On one level, the "rich man" here represents someone with a large store of knowledge and understanding about the Lord and about how to be a good person. On a deeper level it represents the most spiritual part of each one of us, where we know the most and have internalized the most about what it is to be good and the joy of being good. On a deeper level still, the rich man represents the Lord, who holds these riches for us.

The "steward," meanwhile, represents the outword forms of religion: ritual, forms of worship and ideas of what it is to be pious. The accusation regarding wasted goods – "scattered" would be a more literal translation – represents a concern that the true knowledge possessed by the rich man is not being used to good effect in external actions.