The Shrewdness of the Saints

 Luke 16:1-15

Few passages of Scripture have more confused Christians through the centuries than the verses of our Gospel lesson. So, let’s clear some of the confusion from the outset: Jesus isn’t here telling us to steal or lie like the dishonest business manager in His parable. But Jesus is telling us to be like the business manager in one way. We are to be shrewd–wise–not in the ways of the world like the manager was, but shrewd about our need for God.

One day, every human being, whether they want life with God while living on this earth or not, will see how much they need God at that moment when they die and, for the first time ever, see God face to face. The Bible tells us that, “each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12) And Jesus tells us today that we must, before that moment arrives like “a thief in the night,” be shrewd about life with God and how it can be received. But what does it mean to be shrewd or wise in our relationship with God?

First, we must be shrewd about the gap that exists between God in His holiness, and us in our sin. It’s a gap we can’t bridge by our good works, offerings, prayers, friendliness, or piety. To see the gap between God and us is to admit, with King David, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me…” (Psalm 51:5) Or, with the apostle Paul, we need to admit, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18) By nature, we are unrighteous, born sinners. If righteousness, which means to be innocent of sin and right with God, were a bank account, you and I would be born with an infinite deficit from the beginning. And by the wrong we do and the right we fail to do, we would only add to the tons of red ink in our accounts from the moment we’re born until the day we die.

This is like the wise insight of the dishonest manager in Jesus’ parable. Evidently, irrefutable evidence is given to his boss that he has been stealing, embezzling money. The master calls him in and tells the manager that he’s fired. “Turn in your books.” The manager doesn’t waste breath trying to convince the master that he isn’t guilty. Both he and the master know he’s guilty. The master was right, and he was wrong. This is precisely what wise people, shrewd people, understand in their relationship with God. God is right, and we are wrong. After being called out by the prophet Nathan for committing adultery and murder, King David didn’t try to excuse himself before God. Instead, he cried out to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” (Psalm 51:4) When we are wise, we see that David’s prayer must be our prayer too.

But there was another element to the shrewdness, the wisdom, of the dishonest manager in Jesus’ parable. In that culture, a wealthy master had the power to execute or make miserable the life of someone like the manager on the spot. Instead, the master only fires the manager. Knowing that he has a short amount of time to act, the manager hits on plan. Before the word gets around that he has been fired, and why, the manager calls in all his master’s debtors. He has them write new IOUs to the master, telling them to reduce what they owe his master by massive amounts. Folks, this would be like a bank officer calling in a farmer and saying, “Reduce what you owe this year for feed, seed, and machinery by $150,000,” or telling a homeowner, “Knock 80% off of the mortgage on your house.” Because the debtors don’t know the dishonest manager has already been fired, each of them walks away from having their debts dramatically reduced thinking what a fine man the master is and what a great guy the manager is. This way, though he no longer has a job with the master, the manager knows dozens of other people in the neighborhood willing to welcome him and hire him. Pretty shrewd, huh? And when the master finds out what his manager has done, costing him the ancient equivalent of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of dollars, he doesn’t blow up, kill the manager, or call the sheriff to have the manager arrested. Instead, Jesus concludes His story by saying, “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” (Luke 16:8) Now, why did the manager know his ploy would work? Because he knew the master was merciful.

And this brings us to the second way you and I must be shrewd, or wise, in our relationship with God. Our sin, the sin of us all, is serious business. God’s Word is clear: “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) We are bound to agree with The Small Catechism, when it says, “we sin every day and deserve nothing but punishment.” But in the face of the reality of our sin and the condemnation we deserve for it, here is the second bit of shrewdness we must have in our relationship with God: In Jesus Christ, God has forgiven you all your sins and opened up eternity with God for all who believe. No exceptions. Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) We can repent and believe in Jesus because we know our Master, the Lord we meet in Jesus, is merciful. The psalmist says, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Psalm 145:8) Jesus says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:17)

The shrewd person knows that the God Who sent His Son Jesus to take the death sentence for sin we deserve and raised Him up to tear open eternity to all who repent and believe in Jesus, also knows something else. We have no idea about how long we have to repent and trust in Christ. Not a moment of this life, the life in which Christ calls us to repent and believe in Him, is guaranteed to us. The manager acted when he could. And we too, must act when we can, living in “daily repentance and renewal,” daily turning from sin and death, and daily falling into the forgiving embrace of Jesus Christ, God the Son.

