Tag Archives: Trinity 9

The Steward – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Luke 16:1–13

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’8 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. 9 And 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.

10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Psalm 24 opens by saying, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Simply stated, everything and everyone belongs to God because He created it all. There is nothing you can see, hear, feel, taste, smell, or experience that isn’t God’s. It all belongs to Him.

The only reason we think the stuff we have belongs to us, and the only reason we imagine the people in our lives are ‘my husband, my wife, my kids, my parents, my friends’ is that God is so deeply generous. He is a giver. 1 John repeatedly says, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). In other words, if God ceased to be loving and generous, He would no longer be God. That is why you have everything and everyone you have. God loves you, and He loves to give you good gifts.

Let’s take that one step further because this isn’t true only for Christians. It’s true for everybody. Everyone is the recipient of God’s generosity. From the body they have, to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, to the house they live in, to the people in their lives – everyone received all of it from God’s loving, generous, giving hand. The remarkable thing about all of this is that most people never have and never will acknowledge God’s provision, generosity, and love. But that doesn’t stop God from giving it.

Now, with that understanding, we can go to the parable. It’s a difficult parable because it’s one of those parables where Jesus uses the actions of a bad, sinful character to make His main point. A rich man had a manager working for him. This manager was a steward of the rich man’s accounts; he was in charge of the books. This manager was crooked enough that he had to be fired. But instead of putting him in chains to be escorted straight to prison, the rich man is generous. He tells the manager to go back to the office, assemble the books, and turn them over. In other words, the rich man, even though he has fired the steward, gives the steward the gift of time. To properly understand the lesson Jesus is teaching with the parable, our main concern is to understand what the steward does with that the rich man’s generosity.

The manager calls in the rich man’s debtors one by one, and you can imagine that they are all terrified of this meeting. They aren’t just getting a phone call from a debt collector; they get brought into his office. Each of them knows they owe these debts, so they’re afraid. And their fear plays right into the manager’s hand.

I imagine the interactions go something like this. A debtor enters the room, and the manager says, “My boss wants to know: what is your plan for this debt you have?” And you can imagine the debtor saying, “Yes. I know. I’ll try to shift things around a bit. Would it work if I got half of it to you by the end of the month and get the other half next month? I’ll do my best to get everything taken care of as soon as possible.” And the manager pretends to be compassionate and says, “Here, let’s just make this a little easier. I’ll talk the rich man down. Write a new debt here, and we’ll just call it good. Let me take some of that stress off of you.” How those conversations actually went we don’t know, but it is clear that the manager knows how to use these people and their stress to his advantage. His plan is to take care of them now so they will take care of him later – let him stay in their vacation houses after he’s left out on the street.

Is it unrighteous? Yup. Absolutely. He’s cancelling debts he has no authority over any longer. Or, to put it another way, he’s giving away someone else’s money. But here’s why it is so shrewd – the rich man, the manager’s former boss, is such a generous person that he isn’t going to reinstate those debts. The rich man is going to hear the whole town singing his praises for having lowered their debts, and if he were to reinstate them – which, by the way, he would have had every right to do – his reputation of being generous would be tarnished. The rich man would rather eat those losses than have his mercy and generosity doubted. The manager knows this about his former boss, and he bets everything on it in the hope his connection to the reduced debts will make people generous toward him later. That is what Jesus is commending.

Christ is saying with this parable that you can bet everything you have on God’s love, mercy, and generosity. Our Lord concludes the parable by saying, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when (not ‘if’ but ‘when’) it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

Now, this is one of the most difficult things that Christ said. We know from everything else Jesus says that the unrighteous wealth can’t refer to things that you get in an unrighteous way like this manager did. Jesus clearly teaches against cheating and stealing. So, I think the best understanding of what Jesus means by ‘unrighteous wealth’ is just the stuff that God gives you that doesn’t deliver you God’s mercy and forgiveness – i.e. what we would refer to as ‘1st Article gifts.’ That is all the created blessings that God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth gives to you. Yes, your money, but also your house, your job, your relationships, your time, your talents, etc. Use those things to make friends for yourself, but not just any kind of friends. Jesus here refers to the kind of friends who receive you into the eternal dwellings.

I think that is an important clue to understand what Jesus is saying here. You can give your stuff away and gain a lot of friends. But the way you get friends to dwell with for eternity is for them to become Christians. In short, Jesus is encouraging us to be as shrewd as this scoundrel of a manager and use our 1st Article gifts to promote the preaching of the Gospel.

