God’s Stewards
Luke 16:1-13
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… The First Commandment says very simply, “You shall have no other gods.” And Luther’s explanation is short and sweet: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”
Now, what does it mean to have a god? In his Large Catechism, Luther offers this helpful description: “A god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress. So, to have a God is nothing other than trusting and believing Him with the heart…Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god.”
Do you think the unjust steward in today’s Gospel had his heart set on his master and on his master’s business? Certainly not. He was an “unjust steward,” after all. We see in the end just how wise and how shrewd that steward could be when he put his mind to it. The problem was, he had spent his career as a steward, as a manager of his master’s wealth, not putting his mind to it. And because of that, he carelessly squandered his master’s wealth, like it was no big deal. He wasn’t stealing from his master’s wealth. He wasn’t bowing down to the god of money. He simply wasn’t devoted enough to his master; he simply couldn’t be bothered to do his job well as a steward with responsibility and calculation.
This is what we would call a sin of “omission.” A sin of omission is not doing what you are supposed to do. This man wasn’t doing anything terribly wrong, but it was what he wasn’t doing right that really got him into trouble. And again, his lack of care and calculation with his master’s wealth flowed from a lack of care and devotion toward his master in the first place. It wasn’t his own stuff, so why should he care?
Still, this man’s sin hardly seems to compare to the sin of the Israelites in the wilderness mentioned by St. Paul in today’s Epistle, does it? Moses had given them the Ten Commandments, and then went up Mt. Sinai to get the rest of the Law from God. And when he came down 40 days later, what did he find? The people had taken their wealth – their gold, especially – and melted it down and formed it into a golden calf, which they were dancing around and worshiping. They made another god for themselves out of their gold. And God was very angry at their idolatry, so angry, in fact, that three thousand people were put to death that day, and many others were afflicted with plague. Don’t make God mad!
Dear friends, there are many ways to break the First Commandment when it comes to money and wealth. One of the ways is open idolatry, like the Israelites practiced at Sinai. But we break this Commandment also by stealing, by being greedy, by being discontented at what God has given, and when we worry and place a false trust in created things instead of having trust in the Creator. It is so very easy for a person to commit sin with regard to wealth or a lack of wealth.
But sinful also are mismanagement, carelessness, and wastefulness, which, like the other sins, stem from a lack of devotion to God, a lack of true fear of God and love for God. And all of it is punishable with death and condemnation. With so many ways to sin with regard to wealth, it’s no wonder Jesus calls it the “mammon (or wealth) of unrighteousness,” because wealth and prosperity can breed so many unrighteous thoughts and words and deeds.
But the unjust steward was finally brought to his senses with the looming threat of unemployment. Still self-centered as always, still acting out of a desire for self-preservation rather than love, but at least wise enough to know the urgency of his situation, he sat down and thought and planned and calculated how he might put his master’s wealth to use in the little time he had left.
What was his plan? He decided to use his access to his master’s debtors to his advantage. He would show kindness to them; he would purchase their favor, basically bribing them to help him out when he became unemployed later on. It really is a brilliant plan. If his master ended up firing him, then those debtors would hate the master and love the servant. If his master ended up changing his mind and not firing the steward, then they both look good in the eyes of the debtors.
The result of the steward’s plan is that it worked. Instead of being fired, the steward was praised by his master. He had finally shown some impressive shrewdness at managing wealth, which worked out to everyone’s benefit in the end.
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The sons of this world are the unbelievers; the unjust steward represents them. They don’t know God, they don’t fear God, they don’t love God. But when they are motivated by fear and a desire for self-preservation, they can be very shrewd in their use of the wealth God has placed in their hands. They know how to use money to gain friends for themselves – temporary friends – friends for this world only, but friends nonetheless.
But the sons of light, believers in Christ and members of His kingdom, are not so shrewd when it comes to their use of wealth, even though we have far better motivations and far better reasons not to waste or mishandle what we have been given. We, the sons of light, know that God is the owner and giver of all things, and that we are merely managers and stewards of His possessions. We know that He is good; we know that He is worthy of our best effort.
Yes, we may know all that, but what happens? The unbelieving world around us clamors for our attention. And when we listen too closely to all that worldly noise, God becomes merely one priority on a list of many. Sure, God is there; but so is school, so is work, so is the house, so is the yard, so is the family, so are the pets, so are the friends… Our attention is pulled in a dozen different directions. Our time is eaten up. Our money is divvied out, and…where did it all go? Whom have we helped? And how much more help could we have given to our neighbor in need if only we had stopped to think and to plan and to calculate?
Dear fellow redeemed, God deserves better. God demands better. God commands all men to fear, love, and trust in Him above ALL things. He commands that we worship Him alone. He refuses to be one priority among many. The First Commandment accuses every single one of us of wastefulness and mismanagement of God’s wealth, including the wealth of the time God has given us. Repent.
But God Himself, the very one against whom we have sinned, is the perfect steward of His own possessions. God Himself, the owner of all things, planned for our salvation in eternity. He sat down and He calculated, if you will, what He would do for those people who would rebel against Him and waste the things He entrust to them. He planned what to do about you and me
His perfect plan was this: “I will send My Son to die for all of mankind’s sins. My Son will be crucified and die to pay for all sin of all time. No one can be saved by keeping My Law. I will save My people instead through faith in My Son, and I will count their faith for righteousness, because faith will link them to Jesus and His perfect righteousness.” And then God arranged all of human history to get it done, in order to get the Gospel preached, in order to have you baptized, and in order to hear His Gospel. That is God’s own stewardship; that is God’s planning and calculating salvation through faith in Christ Jesus for you!
With today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals our sin to us in order to drive us again to repentance and faith in His Gospel, because by now we should see that we deserve only His wrath and punishment. Instead, Jesus calls us to take refuge in Him. Jesus calls us to believe in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, not on the condition that we become better managers, but because we can never do enough to earn God’s favor.
Trusting in Christ alone for forgiveness, we now have Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel for a guide, for a reminder to rededicate ourselves to the work God has given us to do in His kingdom. We have a good and gracious Father who has entrusted varying amounts of wealth to each of us. Remember that as you go forth this week, and think about how to use everything that has been placed into your hands – including your wealth, including your time, and your plans – for His business: for the good of His Church and for the good of your neighbor in general.
As reborn children of God, you don’t work to purchase the favor of your neighbor in order to help your own sorry self, like the unjust steward in the parable. No, God opens His own eternal home to you in His words of forgiveness, for the sake of Christ. But as you work for your neighbor’s wellbeing, both temporal and eternal, for his body and his soul, out of love for God and thankfulness for the salvation given to you by Christ Jesus, God will praise the shrewdness shown by His children, not for our own sake, but for the sake of Christ, in whom we believed.
But above all of that, the greatest opportunity for our stewardship of God’s gifts is to make regular and faithful use of His Word and Sacraments. Having your soul fed with the richness of God’s Word – His Law and His Gospel – is always beneficial, and will always feed and nourish you through this life. Daily remembering your Baptism gives you the strength to take on each day knowing you are a baptized Child of God and that nothing can separate you from His love in Christ Jesus.
Taking the opportunity to confess your sins and receive Holy Absolution emboldens you to live each day in the freedom of Christ’s love and forgiveness. And, as often as it is offered, receiving Christ’s own Body and Blood in Holy Communion makes it certain that Jesus Himself is living in you, forgiving your sins, and strengthening you to live out your vocation to His glory and the good of your neighbor.
Thanks and praise be to God for giving us His love and forgiveness in Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
