Stewards to a Merciful Lord
Luke 16:1–9
[Jesus] 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. 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.’
“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. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’
“So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
“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.’
“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. 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.” (ESV)
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us the inexpressible gift of your Son, who for our sakes became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich. By your mercy you have made us heirs of heaven and provide for our earthly lives. We ask that you remind us of our heavenly goal so that we may be shrewd and faithful stewards over the gifts we have received for the good of your kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Our Gospel lesson for this morning, sometimes called, “The Unjust Steward,” makes use of the topic of “stewardship.” While the mention of money and the proper use of it is mentioned in our lesson, it isn’t at the center of Jesus’ parable here—not any more than gardening is at the center of Jesus’ parable of the Sower or than parenting is at the center of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Stewardship, the management of money, is simply the medium that Jesus uses to teach us about the kingdom of God.
The parable itself is straightforward. The culprit in the parable is a steward. A steward is somebody who takes care of something that belongs to another. This steward was a manager of the land-owner’s estate. The debtors are likely those who rented property from the lord of the estate and who would give a portion of their crops as payment. But the steward was now called in to give an account because of his mismanagement. So far nothing is out of the ordinary. A bad employee is called to give an account and is given his two-week-notice.
The steward sees his livelihood going down the drain. He realizes that he is not strong enough to do physical labor and he is ashamed to beg. So, he thinks quickly and determines that he will be decisive with his master’s goods. While he would only have it for a few more days, he was going to use his position as a man who stands in between—in between the master who possesses all and the debtors who owe it all.
The fact that the master called his servant to give an account of his management isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that the steward doesn’t give up and resign himself to his lost life. Even more shocking is how he decides to act in his final days as steward.
Naturally, we’d expect the manager—if he does anything—to hastily go around and demand payment from all the debtors so that he could give a lump sum of money back to the landowner and hopefully win back his favor. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he tries to win the approval of the debtors by cutting their debts so that he might be welcomed by them. This is certainly a bold and shocking move!
Yet, the final scandal of this whole parable is that the landowner applauds the steward’s behavior! The same master who fired this horrible employee, a failed steward, commends the steward for wiping away the debts that were owed him! The master even calls him shrewd—wise?!
In this parable, Jesus uses an example of stewardship and money-management. As we hear about this parable, it may help us recognize our own greed, our own pride, or our own mismanagement of the many blessings and gifts we have been given. However, this scandalous parable chiefly points us to the kingdom of God—to our Father whose mercy we rely on— and Jesus, the One who went between the Master and us debtors.
For it was Jesus who lost his position of power and glory at God’s right hand. But like the “fired steward,” Jesus embraced his commission as the one on the way to the bottom. In his state of humiliation, Jesus didn’t seek to raise himself up to glory and power again. Instead, he spent his life to his very last breath wiping away the debt of every debtor, every sinner, who could not pay the Master, God. And just as the landowner praised the scandalous stewardship, so too did God the Father mark his approval upon the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for sinners. God the Father is well pleased with his Only Begotten Son, because he himself is merciful.
When we see the land-owner’s response to the steward’s actions, we can’t comprehend why or how he could respond in this way. If this was our wealth being given away, we surely would not be happy and would never think to commend such behavior! Yet, on a much grander scale, this is how God’s kingdom works. God is the ruler and possessor of all things. He created the world and gave us everything in it. Instead of serving as his dutiful servants and gratefully using his gifts, we have dug ourselves into debt so great that we could never pay it. And God rightly could call us to give an account, but instead, he was pleased to show us grace upon grace—removing our debts from us, as far as the east is from the west.
You and I stand in awe of God’s grace. His mercy and generosity are comparable to nothing else in this world. Everything in this world is God’s and he delights in giving it to us. Not only has God provided for our spiritual well-being by giving us his own Son to foot the bill for our sins, but he delights in giving us all that we need to support this body and life. He has given us blessing upon blessing—wealth beyond compare. And now, we are called to “steward” this wealth out to one another: forgiving others as the Lord, in Christ, has forgiven us; sharing generously the gifts we have been given with those whom the Lord has put in our lives.
