2 Samuel 22:26-34/1 Corinthians 10:6-13/St Luke 16:1-9(10-13)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Parable of the Unjust Steward is a vexing one. Many parables can be interpreted allegorically; that is, each part and person is symbolically interpreted. And there are no shortage of commentaries doing just that with this parable. But they can’t quite be reconciled with the text.
There is an axiom to exegesis: Scripture interprets Scripture. Usually it means that when we run into difficult sections of text, we allow simpler parts to shed necessary light on its interpretation. Such is the case with passages from the Epistle of James that sound like one is saved by faith and works. This doesn’t jibe with the rest of Scripture and the Gospel of free grace. And so its not dismissed, but understood in context. Faith alone saves. But saving faith is never alone. It is always producing fruit, always doing good works.
The other thing that this axiom - Scripture interprets Scripture - means is that we allow the text to speak for itself. Set aside all opinions and creative exegesis that attempt to find a “true meaning” that isn’t plainly written for any child to see. And that’s what we have to do with the Parable of the Unjust Steward.
The central problem with interpreting this parable, though, is that Jesus praises a man who is clearly a scoundrel. He’s cooked the books and to save himself when he’s being audited, he cheats his employer out of still more money. And Jesus praises him!
So what does it all mean? The explanation comes at the end, in Jesus’ own interpretation and meaning: And I tell you, man friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the enteral dwellings. And then He gives some catechesis on possessions.
But such an explanation, though simple and straight forward, leaves us asking some questions. Why is wealth unrighteous? When does it fail? Who are these friends who welcome us into the eternal dwellings?
First, “unrighteous wealth.” In his sermon from 1534, Luther opined that it was called “unrighteous” simply because our use of it was so often unrighteous. All that God created was good. And it remains so even after the Fall, only now we use it for so much evil. At the heart of such evil is usually the love of money, in unbelief that manifests itself as greed. Can’t let loose of that money by giving it away, because who knows if it will be enough for me and mine tomorrow!
Forgotten is the example of the manna. Remember how the Lord worked that? There was always more for tomorrow, but when you tried to store it up and save it, instead of trusting the Lord’s generous giving, it grew worms and stank. There is a good reason our Lord teaches us to pray for “daily bread” and not “tomorrow’s, next week’s, next month’s, next year’s bread.” Life is more than the accumulation of stuff. More and more does not equal better and better. We build “bigger and better barns” to hold all the stuff, forgetting that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions. In that parable our Lord called that man a fool! That’s the Scriptural word for unbeliever! Such was his idolatry.
So that was Luther. Wealth was unrighteous because of our misuse. But perhaps there’s more. The steward is accused of “squandering” his lord’s goods. Now this parable comes right on the heals of the parable of the Prodigal Son, the only other place in Luke’s Gospel where the word “squandering” or “wasting” is used; the prodigal son squandered the inheritance from his father. He went to the city and blew the inheritance on reckless living, language that suggests he was gambling, staying in fine hotels, visiting prostitutes, and the like. It ruins him and he ends up longing to eat the slop fed to the pigs.
A similar fate awaits the steward in today’s parable. He is accused of squandering his lord’s goods. Only he wasn’t wasting it on high living, but apparently hoarding it for himself. He treasured that money more than his master’s debtors. Maybe that’s why Jesus calls it “unrighteous wealth;” because all the stuff we call wealth won’t make it into the Lord’s Kingdom, the Kingdom that is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit!
But what will make it into the Kingdom are people; debtors to our Lord. They are around us all the time. People who stand in various kinds of need. People whom we can bless in countless ways with our Lord’s goods. Do we have eyes to see them? Eyes to see their need? And if our hearts have been opened by the mercy of our Lord to care.
Not only to care, but to be shrewd enough to realize how things will shake out at the end. The unjust steward was commended - not for his dishonesty, his unjustness, - but for his shrewdness. He saw what was coming in the future and he made plans for people to welcome him when he lost the funds of which he was once steward. Those funds wouldn’t be following him into the future. He couldn’t take them with him. He’d lose them all.
But the people to whom he showed kindness and good will, the people who benefited from his generosity and charity, albeit, a charity that really wasn’t his to share, they would be in his future! He made friends with that stuff that wasn’t his and those friends would remain even when that stuff was gone.
Do you see Jesus’ point? He says that the sons of this world are more clever than the sons of light. That’s us! The baptized, the enlightened ones. He says they can figure out how to plan for their future, one that for them is filled with uncertainty and doubt. Why do we, who know the ultimate, have such a hard time here with the penultimate?
The wealth won’t make it into the Kingdom. There won’t be computers, Cameros, and cabins by the lake, or whatever other toy or tool you can think of. You won’t have a stock portfolio, a fat checking account, or a wallet full of cash. Old Job got it right. You exit this world as you entered it: naked. You carry nothing out with you.
