Jesus, the Unjust Steward
Luke 16:1-13
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 16:9-10 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Even though today’s Gospel parable is familiar to us, it is a bit…unusual. Jesus tells the story about a steward who wasted his master’s goods and handled his master’s accounts unjustly. This guy certainly would NOT be a candidate for “Employee of the Month!” However, after all of this apparent mismanagement and misappropriation, the master actually praised the steward for his shrewdness.
Well, what does this mean? Just whom does the unjust steward represent? First of all, he represents us according to our sinful nature, our old Adam, for we have often been poor stewards of the goods that our good and gracious God has entrusted to us. Let’s go “under the microscope” and ask a few questions. Have you always used the money and abilities and possessions that you have received from God to serve your neighbor and to help build up the Church and the ministry of the Gospel? And even when you have done that (because you know it’s the right thing to do), has there still been a struggle against your sinful flesh which wants to use your resources for other things? Isn’t it usually harder to give a large amount of money to charity or in an offering than it is to spend the same amount for entertainment or a trip or some new thing you’ve always wanted?
Or in our stewardship as parents and grandparents, have we encouraged our children’s devotion more to the Word of God or to extracurriculars like athletics and theater and dance? Are we more concerned about them making a good living or are we more concerned about them having eternal life? Are we more concerned about them being popular or being faithful? And are we ourselves more concerned about how we look to family and friends or are we more concerned about how we look to God? Are we more interested in our physical health and appearance or our spiritual health and endurance in the faith?
The truth is, if we were called before the Lord to give an account of our stewardship – if we lay it all out in the open – there would be cause for us to be dismissed from the presence of the Lord.
But remember: in the parable, the steward is actually praised for his actions; Jesus holds him up in a positive light. I would suggest, then, that in a deeper sense, the steward in the parable actually represents Christ Himself, the eternal manager of the heavenly Father’s goods. For remember what occurred right before today’s Gospel: Jesus had just finished telling the story of the prodigal son in chapter 15. Jesus had just been accused of wasting His time and efforts on tax collectors and sinners, throwing away His Father’s “goods,” if you will – His mercy and forgiveness – on people such as that. And now He tells a parable about a steward who was supposedly mismanaging goods. Do you see? He’s talking about Himself and the way things are in the kingdom of God.
Recall what the steward does in today’s Gospel: He goes around to everyone forgiving their debt! To the one who owes 100 measures of oil, his bill is reduced to 50. And to the one who owes 100 measures of wheat, his bill is reduced to 80. The steward desires to be received by them, and the way that happens is by forgiveness, by debts being reduced and taken away.
That, of course, is the way of Jesus. He comes to us as one who, in the eyes of the world “mismanages” the Father’s goods, seemingly throwing away and wasting God’s mercy and forgiveness on miserable wretches like us. It doesn’t matter to Jesus that He is accused of giving away God’s grace too cheaply. After all, His grace is not cheap, it is free, since He purchased it for us at the greatest of costs: His very own blood!
This is beneficial both for the patient as mentioned in the order cheap viagra label and/or as prescribed by your medical expert. Where to buy Mast Mood capsules and Mast Mood oil? You can buy these high quality buy levitra australia herbal remedies to treat this problem. They purchase cialis additionally hold crospovidone, magnesium stearate, hypromellose, titanium dioxide (E171), lactose, triacetin, indigo carmine aluminium lake (E132). Well can’t actually blame them on that, as the price of every little thing heading via the roof; let find out here now viagra pill price us add to your family situation a few well-intentioned, “experienced” child-rearing experts.
Jesus’ mission was to bear every accusation – to take all the things of which WE are justly accused – and make full payment for every last one of our debts. Jesus made eternal friends of us, not by hoarding things for Himself, but by living as one with no home of his own, no place to lay his head. He used the material things of this world entirely in the service of others, having literally nothing except the clothes on His back. He became poor so that we might know and receive the riches of His mercy. He even gave away His own body into death, so that through His atoning and all-sufficient sacrifice we would be cleansed from all unrighteousness.
Jesus the Steward desires to be received by us – into our homes and into our hearts. That doesn’t happen by some decision or commitment that we make; it comes by the forgiveness and the release from the debt of sin that He freely gives. Jesus has done much more than cut your bill by 20% or even 50%. He has taken care of it all. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) All of it. You are debt-free toward God in Christ. Repent and believe that Gospel.
Which brings us to one more important point about the steward in the parable: his faith. Jesus praised him not only because he was shrewd, but also because he trusted in his master’s mercy. And that’s the key. He believed that the same master who did not thrown him into prison for wasting his possessions (when he could have) would also be merciful to him by honoring the debts he reduced (which the master didn’t necessarily have to). The steward knew his master to be a gracious and good master, and that is where he put his hope. He believed his master to be a man of generosity and forgiveness, and he staked his salvation and his future on that. So, it is not just the steward’s shrewdness, but his faith in the master’s mercy that is praised here.
So also, dear fellow redeemed, you are called to trust that your heavenly Father is a God of mercy who has forgiven and will continue to forgive your debts through Christ, that you may be received into an everlasting home. We stake our salvation and our future on the generosity and forgiveness of our God. It is that faith which God desires and which He praises. We believe that God the Father has been and will continue to be merciful to us for the sake of Jesus, just as Jesus relied on His Father’s mercy and trusted in Him even on the cross. Remember, as a true man Jesus also lived by faith; He believed that the Father would honor His death in our place to cover what we owed and that He would raise Him up on the third day.
And now Jesus has ordained stewards to stand in His place, to distribute the eternal blessings He has won by His death and resurrection. Jesus commends His stewards when they “squander” His possessions in the ministry of the Holy Gospel and cancel the debts you owe Him. That is the job of a pastor – to be a “steward of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:5), to the take the Master’s goods and give them away to penitent believers. Whenever you hear the Gospel and the absolution, it is as if I am asking you, “What does your bill say? What impossible debt do you owe because of your sin? Sit down, take your bill, and write zero, paid in full.” You are all squared up with God in Christ.
Believing that, living in that faith, you are freed to be shrewd like the steward in the parable. As Jesus said elsewhere, we are to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Mt 10:16). If the people of the world can be passionate and smart about worldly things, why can’t we be the same way about eternal things? By God-given faith you are given to use mammon not only to make friends in this life, but to put it to use to make eternal friends in the fellowship of the Gospel, supporting the mission of the church in your offerings and in your estate planning, investing in the things that will last into eternity, using the things of this life with an eye toward the life of the world to come, desiring to be received by your fellow saints into the everlasting home prepared for you by Christ.
That’s what Paul was talking about in Philippians 3. He had much that He could boast of, both in a physical and in a spiritual way. He had a noble family lineage; he was a leading Pharisee who was honored as a wise and a zealous religious leader. He had a very bright future ahead of him. But what does he say after his conversion to Christianity? “What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Phil 3:7-9)
Here in divine service, that righteousness is given to you freely in the sacraments: in the oil of baptism, and in the wheat of the supper, where unrighteous mammon is put to a righteous use and eternal friends are made, bound together by the love of Christ. Common bread and wine are consecrated to be the holy, eternal body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for your forgiveness and strength.
Dear friends, Jesus is with you here in this house. And in the end, when all the accounting is done, there will be an eternal dwelling for you, a permanent home, mortgage paid in full by the Son of God, who gave Himself for you to give you life forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
