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Selected Sermons
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Trinity 6/Pentecost 7
St. Matthew 5:20-26
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed,
In the 5th commandment God has entrusted our neighbor’s welfare to us. Luther explains it this way in the catechism: “We should fear and love God so that we do no bodily harm to our neighbor, but help and befriend him in every need.” Of course, our neighbor’s life does not belong to us. Our neighbor’s life comes from God, and thus belongs to God. Therefore, God alone has ultimate power and authority over it. God alone has power over life and death. Murderers are essentially gross idolaters who put themselves on God’s throne and pass judgment which God has reserved for Himself and those to whom He has given specific authority to act on His behalf: namely to the government and the military.
Now, that’s pretty basic, and anyway, none of us here are murderers. Or are we? As with all the commandments, we must understand this one within the context of the Golden Rule: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Perfect love toward God and the neighbor is the sum and substance of the whole Law, and so Jesus stretches the meaning of the 5th commandment like this: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca! shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hellfire.”
Now, I think we tend to get the idea that in the Old Testament the moral Law only concerned outward actions, and that it’s only in the New Testament where God gives the Law a deeper, spiritual dimension. But actually, Jesus wasn’t commanding anything new here. In fact, already in the Old Testament God commanded Israel in Leviticus 19:17-18: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Israel was a tribal society made up of different clans held together by blood relations. Justice in tribal societies was usually obtained by payback. Each offense had to be avenged in order to preserve the social and moral fabric of the group. If someone committed an offense against you or one of your kinsman, the way you got justice was to do the same back to him. So, if a man from another clan kills one of my kinsman, I’m obliged to kill him or another one of his kin. We’re not unfamiliar with this type of thing. Think of the Hatfields and McCoys, for example. Or think of some of the wars that are raging in the world today.
Since tribal societies were common among the pagan nations surrounding Israel, this was the common way of obtaining justice. Of course, such a system encouraged an almost constant cycle of revenge and hatred toward those outside the clan. Well, the Lord undermined this cycle by forbidding revenge and hatred and by commanding love for all the members of the Israelite congregation. If you had been injured, God forbade you from hating the offender secretly in your heart. Instead, you were required to rebuke the offender openly and honestly and give him a chance to admit his wrongful deed and put it right. If you failed to do this, but instead hated him and plotted his downfall secretly, in your heart, you actually became a party to his evil deed. Hating your neighbor for a sin he committed against you actually turned you, the victim, into the wrongdoer, which would put you under God’s judgment.
Nursing grudges and desiring revenge were expressly forbidden, then, because these are the products of hatred. Even if you confronted the person who had sinned against you but he refused to repent, you were still not permitted to take revenge, or even bear a grudge against him. Why? Because, God, as the creator, preserver and judge of all human life, reserved for Himself the right to “pay back” as the Psalmist writes: “O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs - O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!” (Ps 94:1). Remember how the verses I read from Leviticus ended: “I am the Lord.” God forbade all acts and even thoughts of personal retaliation. Instead, you were required to show love to those who had wronged you. In fact, you were to treat one who wronged you as well as you treated yourself. You were to love just as the Lord loves. Now, this kind of love was not basically an emotional attitude or sentiment, for feelings can’t be commanded. Love was understood as a willful desire to love all one’s neighbors and to act out that love through kindness and compassion. The Lord commanded his people to act in a loving way toward their neighbors and care for them as they cared for themselves. Love was the basic social duty of the Israelites as God’s holy people. Why? Because God is love. Love is the essence of His own holiness. Out of love He had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, and made them, all together, His own holy congregation, a special chosen people. And His holy love was what encouraged and fostered brotherly love in his congregation.
The Gospel lesson for today begins with these words from Jesus in verse 20: “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Scribes and Pharisees had forgotten the true meaning of the Law, which is love - love for God above all things, and love for the neighbor as yourself. They had turned the Law into a checklist of does and don’ts in order to earn God’s favor. Naturally then, they interpreted this and every other commandment only according to the letter of the Law. “If we haven’t killed anyone or even injured anyone’s body we’ve kept the command. Check! We’re safe.” That was only natural, of course, for if a person is going to work their way to heaven then they need laws they can do. So, the scribes and Pharisees obeyed the Law outwardly, but without love. They obeyed for their own benefit, in order to help themselves and gain God’s approval by what they did. But that’s not true obedience from God’s perspective. No! we must obey the law sincerely, from the heart. We must obey the law, not for our own benefit, but for the neighbor’s benefit and to the glory of God. And we can never fail at this love, or it’s not really true love.