So, what does that look like? Well, there are billions of possibilities. So, I can’t tell you exactly what to do in every situation. But I’ll try a few.

It might mean you learn that your neighbor or coworker likes a certain food that you enjoy making. So, you invite that person over to prepare your grandma’s special recipe. You invest in that relationship and invite that person to come with you to church so they can hear the Gospel and believe.

It might mean that you use your talents to make things that you can donate to an auction that supports the Women’s Pregnancy Center or Riverside so a mom who is in a bad situation can get help that will also point her to the Gospel and so Christian children can be built up through their education to be lights in the communities they will eventually live in.

And, even more simply, return a portion of God’s money that He has given and entrusted to you by putting it into the offering plate to support the preaching of the Gospel and the ministry of God’s Word that takes place here. It isn’t as though God wants you to fill the offering plate apart from Him. Instead, it is that God Himself wants to fill the offering plate through you, so you become generous, giving, and loving like He is.

And know that the unrighteous wealth Jesus talks about here isn’t just about money. It’s about all the 1stArticle gifts that God gives to you. Be a shrewd steward of everything God gives to you – your time, your talents, and your treasures – to make friends for eternity. By doing that, you become more and more conformed to the image of your giving and generous God.

As children of God and stewards of God’s gifts, be imitators of God by being merciful, loving, kind, giving, and generous. And the reason you can be generous with your 1st Article gifts is that God has given you His 2nd and 3rd Article gifts along with your 1st Article gifts. You have the true riches. You have God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and holiness freely given to you because of what Christ has done for you by dying and rising again. Those things will never fade, fail, or diminish. They are yours, Christian, now and for all eternity. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

As You Believe, So It Is – Sermon on 2 Samuel 22:26-34 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

2 Samuel 22:26-34

26 With the merciful you show yourself merciful; 
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 

27 with the purified you deal purely, 
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 

28 You save a humble people, 
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. 

29 For you are my lamp, O Lord, 
and my God lightens my darkness. 

30 For by you I can run against a troop, 
and by my God I can leap over a wall. 

31 This God—his way is perfect; 
the word of the Lord proves true; 
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. 

32 “For who is God, but the Lord? 
And who is a rock, except our God? 

33 This God is my strong refuge 
and has made my way blameless. 

34 He made my feet like the feet of a deer 
and set me secure on the heights.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

If this text feels like a Psalm, you are a good student of Scripture. 2 Samuel 22 is actually the same as Psalm 18. David wrote at least 74 of the 150 Psalms, and it’s interesting (at least, I think it’s interesting) that this is the only place in the story of David’s life where a Psalm recorded. We don’t know exactly when the Psalm was written. But this is placed here in 2 Samuel 22 at the end of David’s life, and v. 1 tells us that this was David’s song, “when the Lord delivered [David] from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” And the contents of the Psalm are a very fitting way to wrap up David’s story.

David had fought his last war. He had faced the lions and bears as a shepherd. He had killed the giant, Goliath. He was rescued from the spears of King Saul. David had been saved from the Philistines. David was reestablished as king even after his own son, Absalom, had dethroned and hunted him. And, maybe, most importantly, God had rescued David from himself. God forgave David for his adultery with Bathsheba. God absolved David from the sin of murdering Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. Through it all, God was faithful to David in the face of David’s enemies of the devil, the world, and David’s own sinful flesh. From a humble shepherd who was the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse to the conquering King of Israel, David’s life is a rags to riches story. But morally, David started out better than he ended. The tail end of David’s life was disappointing to say the least, but that is what makes this passage so interesting.

The verses you just heard are the middle of the Psalm where David is reflecting on all of God’s gracious acts throughout his life. David addresses God, “With the merciful You show Yourself merciful; with the blameless man You show Yourself blameless; with the purified You deal purely.” God does show us all these things about Himself, but it sounds as though David is bragging that he was those things – merciful, blameless, and pure. How could such a great sinner like David say something like that?

Well, look again at v. 33. “God is my strong refuge and [He] has made my way blameless.” It was God who made David all those things. By God’s declaration, by God’s mercy, and by God’s absolution, David was merciful, blameless, and pure.

