Stewards of a Greater Eternity
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
This is everybody's least favorite parable in the Gospels, because it's hard to understand what's going on. First of all, it's dealing with stewardship, and people don't like talking about stewardship because, well, "he's just after my money after all." But then, at the end, Jesus sums this up: “the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Why would the master commend the dishonest manager for cheating him out of money? And why is that good? It's bad.
We are given many good gifts in this life. We are given many things to steward, and we don't steward them well—we steward them poorly. We hold on to them tightly, because "I earned this. This is mine." It's not "God gave this to me," but "I worked long and hard to achieve this." And when you go into that mindset—when it is mine—well, then, whatever God asks, no matter what it might be, it's too much to give. But if you go into the mindset that this is what God has given me, and in appreciation of that—and to further the proclamation of the Gospel—I give back... whether that's tithing to church, or mowing your neighbor's yard, or visiting the sick and the shut-in, whatever that giving back is, it's a completely different mindset.
But this manager—he's lying. He's cheating. He's stealing. And he gets called to account for it.
The master says, "We're going to go over the books. We're going to have an audit." And the guy knows that he can't return what he's been skimming off the top. He can't return what is properly owed the master. He can't undo the mismanaged books. And so when the audit happens, he's going to be out of a job.
And so he has a conundrum. What is he going to do? And he comes up with the idea: "I'll change what people owe my master, so my master won't know—but those guys will. And when I'm thrown out on the street, they'll take care of me. They'll help me find another job, or they'll put me up for a while. I can sleep on their couch, so to speak, for a bit." Because he's too weak to dig, and begging is beneath him.
If your goal in this life is just the things of this life, then by all means, lie, cheat, and steal, because it doesn't matter. If your goal is to have as much as you can now, then get it by any means necessary, whether righteous or unrighteous, because at most you've got 80, 90, maybe even 100 years, and then it's gone, because you're gone.
But I've got to tell you, living for right now, where all your focus is just right now and there is no tomorrow—in the sense of "I'm trying to grab all I can get right now"—is a really poor way to live, because it doesn't matter how much wealth you have, your body's still going to age. You're going to need those hip replacements. You're going to need those knee replacements. You might even find yourself on a flight over to Turkey so you can get some more hair on top of your head. Just don't tell anybody where it comes from.
Your wealth, your status, your power don't stop death. They don't stop you from attending the funerals of your friends and loved ones. They don't stop the cancer.
They don't stop what is killing you. And so you might have a few good years, but you'll have a long, slow decline as it's all stripped away from you. A couple weeks ago I saw a picture of Dick Van Dyke—he's over a hundred years old now. And you see the picture and you think, "Maybe I don't want to live to be 100, quite honestly." He doesn't look in great health.
I've had members over a hundred, and you go over to their house, and you know those pill organizers that are set up for the week? They have multiple stacks of those for how many pills they have to take every single day.
But if you want something greater than that—if you want something greater than today, greater than tomorrow, if you want eternity—then you need the Master. You need Jesus. You need the forgiveness of sins. You need forgiveness for your mismanagement of what God has given you. You need Jesus to cover your sins and remove them as far as the east is from the west. You need Jesus for everlasting life, for no one comes to the Father except through Him. You need the washing of the water in the word. You need the feast of immortality. You need the word proclaimed in all its law, to crush you, and all its gospel, to raise you to new life.
That's what this parable is about.
If you're living just for today, then you will have today, but you won't have tomorrow.
But if you are living for something greater—if you receive the gifts that God has given you as the gifts that God has given you—then you receive something that is better than today. You receive eternity, and you take that out into the world, and how you treat people is different. How you speak, and how you act, and how you think is different. It transforms everything. And you go from being one of this own generation to being a son of light. And let's be honest—being a son of light, people are going to take advantage of you. That's what happens. The Christian doesn't ask if it's going to happen, because the Christian knows it's going to happen.
A couple of days ago I was with my family. We were filling up with gas. A guy came up asking for money—one of the rare instances I actually had cash in my wallet. I gave him all the six dollars that I had. I got in the car and the kids immediately ask, "Who was that?" I don't know. "What did he want?" He wanted some money. "Why did he want some money?" He was trying to get to Hugo, Oklahoma. Was he really trying to do that? I have no idea. But that's between him and the Lord. We have a food pantry here at Christ Lutheran. The requirement is you show your ID, because you can only use it once every 30 days. What if people come and they don't actually need the food? That's between them and the Lord. Will people come here and take advantage of it? Maybe. Probably.
They're going to have to answer to the Lord. But when you live a life where you approach people with grace, where you approach people in the eyes of Jesus, they're going to take from you. That's what happens. Yes, there is a commandment about stealing. Guess what people who don't believe do? Guess what people who do believe do?
But we pray for them to repent, come to faith, and be forgiven of their sins. Because at the end of the day, it's not our job to judge them—it's the Judge's job to judge them, and He will do so. And we pray that we, who have been forgiven much, may forgive much in return, and that they may know God, so that their sins would be forgiven as well, because we want heaven to be full. And if heaven is full, do you know what heaven's going to be full of? Forgiven sinners. That means you're going to be in there. And you hope your worst enemy is in there. But when you're up there, or when you're resurrected on the other side of eternity, you're going to be joyous. You're going to be happy. They're not going to be your enemy—they're going to be your brother and sister in Jesus Christ. And that's a glorious thing. And why is that a glorious thing? Because we were enemies of God, yet He died for us.
The good things that we have been given, we have mismanaged. But in the grace of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. And we take that grace out into the world. We call people to account who need to be called to account, and we proclaim the forgiveness of sins for those who need to hear the forgiveness of sins. May we be good stewards, as we have been called to be. May we continue to be sons of light in this world, showing people that there is something greater than just today—that there is an eternity waiting for them. And we hope that it is an eternity with Jesus Christ. In His name, Amen.