That’s why even hateful thoughts or the casual angry word directed at the neighbor (which is what the word “Raca” refers to), even these cause us to trespass, or, to miss the mark. Also, deliberate insults directed at the neighbor such as, “You fool” are murderous acts. These are attacks on the life of our neighbor, for the aim of such hatred and angry words and insults is, ultimately, the destruction of his life. Every vengeful thought and every idle word, which we think so little of and speak so easily, so casually, betrays our lack of respect and love for our neighbor. It shows that we wish to place ourselves on a pinnacle above him; that we love our own life more than his. The angry word is a blow that strikes at our neighbor. It’s a stab at his heart that hurts and destroys him. Deliberate insults do even more damage, for when we openly disgrace our neighbor in the eyes of the world we cause others to despise him. When our hearts burn with hatred we are seeking to destroy him, even if only in our thoughts. We are passing judgment on him, and that’s murder.
By such murderous acts, dear friends, we forfeit our relationship with God, for if we despise our neighbor, our worship of God is hypocrisy. Therefore Jesus says, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” So long as we refuse to love our neighbor; so long as we refuse to be reconciled to him, our worship and sacrifice will be unacceptable to God. God will not have our love for Him divorced from love and service toward our neighbor. Why? Because of the incarnation and the cross. God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ became the Brother of all humanity by taking on human flesh and blood. Christ came to redeem all people. He bore the full brunt of the Father’s anger. He endured all shame and insults and even death on behalf of the whole human race. By raising Him up from the dead the Father showed that Christ’s sacrifice is acceptable to Him. The whole world is thereby reconciled to God and He is no longer angry. The Father does not turn His face completely away from those whose likeness the Son took upon Himself, and for whose sake He lived and died. How then can we turn our faces away from them and still claim to love God? No, whoever says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar. Thus St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 13: “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (vv. 2-3)
This is the righteousness God expects from us in the Law, dear friends. No one who fails to do the Law can be counted righteous. But we can’t do it. That’s why the Law always accuses us. That’s why it always condemns us. Our hearts are filled with love only on the condition that those we love, love us in return. Our hearts are filled with rage and hatred or at least ambivalence for those who have wronged us. We are not God. We are not Christ. Or are we? What does it mean, “You have been buried with [Christ] through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”? It means that you disciples of Christ have an advantage over the Pharisees. Your doing of the law is in fact perfect in God’s sight. How is that possible? It’s possible because in between you and the Law stands Christ Who has already fulfilled the Law. Because you have been baptized into His death and resurrection you have put on His righteousness and you live in communion with Him. Christ has already satisfied the demands of the Law, for He kept the Law perfectly for you, as He said a few verses before our text: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).
The perfect righteousness which your adversary, the Law, demands of you is already there. By faith in Christ, God the judge has counted you perfectly righteous on account of the merit of Christ. Many people, like the scribes and Pharisees, attempt to reduce the Law down to a list of things to do to get right with God. And then they think that because they’ve done the best they can God will call that good. But it’s not good enough. They will be judged guilty. Then they will be handed over to the devil, the officer of hell, and they will not get out of there until they have paid the last penny, which means never. But you who trust in Christ - Christ IS your righteousness before God. You are forgiven. You are restored. God sees you NOT as the murderers you are and see and know yourselves to be in this valley of tears. Rather, He sees you truly as lovers of men because when He looks at you He sees Christ. Your righteousness is not and never can be your own personal achievement. It is always a gift, which you received when you were baptized and called as disciples of Christ. It is a gift which you receive every time you repent of your sins and receive the absolution. That’s why the Psalmist cries out to God, “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits” (Ps 71:15), and again, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.”
Dear Christian friends, this inward righteousness, the righteousness of Christ by which you are saved, righteousness which is yours by faith - this righteousness will indeed manifest itself in your outward life as well, for St. Paul tells us in the Epistle lesson that you who have died with Christ should reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This happens, first of all, through the constant life of repentance and faith as you do not let sin get the upper hand in your life, but rather bring your sins to Jesus feet and cry out: “Lord, have mercy,” and then draw from His Word and life-giving body and blood. Also, this inward righteousness will manifest itself outwardly in your life as you willingly bear the burdens of your neighbors and suffer the cross of insults and wrongs in patience and love.
Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone And rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith in known, With love and hope increasing.