In another one of his parables, Jesus tells the story of a man who focused on making lots of money, building bigger and bigger barns to hold his crops. He does this only thinking about life in this world. Finally, Jesus says, God came to the man, and said, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20) That man was shrewd about the ways of the world, but he had no shrewdness about God. He had no repentance, and he had no saving faith. He met death naked in sin, not covered by the forgiveness and righteousness of Jesus. He condemned himself by His foolishness toward God.

Friends, the God we know in Jesus Christ loves you with an everlasting love. He wants you to be with Him forever. He wants to forgive your debts, your sins–whatever they may be: idolatry, covetousness, lying, adultery, thievery, murder by thought, word, or deed. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the tomb to erase sin’s power to condemn you. To all who are shrewd enough to know they are sinners and need help from outside themselves–from God through our Savior Jesus–and shrewd enough to see how merciful, and forgiving, and kind, and loving, God is, there is a welcome to God’s “eternal tents” now, even in this fallen world, and, one day, in the new heaven and the new earth Jesus will bring on the last day when He returns to set all things right, and in which we will live with God and His people for all eternity. This is the shrewdness of the saints of God, sinners covered by the forgiveness God gives through Jesus Christ alone. Again today, Jesus tells you, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

Because of His death and resurrection for you, friends, you can believe that ALL of that is true and that it is true now and for all eternity for you. Amen

Living Shrewdly

[Below, you'll find the live stream video from both of the morning worship services of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, as well as the text of the message shared at each service. I hope you find it helpful. Have a good week!]





Luke 16:1-15

The parable that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel lesson has caused Christians untold confusion through the centuries. So, let’s dispel the confusion right off the top!

Through this piece of fiction created by our Lord, Jesus is NOT approving stealing or dishonesty. God never contradicts Himself. So, Jesus, God the Son, isn’t using this parable to abolish the seventh commandment–”You shall not steal”--or the eighth commandment–”You shall not bear false witness.”

The rich man in Jesus’ parable does NOT compliment the dishonest manager for lying and stealing. The text itself tells us exactly what impressed the rich man in Jesus’ story. Verse 8: “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly…” (Luke 16:8) The word “shrewdly” translates the Greek word Luke uses here, φρονίμως, which can also be translated as wisely or prudently. The rich man praised his manager’s wisdom.

All of this raises a question. What made the dishonest manager in Jesus’ story wise? And, since Jesus told this particular parable to His disciples–believers in Him, like you and me–what does it mean for disciples to be wise?

First, being wise means hearing and understanding the implication of God’s Law. After the rich man fires the manager, he tells the manager that he must give an account of all he had wasted of the manager’s possessions. God’s Law tells us that we, like the dishonest manager, must give God an account of how we have managed or stewarded the gift of life He has given to us.

Folks, every minute we breathe is a gift from God Who formed us in our mothers’ wombs. The average American will live 40,498,088 God-given minutes on this earth. God’s Law demands, as Lutheran theologian Bo Giertz once noted, that we are accountable to God for our “thoughts, words, and deeds…[our] invisible desires and hidden prideful thoughts.” Every adulterous thought, every piece of gossip, every time we have spoken God’s name in vain, any time we’ve craved the possessions, successes, or blessings enjoyed by others, whenever we have been disrespectful of our parents or others in authority, are all instances of you and I squandering and mismanaging the minutes of life God gives to us.

In another of His parables, Jesus tells the story of a rich fool who wastes the minutes of his life by building bigger barns to hold all his wealth so that he can, in complete selfishness, tell himself to eat, drink, and be merry. But, Jesus says, before the fool can finish building his new barns, God steps in and tells him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.” (Luke 12:20)

Only a fool would think that they can live a life of unrepentant sin, misusing the gift of life God has given to each of us, and not have death, the rightful punishment for sin, catch up with us. And for those tempted to think they can manage their lives in a way pleasing to God in their own power and goodness, God’s Law disabuses us of such notions. Jesus says in Matthew 5:20, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And, in Matthew 5:48, he tells us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

How many perfect people do we have here this morning? I know I’m not one.

Being wise means hearing and understanding the implication of God’s Law.

But being wise also means understanding that there’s a deeper truth God has set loose in the universe. Being wise means receiving this truth with faith acting on the basis of that truth while we still have time.

What do I mean?

In Jesus’ parable, the manager was fired one day and told by the master that he needed to bring the books to the rich man the next. What he did was not in itself commendable: He called in his master’s debtors and forgave them massively. Of the two debtors Jesus mentions in the parable, the manager took it upon himself to forgive each of these men who probably farmed on the rich man’s land, an amount equal to more than 500-days wages a piece! The manager was using his boss’ wealth to win welcoming friends for himself.

Now, this would seem to be a risky ploy by the manager! If the rich man gets wind of this scheme, he could end up not just fired, but in prison!

