Luke 12:41-48

The Parable of the Two Stewards.

The magnificence of the promise, Luke 12:37, has struck Peter; he asks himself if such a recompense is intended for all the subjects of the Messiah, or ought not rather to be restricted to those who shall play the chief part in His kingdom. If that is the meaning of his question, Luke 12:41, it relates not to the parable of the thief (Luke 12:39-40), but to that of the Master's return (Luke 12:35-38), which would confirm the impression that Luke 12:39-40 are an interpolation in this discourse, to be ascribed either to Luke or to the document from which he borrows. The question of Peter recalls one put by the same apostle, Matthew 19:27, which, so far as the sense goes, is exactly similar.

Jesus continues His teaching as if He took no account (ἄρα, then) of Peter's question; but in reality He gives such a turn to the warning which follows about watchfulness, that it includes the precise answer to the question. For a similar form, comp. Luke 19:25-26; John 14:21-23, et al.

All shall be recompensed for their fidelity, but those more magnificently than the rest who have been set to watch over their brethren in the Master's absence (Luke 12:42-44); as, on the contrary, he who has been in this higher position and neglected his duty, shall be punished much more severely than the servants of a less exalted class (Luke 12:45-46). Finally, Luke 12:47-48, the general principle on which this judgment of the Church proceeds.

Jesus gives an interrogative form to the indirect answer which He makes to Peter's question: “ Who then is the steward...? ” Why this style of expression? De Wette thinks that Jesus speaks as if He were seeking with emotion among His own for this devoted servant. Bleek finds again here the form observed, Luke 11:5-8: “Who is the steward who, if his master comes to find him, shall not be established by him...?” Neither of the explanations is very natural. Jesus puts a real question; He invites Peter to seek that steward (it ought to be himself and every apostle). Matthew, by preserving (Luke 24:45-51) the interrogative form, while omitting Peter's question, which gave rise to it, supplies a remarkable testimony to the fidelity of Luke's narrative.

The stewards, although slaves (Luke 12:45), were servants of a higher rank. The θεραπεία is the general body of domestics, the famulitium of the Latins. This term corresponds to the all in Peter's question, as the person of the ruler to the us in the same question. The fut. καταστήσει, shall make, seems to indicate that the Church shall not be so constituted till after the departure of the Master. Καιρός, the due season, denotes the time fixed for the weekly or daily distribution; σιτομέτριον, their rations.

There is a difference between the recompense promised, Luke 12:44, to the faithful steward and that which was pledged, Luke 12:37, to the watchful servant. The latter was of a more inward character; it was the expression of the master's personal attachment to the faithful servant who had personally bestowed his care upon him. The former is more glorious; it is a sort of official recompense for services rendered to the house: the matter in question is a high government in the kingdom of glory, in recompense for labours to which the faithful servant has devoted himself in an influential position during the economy of grace. This relation is indicated by the correspondence of the two καταστήσει, Luke 12:42; Luke 12:44.

This saying seems to assume that the apostolate will be perpetuated till the return of Christ; and the figure employed does indisputably prove that there will subsist in the Church to the very end a ministry of the word established by Christ. Of this the apostles were so well aware, that when they were themselves leaving the earth, they took care to establish ministers of the word to fill their places in the Church. This ministry was a continuation, if not of their whole office, at least of one of its most indispensable functions, that of which Jesus speaks in our parable the regular distribution of spiritual nourishment to the flock; comp. the Pastoral Epistles and 1 Peter 5. The theory which makes the pastorate emanate from the Church as its representative, is therefore not biblical; the office is rather an emanation from the apostolate, and thus mediately an institution of Jesus Himself. Comp. Ephesians 4:11: “ He gave some as...pastors and teachers. ” It is Jesus who will have this ministry, who has established it by His mandatories, who procures for His Church in every age those who have a mission to fill it, and who endows them for that end. Hence their weightier responsibility.