The Unjust Steward

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's Gospel lesson tells us about a manager who totally mismanaged his master's household. He was charged with wasting his master's possessions, and was about to be fired. This manager was too weak to to manual labor, and too proud or ashamed to beg, so he came up with a scheme to make allies among his master's business associates, so that when his master fired him, he would have a place to turn for help. He called in each person who owed his master money or goods, and he reduced their debt substantially. This already unjust manager defrauded his master even more in his attempt to save his own skin! However, the master commended him for his shrewdness and foresight.

We have been given a great trust. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given the whole earth as a heritage from God. “And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'” They were given the whole earth to be their domain, to procreate and populate the whole land, and to rule over God's creation as the stewards of His kingdom.

And what happened? Adam and Eve took for themselves the one thing which was not given to them. They ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as that first morsel passed their lips, death entered into them, and through them into the whole creation. Man learned how to waste, and creation revolted against its stewards. And so things have been progressing ever since.

How we waste our resources today! Old-growth forest is cleared to make room for farmland. Farmland is cleared to make room for mansions and shopping malls. The depths of the oceans are plumbed to find oil to power millions of cars and machines and to make the products of our daily lives. Food is grown in great surplus, then turned into unhealthy junk while in other parts of the world people starve for want of a pound of flour or a bag of cornmeal. Pill after pill is patented to combat the illnesses brought about because people have forgotten what the creation over which we have dominion even looks like.

Men and women trudge through unsatisfactory jobs every day to make a few bucks and bring them home to their families. When they get that money, it is sacrificed on the altar of self-indulgence, as they fill their existence with extravagance and luxury, and debt. Children no longer learn to read and to imagine and to play, because they have myriad toys that practically play with themselves. The internet and TV mean that everyone knows everything, but nobody knows anybody.

We spend on the latest and greatest phones, cars, and TVs, but we balk at paying for healthcare. We throw good money after bad on the food we eat, but expect someone else to pick up the tab for what it does to us. We have the latest and greatest this or that, but the House of God slides into disrepair and the people of God go hungry and naked and unvisited and imprisoned. Those who need our help go unnoticed and unaided because we have the newest toys.

By any normal measure, we ought to be terminated. Our stewardship of this creation has failed abysmally. We were given a great trust and wealth, and we have wasted it horribly. Satan, that ancient accuser, is only too happy to bring charges against us before our Lord in heaven. The evidence stands against us. The writ of charges condemns us. And there is no one with whom we can bargain to reduce the deficit. There are no other debtors of our Master whose bills we might reduce, and therefore gain shelter from the coming wrath of God. His wrath will come against our injustice and sin, and it will burn hot and long.

But what great wonder is this? Our Lord takes our accounts, and reckons them as balanced! He takes our bills, and marks them down, not by 50%, but marks them paid in full! The debt that we owed for our sloth and wastefulness is cancelled. The writ of charges brought against us is null. “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with [Jesus], having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Upon the cross of Christ, the wrath of God did indeed come upon our iniquity and sin, and it did burn hot. But that wrath was spent, because it was taken by Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. With Him was nailed our record of debts, and with Him died our accounts in arrears. With Jesus arose our new life. With Him arose a new start, and a new end for us. No longer must we fear the wrath of God for our sins. No longer must we worry about our master terminating us because of our waste. Instead, we simply rejoice because of His wondrous gifts to us, in creation and in His Son, Jesus Christ for our forgiveness.

Here, then, is the real treasure entrusted to us. We have the grace of God poured out upon us, forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. The burden of debt has been removed from our shoulders and the red ink has been erased from our accounts. We have life in abundance. We have the freedom to enjoy the creation entrusted to us. We have the freedom to help our neighbors in their need. We have the freedom to give generously to the work of the Church. We have the freedom to rejoice with our neighbors in their joys, and to comfort them in their sorrows. We have the freedom to worship our God in the fellowship of the saints. We have the freedom to come to Him here, at His Table, and receive His Body and Blood upon our tongues for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. And we are at peace with God and man.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.