But on that Day you will be surrounded by all the dead whom our Lord will raise and many of them will be people you knew, people whose paths you crossed somewhere in this life. They will be there. Invest in your future, Jesus says. Love them. Share with them. Give to them. Use the mammon and the money He provides in most righteous ways.
You know its funny, early last week I was asked about how Christians ought to approach stewardship. And then midway through the week I heard a theologian make the statement: “A god who doesn’t have anything to say about your wallet or your sex life isn’t much of a god.” Its true. And now here’s Jesus saying, Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon so that when it fails they may receive you with open arms into the eternal tents, for you proved yourself a friend because you took the effort to notice their need and to help them.
After all, that is exactly what the teller of the parable did. Jesus noticed His neighbor - again, that’s us - in our utmost need. And He didn’t count a single thing that was His to be His own. He was accused of squandering the blessings of the Kingdom on scum like us, dirtbag scoundrels who just take and take and abuse, misusing gifts.
But He gave up everything in order to befriend us, to care for us, to provide us with His heavenly home, in a more perfect tent made without hands, His own flesh and blood.
And He not only gave up all that was His, He assumed all that was ours - our flesh and blood, and horrible debt of sin, and He paid it as His own, with the righteousness that was His alone. And His Lord and Father commented Him for it; for He, the Righteous Steward, the Honest Manager, banked on the mercy of His Lord.
He bought you, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death that you may be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
He lived not to be served, but to serve. And He invites you into the same way of living, a daily dying to self. He shows you that giving up everything - even life itself - for the service of others is what love does. And the great thing about Love is that death cannot destroy it. His love for you and for His Father proved stronger than the grave. And He rose again to be the first to welcome home His many friends into the eternal dwelling prepared for them.
In His Supper today, He who slashed your debts not merely in half, but paid in full with His lifeblood as the price, pours out for you the oil of gladness in the wine that is His Blood; and He gives to you the wheat, baked into bread, which by His Word is His Body. By this needful treasure He strengthens you in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward your neighbor, giving you a share in His life lived in service to the neighbor - the only sort of life worth living.
Be shrewd, beloved, in the mammon that isn’t yours; that you may receive that which is truly yours by free gift. For the joyous end, my friends, the day the books are opened and the accounts are settled is the Day when our Lord and Master shall say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Receive the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Parable of the Unjust Steward is a vexing one. Many parables can be interpreted allegorically; that is, each part and person is symbolically interpreted. And there are no shortage of commentaries doing just that with this parable. But they can’t quite be reconciled with the text.
There is an axiom to exegesis: Scripture interprets Scripture. Usually it means that when we run into difficult sections of text, we allow simpler parts to shed necessary light on its interpretation. Such is the case with passages from the Epistle of James that sound like one is saved by faith and works. This doesn’t jibe with the rest of Scripture and the Gospel of free grace. And so its not dismissed, but understood in context. Faith alone saves. But saving faith is never alone. It is always producing fruit, always doing good works.
The other thing that this axiom - Scripture interprets Scripture - means is that we allow the text to speak for itself. Set aside all opinions and creative exegesis that attempt to find a “true meaning” that isn’t plainly written for any child to see. And that’s what we have to do with the Parable of the Unjust Steward.
The central problem with interpreting this parable, though, is that Jesus praises a man who is clearly a scoundrel. He’s cooked the books and to save himself when he’s being audited, he cheats his employer out of still more money. And Jesus praises him!
So what does it all mean? The explanation comes at the end, in Jesus’ own interpretation and meaning: And I tell you, man friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the enteral dwellings. And then He gives some catechesis on possessions.
But such an explanation, though simple and straight forward, leaves us asking some questions. Why is wealth unrighteous? When does it fail? Who are these friends who welcome us into the eternal dwellings?
First, “unrighteous wealth.” In his sermon from 1534, Luther opined that it was called “unrighteous” simply because our use of it was so often unrighteous. All that God created was good. And it remains so even after the Fall, only now we use it for so much evil. At the heart of such evil is usually the love of money, in unbelief that manifests itself as greed. Can’t let loose of that money by giving it away, because who knows if it will be enough for me and mine tomorrow!
Forgotten is the example of the manna. Remember how the Lord worked that? There was always more for tomorrow, but when you tried to store it up and save it, instead of trusting the Lord’s generous giving, it grew worms and stank. There is a good reason our Lord teaches us to pray for “daily bread” and not “tomorrow’s, next week’s, next month’s, next year’s bread.” Life is more than the accumulation of stuff. More and more does not equal better and better. We build “bigger and better barns” to hold all the stuff, forgetting that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions. In that parable our Lord called that man a fool! That’s the Scriptural word for unbeliever! Such was his idolatry.
