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Grace, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Dear baptized believers in Christ’s Church, after hearing the gospel lesson this morning with the Master and the Manager, is God giving to His disciples and giving to you and me permission to be dishonest in the management of the things that He has entrusted to us? Absolutely not. Let’s look at it in context.
Earlier in the Gospel of St. Luke 9, verse 51, it reads, “when the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” It was divine necessity. Jesus was turning the curve on the track and he was seeing the finish line, the cross, on the mount outside the walls of Jerusalem. His reasoning for coming into the world born of the Virgin Mary, living the perfect life before God in thought, word, and deed was drawing near. What was it? What was drawing near? He came to die. He came to die for you, to pay the price for the sins of the world, which includes yours.
Salvation from sin, death, and the power of the devil is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone. In Jesus Christ alone, as revealed in the sacred Scriptures alone, through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, there is the forgiveness of sins, salvation from God’s wrath, and life now and into eternity. This is only possible because the Creator of all things entered this broken and filled world and became a man without sin. To be that perfect sacrifice in your stead to pay the price with His own life.
This is John 3:16 love. God died for you. But that sink in for you – for you and me and all the world, those who have ever lived, are living, and will live. For us, Jesus loves His disciples and He knows that He will be taken up soon and that He will be with them in a new and different way as He sends them out into the world with His mission.
Now as Luke 9:51 fades into the background, and the day of standing on the Mount of Olives looking down into Jerusalem draws near, we find our text. At this time, most of Jesus’ teaching and preaching ministry is history. And as He is reviewing and reflecting on these truths, as He has taught His disciples in their presence, it is so easy for them to have the dullness of hearing set in. The old sinful flesh starts tuning out as the mind fills itself with other stuff, while the sin-filled world twists God’s Word, intending to lure the believer into activities that do not provide divine blessings, God’s gifts.
The devil is always ready to pounce, to cause chaos, doubts, distractions, and to occupy life with the stuff of this world as the highest priority. Someone once told me that the acronym for busy, B-U-S-Y, where there is no time for God, is “being under Satan’s yoke.” Early in my ministry in my first parish, one of my members who was absent from the life of the church for a long time told me that he was not involved anymore because he knew it all and he didn’t have time for it. With his own words, he revealed that his mind was filled with the things of this world. He was despising God and His Word, which is the source and the norm for the Christian faith in life.
God’s means of grace, of Word and sacraments not only creates faith but sustains it. This was God’s Word through St. Paul to the church in Rome: “Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” As disciples of Christ, as forgiven sinners, if we are honest with ourselves, if you and I are honest, we’re not exempt from the struggle at the various levels.
Because Jesus loves His disciples and the time is short, He has to shake their cage just a little bit more with this morning’s text. It’s the difference like a first-year student at the seminary and one who is in his fourth year ready to graduate. Jesus is wanting to clear out the developing cobwebs and to take the disciples to a deeper understanding about being in the world but not of the world. This love warns the disciples of the future dangers that they will face, both spiritually and physically, as well as encouraging them to remain steadfast in the things that they have learned from His teachings and His life.
And particularly this morning in the text when it comes to possessions, that stuff in our lives. The parable is the master and the manager. The master entrusts his belongings and business into the care of the manager. The manager has been accused of mismanaging, so the master demands him to present the accounting books, and he can no longer continue in that position.
You can see the manager’s thought process as he considers all of the options. He uses the master’s property to bless others to his advantage and in these activities builds relationships with those people so that they would welcome him in the future. We see it in the Old Testament lesson where the people of Israel had turned away from God and His Word into idolatry, which spilled over into a life of kingdom building here on earth for themselves with this temporal stuff. This includes the way they treated others unjustly for self-gain.
Even when God sent the prophet Amos to warn them of the upcoming destruction because of their false beliefs and practices, the majority, their ears were dulled, their hearts were hardened. But at the end of the book of Amos, God promises that a remnant will be saved. So, Jesus says in verse 9 of our text, “And I tell you, my friends, for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
But why? Why does the master in verse 8 commend the dishonest manager for his shrewdness? This is the point of the parable. The master is our God. We are the managers. Everything in our possession, all that we have, belongs to Him. He has given it to us for a time. And He is telling His disciples, after He has lifted up His death, His resurrection, and ascension, do not let this stuff cloud who and whose you are. Don’t let it become your primary. Don’t let it become your God.
But as disciples of Christ, use it. Use it for your daily needs and for the love of others in accordance with God’s Word. The world, oh the world is so zealous for self, but Jesus wants His disciples, He wants you and me to have that same passion, to have that same passion but with the focus on God and others in accordance with the Word. This is the commendation that He is speaking.
Jesus says in Matthew 6, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This is why Jesus says you cannot serve God and money.
But pastor, what about the shrewdness? Early in Jesus’s ministry, he sent his 12 disciples out on a short-term missionary trip with specific instructions. Before he sent them out, he warned them of the persecution to come. So he tells them this: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Being sly without sin. Another translation says, “Be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.” To live in the world, but not of the world.
But pastor, what about the dishonesty? I look at this text the same way that I look at the rich, young ruler in Matthew 19, who in a way, sorrowful because he had great possessions. It’s not the hope. It’s not the hope that the manager will turn to the Master and confess his dishonesty. When the Word of Jesus came into Zacchaeus’ ears, did he not repent in his words and his actions? Thus, this is our hope.
Like the older brother in the prodigal son parable, is it not the desire of the father for his son to realize the gifts that are his through the relationship with his father? Entrance into the celebration in the Father’s house is not through works, but by grace. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. In verse 4 of our epistle, it reads, “God our Savior desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
So in verse 5, as forgiven sinners, you and I, as we journey through the wilderness of this world, drawing closer each day to the promised land of Heaven, we confess there is one God. And there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Thus, by grace we live. Amen.
The peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds. The gifts that God has given to us be with you. Amen.