Yet faith alone doth justify, Works serve thy neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living. (TLH 377:9)
But such outward righteousness will never be perfect. In fact, you may feel that you are making no progress at all in holy living. Your faith itself will always be only a weak faith in this life. But don’t trust in your outward holy life, at all! Don’t even rely on your faith. Your faith will always be unsteady and undependable because you do the believing. Trust in Christ and rely on your baptism. Baptism is certain and sure because God himself does the baptizing and thereby forgives all your sins and makes you new, righteous creatures, as we sing in the hymn:
Sins, disturb my soul no longer; I am baptized into Christ.
I have comfort even stronger: Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood, Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood? (ELH 246:2)
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Trinity 7/Pentecost 8
St. Mark 8:1-9
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Dearly Beloved,
Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden? If God created everything good, then why did He give man a chance to screw things up? Couldn’t He have saved the world, and Himself, a lot of trouble if he had not put that tree there? These are questions which probably all Christians have asked. Well, God certainly wasn’t acting foolishly. Nor was He playing some kind of sinister game with Adam and Eve. No, this tree goes to the very heart of why God made man and what it means for man to be made in His image. It was sufficient for the animals to live simply by instinct. That’s the way they were made to be. But the Lord created man higher than the animals. He created us to have a special relationship with Him. The Triune God is the God of love, and He desires us to receive that love and then return love to Him freely. That’s really the only way love can work, isn’t it? There has to be a choice. I mean, you can’t force another person to love you, and even if you could; even if you coerced someone, against their will, to profess love for you, and even if that person gave you “love” in some kind of mechanical way; that wouldn’t really be love. In order for love to be truly given and received, there also has to be the opportunity for that love to be rejected. Well, it’s the same with God and His human creatures. God didn’t create Adam and Eve to be robots or machines, or to live purely by their instincts. He created them human. And to be truly human means to not be sinful. It means to reflect the very nature of the God Who IS love in our relationship both with Him and with each other.
So, that’s why God put the Tree right in the middle of the Garden of Eden. He put it there so that mankind might have the opportunity to show love. Adam and Eve showed love for God and honored Him as their Maker by believing the Word which He spoke about that tree and so, by refraining from eating its fruit. Our first parents knew only good. Only God knew how His goodness could be corrupted and turned against Him for evil. The Tree of Knowledge, then, was the place where Adam and Eve could worship Him by trusting the Word He had attached to that tree.
This tree would have been treated with the same sort of reverence that we treat our altar. In His commentary on the book of Genesis, Dr. Luther comments:
[Here God builds Himself], as it were, a temple that [Adam] may worship Him and thank the God who has so kindly bestowed all these things on him. Today in our churches we have an altar for the administration of the Eucharist, and we have platforms or pulpits for teaching the people. These objects were built not only to meet a need but also to create a solemn atmosphere. But this tree of the knowledge of good and evil was Adam’s church, altar, and pulpit. Here He was to yield to God the obedience he owed, give recognition to the Word and will of God, give thanks to God, and call upon God for aid against temptation. (AE 1:95)
This tree wasn’t some evil trick meant to trip up human beings. Yes, there was a curse attached to the misuse of this tree. There are consequences to the misuse of any good thing. Above all, however, this tree was a place of worship. It was a place to hear and honor God’s Word and praise Him for His great goodness. Beware, then, when you are tempted to use your human reason to question why God does things they way He does, as if we were ever in a position to judge God. Whoever does this is guilty of the same sin Adam and Eve were guilty of - the sin of putting themselves on the throne as judge of good and evil and of trying to be God in God’s place. It is utter foolishness to use our puny intelligence and our frail minds against the very God who created and preserves us.
But that’s what we do in one form or another. Fools that we are, we think we know better than God. So, like Adam and Eve, we find ourselves under God’s curse: “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” In the beginning man had a free will. He was created in God’s image, to freely receive God’s love and freely give love back to God and to his neighbor. But that image has been polluted and our free will has been lost. We have a limited amount of freedom to do certain works that appear righteous to other people, but when it comes to spiritual matters; when it comes to being righteous and doing righteous works before God, we are in bondage to corruption and by nature enemies of God. “By Adam’s fall is all forlorn Man’s nature and his thinking, The poison’s there when we are born, In sin yet deeper sinking.” (ELH 430:1) Ephesians 2 says that we are dead in our sin. We are spiritual stillborns, and dead people don’t make choices or exercise free will. We can do nothing to bring ourselves to God or get right with Him as the catechism confesses: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” The best we can experience, on our own, is the living death of this world, and eternal death in the world to come.
