“Banking on the Lord’s Mercy”
Luke 16:1-15
9/23/07
This parable of Jesus is one of the most difficult
parables to understand. One of the things that makes it so
difficult is that Jesus uses a dishonest character - the manager in the
story - as an example for His disciples to follow. But how are
disciples to be like this manager? Are they also to be dishonest,
or does this manager display some other characteristic that they are to
imitate? One of the factors that helps us answer this is the
placement of this parable in the Gospel of Luke. It follows on
the heals of the parable of the Prodigal Son. In that parable
Jesus teaches His disciples that they can count on God to be merciful
towards them just as the father in the story shows mercy towards both
of his sons, regardless of how they’ve treated him, regardless of
the punishment they deserve, and even before either of them
repents. In the end, we see that a better name for that parable
would be “The Merciful Father” rather than “The
Prodigal Son.”
The parable about the dishonest manager then
follows. But here again, we might ask, “Is this title
really the best title for this parable? Is the parable about the
dishonest manager, or is it about someone else?” I’m
gonna tell you right up front that it’s about someone else,
namely, the manager’s lord and master. In this parable,
just as in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the focus is not on the
manager, but on the master and his mercy. The manager is an
example to us, not in being dishonest, but in trusting in his
lord’s mercy.. If we keep this in mind as we read this parable,
most of its difficulties will be cleared up for us, and we will see
that Jesus intends to teach us something about our Lord and Master and
His mercy towards us. So, what I’d like to do in
today’s sermon is go through this parable with you, explaining it
as we go, so that in the end we might better understand what Jesus is
teaching us here and apply it to our lives. (If you’d like,
you may follow along on the back of the bulletin.)
Let’s talk about the characters first.
Who are they? There’s the rich man, who is the lord and
master in the story; there’s the dishonest manager of the
master’s household; and there are the people who are indebted to
the master. The rich man (or the master) represents God.
The manager could represent either pastors, who are stewards of the
things in God’s household - the Word and the Sacraments, or he
could also represent any Christian in whatever vocations he holds and
his stewardship of the things of this world which God has given
him. The people represent anyone we come into contact with,
whether they be Christians or not; they represent all those who are in
debt to God on account of sin, and that’s everyone.
Now, the master finds out that his manager has been
wasting his possessions, and so he fires him. It’s not
specifically spelled out what this wasting involved or how the manager
wasted his master’s things, but he was somehow irresponsible with
them. Perhaps he was lazy and didn’t do his job like he was
supposed to. Perhaps he stole from his master. Perhaps he
only used his master’s things for himself and not for the benefit
of others. Like this dishonest manager, you and I waste
God’s possessions - the gifts He gives us - when we misuse them,
use them only for ourselves, or don’t use them to help our
neighbors in need. In the pastor’s case, he wastes
God’s possessions when he fails to administer God’s Word
and Sacraments to God’s people as he ought to. The earthly
things that God gives us really aren’t ours at all.
They’re on loan to us from God. We are good stewards of
them when we use them in such a way that gives glory to God and helps
our neighbors. Otherwise, we waste them.
And wastefulness of God’s possessions is
sin. But notice that for his wastefulness the master
doesn’t punish the manager or put him in prison, which he would
be justified in doing. Instead, he simply fires the man.
Already here we’re given a glimpse of what kind of lord this rich
man is. He’s merciful, not giving the dishonest manager
what he deserves, but simply removing him from his office.
Now, the manager says to himself, “What shall
I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?
I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to
beg.” What the manager realizes here is that there’s
no way for him to get himself out of this situation, either by working
or by begging. The solution must come from outside of
himself. That’s the way it is with us, too. We cannot
work or beg our way into God’s favor. The answer must come
from outside ourselves, from God Himself! The solution for the
manager is found in the character of the master. It is because
the manager knows that his master is merciful and will continue to show
mercy that the manager then does what he does.
He says to himself, “I’ve decided what
to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me
into their houses.” So, he calls each of his master’s
debtors to himself, asks them how much they owe the master, and then he
lowers their debt. Now, at first it looks like the success of
this plan depends on whether the debtors will show mercy towards the
manager once he’s lowered their bills. He hopes
they’ll “receive him into their houses,” i.e., take
him in, since he now has no job nor a place to live. But
ultimately his whole plan depends on whether his master will be
merciful or not. And here’s how...
The debtors would receive the manager’s plan
as if it came from their lord. In other words, they would think
that the order to lower their bills came from the master himself.