God is the Creator and owner of all things, and we are simply the stewards of them. As David says in our Old Testament lesson, “all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all” (I Chronicles 29:11–12). David understood that all we have comes from God and truly belongs to him. We brought nothing into this world, and we surely can carry nothing out of it (I Timothy 6:7). Yet, in our life, God allows us to call our possessions our own, but reminds us that all our time, our abilities, and our wealth are the property of God, and he would have us use them in a God-pleasing way.
Yet, as sinners, we often mistake ourselves as the “masters of our money,” “masters of our time,” “masters of our talents,” to use or not use what we call “ours” as we see fit. But then prices of commodities go down or the stock market crashes and “our money” is no longer “ours.” Then sickness comes and health fails and “our time” and “our talents” quickly disappear, proving that these were not “ours” at all.
So, Jesus reminds that we are stewards, not masters. And like the steward in our lesson, we only have a certain amount of time in this life, and God wants us to use it wisely. Yet, unlike the steward who was only looking out for himself—to win friends and have comfort for this life, Jesus encourages us to “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
This is a somewhat confusing statement. Yet remember what the landowner is commending—that the steward used his position and power wisely—to win friends. However, unlike the steward who was only worried about comfort for this life, Jesus tells us to work wisely—even shrewdly—towards our eternal goals. While money can be used poorly, it can also be put to good use by Christians. We can use it “to gain friends,” or rather, to win others for Jesus by supporting the work of the church! God gives Christians the privilege and honor of using our gifts to bring the Gospel to others. We might never see the harvest that we plant, but we will one day, when those Christians who by faith have invested in heavenly things “will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
I’ve told this story before, but it was one that I always found encouraging from one of my seminary professors. My professor’s grandmother was raised in an abusive household and didn’t grow up knowing her Savior. When she was fourteen years old, she had gotten a job working at a mechanic’s shop and one day was working on a car when the radio came on, which was set to a Christian radio station. It just so happened, that it was playing the latest episode from the Lutheran Hour. And so, his grandmother heard the message of the Gospel for the first time as she was working on this car. Before this, she had considered God to be an angry God who had nothing to do with the troubles here on earth. But over the course of that show, the Holy Spirit worked on her. After the episode, there was an advertisement for a sixth month Bible study which cost a dime, but they said, if you don’t have a dime, write to us anyway and we’ll see what we can do.
Since his grandma was extremely poor, she didn’t have a dime to spend on this Bible study program, but she was interested and sent a letter anyway. And someone at the radio station gave a dime so that his grandma could take the study. She took the whole course. She came to faith. She married a Christian man and had six children, all Christians. Two became pastors. Over thirty grandkids, one of whom is a professor at Bethany. Generations of Christians resulted from that radio broadcast. All because God used the dime of one man.
This is a tremendous story but think about how many untold stories there are like this for people who have been touched through the gospel proclamation in our congregations. Whether that be the young child who attended one of our Christmas for Kids, where they were able to hear, perhaps for the first time about what Jesus’ birth means for them, the struggling teenager who was reminded that their most important identity is being a child of God, the parent who heard the encouragement they needed to carry out their Godly vocation, or the home-bound member who was comforted with the assurance of the gospel and the forgiveness of sins in the Lord’s Supper. God could have chosen many ways to support the work of the church, but he gives this privilege to you and to me. What could be a better use of your time, talents, and treasures, than to support winning souls for Christ? These are the treasures that are stored in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can destroy (Matthew 6:20). This is something for which we should be shrewd and faithful!
The message of the Gospel changes lives and has an impact not just on this life, but on the life to come. Christian stewardship is using our blessings properly by knowing that the riches in this life are not the end. On our own, we have often been greedy managers. In ourselves, we cannot live up to the shrewdness and purity that God demands of his gifts. But in Jesus, we are all good and trustworthy stewards of all God’s gifts. In Jesus, we are forgiven, all our needs are satisfied, and we are heirs of his kingdom. In Jesus, we shall not want for more! Amen.