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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
951 fades into the background, and the day of standing on 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, it starts tuning out as the mind fills itself with other
stuff while the sin-filled world twists God’s Word, intends 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
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 it 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 is 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
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
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 we see where
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 in 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
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,
but what about the dishonesty?
See, 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
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.
