1 Corinthians 10.6-13 + Luke 16.1-9
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
Today’s gospel lesson is one of the more difficult texts the church year presents to us. A rich man’s steward—the administrator of his house and estate—was accused of wasting his master’s goods. The rich man summons his steward, saying, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.” In that moment, the steward does something he hadn’t done up to this point. He thinks about his future. What is he going to do when he relinquishes the ledger and is no longer employed? Manual labor is out. Begging is out of the question. So, he decides to do more of what he’s been doing up to this point. He defrauds his master some more so that when he is put of out of the stewardship, they may receive him into their houses. Who are these who may receive him into their houses? His master’s debtors. He called his master’s debtors to him. The first, a man who owed the rich man one hundred measures of oil, has his bill cut in half. Now he owes the rich man fifty measures of oil instead. To another who owed the rich man a hundred measures of wheat, he takes off one-fifth so that he now owes eighty measures of wheat.
Then comes the kicker. The master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. This is what makes this parable one of Jesus’ most difficult. The steward continues in his unrighteousness. He defrauds his master one final time on the way out the door, and the master commends him for his shrewdness. Not only that, but Jesus explains the parable to His disciples, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” Now, Jesus isn’t commending theft, malfeasance, or fraud. Those are sins, and Jesus is not a minister of sin. No, he commends shrewdness in the stewardship in which God has placed you. He says, “the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” The sons of this world are unbelievers. And they are more shrew in their generation, among themselves, with the things of this world, than are the sons of light, that is, believers. Jesus tells His disciples to learn shrewdness from unbelievers but apply it to their stewardships from God, the blessings God has given them, so that they use God’s gifts in such a way to benefit them for eternity.
How does that work? Use the things of this life to help others. Use unrighteous mammon for the betterment of your neighbor. Jesus calls it unrighteous because so often mammon—money and wealth—are used unrighteously. The steward in the parable is an example using mammon unrighteously. He wasted his master’s goods on himself, his own pleasure and comfort. He gave no thought to the fact that everything he wasted belonged to someone else. He gave no thought to using his master’s goods to benefit others to the glory of the master’s reputation! He used it unrighteously. He wasted it on himself and himself alone. But how does using the things of this life for the betterment of your neighbor, how does making friends with unrighteous mammon, lead to them receiving you into an everlasting home? It means simply this, that when you die and enter into your everlasting abode, those whom you helped in this life who were also believers will welcome you. This is but part of the reward God has graciously promised to believers for their good works.
But how? How do you be shrewd like the sons of this world, except for the benefit of those around you, not yourself? How do you make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon? By using your master’s goods for the sake of others within your stewardships. All the goods you have belong to your Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. David reminds us in 2 Chronicles 29:11, “For all that is in heaven and in hearth is Yours, O Lord.” Everything belongs to Christ, but He has graciously appointed each of you as His stewards in different places. Has he called you to be a husband? That is a stewardship. Has he called you to be a wife? That is a stewardship, as well. Has Christ called you to be a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent? Those are stewardships. Has he called you to labor? That, too, is a stewardship, in which you work to benefit those around you. Are you a student? That, too, is a stewardship which is preparing you to serve others. Your vocations are holy orders from God, stewardships over which He has placed you, and each stewardship has responsibilities and duties, to God and to the neighbor, and different goods of the master which you are to steward out. Jesus wants you to use unrighteous mammon—the things of this life—righteously in your stewardships. To misuse the master’s goods only corrupts them and oneself, and ends in being casting out of the Master’s house.
This is also true of the spiritual goods God graciously lavishes upon us. They, too, can be misused. This is Paul’s point in today’s epistle. In the preceding verses, Paul explained how God had given Israel at the time of the exodus great spiritual blessings. They were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food,and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” And yet God was not pleased with them and scattered their bodies in the wilderness. Why? Because they became idolaters. They practiced sexual immorality, they even tempted Christ Himself with their complaining about the gifts God had given them, preferring to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. They wasted their Master’s goods. The result was that the entire generation, except for two men, died in the wilderness and did not enter the Promised Land.
Paul tells the Corinthians, and you, that “these things became our examples, to the intend that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” “They were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” The goods they wasted were both physical and spiritual. They had been baptized into Moses in the Red Sea. They ate the same spiritual food and drink as we do, which is Christ. They were called God’s firstborn son. But they became proud and imagined they deserved more. They became proud and imagined that, as God’s chosen people whom He had redeemed with His mighty right hand, they could pursue their desires. They misused the great spiritual gifts God had given them to puff themselves up and insulate them against condemnation. But as the unrighteous steward misused his master’s goods and was punished, so Israel was punished for misusing the earthly and spiritual goods God had graciously bestowed on them. They did not ponder how to use God’s gifts rightly, for their sake, for the sake others, to the glory of the Lord who had saved them.
Your highest calling, your highest stewardship, is of God’s spiritual gifts. Be shrewd in how you use them, so that the things of this life do not distract you away from them as your highest good. Use the blessings God gives you in the gospel for your own benefit, so that you refrain yourself from sin, so that you repent if you fall into temptation to sin. Use your baptism and the blessings God gave you therein to comfort and encourage yourself toward daily repentance, faith, and putting the old man to death so that the new man can daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity. And use the spiritual goods your Master has given you for the benefit of others, too. Speak God’s word to them in your vocations. Comfort each other and edify one another (1 Th 5:11).
Use your Master’s goods—the physical goods of this life and the spiritual goods in His word—according to God’s word. Use the goods of this life and use them shrewdly. Put thought into how you use the stuff of this life that your Master has given you. In doing so, you let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Mt 5:16). And be thoughtful in how you use the spiritual goods your Master gives you in the gospel as well. And again, use them shrewdly. For the devil, the world, and even your own sinful flesh tempts you to neglect them on the one side and misuse them on the other. Use your Master’s goods in such a way that you benefit from them, especially eternally, so that when you fail, those whom you have helped may receive you into an everlasting home. Amen.