But, dear friends,
God’s own Son, The ransom won, Freed us from condemnation,
Which Satan’s lust On Eve did thrust And brought mankind damnation.
Since God gave us His only Son While we were yet His foemen,
Who, when His work of love was done, Ascended into heaven;
Therefore we gain Not death and pain but liberty as spoken;
And trusting sure His Word so pure, By death no more we’re broken. (ELH 430:1b & 4)
The Triune God, Who IS Love, did not leave us to die. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle. God’s love is all about Him giving His free, undeserved gifts to us. He does this by giving us our bodies and souls, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses. He does this by richly and daily providing us with food and clothing, home and family, property and goods, and all that we need to support this body and life. He protects us from danger and guards and keeps us from evil. He showed this love most fully and perfectly in the incarnation, when He united Himself to our flesh and blood in the man, Jesus Christ.
Let’s consider the contrast, then, between the setting of today’s Gospel, which is set in a barren wilderness, and the Garden of Eden. Things have gone from a lush garden to a desert, from an abundance of food to a multitude whose stomachs rumble with hunger-pangs. Jesus is right there in the wilderness with the people, enduring all the effects of sin’s curse right along with them. He says to the disciples: “I have compassion on the multitudes.” His heart goes out to them in their need. His heart goes out to you in your need. Jesus entered this world to undo the curse and restore you to paradise. He knows, first-hand, what you go through, and in His great mercy He came to suffer for you in order to take away your suffering. Now, that doesn’t mean that your earthly life will be trouble-free. That’s a lie that many Christians believe, that being a Christian somehow entitles them to live life without any pain or sorrow or trouble. It doesn’t! No, Jesus came to take away your eternal suffering, and, contradictory as it may sound, that means that even the suffering and troubles and pain which you endure in this life have actually been sanctified. Even your trials and afflictions have been made holy and have been turned into blessings. They have been given a new, spiritual dimension. They are now meant to remind you, first of all, of the deathly consequences of sin in your life so that, by God’s grace, you will not allow sin to be your taskmaster, that is, so that you will not willfully and purposely turn away from God and seek pleasure from the passions and lusts of the flesh. Suffering and pain and trouble are also meant, secondly, to turn your eyes to Jesus and His cross, for it is here that He put all your sins together with their consequences to death for all eternity. Here, from the cross of Christ, you draw your strength and comfort to patiently bear any and all crosses which have come into your life, for Christ made Himself a part of your blood and sweat and tears in order to redeem your body and soul and renew the fallen creation in which you live.
We see this beginning to take place in the miracle from our text. God’s curse on Adam’s sin was this: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” But here, Christ, the Second Adam, reverses the curse and produces an abundance of bread, simply by the power of His creative Word, without any sweaty or tiring labor. Here He restores the bounty of Eden. We see a tiny glimpse of how things were before the fall and how things will be in the new creation of the age to come. On the cross Jesus completed this work of undoing the fall and breaking the curse of sin. The wages of sin is death; but Jesus died that death for you. He received the fair wages for your sinful work in His own crucified body, and then He rose from the dead the third day so that, you who believe in Him might now receive the gift of resurrection life, body and soul together.
It’s important that you notice that this miracle was performed on the third day. The crowd was with Jesus in the wilderness for three days, listening to Him preach. Jesus also leads you on a journey into the wilderness. He leads you into your daily vocations where you sweat and labor just to live. You struggle with your own sins and weaknesses and with the sins and weaknesses and failings of others as you go about the tasks of being fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, employers and employees, citizens of the country and members of the church. It is precisely in your daily vocations, where you learn of your desperate need for Christ. You fail miserably to live as the Law demands, that is, you fail to love God above all things. You fail to love your neighbor in an absolutely pure, selfless way, as yourself. So, in these places God teaches you to truly hunger and thirst for His Word and His righteousness. The Holy Spirit draws you to repent. And then, on the third day, that is, here in the Divine Service, you learn of God’s forgiveness in Christ, by which He pronounces you righteous. Here you are lifted out of the world, where affliction and trials are present, and Jesus speaks words of comfort and life into you. He makes all things new and bright.
