Sermon - Trinity IX - Luke 16:1-13

Today’s parable is a hard one. Not only do today’s pastors struggle to preach this text, but pastors throughout the history of the church have struggled to preach this parable. That parables are hard for us to understand and difficult to interpret rightly should come as no surprise, since Christ did not tell the parables in order to make things clearer, but in order to conceal. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables, He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”

Far too often, the parables of Jesus are considered no different than illustrations a teacher might use today. But that’s part of why the parables are so difficult for us to figure out. If we treat them like illustrations with one-to-one comparisons, they’re not going to make a lick of sense to us! That’s especially the case in today’s parable. 

If we were to treat this parable like a one-to-one comparison, the teachings of Jesus would be downright heretical! If we say Jesus is the steward and God the Father is the rich master, then suddenly Jesus becomes unrighteous and He only partially forgives people their debts! Moreover, if that’s the case, then God the Father is commending theft, deceitfulness, and unrighteous actions! 

But obviously that’s not what Jesus is doing in this parable at all. Instead, a couple verses later in the parable we find the interpretive key: Jesus says, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light… One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.” Jesus is teaching us Christian stewardship over our earthly mammon. If worldly people prudently use their mammon for earthly gain, so ought we Christians prudently and faithfully use mammon for heavenly gain, for Christ’s grace is our true riches.

Instead of anyone being compared to someone in the parable, the rich man and the manager should be understood simply as a worldly example. Consider how shrewdly, how prudently, the dishonest manager uses earthly mammon for his earthly gain! He quickly manipulates the situation after getting fired by making friends for himself! He cooks the books to make both him and his boss look good in the eyes of the world, thus ensuring that if his boss still fires him he will have allies and friends who will take care of him. It’s a genius plot and it works! At the end of the parable, “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.”

So our Lord here in this parable teaches us the right use of our money and earthly possessions, our mammon. Except instead of using our mammon for worldly gain like the dishonest manager, we ought to use it for the sake of the true riches. Consider how prudent the world is in using mammon to gain earthly treasure. Consider how prudent you are in using your mammon for earthly gain. How much more ought we to use mammon for the sake of God’s kingdom. 

Indeed, our Lord in heaven is very rich and He has made us to be stewards or managers of our worldly mammon. We ought to treat this mammon both prudently and faithfully. Jesus teaches us to be faithful in very little so that we may be faithful in very much. We are to be faithful with unrighteous mammon so that we may be entrusted with the true riches. 

All of the mammon we have in this life is a trust from God. He alone is the source of all good things in this life. It doesn’t matter if you have acres of land or a small apartment you rent, it doesn’t matter if you feast sumptuously every day or live on ramen noodles, it doesn’t matter if your bank account is overflowing or has run dry, even the smallest bits of mammon are a trust from our Lord. The question then for us to ask is, how do we use it both prudently and faithfully?

Christ answers this question when He says, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The way we prudently and faithfully use our mammon is in service to both God and our neighbor. The only way to figure out how to use mammon in service of our neighbor is to get to know them! Today we have a joint worship service between our two congregations and so we have a bit more time together. I urge you not to just run off after the service or after you eat, but hang out and chat! Talk about the little things and talk about the things which deeply trouble you. Something our world is greatly missing these days is the ability to come together and have meaningful conversations. We as the church need to be an example of such love and compassion. Because when we then know what our neighbor needs, we can use our mammon to serve them. 

But far too often we don’t use mammon in service to God and neighbor, but in service of mammon! Mammon itself becomes the master in our hearts! Far too often we make our investments so that mammon increases, we spend mammon so that we can have more mammon. We spend our lives working, not for God and neighbor, but for more mammon. So let us repent of being devoted in love to mammon instead of being lovingly devoted to our true heavenly Master.

All of the mammon that we’ve been entrusted with in this life must be used as the servant instead of the master. It doesn’t mean that by means of our mammon we gain salvation, but that our mammon is rightly ordered behind what truly matters: Jesus and our heavenly fortune!

This makes stewardship of our mammon a very simple thing actually. All of our money and possessions are not ours. We are stewards, we’re the managers, but we’re not the masters. Just as we’re born into this world without mammon so will we leave this world without mammon. All of our mammon should then be used not for selfish gain, but for the gain of another, in order that another may be benefited by what belongs to God.

Part of this means very simply just being contented with less than you have. All of your mammon belongs to God anyways so who cares if it’s in your control; give it away! Mammon isn’t your master, and if it were it would be a terribly selfish god only concerned with its own well-being. God is your master and He’s given you mammon so that you might give it to others. This means very practically we’re to give unto others whatever God has given to us. If money, then give it away; if property, then use it for the benefit of others; if skills, then help others; if any other sort of gift, use it to serve your neighbor instead of yourself. 

Because the only reason we can be generous with others is that God is more generous with us. If the unrighteous steward can be generous with wheat and oil, which is commonly used to make bread, then how much more generous is our righteous God the Father who gives us the true bread of heaven! Our Father doesn’t just partially forgive us our debts, but He completely wipes the slate clean with the shed blood of His Son.

There then are your true riches in this life and the next. All of your generosity of your mammon was just practice so that you could be generous with the riches given by your heavenly Master. You have been graciously forgiven all of your sins because God the Son died for you. That’s a treasure with no comparison. So when you generously give to others of your unimportant mammon, even more you ought to give unto others the greater riches found in Christ. 

So if you’re passionate about caring for others’ bodily needs and giving charitably, which you should be, then be even more passionate about the riches you have through Christ’s forgiveness. In our sanctuaries we have a lot more to offer than just some place for people to hide from being deported. What we have is Christ’s own body and blood which atones for all of our wrong doing and gains for us everlasting life. We have the comfort which comes from hearing that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ. We have the confidence of salvation in the waters of baptism. We have the very words of Christ spoken aloud with authority. Those are our true treasures. So be faithful in the little things, like mammon, so that you may be faithful in the big things, the true riches.