As a result, they would not only confess him to be a merciful lord, but
they would also treat his representative, the manager, well and care
for him in his need. But it all hinges on the master’s
reaction to this plan, because once he hears what his manager has done
in his name, he has two choices: either he could act like a hard
man who cares only about his money and reinstates the debts (in which
case the people would hate him and serve him begrudgingly), or he could
let the actions of his manager stand (in which case the people would
love him and serve him gladly). The master chooses the second
option, because he has a reputation to uphold, a reputation of being a
merciful lord. And that’s why he then commends his
dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly or prudently, because the
manager counted on his lord’s mercy. It was the knowledge
that his master was a merciful lord that determined both his actions
and how he would use his lord’s possessions in his dealings with
the people and with the master himself. And in the end he
wasn’t disappointed. His master was, in fact, merciful,
just as he had always been.
And this is the main point of this parable:
that God wants to be known as our merciful Lord. He has a
reputation to uphold. He doesn’t want to be known as a
hard, unforgiving God. He wants you to count on His mercy for
yourself, and He wants you to display that mercy towards others, both
in your actions towards them and in how you use your possessions.
In this way you will “make friends” with people as you help
them out in their need, so that they might receive you into their
eternal dwellings. In other words, as you display God’s
mercy towards others, many of them will come to trust in God’s
mercy, and you will all be received into the eternal dwellings of
heaven, when Christ returns for you.
This doesn’t mean you can buy your way into
heaven. In that case, you’d care more about money than
people, and money/possessions would become your gods instead of God
Himself. What it does mean is that you are to be merciful to
others just as you have been shown mercy in Jesus. Jesus points
to the sons of this world as an example of those who, like this
dishonest manager, count on the merciful reputations of their bosses
all the time. Even non-Christians know how to act, if they know
their boss is merciful. They know how to use money to make
friends and be welcomed and accepted. But Christians, who know
they have a merciful God in Christ, often fail to bank on this mercy
for themselves and they fail to show this mercy towards others as
well. They sin and then live under this cloud of guilt, wondering
whether God forgives them or not. And if they don’t feel
that God has had mercy upon them and has forgiven them all their sins,
they’re certainly not going to display that kind of mercy towards
others and forgive them their petty little trespasses against
them. They’ll portray God as a hard man, as an angry God,
as one who demands payment and throws you into prison until you pay off
all you owe. What kind of God you have makes a big difference in
how you live towards Him, how you live towards others, and how you use
the things of this life. If you don’t know how to use the
gifts God has given you in this life to show God’s mercy to the
world, then how will you be given the true riches, the treasures of
heaven, your inheritance in Christ?
Now, there’s more that can be said about this
parable, but it can’t all be said in a short sermon such as
this. But one final point I’d like to make has to do with
the lowering of the debts. In this parable Jesus is using an
earthly example to make a heavenly point. In this parable a
dishonest manager who counts on his earthly lord’s mercy lowers
the people’s debts, but he doesn’t cancel them
altogether. Cancellation of debt in this life rarely
happens. Now, if the IRS lowered our taxes by 20 or 50%
we’d probably be pretty happy. We might even think that the
IRS was merciful in doing this. But this is not how our merciful
God operates. He does not forgive 20%, 50%, or even 99% of the
debt you owe Him, but 100%. He forgives you this debt, because
Jesus has paid it in full with His suffering and death on the
cross. Like the dishonest manager in the story, you too can count
on God’s mercy for Christ’s sake, live under that mercy day
by day, and show that mercy towards others in what you say and
do. But unlike the manager, your mercy and forgiveness towards
others will not be fractional, just as God’s mercy and
forgiveness towards you in Christ is not fractional. You have
been forgiven the whole debt in Christ, and you can deliver that full
forgiveness to others through the Gospel. You will not trust in
your money or possessions, trying to use them to buy your way into
heaven, but because heaven is yours through faith in Christ you can use
the things of this world to help your neighbor in need and show them
God’s mercy, so that they too might learn that God is merciful
and come to faith in Jesus.
We have a merciful Lord and Master for
Christ’s sake. He sent His only-begotten Son to pay our
debt of sin. He even forgives you your failure at banking on His
mercy, at living under that mercy, and at showing that mercy towards
others. Jesus paid your debt in full with His blood shed on the
cross, and He sprinkled you with this blood at your Baptism, wiping
away that debt forever. There are no sins which have not been
paid for by His sacrifice. For His sake you are declared free
from all guilt, that you may live under His mercy in His kingdom now
and forever. Trust in His mercy, displayed for you on the cross,
delivered to you in the forgiveness of your sins, and go now and show
this mercy to the world. Amen.