Sermon - Trinity IX 2022 - Luke 16:1-13

Parable of the Unjust Steward, Marinus van Reymerswaele, circa 1540

Jesus’ parables can be quite difficult to understand and accept, and today’s is no exception. On the cover it appears as if Jesus is praising a lousy wicked man. This manager gets fired because he’s wasting his boss's possessions. Then, he’s too lazy to do manual labor and he’s too prideful to beg, so instead he takes his boss’s records and pretends to still be employed so as to falsify the bills that people owe the master, so that the master loses more money but the debtors like the manager. This means that he will have gained a bunch of friends and built rapport with them, so that when they discover he’s getting fired they despise the master and love him. The master either gives him his job back since the debtors like this manager, or the manager still gets fired but now the debtors hate the master and will care for the manager since their debts were lowered. Either way the manager wins since he played the politics so shrewdly.

This manager is a thieving, deceitful, conniving, wretch of a man, and Jesus tells us to be like him. It doesn’t make sense! Well it does when we understand that parables are not analogies. Jesus isn’t praising wickedness, instead He is praising the manager’s shrewdness and zeal to use what he has at his disposal for the sake of his earthly comforts. The application here is that God calls us to be faithful in whatever our lot is in life for the sake of the eternal kingdom. “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

Consider how zealous people are in their worldly affairs in order to grow their earthly kingdoms. Politicians do this all the time, they use what they have at their disposal to get what they want. If they have to use their religious affiliation to get votes, they do; if they have to use their ability to garner government funding for a business in order to get that industry to vote for them, they do. Employees do this all the time, they get extra certification or degrees, form unions, build sympathy and rapport with clients, all to get raises and promotions. What the shrewd manager does isn’t unusual in this world, and it’s actually expected and it’s how people get ahead.

But if people do all of this work just to gain some more money, how much more ought we Christians to use what we have for the sake of our eternal heavenly kingdom! “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” Our earthly money and wealth must be used for the sake of our eternal treasures.

Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that you will go to heaven because you give a big offering or you’re very charitable and generous. Our salvation is in Christ alone by no merits of our own. You can give away all of your money to church, but without faith in Christ your sacrifices are of no help on judgment day. So this isn’t about work’s righteousness by any means.

However, faithfulness in little minor things reveal how faithful we are in the things which do matter greatly. We understand this concept pretty well. A kid might want a dog, but a dogs require a lot of work, so the kid has to prove faithfulness first. The parents get the kid a fish or a hamster first, something easy to take care of, and if the kid is faithful in caring for these easy pets then the kid may be entrusted with caring for the dog. Likewise, God has entrusted us with little things here on earth, things which we must use faithfully and in God-pleasing manors. If we can’t use our money in a God pleasing way, if we’re not faithful in dealing with our money like Christians, then that shows that our faithfulness towards God is lacking and we won’t be entrusted with the true treasures of heaven.

See, the mammon, the wealth, which we have in this life doesn’t matter eternally. But what does matter is that we use this mammon in such a way which confesses our faith in God and the true treasures which we will receive. “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.” Thus mammon is useful because it helps us to put our faith into action.

It’s kind of like the forbidden fruit in the garden of eden. Everything that God created was good, even that forbidden fruit was good! How was it good? Because by not eating of that fruit Adam and Eve would’ve been worshiping God and showing their faith to Him. By choosing to eat of the tree of life and abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would’ve been making conscious choices to love God more than the pretty fruit in front of them. The worship wasn’t in the eating or not eating, it was in their hearts, but the outward actions of their worship were performed with that fruit. 

So it is that we worship God with how we choose to use our earthly wealth. When we use our mammon faithfully, we are worshiping God. If we choose not to use our mammon faithfully, we’re sinning against God, since everything we have belongs to God and is meant to be used for God’s good purposes. God entrusts us to be stewards of mammon and to use it according to His will.

Here we’re reminded of the parable of the talents or the parable of the minas. A rich man goes away on a journey, and entrusts his servants as stewards with varying amounts of his money. Those servants who used this money and increased it were blessed and promoted, but the servant who buried the money and didn’t do anything with it lost everything. The point isn’t the money, it’s not about how much we have, the point is that we are called to be faithful with whatever we’ve been given.

What Jesus teaches us today is remarkably practical. The obvious applications here refers to our earthly wealth. So it’s necessary to give money to our local parish since we desire to have God’s Word preached and Sacraments delivered to us here. It’s also necessary that we give charitably with money and our other wealth, whether to trustworthy organizations or individuals whom we know to be in need.

Certainly a big part of giving generously has to do with the fact that we care about one another and we want to help each other out. But what’s especially significant here is that by giving away our money and stuff we teach ourselves to love mammon less than we love God. The love of money is the root of evil, and it’s a sharp temptation for everyone, regardless of how much of it you have. So by giving it away you learn to treat it as disposable since it all belongs to God anyways. We cannot serve both God and Mammon.

So, let’s be like the shrewd manager, not in his wickedness and worldliness, but let’s put our earthly wealth to use for the sake of God’s kingdom. Then once we’ve shown ourselves to be faithful in this lesser stuff, let us also be faithful in the greater treasures God’s given to us. We have His Word, we have the sacraments, we have grace and peace and righteousness. These are the greater treasures, so let’s put our money to godly use, so that we aren’t distracted from the true treasures which deserve all of our attention, this way we may be received into our eternal dwellings.