Of course, it turns out that the rich man does find out. And this brings the unexpected plot twist of Jesus’ story. The rich man overlooks the dishonest manager’s crimes. That’s because, even if the manager is being unscrupulous, he’s finally, maybe for the first time since the rich man hired him, actually managing the rich man’s possessions. 

There appears to be a good reason the manager knew he could take such a chance. It’s this: The manager knew the heart, the character, and the kindness of his master.

Just like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) in the parable Jesus tells just before this one in Luke’s gospel, the manager knew that his master, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, wanted to forgive him.

And, friends, the crucified and risen Jesus, God the Son, Who died and rose for our sins, demonstrates how much God wants to forgive us our sins and give us life with God as free and gracious gifts for all who believe in Jesus! God wants to do that for us even though none of us has ever consistently managed the gift of life God has granted to us with faithfulness or wisdom.

Jesus isn’t telling us that if we lie and steal, we’ll be acting wisely. He IS telling us to wise up and understand that, even more than was true of the manager in today’s parable, we can trust in the kindness and grace of the God we meet in Jesus Himself to cover our sins! The God revealed to us in Jesus is effectively telling us again today: “The time has come…The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

The good news, or the gospel, tells us that while we have all failed to be good or sinless managers of our lives, God sent Jesus into the world and, according 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus bears the weight of our sin so that we can receive His righteousness!

In light of such love and grace and in light of our failure to measure up to the righteousness of God, the only action that makes any sense for us is to turn in repentance and faith to Jesus each day, to trust in Jesus for God’s charitable forgiveness of our sin, that is, for grace, and for life with God that begins now in this crumbling universe and continues into eternal perfection that death cannot destroy!

Those made wise by God’s Word know that when we daily–even moment by moment–throw ourselves on the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, all our misuse of this life is forgiven and we are made eternally clean and new!

God’s Word tells us: “..all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [but] all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

The one who daily turns to Jesus in trust is leading a life of God-given wisdom. Amen!

Being Shrewd Managers of God's Graces

Luke 16:1-15
[Audio of this message can be found here.]

Let’s get one thing off the table immediately as we look at the strange parable Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 16:1-15. The God we know in Jesus Christ does not commend thievery or dishonesty.

The seventh commandment still says, “You shall not steal.”

The eighth commandment still tells us: “You shall not bear false witness.”

The Savior Jesus, the foundational Truth of the universe, Who came into our world not to abolish God’s Law, but to fulfill it, would never compliment dishonesty in financial dealings. Nor would He compliment cheating. But Jesus does commend the manager’s shrewdness. And He commends the shrewd use of all that has come under His disciples’ control in this life. It remains commendable for you and me. Let's find out why.

This parable is, above all, about stewardship. Not just the stewardship of our money, but the stewardship of our whole lives.

Each of us has been given the gift of life. Stewardship is about what we do with this gift.

James 1:17 reminds us: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” We tend to forget this and the moment we take something in hand--be it a job, a house, a car, a career, whatever--we think of it as being intrinsically, by right, ours. In perpetuity...or, until we decide to get rid of it or trade up or sell it or will it to our kids.

But that’s not what God’s Word tells us. Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

Whatever we have, not just property and goods, but also our minds, our bodies, our health, our friends and family and spouses, aren’t ours. We only have them on loan from God. So, how will we use this life that God has given to us? That is the question Jesus challenges us to answer in this parable.

Let’s look at verse 1: “Jesus told his disciples: There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”’”

The rich man isn’t quite ready to give his manager a pink slip. Maybe he’ll give the guy another--less cushy--assignment. But the rich man has heard that the manager is wasting his money.

This is curious! The manager is on the brink of getting fired or demoted because the rich man has heard rumors from gossips. He tells the manager, in effect, “I find you guilty. Now give me the evidence.”

Now, in your experiences, what sort of person is quickest to believe that someone else is cheating them, that someone else has lied to them? It’s usually someone who’s an accomplished cheat and liar themselves. They figure that everyone is as bad as untrustworthy as they are. So, when the rich man hears rumors about his manager, he believes them. We’ll get confirmation of this later in the parable.

Read on, please. “‘The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.” [The manager’s career options are dwindling.] So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” “Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,” he replied. The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.” “Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?” “A thousand bushels of wheat,” he replied. He told him, “Take your bill and make it eight hundred.”’”

Let's be clear: the manager is being completely self-serving. That's not the thing Jesus is commending.

