I
have to admit that this passage from Luke has been one that I have
puzzled over for years and if I weren’t preaching from the common
lectionary passages for Luke I would avoid it all together. Without
a question this passage deals with the difficult subject of wealth.
Most ministers do not like to talk about money for various reasons.
We do not want to give the appearance that the church is all about
money nor do we want to upset those paying our salary. But,
there's no excuse. Fully two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings in one way
or another involve money. Therefore, it is not a topic to be shied
away from.
There
are several puzzling aspects of this parable. First, why is the
dishonest or unrighteous manager or rather steward in the end
commended for cheating his master. His master fires him for cutting
himself in on the profits. Yet, when he learns he will loose his
job and to keep from having to get a real job he lets his master’s
account holders reduce their debt so that he can live for free in
their homes. No matter which way you turn, the master is loosing his
wealth so why commend the unrighteous steward? Second, why does
Jesus tell his disciples to use their worldly wealth or rather their
unrighteous mammon to gain friends for themselves so that these
friends will welcome them into their eternal homes? And finally,
this one more blunt than puzzling, Jesus tells his disciples that
they cannot serve both God and wealth for they will inevitably love
and be devoted to one over the other and the primary affection will
likely be mammon.
Well, I think the key for unlocking
the puzzling aspects of this passage lies in the last part of verse
eight when Jesus says: “For the people of this world are shrewder
in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”
And then again in verse sixteen: "The Law and the Prophets were
proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the Kingdom
of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”
So, God entrusted the light or the grace of proclaiming the Law and
the prophets to the management of the ancient Israelites. If you
read through the Old Testament one thing that stands out is that the
Israelites time and again prove themselves to be unrighteous
stewards. They forget the Law and murder the prophets and then turn
away from God and worship idols to the extent that the community life
in ancient Israel is an abomination before the Triune God of grace
where as the prophet Amos contends. Amos accounts that the wealthy in Israel in his day were buying the needy for
slaves at the price of a pair of sandals. God repeatedly had to pass
judgement on his people for their idolatry and its effects on the
poor in Israel. He even sent them into exile in Babylon for their
unrighteous stewardship of the light he had entrusted to them.
In Jesus day the scribes and the
Pharisees were the primary ones in Israel trying to be the people of
light that the Trinity intended ancient Israel to be. They thought
that because they were blood descendents of Abraham all they had to
do was obey the law of Moses to the tee and they would have a place
in the Kingdom of God when the Messiah came whom they expected to
come at any moment. Unfortunately, they ignored the prophets and
twisted the Law (usually to their own financial advantage) and worse
they became legalistic, self-righteous hypocrites. The Pharisees
were largely wealthy hypocrites who thought that the Lord had blessed
them with wealth because of their obedience to the law and worse they
looked in judgement at those who were not as they were.
Now, in this parable of the dishonest
or unrighteous steward, ancient Israel and more specifically the
Scribes and Pharisees are the unrighteous steward who has lost the
task of proclaiming the light of the Law and the prophets and must
give an account for his stewardship of it. In self-righteousness,
they had been hogging its benefits for themselves and not being the
blessing to the nations that the Trinity had promised Abraham that
his descendants would be. Jesus’ message for them in this parable,
for they heard it too, is that mercy is the way into the kingdom of
God not trying to force one’s way in with some hypocritical show of
self-righteousness. This is why Jesus commends the shrewdness of the
dishonest manager. Reducing the account holders’ debts was an act
of mercy. The Scribes and Pharisees would be as shrewd if they would
show mercy to the “sinner” rather than condemnation.
Moving on to the disciples, to us
Christians the Trinity has entrusted the light of the grace of the
Kingdom of God. To speak of the kingdom of God is to speak of the
Trinity's presence and reign among his people, the followers of
Jesus. To proclaim the good news of the Kingdom is to say that God
in his infinite mercy has come to dwell among humanity; first God the
Son as the man Jesus of Nazareth, and he continues to do so now
through the Holy Spirit dwelling with and in us. Therefore, we
invite all peoples to come and live accordingly and living
accordingly is sharing life in community with others where the peace
of Christ is really present, where there is genuine mutual affection
for one another arising out of personal knowledge of God the Father’s
own steadfast love and faithfulness.
The Kingdom of God is about community,
people bearing with one another and bearing one another up in the
love of Jesus Christ. The end of chapter four of the Book of Acts
gives a staggering image of what this community of the Kingdom of God
looks like: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one
claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared
everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to
testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was
upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time
to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money
from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was
distributed to anyone as he had need.”
This passage from acts describes
beautifully what Jesus meant when he told his disciples to use their
worldly wealth to make friends for themselves so that these friends
may welcome them into the eternal dwellings. Sharing what wealth we
have with others according to need to the point of exhausting it is
Jesus rule for the handling of wealth in his kingdom. This is what
he is speaking of when he tells his disciples “whoever is faithful
with a little will be faithful with a lot”. After all, the wealth
that we have really is not our own. We, our very selves, belong to
Jesus Christ. He has bought us not with a pair of sandals but with
his own blood. We are his beloved slaves and everything we have is
his own wealth which he has entrusted to us. If we are not faithful
in sharing the worldly wealth that is at our disposal and which we
have gained through questionable motives, how can we expect God to entrust us with the
true riches of his kingdom: the peace of Christ and joy in his
Spirit, the sure and certain knowing of God’s love, and genuine
Christian community. I may be stepping out on a limb and sawing
behind me, but Jesus seems to indicate here that in the Kingdom of
God there is a direct correlation between generously sharing wealth
(to the point of exhausting it) and truly receiving the riches and
richness of the Kingdom of God in community.
To conclude, for the people of ancient
Israel and those like them who are stuck in hypocritical
self-righteousness learning mercy by showing mercy is the first step into the
kingdom. The basic lesson in mercy comes from knowing that Jesus
died for us taking our sin and death unto himself in order to end our
sin and death and the gracious result is that the Father’s love for
him and his love for the Father are freely given to us by and in the
gift of the Holy Spirit that we might live in the new life
inaugurated in his resurrection from the dead. It is only by the
Trinity's presence with us making us alive by bringing us into
himself that we can proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Yet, for those who know this basic lesson in mercy and who strive to
live accordingly the problem is wealth for the love of wealth threatens our God-given community. If we are not faithful in our
stewardship of the worldly wealth entrusted to us by sharing it
according to each other's need even to the point of exhausting it, how can we
expect the Triune God of grace to entrust us with the true wealth of
the Kingdom of God, his very self in Christian community? Jesus
meant it when he said we cannot serve both God and wealth. In Acts
chapter five right after Luke describes the wealth of community among
the believers he tells of Ananias and Sapphira who fell dead at the
Apostles' feet because they lied to the Holy Spirit and to the
community because they held back for themselves a portion of a land
sale they had promised to give to the community of believers. They
fell dead because of the love of wealth and the hypocrisy of wanting
to appear generous when they were selfish to the core. Here in the
Kingdom of God sharing wealth more than anything defines
faithfulness. So friends, be faithful with what the Trinity has
entrusted you and prove yourselves worthy of the true wealth of God’s
grace, peace, and mercy which abides among you freely. Amen.
