Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash

Audio: iTunes | Spotify | Download

᛭ INI ᛭

((5. Oops!: The Lord Jesus has difficult words today!))

The Lord has difficult words, today. Today, we’re getting Jesus’ most difficult parable. It comes on the heels of His three easiest and arguably most favorite: Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Two Lost Sons. It’s sandwiched between those and some sayings about money.

Does the parable of the unrighteous manager line up more with three parables of the “lost” or with the proverbs about money? Is it a hinge between the two? Of all the parables, today’s definitely fits with why Jesus tells parables: “That seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”

There’s a couple of paths forward through this most difficult parable, and both hinge on a very similar idea, which I’ll get to in a moment, but there’s always some unanswered questions at the end. There’s always something deeper in Jesus’ most difficult parable.

((4. Ugh!: He has difficult words for you today.))

Not only does Jesus tell a difficult parable today. He has some difficult words for you today. There’s really no way to dodge what He has to say, and what He’s got to tell you is so difficult not because they’re hard to understand. No, they’re difficult because they’re actually very easy to understand!They’re most clear—black and white!

The words are difficult because of that! In fact, they’re a burden. They’re unmanageable. They’re unpleasant to hear! They strike at one of the most precious things—your pocket book! Jesus talks about money (favorite false god!) and what to do with that money.

“If you [haven’t] been faithful in [what] is [someone else’s], who will give you [what’s] your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The warning is to be faithful, that is, to have faith in God and not in money. Our money often enslaves us, the sign of a false god. False gods always bring death, always make us cause the death or harm of others. The Fifth and Seventh Commandments come home to roost when it comes to the misuse of money. “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.” Maybe using your money to do so, because as the Seventh Commandment teaches, “We shall fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money and possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” Again, maybe using money and possessions to do so.

“We should fear and love our creditors, so that we are not late on a payment.” The borrower is slave to the lender. (Prov 22) Owe no one anything except to love one another. (Rom 13) Are you so free to give a tithe? A 10% offering? What about 5%? What about more than 10%? How free are you? How much does your pocketbook enslave you? Have you ever crunched the numbers so that you could, as Paul says, “give as he has decided in his heart”? How can you decide without looking? Sure, there’s obligations we all have! Maybe they’re the reason we can’t give more, but more often the excuse of why we can’t give at all. Even in the Old Testament the Lord allows certain offerings to be graded by financial ability—some more, some least. After all, “The Lord loves a cheerful giver,” (2 Cor 9) as the Lord says through Paul.

Now, I could give even more specifics, but that would most likely get me in a whole host of trouble. A sad commentary on how dearly we hold to our false god, Mammon (money), and how vigorously we’ll defend him: first with anger, then with words, and finally with actions. What we drive, the homes we keep, the food we eat, what fills our pockets and homes and lives, take up everything with only the remainder left for God—first fruits to us, gleanings to God; lavish spending for me, penny-pinching for Jesus. (It is a wonderful gift of the Spirit where this is not so.)

((3. Aha!: The end of such difficult words is death.))

“You cannot serve God and money.” How we try! But you just “hate the one and love the other, or [are] devoted to the one and despise the other.” And so which is which? Based on our wants, wish lists, and spending, you know the answer…

Our lust for luxury and craving for cash, reveals that it’s not worldly lenders that you’re indebted to. The borrower is slave to the lender. (Prov 22) You owe the true and living God for your many sins, your money sins. What will He do with someone like you with the sins you have?

((2. Whee!: THE TRUE GOD IS THE GENEROUS MASTER OF HIS HOUSE.))

When God overshadows our banks accounts and financials, what sort of God will you have? We’d surely expect something similar to what happened to the unrighteous manager in the parable: “What is this that I hear about you? Turn in your ledger. You can no longer be manager.” We, too, deserve to be removed from being stewards of God’s bounty and put in the poor house.

That is indeed what you deserve, but instead you find out you have another sort of God. Mammon, money, works that way, but not the true and living God.

THE TRUE GOD IS THE GENEROUS MASTER OF HIS HOUSE.

See, how generous He is in the Parable! (Possibly what that unrighteous manager was banking on.) He suffers His kingdom to be given away! He suffers the loss Himself so that His debtors have an easier time. In fact, He suffers Himself, to the point of death, even death on the cross for you. He dies for how you sin with His money.

THE TRUE GOD IS THE GENEROUS MASTER OF HIS HOUSE.

He cancels your debts, far more than the dishonest, unrighteous manger. The manager only lessened the debt for personal gain. The true God, in His Son, Jesus Christ, cancels your debts 100%, not for personal gain but to gain you. The Prince of Life gave His life into death, He shed His blood to pay your eternal debts. That is how generous the Master of the house is. What your money cannot buy, He gives away for free—the forgiveness of all your sins. He anoints with the most precious oil—Christ’s righteousness— in Holy Baptism. He gives you bountifully of His Bread—His very body and also blood for you, for your forgiveness.

(( 1. Yeah!: He is doubly generous!))

Money is a cruel master—never enough. And at the end of the day—or rather at the end of your life and the end of the world it will fail. The True and Living God is a generous master, and He never fails and never runs out. He always has more to give and supply. He is doubly generous not only supplying the forgiveness of sins, but also supplying what we need to support this body and life.

He gives what you need and possibly more. If not, you may end up being worldly poor, spending as much as we’re given in service of God’s kingdom as well as loving our families, our friends, our neighbors. He may give you more, through which He is generous to other people. In terms of farming: it’s His field, His seed, His crops, His rain, His yields—for you.

He forgives your love and care of money. He says your positioning of money as god will land you in the eternal poor house of hell. “You won’t get out until you’ve paid the last penny.” Since it’s a debt you can’t repay. You’ll never get out. But out of undeserved mercy, He forgives your sins. Frees you from your false god and says, “All that’s Mine anyway.”

He gives you of His bountiful goodness, not only for this life, but the life to come. Why worry about how you’ll make it? He already is generous in His Son—His death, His resurrection, His baptism, His Supper. You’ve already made it. He’s working it so you can benefit others. And in eternal life the Lord will say, as Isaiah prophesies: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The eternal wedding party of Jesus and the Church that has no end.

᛭ INI ᛭