The Unjust Steward

Prayer

Our Father, which art in heaven,

You dwell in the high and lofty places, and your heart is with the contrite and lowly.

You sit between the cherubim, and you are near to those who are afflicted and brought low.

Your ways are higher than our ways, so we can come to you for grace in our time of need.

We are quick to anger, quick to take offense, quick to judge others and justify ourselves; but your ways are not those ways. You are quick to compassion, plenteous in mercy, endless in lovingkindness.

Father, teach us your ways. Hallow and magnify your name in us, that we might rightly know you – a God of judgment and justice, yes – but a God abounding in mercy and faithfulness and compassion.

You never get tired of us. You never reproach us in our need, for you know our need even better than we do ourselves.

And you delight to hear our prayers.

Fill us with your spirit, that we might begin to know the love of Christ which passes all understanding. And as we know him, give us the grace to be conformed to his image.

Teach us kindness and love, fill us with joy and peace. Teach us patience and endurance. Give us understanding hearts.

Forgive our sins, which are many. Forgive the sins that we know about. Forgive the presumptuous sins. Forgive the sins that our sinful nature carries with us. Forgive the sins that we haven’t committed yet.

For we cling to your promises – where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Our sin abounds, father. Deliver us.

In our community, we pray your favor and blessing on those who seek to alleviate suffering and bring comfort to the traumatized. Bless TIP, A Women’s Friend, Liv On, Casa de Esperanza, Freed – working to bring safety to the endangered, help to the wounded, hope to the comfortless. Bless their work.

Provide food for the hungry. Give safety and justice to all who have to flee from their abusive homes, give hope and comfort to the downtrodden and discouraged.

Bless our state. Tear down false shepherds and false prophets, and raise faithful shepherds who have tasted your goodness and know what it is.

Bless our leaders. Bless governor Newsom and those who work in our assembly. Give wisdom and righteousness. Protect the unborn, and give justice to the oppressed and abused. Give wisdom and prudence to our president and congress, that we might live peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness.

Father, we pray that you would give healing to those who are sick. Protect us from this virus and give us humility and patience. There are many who suffer from chronic pain and chronic illness. Cause them to look up to where Christ is, on the throne. Remind us all that our life is not here, but seated at the right hand of God. Give healing and wisdom to Bud and Hugo.

And while we walk this valley of tears, give us days of freedom from pain. Give us quiet oases of rest on our journey that we might not become too discouraged.

And deliver us from the evil one, who seeks to divide, devour and destroy. We are not unaware of his devices. Fear, envy, pride, distrust, individualism – deliver us from him as he seeks to drive us to despair.

Ground our hope and our trust in your word alone, which cannot be shaken.

May we today learn a bit more about the deep and unfathomable love of Jesus, and may we know your power to raise the dead. Give life to our dusty bones.

Bless the reading and preaching of your word today. Give us ready hearts, quick to hear. Guide my lips.

And give us peace.

Psalm 19:14 KJV 1900

14 Let the words of my mouth, And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

Scripture

Luke 16 NKJV

1 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ 3 “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So 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?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” 14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. 18 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. 19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ 27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”

Sermon

Before I begin, a quick note on the interpretation of parables is in order.

Jesus sometimes told parables to confuse and confound those who rejected him.

Jesus sometimes told parables to illustrate a point he was making.

When you are interpreting the parables, it is important to keep in mind the main point that Jesus is making.

For example, in our parable, the steward was truly dishonest. Jesus said he was “idikea” - unjust.

If you don’t keep in mind the purpose of the parable, you might come to the conclusion that Jesus is commending dishonesty and theft. He certainly is not.

He explains his meaning in verses 9-11

So I want to look at the parable, then I want to look at the application...

The parable

In those ancient households, it was common for a rich landowner to have a slave or an employee that ran the day to day operations of the whole household.

This “steward” carried the authority of the owner and conducted all transactions in the name of the landowner - and the landowner might not even know what is going on, depending on how trustworthy the steward is.

The steward signed loans, did financial transactions, signed promissory notes, and would often be in charge of every single detail of the household operation.

Joseph had such an arrangement with Potiphar.

Genesis 39:4–6 NKJV

4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

This is the cultural background.

It comes to the attention of the landowner that his steward has not done a good job - and he is given his walking papers.

He is about to be fired. We don’t know how long he has, but he is given enough time to put all of his papers in order, handle his final arrangements, and prepare the accounts for someone else to take over.