In the text Jesus took the seven loaves, gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people. Just so, in the heavenly liturgy Jesus speaks His Word over bread and wine. Then His called and ordained pastors give you the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Christ produced enough food for thousands of people from seven loaves and a few fish. In the same way, here He unites His life-giving body with earthly bread in order to feed and fully satisfy His Christian people. He unites His cleansing blood with earthly wine in order to cleanse and forgive you. The multitude had more than they could eat, so much that there were left-overs. Just so, the gift of God’s precious body and blood never runs out. There is as much of it, yes, even more here for you than you have sin to forgive. In this way God continuously justifies you. He constantly spreads over you the blanket of His righteousness and restores you to the deathless perfection of Eden. He exalts you to a status even higher than that of Adam and Eve, for here, in the liturgy, He brings heaven down to you, and the glories of heaven far surpass the glory even of the Garden of Eden. This is how God serves you, dear friends. And His one desire is that you break from your tiring service each week so that He can serve you and renew and refresh you.
Dear Christian friends, was it worth it? With all that’s gone so terribly wrong since the fall, and considering all that God knew He would have to do to save and restore us, was God’s creation of man worth it? That’s not for us to answer or even dwell on. That’s God’s business. What we do know, because the Bible says it, is that from God’s perspective, you are worth it. You are worth the price He had to pay to have you in His love forever. He baptized you and restored you to His image. He gives you the mind and will of Christ to battle your stubborn Old Adam as you go about the daily tasks He has assigned to you. Through His gracious action of forgiving all your sins, you are turned from loving yourself above all things to loving God above all things. Even though you must struggle with your own flesh and with the devil until the grave, you get to come into God’s gracious presence and eat. In the Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah promised the Jews held captive in Babylon that God would bring them back from captivity to their own land of Judah again and there they would use this speech: “The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!” He promised them that the Lord would satiate the weary soul and replenish every sorrowful soul. Those words are for you as well. The Divine Service is God’s mountain of holiness where you are brought back from your captivity. Here your weary souls are satiated with God’s good gifts. That means, that you are filled to excess with His own gracious life. Here “The poor shall eat and be satisfied.” “For [here] the Lord fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Introit) And so we pray:
Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray Thee, Let me gladly here obey Thee.
By Thy love I am invited, Be Thy love with love requited;
From this Supper let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep love’s treasure.
Through the gifts Thou here dost give me As Thy guest in heaven receive me. (305:9)
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Trinity 9/Pentecost 10
St. Luke 16:1-9
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed,
A certain rich man had a steward who was charged with wasting his goods. The master called him in. “It’s time for an audit. You can’t work for me anymore.” The steward was in a pickle. His goose was cooked. He couldn’t do physical labor and begging was too embarrassing. He concocted a scheme. He went to his master’s debtors, behind his back, and slashed huge chunks off their debt. Thus he put them in his debt so that when he was out on the street they would at least give him a place to stay. When the master found out, all he could do was smile at the steward’s shrewdness; at the clever way he got himself out of his jam.
In verse 8 Jesus says, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” Of course, Jesus isn’t condoning embezzlement or fraud. He’s just drawing a comparison. He’s lamenting how dishonest people are so clever and zealous and creative in their scheming to stay ahead of the game. Worldly people know how to use material goods, and they know how to use other people to get what they want. On the other hand, Christians are often so sluggish in using the heavenly riches, the Word and Sacraments, and in putting their earthly resources to Godly use - in support of the Gospel and in service to their neighbors. How right Jesus is. There is no end to the cleverness and conniving of criminals trying to avoid the consequences of their mischievous behavior. There is no end to the elaborate schemes of those who want to get something for nothing. There is no end to the risks people who live only for themselves will take for just a few moments of passing lustful pleasure. They’ll even risk their careers and families.
And how about us sons and daughters of light? We know where all our possessions, even our very lives come from. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor comes from You, and You reign over all” (1 Chron. 29:11-12a). So King David proclaims in the Old Testament lesson. Everything belongs to our Divine Creator and Preserver. We are simply the managers and stewards of His possessions, which are to be used above all in service to our neighbor. But we have sinned. We have been covetous; jealous of those who have what we do not have and angry because they’ve gotten all the brakes (or so we think). We have worked ourselves sick chasing the American Dream - a bigger house, a nicer yard, more cars, more toys, more vacations, every convenience a credit card can buy, being on the “in” crowd. We might well answer like Howard Hughs once did when he was asked: “How much money is enough?” Hughs responded: “Just one more dollar.” We have been greedy, hoarding all of this for ourselves. Like the rich fool in another of Jesus’ parables, when we get more stuff we build bigger barns, or rent storage units, as it were, to keep it all in. Then we give ourselves a good pat on the back for a job well done. But we have not shared with those less fortunate than we to the best of our ability. We have given little thought to our neighbors who lack even the basic necessities of life. Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He [that is, the Lord] will pay back what he has given.” But we’re too afraid to take pity; afraid that we might miss out on something for ourselves; afraid that we might be taken advantage of, what with all the scam artists out there. We’re afraid that we might be assisting someone who is undeserving, as if we deserve any of what we have, or as if any of it really belongs to us in the first place. We live in fear that if we don’t stockpile our resources then we will be left destitute in our old age. So, the needy will have to find help elsewhere; from the government perhaps, after all, that’s why we pay taxes, isn’t it? We’ve been more concerned for our own future than we’ve been for our neighbor’s present.
