Trinity 9
Luke 16:1-13
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
People usually don’t like it when pastors talk about money. But Jesus Himself puts that topic front and center in today’s Gospel, and so it’s important that we address it. Jesus speaks of mammon–money, property, possessions–the stuff that keeps many folks awake at night and busy during the day. But of course, the real focus of the Gospel is not merely money, but faith, what you trust in and cling to, where your heart is. Is it with God or with something else? What is it that you fear, love, and trust in above all things? Luther says it well in the Large Catechism:
“Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property; in them he trusts and of them he boasts . . . and on them fixes his whole heart. Mammon is the most common idol on earth. He who has money and property feels secure, happy, fearless, as if he were sitting in the midst of paradise. On the other hand, he who has nothing doubts and despairs as if he never heard of God. There are very few who are cheerful, who do not fret and complain, if they do not have mammon. This desire for wealth clings to our nature all the way to the grave.”
“All the way to the grave” reminds us that the love of mammon is something our old Adam will struggle with until we die. We will love and trust in almost anything that promises health, happiness, meaning, security. We learn at an early age that money means power, the power to acquire things we want, the power to hire, to influence others to do what we want. From our first allowance to our first paycheck we learn that money is a means by which we can fulfill our desires and needs. The world in its foolishness thinks that the Bible has it exactly backwards. They would say, “Not the love of money but the lack of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” However, Jesus says, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
In the Scriptures, the rich don’t seem to fare very well from the eternal perspective. Mammon becomes a snare and a stumbling block. For instance, when a rich young ruler came to Jesus asking,“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. And the rich man went away sad, because he had great possessions. Jesus knew that mammon was this man’s idol, and the man couldn’t let go of it. Which raises the question for us: What is it that you wouldn’t give up if Jesus asked you to? What is it that you can’t let go of? Whatever or whoever it is, there’s your idol.
The problem is not money itself or possessions themselves; it is the misuse and corruption of God’s good gifts. It isn’t riches but trusting in riches that God judges. “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”
Jesus tells a parable of a crooked money manager who was wasting his master’s possessions. Charges were brought. The man was called in to give an account of his stewardship, get the bookkeeping in order, and hit the unemployment line. So what does he do? Before he’s officially let go, he quickly calls in the man’s debtors and starts discounting loans on the fly. He knocks off fifty percent here, twenty percent there, collecting what he can at a deep discount. In other words, he’s cashing in on his master’s good name and reputation. It’s a clever move. The master is cornered. If he refuses the deals which the steward has negotiated, he looks bad. If he takes the deals, this sly money manager looks good and has a lot of friends. The master knew shrewdness when he saw it, and he praised the manager for it.
It seems odd, doesn’t it, that Jesus makes a wasteful manager the hero of the parable, this steward who stakes everything on the forgiving of debt. But then again, it really makes perfect sense, doesn’t it. For that is what Jesus is all about, isn’t He? It’s only when the steward is confronted with the truth of his sin, when he doesn’t have anything else to cling to but the mercy of the master, that he really gets to work. He stakes everything on the belief that his boss will honor the taking away of debt, and that’s what frees him and secures his future. That faith is what Jesus praises.
When we have nothing to lose, when we are dead to the things of this world, that’s when we are truly free and really ready to get to work. When we believe that the Father honors His Son’s death and takes away the debt of our sin, that’s when we’re truly enlivened to be about the work of God’s kingdom. When we’re confident that He receives us into His household and that nothing in all creation can separate us from His love in Christ, that’s what creates true faithfulness in us, especially when it comes to the use of our money.
Remember that Jesus Himself was accused of being a bad steward, of wasting the Father’s goods on tax collectors and sinners. He allowed Himself to be called to account before the Sanhedrin and then Pontius Pilate. He stood in your place and made sure that your debts were not just reduced by cancelled entirely. At Calvary He took responsibility for you and paid what you owed in its totality. Instead of your messed up ledger, He has inscribed your name in the Book of Life. And you know that because He has given Himself to you–His Holy Spirit in baptism, His body and blood in Holy Communion. The oil and wheat of the sacraments are your true treasure. Through them you receive a righteousness that is not your own but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. That is what gives you an eternal home with the Lord and with His holy ones.
Living in that confidence, we learn to hold our wealth not in a closed fist but in the open hand of faith. Now to be sure, the old Adam is still with us and hanging around our neck. The mere talk of giving money away causes us to tense up and reach protectively for our wallets. God has to pry wealth out of the old Adam’s fingers–whether by taxes, inflation, theft, bills, finally by literally killing us. “You can’t take it with you.” You could say that giving offerings to the Lord and charity to the poor is a Christian exercise in killing the old Adam with his death grip on money.
You can’t serve two masters. Divided loyalty is no loyalty at all. The old Adam in us will choose Mammon over the Lord every day of the week, including Sundays. You can test this by asking what your natural inclination is when Mammon and the Lord make competing claims on you–between sports and divine service, or family and divine service, or work and divine service. Our desire for money or pleasure or whatever our idol may be needs to be drowned and die along will all the other lusts and evil desires of the old Adam. If we were left to our own devices, we’d all be like the rich young ruler who turned his back on Jesus when he heard that he needed to radically downsize and come die and rise with Jesus. The way of salvation is narrow, as we heard last week. It’s not like the airlines where you get to bring along some luggage and a carry-on in the overhead compartment. None of that fits through the narrow door of death and resurrection.
Thankfully, the truth of the Gospel is that you are no longer defined by your old Adam. For you were washed. You were justified, sanctified, and glorified in Christ. You are baptized. The old is drowned, the new has risen. The new you in Christ is free under His reign. You have nothing to lose. The kingdom of God is yours. You don’t have to cling to mammon because you have everything in Christ. The things you have are a gift from God to you, placed into the empty hand of faith. The new you in Christ is not a slave to Money but a master of it. You can order it around. You can tell it, “go help that person in need” or “go support the ministry of the Gospel.” The new you in Christ gives freely, joyfully, cheerfully–not out of coercion or for gain, but out of freedom in love.
To be “faithful in the unrighteous Mammon,” then, is simply to handle your money and possessions trusting in our good and gracious God. He has given all He has in His Son Jesus in order to save us from our bondage to sin, to death, to the Law and to anything that would enslave us. Romans 8 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
To be faithful in unrighteous Mammon means that we are free to use our money and possessions to show forth the goodness and mercy of God for our neighbors, to share our goods and pour our wine with a generous hand. And so it needs to be said that such faithfulness begins with the offering plate–which is not simply about supporting our congregation’s budget but about giving thanks to our giver God, not only with words but with wealth, the 10% tithe Scripture speaks of. How marvelous it would be if there was an overflow beyond the budget by which mission work could be further supported and the ministry of the Gospel could grow! When the old Adam’s death grip on money is loosened, life and freedom from slavery is the result.
You are servants of God, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, members of His royal priesthood of the baptized. Your master is Christ who saved you by His dying and rising, by His word of forgiveness and reconciliation. Money can never do that. Money can’t truly bring love or joy or peace. Money can’t wash away your sins or give you a free and clear conscience before God. Money can’t make those twinges of guilt go away or reconcile your past. Money can’t raise you from the grave and heal your death. Money is a terrible taskmaster that will drive you to your grave even as you cling to it.
But now Christ your Master says to you, “Come to me, and I will give you rest. Be anxious about nothing. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. Your sins are forgiven. Cast all your cares on Me; for I care for you. Peace be with you. The old has passed away; the new has come. Because I live, you will live also.”
So make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Money is not your master; it is a means to an end. Fellowship with God and His people is the ultimate end, and Christ is your master. Only in Him is there true freedom–freedom to enjoy, to take risks, to give generously, to live openly. Colossians 3 says that you have already died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And the nice thing about being dead is that you have nothing to lose.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to the Rev. William Cwirla)