He is in trouble.

There won’t be a severance package. There won’t be welfare to fall back on. As soon as he is fired, he will be in desperate need for a place to live and food to eat, for he is about to lose everything.

He has had an office job his whole life, so he doesn’t have the physical shape to dig ditches or drive oxen. Begging is right out. He’s too proud for that. He would lose all credibility in society if he turned to begging.

So what does he do?

Remember, the master’s goods are still all in his hands. He can do with them as he pleases.

So he calls every one of his master’s creditors in for a meeting and renegotiates how much they owe.

You owe 100? Cut it in half.

You owe 80? Take 20 off.

Since he is the steward, he can do this. All the master has is put in his hand.

And this makes people so uncomfortable. “But he just ripped off his boss!”

Yes, he did. There is no getting around it. Jesus called him the “unjust steward”.

But here is the point - when he got fired, he now had friends.

The master acknowledged his cunning.

He understood his situation; he understood the nature of his stewardship. He used the goods that he had temporary power over to relieve the burden of others, and he used it to his advantage to make friends. He is now in a far better position when he gets the boot.

We are all on the verge of being fired

Proverbs 6:6–8 NKJV

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, 7 Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, 8 Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.

Winter is coming when we can’t gather in the harvest.

And we are about to get fired from our position.

You shouldn’t need a whip to explain to you what you ought to do - Jesus and Solomon are saying the same thing .

Be at least as smart as an ant. Be at least as wise as this unbelieving crook.

Nothing we have is ours. It is lent to us.

The term is “stewardship”.

This means that not only our money, but also our gifts, our talents, our possessions, our power, all of it - are given to us by God, and we will give an account of what we do with it.

In certain circles, “stewardship” is almost synonymous with tight-fistedness.

“For the church, use the cheapest materials - good stewardship, you know.

“For the pastor, he needs to know how to squeeze a penny. Good stewardship, you know.

Those who were stingy were praised as being good stewards; and those who were generous were belittled as being gullible and wasteful.

But that really has nothing to do with what stewardship means in the Bible. It comes from this parable.

It means that nothing we have belongs to us. It is merely lent to us for a time. And we are about to be fired.

And if we are wise, we will use those things that God has given us to relieve the burden of our neighbor. To restore dignity where it has fallen, to lift up the hurting and wounded, and to give or our time, our resources and our power to help our neighbor wherever we can.

Universally in scripture, stewardship means generosity, kindness, giving without expecting anything in return - because we came into this world naked and we will leave this world naked.

Make friends for yourself

So - Jesus tells his followers, “use the unrighteous mammon to make friends for yourselves - so that when you fail, which you will, you will have people waiting to welcome you in your everlasting home.”

Let’s put this in the context of Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees.

As I have said before, the Pharisees set up an elaborate system. They were dedicated to earning God’s favor through a relentless system of rules. As the Romans got more and more powerful, and as the nation got more and more openly lawless, they responded with an even tighter hold on their scrupulosity

Only by cleansing the world of this riffraff, only by getting together enough power to drive the Romans out, will we be able to again be received into God’s kingdom.

The Christ, when he comes, will help us in this great battle.

But in order for that battle to succeed, it was extremely important not to waste resources. There are only limited resources and we need to use them properly.

They would even have called that good stewardship.

Ultimately, as Luke puts it, they were “lovers of money”.

Their bank accounts determined their standing before men, their seats at the tables, their invitations to the feasts, their worthiness to receive the blessing of God.

That is the context of the strife, which I have spoken of before.

Now, with that context, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. A disciple was one who followed. They were being taught how to be like Jesus.

A disciple, when his training is complete, is like his teacher.

That’s the point.

So what was Jesus like?

Everything he did, everything he possessed, including his own body, was put in service to God in order to restore dignity to those who didn’t deserve it at all.

He used his tremendous power to heal the sick, to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, to give hope and dignity to the outcast and abused; he used his voice to speak words of comfort to the sheep and to drive the wolves away.

And he did this because he did not enter the world to serve himself, but to serve his Father in heaven. He did what he did for the “joy that was set before him”

And that joy was the reception of his church into his everlasting arms. He received his inheritance, he received his reward. It was the Holy Spirit that was poured out on his church, drawing them to faith and filling them with the gifts of love and joy and peace.

Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus....

And with all of his followers, he give gifts. He gives some 10, some 50, some 100.

