the greatest "deal" that could ever happen to them, we too find ourselves facing the same choice and the same urgency. This means answering the question: What do we hold most dear?