Now, whenever we hear passages like this, we need to recognize God’s actions come first and then God’s attributes shine through God’s children. The text does not say that God is merciful to the merciful, blameless to those who are blameless, and pure to those who are pure. If that were the case, God’s mercy, blamelessness, and purity would never be revealed because we are all sinners. Instead, we need to recognize that God is the one who makes us blameless, makes us merciful, and makes us pure, and all of that shines through us. We are not the light of the world. Jesus is, and His light shines through us for all the world to see. God is merciful, blameless, and pure according to His nature, and God works on us and in us to make us like He is. Colossians 3:10 says that we are being renewed after the image of God, and Romans 8:29 says we are being conformed to the image of Christ. As Christians, God is renewing us in His image.

So, again, with the merciful God shows Himself merciful; with the blameless God shows Himself blameless; with the purified God deals purely. But then notice how v. 27 changes gears, “with the crooked You make Yourself seem tortuous.” Big change there. Just quickly, the translation there is tortuous not torturous. Torturous is related to torture and causing extreme pain and suffering. That’s not the translation here. Instead it is tortuous (remove the second ‘r’) which means full of twists and turns or shifty. It isn’t as though God is shifty toward crooked, bent sinners. Notice very carefully, shifty and complex is simply how God seems to the crooked.

Dear saints, we don’t and can’t change the nature or character of God, but what you believe about God does shape how God will appear to you. In short, as you believe, so it is (Mt. 8:13, 9:29). If you believe God is merciful, and He is, you have no trouble seeing God’s mercy. If you believe God is blameless, and He is, His blamelessness is apparent. If you believe God is pure, and He is, you will see and receive His purity. But if you wrongly believe that God isn’t those things, if you believe God is a as crooked as you are, it will seem and appear as though God is twisted, convoluted, and out to get you even though God by His nature and character is direct and straight; He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Ex. 34:6) toward you.

We can see this in how Jesus deals with the scribes and Pharisees. They were always out to get Jesus and trap Him in His teaching, and Jesus will respond in a similar way. Remember when they were trying to trap Jesus by asking Him a question about divorce (Mt. 19:1-9), and Jesus responds to this Law question in a similar fashion by asking them what the Law says. The Pharisees wanted to live by the Law, which isn’t possible, so Jesus lovingly points them back to the Law in an effort to mercifully show them that life does not come through the Law (Ro. 7:5-12). But rather than fleeing to Jesus to receive God’s mercy, the Pharisees stubbornly reject Jesus and are left under the torture of needing to keep the Law perfectly. Because of this, God seems tortuous.

Dear saints, the way you view God will affect the way you interpret all reality. Lord, have mercy on us, and deliver us from believing wrongly about You.

When life gets tough and bad things happen, when we feel the weight of the burdens and crosses we bear, one of the first things we sinners do is blame God. We ask questions like, “What have I done to deserve this?” “How could You do this to me, God?” Or, even, “What kind of God would allow this evil?” In those moments of grief, sorrow, and despair, God does seem absent, uncaring, and tortuous, but remember that your feelings do not dictate reality.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Your feelings are a good and important gift from God. But your feelings are also fallen and infected with sin and don’t always match up with reality. So, when God seems to be absent, when God seems to be uncaring, when God seems tortuous, that is not the time to reject or abandon God. That is the time to run to Him.

God loves you with the purest love. He has demonstrated His love for you in that while you were a sinner and enemy of God, rebelling against Him, God gave Jesus, His Son, to die for you and restore you (Ro. 5:8). So, when you feel forsaken, abandoned, and even cheated by God, ask yourself, “Did God send Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world to die for my sins?” The answer to that question is always, “Yes.” Then, be honest with God about your feelings. Cling to His promises that He gives you in His Word. Run back to Him in prayer, and ask Him to be true to those promises. That is what faith does.

Dear saints, God has given you His mercy by sending His blameless Son to redeem you and make you pure. That is how He is toward you now and for all eternity. Believe that, and watch how God’s mercy, blamelessness, and purity flow freely to you. Believe that and God will always be your rock, your strong refuge, and your shield as you take refuge in Him. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good—especially in need and distress—and a heart that also renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God. If, on the contrary, your heart clings to anything else from which it expects more good and help than from God, and if your heart does not take refuge in Him but flees from Him when in trouble, then you have an idol, another god.[1]

[1] LC. 1st Commandment, par. 28.

Instructions for the End of the Ages – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The first five verses of this text remind us that God is gracious to sinners. Paul invites us to think back to when God delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt. God protected His people from the scorching heat with the cloud. God Baptized His people in the Red Sea as He delivers them out of slavery and destroyed their enemies. And, just as an aside, please, note that. Paul calls the crossing of the Red Sea the Baptism of God’s people, and God didn’t demand that the infants be left out of that Baptism. A whole lot more could be said about v. 2, but we’ll leave that for another time.