Every human on earth has these gifts - some with money, some with talents, some with power, some with health and strength...

But Jesus is talking to his disciples - those whom he told to “follow me”

This life is going to end and your body will rot in the ground. What do your money, your beauty, your health, your gifts, your power and all of your possessions have in common?

All of it will be left behind when your body decays into dust.

What can you take with you?? Make friends with those gifts while you still can.

He explains with his story of the rich man and Lazarus.

There was once a rich man - lived in luxury, dined sumptuously. The tongue of a peacock. The eggs of a fish. To dine sumptuously in that day meant a LOT of waste. Having far more wealth that one actually needs was considered a virtue in the Greco-Roman world. Great show was made of how grand and sumptuous the feasts were.

And outside his gate there was a starving beggar. Even the dogs were kinder than the people were to him.

To a Pharisee, they would have envied the rich man. Obviously favored of God, deserving of God’s kindness. A man didn’t get rich unless God blessed him and God doesn’t bless sinners.

HENCE - the rich man was blessed.

As for Lazarus - Really? Why do these people have to stink up our sidewalks?

Probably drank himself here. Probably drugs. Obviously, not blessed by God, and therefore a sinner. Don’t waste resources on him. Resources are scarce.

How can we build churches if we give money to people like that?

How can we take care of ourselves if we give money to people like that?

If we gave our money to sinners, who knows what they will do with it!?

And then, if we are found wasteful of God’s gifts, we might be partakers in whatever sin he is guilty of.

Lazarus dies - but Angels carry him to heaven.

The rich man dies in luxury surrounded by mourners, and he is cast into hell.

I will preach on this text on another day, but I wanted to use this to illustrate what Jesus meant about “making friends with unrighteous mammon”.

What if this rich man had understood the dire warnings about death and judgment and fled to Jesus for refuge?

How then would he have viewed this beggar? With contempt? Or would he have received him as a fellow beggar, a fellow sinner, a fellow Christian - provided for him, restored his dignity, restored his voice, spoke with him as a brother, face to face?

Is not that the result of truly coming to Christ? Is not that the result of being filled with his spirit?

And then what would have happened?

The rich man might not have died surrounded by sycophants and flatterers, he might have died alone and with a lot of side-eyed glances - but he would have been welcomed to heaven by Abraham, Lazarus, and all the other brothers and sisters that went before.

Faithfulness is what is least

Jesus calls this “faithfulness in what is least”. No matter how much wealth, power, strength, beauty you have on this earth - they are earthly things. They fade and die.

When you are fired, when the winter comes, when the grave takes you away - and it will -

Can you say that you were faithful in what is least?

It is not about earning your salvation. It is about being a disciple - living a life of gratitude

Understanding that all of your good gifts are lent to you for a season

And therefore - if you would see a joyful, meaningful life HERE and blessing in the world to come - make friends using that unrighteous mammon.

1 Peter 3:8–12 NKJV

8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. 11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

There are some people who live their lives in such a way that it causes a grey cloud on the thought of heaven in the lives of everyone that knows them.

How I long for heaven. But what if that guy is there? Ugh

And, yes, I know the theology - that we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye,.

But Jesus point is that if we are truly disciples of Christ, should not our deaths cause grief in those who we come in contact with? Should not our presence in heaven cause our fellow believers to long for heaven even more?

If we are disciples of Christ, should not believers desire to spend eternity with us, as well? - for we are all members of one body, eating one bread, with one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

How can we be faithful with little, how can we make friends with our unrighteous mammon?

How do we treat the single mom using food stamps to pay for groceries?

How do we treat the immigrant? What can we do to bring mercy to our communities?

Can we carry water bottles for the homeless? Can we help with food banks? Can we cheerfully pay taxes?

What attitude do we bring to the Lazarus on our streets? What can we do better?

How do we treat the teenage girl that got into trouble? The woman with her children trying to escape her violent husband?

Kindness, generosity, prayers, a change in attitude, putting away fear, and simply being there.

We can’t help them all, but to use that as an excuse is deadly. The rich man wasn’t condemned for not creating a whole new society. He was condemned because he didn’t help Lazarus, right outside his door.

James 4:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

It is simply letting the love of Christ dwell richly in us and overflow in our communities.

If we can’t manage that, then maybe we should question whether we are disciples at all.

Luke 16:11 NKJV

11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

I will spend more time on mammon next week.