So that was Luther. Wealth was unrighteous because of our misuse. But perhaps there’s more. The steward is accused of “squandering” his lord’s goods. Now this parable comes right on the heals of the parable of the Prodigal Son, the only other place in Luke’s Gospel where the word “squandering” or “wasting” is used; the prodigal son squandered the inheritance from his father. He went to the city and blew the inheritance on reckless living, language that suggests he was gambling, staying in fine hotels, visiting prostitutes, and the like. It ruins him and he ends up longing to eat the slop fed to the pigs.
A similar fate awaits the steward in today’s parable. He is accused of squandering his lord’s goods. Only he wasn’t wasting it on high living, but apparently hoarding it for himself. He treasured that money more than his master’s debtors. Maybe that’s why Jesus calls it “unrighteous wealth;” because all the stuff we call wealth won’t make it into the Lord’s Kingdom, the Kingdom that is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit!
But what will make it into the Kingdom are people; debtors to our Lord. They are around us all the time. People who stand in various kinds of need. People whom we can bless in countless ways with our Lord’s goods. Do we have eyes to see them? Eyes to see their need? And if our hearts have been opened by the mercy of our Lord to care.
Not only to care, but to be shrewd enough to realize how things will shake out at the end. The unjust steward was commended - not for his dishonesty, his unjustness, - but for his shrewdness. He saw what was coming in the future and he made plans for people to welcome him when he lost the funds of which he was once steward. Those funds wouldn’t be following him into the future. He couldn’t take them with him. He’d lose them all.
But the people to whom he showed kindness and good will, the people who benefited from his generosity and charity, albeit, a charity that really wasn’t his to share, they would be in his future! He made friends with that stuff that wasn’t his and those friends would remain even when that stuff was gone.
Do you see Jesus’ point? He says that the sons of this world are more clever than the sons of light. That’s us! The baptized, the enlightened ones. He says they can figure out how to plan for their future, one that for them is filled with uncertainty and doubt. Why do we, who know the ultimate, have such a hard time here with the penultimate?
The wealth won’t make it into the Kingdom. There won’t be computers, Cameros, and cabins by the lake, or whatever other toy or tool you can think of. You won’t have a stock portfolio, a fat checking account, or a wallet full of cash. Old Job got it right. You exit this world as you entered it: naked. You carry nothing out with you.
But on that Day you will be surrounded by all the dead whom our Lord will raise and many of them will be people you knew, people whose paths you crossed somewhere in this life. They will be there. Invest in your future, Jesus says. Love them. Share with them. Give to them. Use the mammon and the money He provides in most righteous ways.
You know its funny, early last week I was asked about how Christians ought to approach stewardship. And then midway through the week I heard a theologian make the statement: “A god who doesn’t have anything to say about your wallet or your sex life isn’t much of a god.” Its true. And now here’s Jesus saying, Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon so that when it fails they may receive you with open arms into the eternal tents, for you proved yourself a friend because you took the effort to notice their need and to help them.
After all, that is exactly what the teller of the parable did. Jesus noticed His neighbor - again, that’s us - in our utmost need. And He didn’t count a single thing that was His to be His own. He was accused of squandering the blessings of the Kingdom on scum like us, dirtbag scoundrels who just take and take and abuse, misusing gifts.
But He gave up everything in order to befriend us, to care for us, to provide us with His heavenly home, in a more perfect tent made without hands, His own flesh and blood.
And He not only gave up all that was His, He assumed all that was ours - our flesh and blood, and horrible debt of sin, and He paid it as His own, with the righteousness that was His alone. And His Lord and Father commented Him for it; for He, the Righteous Steward, the Honest Manager, banked on the mercy of His Lord.
He bought you, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death that you may be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
He lived not to be served, but to serve. And He invites you into the same way of living, a daily dying to self. He shows you that giving up everything - even life itself - for the service of others is what love does. And the great thing about Love is that death cannot destroy it. His love for you and for His Father proved stronger than the grave. And He rose again to be the first to welcome home His many friends into the eternal dwelling prepared for them.
In His Supper today, He who slashed your debts not merely in half, but paid in full with His lifeblood as the price, pours out for you the oil of gladness in the wine that is His Blood; and He gives to you the wheat, baked into bread, which by His Word is His Body. By this needful treasure He strengthens you in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward your neighbor, giving you a share in His life lived in service to the neighbor - the only sort of life worth living.
Be shrewd, beloved, in the mammon that isn’t yours; that you may receive that which is truly yours by free gift. For the joyous end, my friends, the day the books are opened and the accounts are settled is the Day when our Lord and Master shall say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Receive the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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