God provided mana for His people after He delivered them from slavery. That heavenly bread provided for their physical bodies, but it also provided for them spiritually, teaching them to trust that God would provide for them each day. During the Exodus, God provided physical water for His people to drink, but it was also a spiritual refreshing. God does all these things, but then we come to a shocking statement in v. 5, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased.”

Do you remember how many of the people who passed through and the Red Sea actually reached the Promised Land? Only Joshua, Caleb, and those who were under twenty years old when they first spied out the land (Num. 14:20-35). The rest died in the wilderness as they were forced to wander for 40 years because they didn’t believe that God would bring them into the land of Canaan. But even before that happened, there were problems. In this text, Paul refers to five different times the people were tempted and rebelled against God.

The first temptation Paul mentions is in v. 6 when the people “desired evil.” It is a reference to what happened right after the people left Mt. Sinai, there were some who were tempted to go back to Egypt so they could eat meat and cucumbers (Num. 11:4-5, 31-34). I mean, seriously, cucumbers? Those foods were not evil in and of themselves. The problem was the people’s desire to go back to Egypt which meant slavery. They preferred going back to slavery over continuing to eat the food God was daily providing for them in freedom.

The second temptation to rebel that Paul refers to is the idolatry of the golden calf. The people made sacrifices to the idol and “sat down to eat and drink rose up to play” (1 Cor. 10:7, quoting Ex. 32:6). God came close to wiping out all the people, but Moses interceded for them. And God heard Moses prayer (Ex. 32:9-14).

The third temptation to rebel that Paul mentions involves sexual immorality. In Num. 25:1-18, God’s people tangled themselves up in the pagan, idolatrous, and adulterous practices with the people of Moab, and God struck down 23,000.

The fourth and fifth rebellions Paul mentions come in v. 9. The people put God to the test at the waters of Massah and Meribah (see Ex. 17:7; Dt. 16:16) when they complained that God had simply delivered them from slavery in order to kill them with thirst. And, finally, when the people complained about food again and God sent fiery serpents among them (Num. 21:4-6).

In each of those five instances, we are to see how God deals with His people who sin when they face temptation. In each of those instances, God responds with both judgment and salvation. Paul says that all five of these temptations and failings of God’s people are included in Scripture “for our instruction” and are an example for us so we are warned against falling into sin when tempted.

Because we live at the end of the ages, we need to take care that we do not become complacent or arrogant like they did. When we face the same temptations that God’s people faced during the Exodus, we need to remember that God does not let sin go unpunished. Dear saints, we can fall from grace, and we do not know when Christ will return. Because the Last Day is immanent and because we can fall from grace, we need to resist and fight against the same temptations that the Israelites faced during the Exodus.

Dear saints, this text doesn’t really have any Gospel. Don’t get me wrong, there is comfort for us here. But this text is mainly instruction for us who live at the end of the ages. So, what instructions and encouragements are here to prepare us to fight against temptation and our fallen flesh?

First, we see in all five examples of temptation, rebellion, and sin, many Israelites fell, but God always kept some from falling. In each instance, God, in His mercy, tried to save all. The only ones who fell were those who despised God’s Word and promises.

Everyone faces the same types of temptations that the Israelites faced in the Exodus. Everyone lusts – maybe not after the exact same woman or man – but everyone in this fallen flesh lusts. Everyone is tempted with anger; everyone is tempted with being untruthful; everyone is tempted with evil desires, covetousness, and idolatry; etc.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” Ultimately, every temptation would be unbearable apart from God’s grace. But the ability to resist those temptations and the ways to escape sinning when tempted comes from God when we ask Him for it. That’s why v. 12 precedes v. 13. “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Because everyone is tempted, be empathetic to those who are struggling with temptations. They are being tempted by some sin you are also inclined toward, and a little bit of sympathy can go a long way to help them resist falling into sin. Everybody is suffering and struggling with sin and temptation. All Christians are bearing crosses and pain as they struggle along in this life.

The second lesson we have here is that God knows exactly what temptations you face, and He always provides a way of escape from those temptations. There is sort of backwards comfort in the fact that God knows how disgusting and selfish you are, but He loves you anyway. You can be comforted with the knowledge that you aren’t really worse than anyone else. And the best comfort this text offers us is that God always provides ways of escape.

The third lesson in these verses is that you do not have to sin when you are being tempted. You can resist your temptations and overcome them. Temptations are going to come. Jesus says in Lk. 17:1, “Temptations to sin are sure to come.” Luther was once talked about how temptations are inevitable and offered a helpful analogy. He said, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair.”