But Jesus says that the manager is using the money owed to his master--or more accurately, forgiven portions of money owed to his master--to create a soft landing for himself--a golden parachute--after he gets fired. The manager figures that each of those whose debts were forgiven will be grateful to him and welcome them into their own households. We still have no idea from what Jesus tells us whether the manager actually had, as the gossips had reported, wasted the rich man’s possessions. But we do know this: That the IOUs the rich man was waiting to come due were now worth a lot less than they had been before.

And there’s something else we know now for sure: This rich man himself isn’t such an upright character. Old Testament law was clear in condemning usury, which it defined as loaning fellow Jews money with interest. Deuteronomy 23:19 says: “Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.”

Yet, here was the fictional rich man in Jesus’ parable likely making loans to other Jews with interest. Why do I say that was likely? Stick with me. But I will tell you now that I believe that the rich man violated God’s law and the law of his country to make money. He was a crook. No wonder he was suspicious of the manager without a shred of evidence.

And here’s the deal. There’s a good chance that the manager reduced what the rich man’s debtors actually owed him, without interest added, under the laws of Israel. It’s likely that one guy really only owed the rich man 450 gallons of olive oil and the other really only had borrowed 800 bushels of wheat. Either way you slice it, the manager was being shrewd. The debtors would appreciate his action. And the rich man would be more likely to get a 450 gallon payback of olive oil than 900 or 800 bushel payback of wheat than 1000...just as today, lenders will pay collection agencies to get at least something out of overdue loans, pennies on the dollar.

This may explain the next verse: “[Jesus says:] The master [didn’t fire the manager, but] commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For [Jesus goes on to explain] the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light [‘People of the light’ being disciples of Jesus]. I tell you [Jesus continues], use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Now, don’t miss Jesus’ point. Jesus is talking about how we are to manage every blessing that comes to us in this world and whether we will be prepared for what happens beyond death. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”

Death, for we fallen descendants of Adam and Eve, is inevitable. It hangs over each of us, just as the loss of his way of life hung over the manager in Jesus’ parable. The question for us, as it was for the manager, is this: Will we prepare for the life to come by being good stewards--good managers--of the lives we’re living right now? Will we share the riches of God's grace with others so that, by our sharing of the Gospel and of our lives with them, they too will become Christ's disciples and be there to welcome us gratefully in eternity? This is an enormous question!

One scholar says, rightly, I think, that there are three ways we can “manage” this life that God gives to us.

One way is to be like the rich fool of Jesus’ parable in Luke 12. Jesus tells about a man who acquired so much that he decided to build bigger barns to hold all his stuff. Then, he told himself, he would relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But Jesus says: “...God said to [this rich man], ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” [Luke 12:20-21] Watch out, Jesus says, that whenever you come to life’s end, you haven’t been spending all of God’s gifts on this life. That’s short-sighted: There will be no soft landing in eternity for people like this.

Another way we can “manage” the gifts of this life--and this life itself--is to, understanding that this life will pass from our hands one day and so, ignore taking care of God's gifts to us in this life. This what fifty years ago, the hippies in communes tried to do. They weren’t going to own anything. Or take care of anything. They were just passing through, man.

Through the centuries, there have been Christian movements that have adopted this line of thinking. These folks can be, as the saying puts it, so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good. Short as this life may be though, the gifts that come to us from God are to be taken care of, even our bodies. (By the way, have you had a physical lately?)

By His death on the cross, Jesus paid the ransom to buy us out of captivity to sin and death; even as we look forward to eternity, we owe it to Him to take care of this life and this world.

That entails being faithful to the promises we made to God and the Church when we were confirmed:

...to live among God’s faithful people, to hear His Word and share in His supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

That’s how we’re to use the gifts God has given to us. That's how we're to live and celebrate the free gift of grace given in Christ. That’s how we’re to manage our lives while on this planet!

This leads us to the third way we can live our lives. It’s the way of the manager in Jesus’ parable. It’s the way of shrewdness. One scholar has written that the manager uses “the authority he still has in the present [world] to feather his bed for the future [world].”

Every bit of this life God has given to us is meant to be invested in eternity, in the things of Christ’s eternal kingdom. Invest your life, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, in glorifying the God Who has saved you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We all will get pink slips someday, our time and work on earth will be through.

But when it happens, may we stand before our Lord, gloriously spent, good managers who gave this life our all for Christ’s glory, people who, by the way we have entrusted all that we have and all the we are to Christ, have lived faithfully and wisely in response to God's goodness to us.

It will be the ultimate soft landing, right into the hand of God.

And Christ will tell us: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” [Matthew 25:34] It’s then that all will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that those who have managed their lives with gratitude for all that God has done for them are the shrewdest people of all. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during worship on September 18.]