The pericope (an excerpt from Sacred Scripture that centers around a central theme or event) may seem like a collection of assorted thoughts that have been cobbled together, with abrupt jumps from one teaching to the next. But with a more careful look, and trust that our Lord Jesus always gave care and attention to crafting his teachings, we see that they really are bound together with themes of fear (of the thief); vigilance (for the Master’s coming); greed (for the riches of this world); contempt (for those we judge to be inferior); and the prudent steward who knew what the real treasure is.
First, we are given the strange reference to the thief who comes in the night. I think that it seems strange here because it doesn’t seem to come from anywhere, it doesn’t seem to fit or be related to the rest of our Lord’s teachings in this dialog, and also because He jumps from cautions about the thief immediately to the return of the Son of Man. It can almost seem like He is describing the thief as the Son of Man, which would be very confusing. And yet, this is what He has done because the Son of Man is not the master of the house. The Master, such as the Master of the Vineyard, who returns after being long away, is not the master of this house. Rather, in this case, you are the master; you are the house that he is speaking of.
There are two reasons for being afraid of a this. The first, is that a thief comes in the darkness and will catch one off guard. But if one is a child of the light, that is, if there is a flood of light such that there are no shadows, there is no reason to fear a thief because you will always see him coming and he cannot sneak in. The other reason to fear a thief is when you have something a great value for him to take. If you have nothing of value, nothing that is worth stealing, then the thief presents no threat, wether or not you see him coming. This means that again, our Lord is teaching us about our treasures and what is valued.
More specifically, in the next part of this pericope, He introduces the image of the stewards. In particular, the bad steward who misuses and takes advantage of the Master’s property and treats it as his own, not in a virtuous way as a caretaker, but to abuse it and use it as if it belonged to him. He thought the value of his position was in the Master’s goods and material things, rather than the position itself, that the great value was in being the Chief Steward, of being tasked with distributing the allowance of food to the members of the household.
The true Treasure is in one’s relationship to God. This is His recompense to us and the faithful servants. The treasure is in what is placed into our care to give. Upon his return, the Son of Man then was like a thief who will remove the evil steward from his position, taking his real treasure.