In light of that, let me give you a bit of advice. Think of it as a friendly suggestion. Don’t make a law of this. If it’s helpful, great; if it isn’t, don’t worry about it. Here’s the advice:

Know what your sins are and do your best to confess them individually. And please, don’t misunderstand me here. You can’t confess every sin; that’s impossible. Ps. 19:12 says, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” In other words, you are not able to recognize absolutely every sin you commit, but God hears your pleas for mercy and answers with more grace than you have confession. Please hear that again. God gives more grace (Jam. 4:6) than what you individually confess. But the sins you know and feel in your conscience, confess them individually.

Doing this will help you recognize the moments you face the greatest temptations and fail. When you do let the bird build a nest in your hair. Confessing individual sins can help you recognize if there is a pattern of being in a situation and falling into sin. Whe you see those patterns, avoid those situations. This is good and holy work that God has given you to do.

Those are the instructions and comforts. First, God deals with both judgment and mercy with those who fall into temptation, and we should too. Second, God provides ways of escape from temptations. Third, you do not have to sin; you can fight against it.

Now, it’s time for Gospel. Remember how Jesus has taught you to pray. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches you to first pray for forgiveness then immediately pray that your Heavenly Father would not lead you into temptation. Jesus teaches you to pray this because you cannot do it yourself. Remember, Christ has been tempted in every way that you are – except without sin (Heb. 4:15). And because of the cross, God recons Christ’s righteousness and obedience as your righteousness and obedience.

Dear saints, the temptations you face are real. The sins you continually fall into are damning. Yet, God’s grace covers a multitude of sins.

Your heavenly Father does lead you, and He will never lead you into temptation (Jam. 1:13). Today, He has led you here to hear His Word. He has led to you confess your sins. God has led you to trust His forgiveness proclaimed to you for every one of your sins in the Absolution. And Your heavenly Father is leading you now to His table where He provides you Jesus’ Body and Christ’s Blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Dear saints, the end of the ages has come upon us. You and I cannot stand on our own. Let us all approach God’s throne of grace and believe Him when He says that His steadfast love never ceases and His mercies never come to an end. That love and mercy of God is new for you each and every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). And soon Jesus will return and deliver you to live forever with Him. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Merciful Master – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

Luke 16:1-13

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 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. 9 And 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.

10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, we are going to start with three questions to help us wrap our minds around this difficult parable: First, what is the rich master commending his manager for? Second, what is the context of the parable? And, third, where does the parable end?

First question first. What is the rich master praising the wasteful, dishonest manager for? It isn’t for his dishonesty when the manager illegally lowers the bills of the debtors. Instead, the master praises the manager’s shrewdness. And this is actually in line with God’s character.

Think back to Jacob. Jacob was certainly dishonest (in fact, ‘Jacob’ means ‘deceiver’ or ‘cheater’), but Jacob was also an extremely shrewd man who took advantage of all sorts of situations to benefit himself – which is what shrewd means. When Jacob’s exhausted brother Esau came in from the field, Jacob shrewdly took advantage of the situation by selling Esau a bit of soup at the cost of Esau’s birthright. When Jacob’s father Isaac was old and blind, Jacob shrewdly took advantage of the situation by dressing up like Esau and receiving their father’s blessing. When Jacob’s father-in-law Laban was distracted, Jacob shrewdly fled with his wives and children to move back to Canaan.

While we might think that God would want to disassociate Himself with as shrewd a man as Jacob, God doesn’t. God calls Himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In fact, twenty-three times in Scripture God calls Himself ‘the God of Jacob.’ God isn’t ashamed to be associated with the shrewd. So, again, the rich master doesn’t praise the dishonesty of the manager; he praises his shrewdness.

To the second question: What is the context of the parable? Well the first verse gives us a little bit of the context. Jesus tells this parable to the disciples. Jesus isn’t giving this parable to the masses, but only to those who have left everything to follow Him. Unbelievers might take this parable to mean that Jesus doesn’t mind if you are a scoundrel who only does things for your own benefit. That’s not the point of the parable! This parable is told to believers so that they would shrewdly know to expect, count, and bank on God’s mercy and grace.

Also, the context of this parable is all of Luke 15. In the opening of Luke 15, the Pharisees and scribes are grumbling that Jesus is receiving and eating with sinners. So, Jesus tells them the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. Notice, please, I said ‘the parable’ not ‘the parables.’ The three are, in my opinion, best understood as one parable and taken together as a single unit.

