Trinity
9 – August 5th, 2012 – Luke 16:1-9
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
“For the sons of this world are more shrewd
in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” With these words, Christ Jesus our Lord lays
down the gauntlet, He really chides us.
We here, we who know Christ, we run around like fools, whereas the
wicked, the evil act least act shrewdly, at least take stock of their situation
and what is really going on. This text
today is a wake up call, a call for Christians to start thinking, pondering
their life, their salvation – but Jesus does this in a backhanded way. Instead of holding a positive example before
our eyes, Jesus shows us a liar, a cheat, a thief – one who plays the game of
the world well, and we are supposed to draw the parallel to our own lives. This we will do this morning God
willing. Let us begin first by examining
the shrewdness of this manager.
“There was a rich man who had a manager, and
charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.” Now, this is the first sign, the first
inkling that the manager was shrewd.
This manager has a cushy job – he’s basically in charge of buying and
selling possessions for a rich man, he’s in charge of the business. And what’s he doing – he’s skimming a bit off
the top. He’s been sweetening his deals
with other people and living the good life.
He’s like the businessman today who uses the company card for “business”
– because of course he needed to take that potential customer out to the finest
restaurant in town, take him out for a nice round of golf on the company
expense account. He needed to take that
expensive business “trip” all on the company dime. Maybe even just a little extra old fashion
skimming as well. Again, this seems like
a pretty sweet deal – but here is the problem.
He’s dipped a little too deeply, enjoyed a bit too much of the high life
with the company footing the bill – and he got called out. “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
shoe drops. You’ve been wasting my
possessions – you’re fired. Go collect
your books and bring them to me tomorrow.
So now the situation has changed. Instead of being able to live this life of
luxury, he’s losing his job. The tables
are turned. So, what will this man
do? Weep? Rant?
Complain? No – he takes stock of
his situation. “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.” Let’s see what we can do, shall we? I’ve had a nice, cushy job – but that’s going
away. I can’t dig – I’m a soft, indoor
worker, that type of job would kill me.
I’m too proud to beg. Now,
consider – this isn’t really admirable… we value strength, we know you
shouldn’t let pride get in the way – but this manager is a wicked lout. He’s a weakling, he’s sleezy – but he is at
least honest about himself. When
troubles come, there are no vain boasts about what he’s going to do, no
bluster. He knows his limitations, great
as they are. And so, he hatches a
plan. “I have decided what to do, so
that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their
houses.’” You know what – I
haven’t turned the books in yet. It’s
time to cut a deal, it’s time to get in good with other folks, so that way I
can sponge off of them and land on my feet.
“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.’” And the plan goes into
effect. He is going to give people a
discount. One man owes 100 measures of
olive oil – now because of the manager he only owes 50. A measure of olive oil was 875 gallons – so,
what – fourty-some-thousand gallons of olive oil discount. That’s a pretty penny. Or the wheat – a measure was 1200 bushels or
so – here fellow, take 24,000 bushels of wheat on me. If someone gave you 24,000 bushels of wheat
and then knocked on your door and said, “Well, I got fired, I don’t have a
place to stay, do you mind if I crash here for a bit” of course you are going
to let him in and stay.
And with things all set up, things all
prepared, the accounts get turned in.
And it’s all technically legal – the manager was still an authorized
agent, he had authority to deal. “The
master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” And the master had to hand it to him
– the guy was sharp – a liar, a cheat and needed to be fired, but he was
sharp. This is shrewdness according to
the ways of the world, where it is expected that you are supposed to lie,
cheat, and steal all in order to get ahead, all in order to live it up
now. And this manager is shrewd for a
son of this world.
But now, what of you, what of the sons
of light? What is shrewdness, what is
true wisdom for us? Well, let’s go
through the story again, but we are going to flip it and think of it in terms
of a child of light. So to begin, we had
a manager who was wasting his master’s possessions. How does that apply, how does that describe
the Christian? Well, consider what we as
Christians are. We are stewards of God’s
wisdom and God’s blessings. We know
God’s truth, we know the Law, we know the commandments, we know what is good
and God pleasing. We have blessing after
blessing from God – all the first article gifts that we talk about in the
explanation to the Creed – body and soul, house and home, family and friends. And what do we do? We waste them. We ignore the commandments and sin. We engage in wickedness and vice. We abuse our blessings – instead of seeing
them as gifts we vainly boast that we have earned them. Instead of being content and trusting in God,
we covet and fret about making more and more.
We know the Good things of God, and yet we sin in thought, word, and
deed. And in this we see that we aren’t
as shrewd as the manager. He at least
lived what he thought was the good life – and we, we know what it is that is
good. We know what is God pleasing. We know how to live, we know how to have
peace and contentment and security. And
what do we do? We blow it. We waste it.
We worry when told not to worry, we hate our enemies when told to pray
for them. We fill our lives with sin
that wastes and destroys and taints the blessings we have received, and
everything turns to dust and ashes in our hands. We give over to sin.
And then we get called on it. Even as the manager was brought before the
rich man, so the Law of God, when preached, lays us bare, shows us our
sin. Give an account of your actions –
have you been perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect? Or have you wasted what He has given you? And just as the manager had to turn in his
account – well, the wages of sin is death.
So the Law comes crashing down – you have sinned, and you will die. That’s what’s going to happen. So what becomes the reaction? Often the reactions are unwise. How many people who know better still live as
though they will never die? How many
Christians live in denial, pretending that they aren’t sinners, pretend that
they haven’t offended God with their sin.
How many think that they will just be able to work out things with God
by their own strength, by their own powers?
There’s a lot of ego, there’s a lot of pride, there’s a lot of people
who think God owes them. That’s utter
foolishness – the manager knew that he was up a creek… you would be wise to
recognize this as well. By your own
powers, by your own strength, you cannot make things up to God, you cannot find
a way out of your own sin, you cannot save yourself. It’s only vain human pride and folly that
would say otherwise, but yet so many Christians end up falling to folly, end up
falling to pride.
No, often we are not shrewd, often we
are not wise. We must see ourselves, our
sin, our lack truly, and then we must realize that we are weak. We are weak, but God is strong. In the story, the manager lives not by his
own strength, but he lives off of the master – he makes his living by living
off of the master’s stuff. Likewise –
you will not have salvation or redemption by your own efforts or power – you
only have salvation in Christ. It is not
your hard work that will redeem you – it is Christ’s work. It is Christ’s death and resurrection which
wins you life and salvation – anything else is a waste. If we trust in ourselves, we will die – if we
trust in Christ Jesus, if we delight in the salvation which He earned for us,
we will be received into the life everlasting.
And this is the wondrous truth that we cling to – that the Holy Spirit
who has given us faith points us to over and over. We are saved by faith in Christ Jesus, apart
from the works of the Law. And so over
and over Christ comes to us, sends us His Word to drive us to repentance,
repentance away from our sin and foolishness – and instead He holds before us
His Cross, He says to us, “Behold, I have paid the full penalty for your sin –
I have swallowed up your death, and because I live, you too shall live and have
life in My Name.”
Christ our Lord warns us, warns us
that sin and Satan will try to shift our focus away from Christ Jesus, away
from His Cross. He calls out to you
today to be wise, to be shrewd. He calls
out to you today so that you would keep your focus upon Him and the salvation
He has won for you. He brings His
forgiveness and mercy, His Spirit to you in His Word proclaimed, in His Holy
Supper. Be wise, be shrewd – cling to
Christ and His salvation, and you will have life abundantly. God grant that He
continually fix our eyes upon Christ! In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
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