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Jesus, today, tells a parable about a household steward who cared for the Lord of the house's investments and possessions. The steward thought he was standing tall in the world. He worked for a wealthy man. He had a nice job. He did not have to farm the land to scratch out his living. He did not have to “dig ditches” or “beg”. His was a solid, middle class, comfortable life.
But the steward, in other dealings, was accused — not proven, mind you, just accused — of squandering the Lord's possessions. The accusations must have been devilish and particularly hostile, as accusations tend to be. The Lord of the house calls in the steward and deals with him harshly: “What is this I am hearing about you? Return the log of your stewardship, for you are not able anymore to act as a steward.” (Luke 16:2, my translation).
Based solely on hearing the accusations, without giving any opportunity for explanation, the Lord of the house has instantly ended the steward's comfortable, upper middle class lifestyle. Seems harsh, but, after all, it is the Lord of the house's right. Are not most of our employers today “at–will” employers as well? I am afraid some of you in recent times have learned this all too well. It does not take much to lose one's employment, one's reputation, one's tranquility in life.
The steward, it seems, was not trusted by the master. He was given no second chance. He was apparently somewhat shady. Whether or not the accusations against him were true, he certainly was of the world, not just in it. Notice that he asks the question we would all ask: “What shall I do?” His answer is not one most of us, I hope, would choose: to commit thievery, to be generous with that which is owed to his soon–to–be former master. His idea is to reduce the debts of the customers, the tenants of the master's lands. He was banking on the Lord's generosity and mercy. The master must have been known for it, despite his lack of it for the steward, because the tenants just take the steward's word for it.
The Lord of the house commends the unrighteous steward. He had acted wisely to make friends of the tenants and to make the master look exceedingly good and benevolent to them and to the community as well. If your banker called and told you that your bank was relieving you of half of your yearly mortgage payment for free, would you not tell everyone in the world that you know and extol the bank to the highest heavens? Of course you would. This is what happened to these tenants. The steward, through his shrewd and decisive action born out of desperation — even though it was truly thievery — made everyone look really good. Everyone came out a winner.
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.(1 Corinthians 10:12–13, ESV)
For the unrighteous steward, there was a “way of escape”. He was able to endure hardship, his temptation. He did so in the end not truly by his own efforts, not by pulling himself up by his bootstraps, not by determining to have a more positive outlook or attitude, not by becoming more pious or religious, not by fixing his own problems, truly. It only appears that he fixed his problems on his own. In order to escape, he actually banked on someone else's mercy. He banked on the generosity and mercy and loving disposition of someone outside of himself, even someone who had judged him quite quickly and mercilessly earlier.
Sometimes, it takes hitting rock bottom like this man did to finally strip away all of the idols that we hang onto, to finally teach us to depend on somebody or something outside of ourselves, to finally realize that we do not have the power to make ourselves better people, to truly solve our problems in this life. We are in a battle, after all, against the cosmic and dark powers of this world: sin, death, the power of the devil. That sinful flesh hangs onto us and has since our conception. We are powerless on our own to stop it.
It does not always take the rock bottom experience to trust and bank on our Lord's mercy. It could take the pink slip or the pig slop of the prodigal son. It could take the brush with death or the stay in the hospital. But it doesn't have to. It does always take the preaching of the Law unto repentance, which can take many forms whether it is a sermon or a reminder or two of our own mortality. But the Law always says: take heed, anyone who thinks they stand on their own two feet, lest you fall!.
Take heed, O Sinner, of that which most clearly tells us of God's wrath over being sinful, being haughty, being self–centered, being covetous and idolatrous, over serving mammon and excessive wealth as an idol god instead of the true and living God as both the prodigal son and the steward had done. Take heed of the wrath that God poured out on His Son, the judgment to end all judgments. It is on His Cross, it is “guilty”, and it is final. And the price, the wages of this sin, had to be paid. And it was.
Yet, at the same time God was executing His wrath on us and our sin, He was providing in that act of justice the way of escape. God's greatest act of judgment and vengeance upon sin and sinful man is, at the same time, God's greatest act of mercy, generosity, and love towards you and me. The very people who do not deserve it receive the gift of a holy, innocent substitute that atones for us, providing the ultimate means of escape from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
We know, then, that our Heavenly Father has given us all things in His Son Jesus Christ, because His great “not guilty” has rung out of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday and has gone out into the ends of the world. He is not there. He has risen as He said. Now, in the holy precious blood of Jesus Christ, alive and risen for all eternity, is our source of mercy and generosity and love that has come from outside of ourselves, purely from God's fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in us.
Jesus and His body and blood given and shed and risen for us is what we need to bank on to be our escape — even if it is to escape from the low points of this life, from the attacks of the devil and the world on us. So we have the ultimate thing to bank on. We will all die to this life, but the grave will not win, because Jesus' grave did not win. In Him we have the sure and certain hope and guarantee of eternal life, the free gift of God in Jesus Christ.
When we are banking on God's mercy in Jesus Christ, like the unrighteous steward, we are free to be generous with that which does not come from us nor truly belong to us. All things — from God's mercy and His Gospel gifts, down to the last penny we have to our names — come from God to us, and we are merely stewards who have been made and declared righteous in Jesus Christ. So now, as Jesus says, you are free to make friends from the mammon of unrighteousness. (Luke 16:9)
Mammon is a word that comes up two or three times — translated in today's lesson as “unrighteous wealth” and “money”. Mammon is more than “money” or “wealth”. It is defined as excess beyond what is needed for daily living. In this country, even if the economy is “down”, we all have mammon to one degree or another. God blesses us abundantly, and it is not wrong to be entrusted with abundance by God. But it is wrong to hoard these and make these our idol god, and not use them for the sake of our neighbors in their need.
Banking on God's promise of mercy and deliverance from sin as a free gift and on His promise to provide for us and our neighbors, we ought to be merciful and generous to our neighbors. Do not hoard for yourselves. You may fall when you are standing, and they may already have fallen. They need your mercy and generosity. Make friends with them by means of the unrighteous mammon. Make friends with your neighbors by the righteous “mammon” of the Gospel in Jesus Christ as well.
This includes your neighbors where you live, where you work, in your family, in your church and school family. This includes our fellow Christians in far off lands who need daily bread and who need the Gospel preached and the Sacraments given. Be merciful and kind and generous and forgiving towards them. Put the best construction on their actions whenever possible. Be the hands and face of Christ to them. Pray that God's love in Jesus Christ reflects to them through you by God's grace and the power of His Holy Spirit. Confess to them the comfort and the peace that you have as you bank on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ not just for your earthly welfare, but for your eternal welfare.
Then, having been faithful in a little and in much, when this earth is burned up, and is consumed by the fire that is coming to consume it, when the unrighteous mammon of this world will be gone, you and your neighbors will have been at last purified and freed of the sinful flesh — and we can in the perfection of the resurrection at last grasp onto each other in a bond of eternal fellowship that will never pass away — in those eternal dwellings our Lord Jesus promises He is preparing for His children.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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