Also, each of them is terribly named. Instead of the name ‘the Lost Sheep,’ it should be called the ‘the Good Shepherd.’ Instead of the name ‘the Lost Coin,’ it should be called ‘the Persnickety Woman.’ Instead of the calling it ‘the Prodigal Son,’ it should be called ‘the Wasteful Father.’ The sheep, the coin, and the younger son are not the focal point of the parable, and they are damaged when we make them the center. Instead, it’s the goodness of the shepherd, the persistence of the woman, and the mercy of the father that should draw our attention. The same is true of this parable before us, the central point of the parable is not the dishonesty and shrewdness of the manager but the mercy of the master.

Think back for just a moment to the misnamed parable of the Prodigal Son: The father mercifully gives his younger son his share of the inheritance early, and that little brat wastefully squanders it (Lk. 15:13). We need to realize that inheritance included money, but it mainly included land. The merciful father had to sell off at least one-third of his land to give that little imp his inheritance. That means the kid frittered away several generations worth of blood, toil, and sweat while ruining his family’s name and reputation in the community. And when the funds run out, the little churl saunters back home to beg for a job from his father so he doesn’t have to eat pig slop. But the father won’t have it, not because he wants the kid eating swine slop, but because he wants his son back. The father mercifully runs to him, embraces him, dresses him up in the best cloths, and throws a party because he has welcomed his son back into the family.

That’s the context of this parable which is tied to that one. The mercy of the father there and the mercy of the master in this parable are meant to be seen together. In other words, with this parable Jesus is saying to the disciples, “Listen guys, God’s mercy really is something you can bank on. Check this out…”

Finally, and briefly, the third question to help us understand the parable: Where does it end? It’s probably best to see the parable ending with Jesus saying, “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” Which means that the next sentence (the second half of v. 8) is the beginning of the lesson that Jesus wants to teach us. “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

So now, with all of that in mind, let’s quickly consider the parable:

The rich man finds out that his manager is wasting his possessions, so the rich man fires the manager on the spot, but throws him a bone of mercy. The rich man could have tossed his manager straight into prison. But, instead, the merciful master sends the manager back to his office to collect the books before he turns them in. The fired manager realizes he’s in a bad spot. He’s too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg. So, the manager formulates a plan. The rich man’s debtors have no idea that the manager has been canned, so he has a small window of opportunity. He calls the debtors in “one by one” (v. 5) and lowers each person’s debt. It is interesting to note that he reduces each debt an equal amount of denarii which shows how hastily his plan was formulated. The reduction of fifty measures of oil and reduction of twenty measures of wheat both equal 500 denarii (or days’ wages).

Two other things are important here. Notice, that the manager has each debtor take the pen and write with their own hand and in their own penmanship the reduced amount (more on that in a minute). The other important thing is that the debtors go along with the reduction in their bills which indicates their suspicions aren’t raised. The manager likely told them that he had convinced the master to reduce their debts. The debtors know the master, and he isn’t a hard, unforgiving man. Instead, he has a reputation of being merciful.

So, the manager arranges the books, saunters back to headquarters, and walks straight into the master’s office blowing on the wet ink of the newly reduced debts with a wry smile on his face. The master can see that the books have been changed and realizes that the debtors know about it. He hears the whole town out in the streets singing his praises for the merciful reduction of their debts.

Luke 16 1-9 - Riojas the Shrewd ManagerThe master had every right to reinstate the debts, but he doesn’t want his reputation of being merciful to be tainted. The master would rather eat the loss than have his mercy put into doubt. So, the merciful master praises and commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

By cutting the large bills of the master’s debtors, the shrewd manager went ‘all in’ on the mercy of the master, and it paid off. The manager is forever associated with the master’s mercy and the debtors will always deal kindly with him so he won’t have to dig or beg.

Again, the merciful master praises the manager for his shrewdness. The manager knew which way to fall, and he fell on the mercy of the master.

Here’s the point, dear saints. You too can always fall on the mercy of your Heavenly Father, the truest Merciful Master of all. But too often we are hesitant to do so.

God repeatedly gives you opportunities to reveal His goodness and mercy to others, but you’ve blown it. God puts you in the midst of your family with parents, siblings, cousins, and in-laws who fight, hold grudges, and speak the worst about each other. God puts you there so that you can imitate Him and be merciful and forgiving like He is, but you’ve blown those opportunities.

God puts you among children and grandchildren who aren’t grateful. Instead, they are rude, selfish, and self-absorbed. God gives you all sorts of opportunities to show unconditional love while making God your Father look good. But you’ve blown it.

God places you in a workplace or classroom where you are treated unfairly, taken advantage of, bullied, and receive all sorts of nasty behavior. God wants you to act shrewdly and do what no one else would – turn the other cheek and return all that evil for kindness and love. But you’ve blown it. Dear saints, we have all failed to use what our Merciful Master has given us to serve our neighbor because we don’t trust His mercy. Repent.

Repent, but also rejoice because you have a Savior who is just like the shrewd manager (minus the dishonesty). Jesus is the supreme Shrewd Savior, the Ultimate Trickster who took advantage of every situation to save you from sin and hell.

Satan was hungry, but not for a bowl of soup. The devil wanted to swallow all of humanity in his jaws. But Jesus, the Shrewd Savior inserted Himself into those jaws with all your sin laid upon Him (Is. 53:6). When Jesus died on that cross, all of your sins died with Him. While Satan and his minions celebrated the death and burial of Christ, Jesus strolled out of the tomb on the third day bursting the jaws of death and giving you an eternal victory.

Jesus even dealt shrewdly with God and His wrath against sinners. Christ went to the cross, covering Himself with all your sins. He managed your debt not just by reducing it, He eliminated it.

Dear saints of God, your Shrewd Savior doesn’t ask you how much oil you owe, He anoints your head with the oil of His mercy (Ps. 23:5). He doesn’t check to see how much wheat you owe. Instead, He gives you Himself as the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:51).

Christ does all of this because He is your Merciful Master and Shrewd Savior. Put your trust there, in His mercy. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Manage – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

Luke 16:1-13

1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 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. 9 And 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.

10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

No getting around it. This parable is one of the most difficult texts in the Gospels and all of Scripture. A lot of pastor friends of mine were joking about how this text is the reason churches have associate pastors and interns so the ‘regular’ pastor can be protected from having to preach on this text. Unfortunately for me – and, maybe, you – I don’t have that luxury. Just so you know. I’m purposefully skipping Jesus’ words in v. 9. I’ve heard a few explanations and interpretations of v. 9 that may be right, but I’m not entirely convinced by any of them. So, I’m not preaching on it.

So, since the parable is already difficult to preach, I’m going to double down. I’ll deal with the parable first, and then I’ll preach about money, stewardship, and tithing. A double-whammy.

First, the parable. A rich man, who owns a lot of land and leases it out to farmers, has a manager who keeps the books, and the manager is a crook. He cooks the books and is swindling his boss, the rich man. When the manager is confronted by his boss, he has no response because he’s been caught red-handed. So, the rich man fires him, but the rich man is also generous. He doesn’t have the guy thrown straight into prison. Instead, the rich man is gracious and lets the manager head back to his office to get the books and turn them in for the last time.

On the way to his office, the manager is worried about his future well-being. He realizes that he’s too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg. But he recognizes that he has a window of opportunity which is only open until he turns in the books. So, the manager secretly calls in his master’s debtors and decreases their debts in order to make friends with them. It is interesting to note that the fifty measures of oil and the twenty measures of wheat are both roughly equal to the same amount of money – about five-hundred denarii (or 500 days’ wages).

H-63 Trinity 9 (Lu 16.1-9)This reduction was, of course, not legally binding. The rich man could have simply said, “Hang on everyone. I fired that guy before he lowered your debt. You still owe the original amount.” But that isn’t the character of the rich man. Instead, the whole town is singing the praises of the rich man because he is so generous. And the rich man isn’t willing to harm his reputation as a merciful guy. So, what does the rich man do in the parable? He tells the fired, scoundrel of a manager, “Dude, you’re shrewd. You knew I’d rather be known as a merciful person rather than hold on to my wealth. And by your shrewdness, you’ve helped yourself.”

That’s the key to understanding the parable. The rich man in Jesus’ parable doesn’t praise the sinfulness of the fired manager. Instead, he praises how shrewd the manager was. The manager put all his eggs in one basket – the basket of the rich man’s generosity and mercy. And it paid off. By betting on the mercy of the rich man, the manager made himself some friends before everything was taken from him.

And notice that Jesus wishes we were more daring with what we have been given. In the last half of v. 8, Jesus says, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”Christian, you have been given mercy, forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, eternal hope, eternal joy, eternal peace, eternal love – all things that cannot be taken from you. But you still are careful about sharing those things with others. Repent!

