28. July 2024
Trinity 9
Luke 16:1-13
For the sons of this world are more shrewd [wise, prudent] in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
In Name of the + Jesus. Amen.
Sons of the world are not like sons of light; despite their differences, they should be. The sons of this world use the wealth God gave them—they are like the birds of the heavens and the lilies of the field. You might squabble that they don’t use it for righteous means of caring for the church and those in need. But they don’t waste it, either.
Jesus commends the unjust/unrighteous steward to you because that steward scatters the master’s wealth to gain friends and home when fired. It’s smart. Everyone knows you should have a contingency plan if things don’t work out with your employer. Employees squandering time, money, and assets should have backup plans, especially if they are squandering their time, money, and assets.
But does that make the unjust steward a hero or a villain? Does Jesus want you to squander the blessings of the Father? Should you waste your time on unimportant things? Should you abuse your job by “borrowing” paper and postage, checking Facebook, and pursuing interests on employer time? Should you store up the abundance God grants for a “rainy day” or use it immediately for the one in need?
You see the confusion. If Jesus gives you a hero example in the steward, then His instruction is to waste your possessions. Something about this doesn’t make sense. Why does it bother us that the Lord commends the unjust for wasting His possessions? Is the unjust steward a hero, or is he a villain? Yes, it is smart for the steward, but it makes no sense from a moral perspective. Taking the Master’s possessions and wasting them is bad. Unjustly forgiving the debtors to gain friends for heaven is also bad, right?
You’re looking at this parable from your vantage point—by your standards of justice or thoughts of stewardship and in the way that you understand wealth. And since you’re hearing this from your perspective, you’re trying to read it for moral instruction and laws for living. When you read the parable this way, you can’t possibly understand its commendation of unrighteousness, it’s squandering of possessions, its seeming indifference to wealth gathering by either steward or Lord and its nonsensical morality.
You’re not doing theology but theo-logic. Theologic is when you take what makes sense and try to fit God into it. Theology is theo-logos, handling God’s Word, His Logos. It doesn’t have to make sense to your reason or heart. It is reality because God has spoken it into reality. To make sense of the parable, you need to consider the parable from God’s perspective. For now, let’s not read it for instruction on your morality, lessons on how to spend money, or even as a “stewardship” sermon. Let’s do theology and read this as if it is a Word that describes God himself. It goes like this: by the way of the anti-type—the opposite of the unjust steward—you learn of the type, Christ himself. And then, you learn how radically different God is from anyone else and thus also how much different the sons of this world are from the sons of light.
Your Father entrusted His Son Jesus with the stewardship of a great house, the heavenly kingdom. It contains rich treasures of forgiveness, abundant mercy, and everlasting life. Those possessions are not to be hoarded by the Son of God alone. Thus, the Son died to the Lord of the House, forsaken and humiliated. And upon His death, the great Steward Jesus takes those possessions of heaven and gives them away freely to the poor, the needy, the sick, the unwise—all the unjust. He pours great gifts from that deep treasure chest on those who do not deserve it.
For this work of Jesus, our heavenly Father commends him for His wisdom and shrewdness. By dying, rising, and giving the wealth of the Father to those who do not deserve forgiveness, He has won friends for the Father to dwell with Him in the eternal tabernacles. Indeed, while from your perspective, you owe your God outstanding debts, from His perspective, He has forgiven them. And His forgiveness is far greater than the anti-type of the unjust steward. He has not forgiven only 20 or 50 percent of your debts to Him. In an act of utter worldly wastefulness (or godly forgiveness), He has removed the entire wage for your sin. Balance owed? Zero. Merit needed? Nothing. Worthiness to work on? Zip.
Thus, the injustice of our world is the anti-type, the opposite of God’s mercy. The steward Jesus shows mercy by squandering all God’s love and even life upon you. He is so reckless in His mercy that to your mortal eyes, you think Him unjust. You want to add to His mercy to find a way to pay back some little portion of that treasury. But that’s not how it works. Grace is given when God forgives your trespasses freely; no merit or worth is needed. Mercy is shown on sons of this world when that precious treasure of Jesus’ blood was washed over you in Holy Baptism. Jesus gave His life, His Father’s dearest treasure, to gain for Him a church, a body of believers and children of light, to dwell with Him in the eternal home.
If you see someone in need, do you question their motives or give with abandon? If your neighbor needs your strength, do you consider the gain of wealth and charge or offer generously? If you know of their unbelief, do you speak the truth in love or leave that effort to someone else? Probably not, but that’s because you’re still trying to have everything make sense to you, do what makes you comfortable, and behave as your sinful hearts want. That’s theological, but it’s not theology. Instead, like people in this world “wisely” squander and waste their possessions and those of their masters to gain friends, you have been freed by Jesus’ reckless generosity to win friends for heaven.
Having been made children of light, Jesus would have you learn something about your life together. That final phrase— I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings—explains what He means. You have been freed from your worldly wisdom. You no longer look at home, church, and money like this world. They are not treasures to store up or to waste on yourselves. The stuff of this life, including your life, has been redeemed to be given.
Thanks be to God that the Son gave His life for sinners, gave up His strength to make you strong, and spoke the truth even when it cost Him His life. And He keeps pouring it out on you to the point of overflowing mercy, so abundantly that you can’t even hold on to it all, but it overflows onto your neighbors. I’m relieved that in Jesus’ stewardship, mercy wasn’t a budget line item. We poor sinners, otherwise doomed to weakness and death, need this seemingly unjust stewardship of the Father’s wealth. And it’s for your friends, too. Amen. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School – Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin