A sermon on Luke 16:1-9 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

One common movie trope is the need to obtain a large sum of money in a short amount of time. This can be found across genres and the rating of the movie will determine the rest of the details for the plot. Whether the characters need to pay for grandma’s surgery, keep their family home, or pay a kidnapper’s ransom, they always manage to pull off the impossible just in the nick of time. Whether it’s putting on a concert or robbing a bank or casino, the plans are intricate and multi-faceted, require so much work that it can only be summed up in a montage. In every case, people perform under extraordinary pressure and do everything they can to get that plan done, raise that money, accomplish their goal.

Our Gospel lesson for today was perhaps confusing or off-putting on the first read-through. Jesus is holding up a manifestly bad example as a good example. The unjust steward, despite his wickedness, does have some virtues that Jesus calls us to emulate. We, too, should put in the work to obtain our goals, no matter what it takes. But as we compare ourselves more fully to the example in the parable, we also see that we are not to share many of his anxieties. As we work towards our everlasting home, Jesus tells us we need hustle, but we don’t need uncertainty.

I. Need Hustle

So this is a rather odd story, made all the more difficult by details that don’t really map on to contemporary business practices. There’s a rich man who has a steward. A steward is the business manager for the household. He’s in control of all of his master’s assets, he has complete authority and oversight. We can maybe think of Joseph as the second-in-command to Pharoah in Egypt. This is a prestigious position with not much oversight but a lot of trust and responsibility.

And this steward messes things up. We’re not told the exact nature of his crime, just that he was wasting his master’s goods. This “wasting” is the same word used in the parable of the prodigal son, so he’s not being responsible, perhaps embezzling funds. The accusation comes to his master and the evidence is apparently established without a doubt. There’s no investigation, no inquisition, the master just tells him he’s fired and to turn in his books.

The steward knows he’s in the wrong, he doesn’t protest. And he has found himself in a bit of a pickle. Evidently, the goods he mismanaged haven’t been used to set up a retirement account. He has no real plan for the future. He can’t just go and get another job. But on the spot he comes up with an ingenious plan.

He has to go and close the books before turning them in and he uses every last second of that authority to his advantage. He calls in his master’s debtors and reduces the amount they owe. Again, he has absolute authority, there’s no other receipts to check, he has the power to issue binding legal documents. So on the record, everything is legit, but now he has people who owe him. The sums in question indicate dealings with other merchants, not just farmers on credit or something, so he now has wealthy friends and houses he will be received into. He’s not putting all his eggs in one basket, he’ll end up doing a bit of couch surfing, but now his future is secure. At the last minute, he finds a way to provide for himself.

Now the important part of this parable is to see the qualities that Jesus is commending in the unjust steward. He is not praised for mismanaging his master’s goods. He is not praised for committing fraud. He is praised for dealing shrewdly. For all this man’s faults, he has hustle. He comes up with a plan on the spot and immediately executes it. He’s a quick thinker, a hard worker when he wants to be. He knows how to leverage goods and use people, he’s mastered the art of the deal. There is something we can learn from him.

Jesus admonishes the sons of light for not being as shrewd as the sons of this world. As we compare ourselves to the unjust steward, in some areas, we come up lacking. Say what you will about the rest of his life, he had a plan and a sense of urgency and got the job done. Can the same be said for us?

We, too, have goals. Goals far more noble than his. That when we are removed from this life, we will be received into an everlasting home. Does our conduct in this life match our goal? Do we act with the same sense of urgency, do we have the same hustle? Or do the sons of this world put us to shame?

In your spiritual life, do you display these same qualities? Or do you tend towards laziness and complacency? Are you diligent in reading the Scriptures and in prayer? Do you long to receive absolution and the Supper? Or is it just something you get around to when you feel like it? Something that happens in church but stays in church?

If we have been unfaithful with these higher things, what about with lower things? Do you use physical goods to support the work of the church and to give to those in need or to support your current lifestyle? Do you use what you have been given to make friends for yourselves, as our Lord commands, or do you only look out for number one?

The sons of this world put us to shame. Often we are not as diligent or hardworking as them in physical things or in spiritual things even though we have a higher motivation and the ultimate goal. We have a lot to learn from the unjust steward.

II. Without Uncertainty

However, as with any parable, if you push the picture too far, the details start to fall apart. Jesus uses this illustration for a purpose and we need to recognize His point, but as we compare our situation more fully with that of the unjust steward, we realize some very important differences.

We both have plans and we are to learn from his hustle. But one thing the unjust steward has that we do not is a sense of uncertainty. As he’s going to work, he has no idea how things will turn out. And even after his plan has been accomplished, maybe his master’s debtors won’t hold up their end of the deal. His future is still uncertain. And even if everything goes according to plan, he’s not part of any one household. He doesn’t have a family. He’ll be hopping from place to place. He’s provided for in a certain sense, but lacking so much.

Even in this admonition, Jesus points us to our goal. That we will be received into an everlasting home. Our final state is far better than that of the unjust steward. We have been made members of God’s family, we have become children of God by Holy Baptism. We know whose household we belong to, the household of God, who invites us to His feast in heaven and gives us a taste in the here and now. Our hustle is not shaped by insecurity, but grounded in the confidence that our future is secure.

Because here’s another difference between us and the unjust steward. His future relied on his own actions. Our future relies on the work of Christ. We owed our master a debt we could never repay. And the master’s Son paid the price for our redemption. Jesus shed His precious blood for you to forgive your sins and restore your relationship with God. We are more than servants, but children and heirs who have been promised an everlasting kingdom in the world to come. Our future is founded on the death and resurrection of Christ. Because He died, our sins are forgiven, our complacency washed away. Because He rose, we too will rise and enter our everlasting home.

And while we know this to be true, we still have to square this with the plain language of our text. Jesus encourages us to “make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” What does that mean and how does it fit into our framework?

Again, at first glance, it might seem like our entry into heaven is dependent upon us being faithful with earthly goods. That’s not it. This isn’t work-righteousness, we cannot do something to merit our salvation. Rather, we have to approach this text like we do other texts that describe the same thing, like Matthew 25 with the parable of the sheep and the goats.

“That… they may receive you” doesn’t indicate that those works are the basis of entering heaven. Rather, these good works are testimony of the faith which does save. On the last day, those that you have done good to will testify to those good deeds as outward evidence and proof of your salvation.

Again, remember Jesus’ point with this parable. It’s not that we are exactly like the unjust steward in every way. Rather, that we need shrewdness and a sense of urgency. This conclusion isn’t saying “here’s exactly how you get saved,” we have that spelled out more clearly elsewhere. This is saying that we should place how we view our possessions in an eternal context.

The friends we make with unrighteous mammon very well may be there to greet us into life everlasting. What you do with your stuff can have lasting, eternal results. We need to keep that in mind, lest we become tempted to view our life as disconnected from eternity.

The security of our future ought not lead us to complacency, but rather it spurs us on to action. Neither our future nor the fate of others is dependent on our actions. We needn’t let the weight of this eternal context freeze us into inaction. Rather, we are freed to act in confidence, to hustle, to work while it is day, because we know that the results do not depend on us, but on our almighty God.

We are all stewards. Everything we have, we have been given by God. May we be shrewd but faithful as we work towards our everlasting home, knowing that our future is secure as those redeemed by Christ. Amen.