Why are you so careful about sharing God’s love for you with others? Don’t be ashamed! Christian, you have Jesus, and you have the Gospel. You have God’s unfailing, unending love. You have been entrusted with the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Ro. 1:16).

Stop being afraid of losing friends if you share the Gospel with them. God has given you the perfect righteousness and perfect obedience of Christ. Be faithful with what God has given you for your life and salvation. Be willing to give it away. Be faithful in your stewardship of the Gospel. That’s the parable.

Now, we move on to stewardship because, notice what Jesus says (v. 12), “If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

If you aren’t faithful with the grace you have been freely given in Jesus Christ, why would God trust you with lesser things, things like money? God is right to not trust you with money if you cannot be trusted with the Gospel. This is a shift in gears here, but stick with me.

God often deals with sin and idols by using those sins and idols to be their own punishment. In Daniel, some pagans planned on getting Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and killed for disobeying the king and praying to God. But they are the ones who end up being eaten by the lions (Dan. 6). Or do you remember the book of Esther? The wicked Haman plans on killing faithful, God-fearing Mordecai by hanging him on a pole, but then Haman ends up being executed on that very instrument of death. This happens with unbelievers, but it also happens with believers. David’s sin of lust plagues him the rest of his life after he commits adultery with Bathsheba. The same thing happens with the most common idol in the world – money.

There have been studies on income and happiness, and a correlation has been found about how much you make and how happy you are. The interesting thing is that once you make a certain amount, happiness actually decreases. What do you think the amount is where happiness starts to decrease? It’s probably lower than you think – somewhere around $70,000. If you have little money but think that just a bit more will make you happier, money is your idol, and you will always be discontent with how much you have. But if you idolize money when you have lots of it, you still aren’t happy and spend all your time trying to hold on to it.

GreedNow, Jesus is absolutely clear, “You cannot serve God and money.”It can’t be done. If you trust in money, you do not trust God. So, repent of your love of money.

One of the best ways to protect yourself against idolizing money is to be generous – recklessly generous. Remember, everything you have – your life, your house, your clothes, your food, your finances, your money – everything is a gift from God. As Creator of everything, it all belongs to God.

You are merely a manager, a steward of what God, the Rich Man, has given and entrusted to you. And God is extremely loose and permissive in how much freedom you have in managing what is entrusted to you. God is actually pleased when you use the things that He has given you to manage and you take those things and use them to care for your family. God is even pleased when you enjoy things that might even be considered frivolous – like expensive coffee, or a gourmet steak and lobster dinner. God is pleased to give those things to you especially when you recognize that He is the One who has given it to you.

But God doesn’t want you to hoard everything He has given you to pamper yourself. He wants to use you and your management to provide for others as well. So, ask yourself, “What is the most important thing God wants to provide for others?” Yes, people need food and water and clothing. But the most important thing God wants people to have is the Gospel. The Gospel which provides for others not just in this life but for all eternity.

So, I would encourage you. Take a look at your finances. Yes, look at how you spend your money, but more importantly look at how much you give away – and where are you giving that money. Are you providing for people’s temporal needs by giving to the food shelf, the homeless shelter, etc.? Good. But you should be shrewd enough to give more to provide for people’s eternal needs. First, you should be giving to this congregation to make sure that both you and your brothers and sisters will be fed with the Gospel. Then, you should be giving to missionaries who call people to repentance and faith in Christ. Then, give to those other places as well.

I hope you know that what you give in the offering plate does go out from here too. As a congregation, we tithe 10% of what you give in the offering plate to provide for missionaries, the promotion of the Gospel, and to agencies in our community that provide temporal needs to others in our community.

If all this talk about tithing and money makes you squirm because you realize that you have not been a faithful manager of what God has given you, repent. Repent and amend your ways. And if you hear this and think to yourself, “I’m glad pastor is finally telling other people to give the way that I give.” Or if you’re thinking, “I wish so-and-so was here to hear this.” You repent too because this is law. And the law should always make us squirm. Your bank ledger isn’t what matters when it comes to your salvation.

Cross and CommunionThe only thing that matters for your salvation is what Christ has done and completed for you upon the cross. Even when you are stingy and fail to be generous with what God has given to you, God was not. He gave what was most valuable to Him for your salvation. God, in His mercy, gave Jesus to die upon the cross for you. Don’t trust in your stewardship of what God has given you. Instead, trust in Christ’s giving of Himself completely for you and for others. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.