Above all, though, we have been given the One Thing Needful, our Lord Jesus Christ. His holiness and righteousness sanctifies us and the life we live and all that we do. We possess His Holy Word and Sacraments through which we partake of the whole fullness of His Life. Without this precious treasure all else is vanity, a meaningless chasing after the wind, as Solomon writes. But would we baptized sons and daughters of light be willing to risk as much for the Gospel as the sons of this world risk for their selfish, vain fancies? Would we risk losing friends and being ostracized from our families in order to preserve the pure doctrine, if it came to that? What of ourselves would we be willing to sacrifice in the end, to keep the doors open, if the money in the church’s portfolio ever ran out. Do our hearts bleed as much when we hear about false doctrine and practice as when we hear that our 401K plan has gone down again? How many times have we sat in this very church listening to the Gospel of Life, thinking, “Yeah, that’s nice. So, how am I going to pay the credit card this month?” Dear friends, this parable is a call to repentance. It is a call for God’s children to be just as zealous in applying themselves to the right use of earthly possessions and to the use of eternal things as the children of darkness are in applying themselves to their self-serving schemes.
Now, odd as it may sound, this parable is also about how our Lord Jesus Christ is the Unjust Steward. “Oh pastor, how can you say that? Are you saying that Jesus was unjust? That He was wasteful and neglectful and dishonest in his dealings?” Well, no, not in and of Himself. He was and is the perfect, sinless Son of God. But He was made unjust and unrighteous for us. He was made to bear all of our sins and iniquities. The Father declared Him to be unjust and unrighteous, for “God made Him Who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ became a curse for us so that we might be redeemed from the curse of sin. Let’s look at a few of the details of the parable a little closer.
First, notice that accusations were merely brought against the Steward. We assume that there was proof, but the text doesn’t actually say. There’s nothing about an independent investigation, or documents, or anything. The Master simply called the Steward in to give an account on the basis of the accusations. And in the meantime he tells him that he can no longer be steward. The same happened to Jesus. He was accused of all sorts of wastefulness and unjust activity. He was accused of inciting rebellion against the state, and of being too free with his mercy for associating with prostitutes and tax collectors. He was accused of being a sinner for violating Sabbath laws. The Scribes were just convinced that he would say “no” when asked if Jews should pay taxes to Caesar. He was even accused of performing his miracles by the power of the devil, and above all He was accused of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of God. And do you know what God did? God actually called Jesus to account for these accusations. All of the blame for our crimes was laid at His feet. He was despised and rejected by men. He was emptied of everything as He was stripped naked, beaten to a pulp, and nailed to the accursed tree to bleed and die for the sins of the world. There on the cross, Christ Jesus was abandoned by all, even His Heavenly Father, as He suffered the bitter torment of hell itself in order to reconcile a world of sinful debtors to the God of all creation.
There’s something else in the parable you should notice. Usually, when an employee is fired for stealing there’s someone right there to escort him off the property immediately. But that doesn’t happen here. After the master told him, “you can no longer be steward,” he doesn’t take the steward’s books or keys away. Furthermore, the master actually honors the decisions of the steward after his firing. He doesn’t tell his debtors, “Hey wait a minute. I just fired that guy. He doesn’t work for me anymore, so whatever agreements he made with you are null and void.” No, the master is merciful. He accepts the steward’s decisions as ones coming from himself.
Surely then, this is no ordinary master. This master is our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father, for the Father also honored the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. By that sacrifice we have been released from the debt we owed to God. But unlike the steward in Jesus’ parable, who cancelled out only a portion of the debts, all of our debt and the debt of every other sinner has been cancelled. Easter is the proof of this cancellation. When God raised Christ from the dead that was the declaration that all of the debt of the entire world has been cancelled. Payment has been rendered completely. We owe nothing more. Sinners must pay nothing and do nothing to make up for our sins. The slate is clean. As we just sang in the hymn:
Jesus, in Thy cross are centered All the marvels of Thy grace;
Thou, my Savior, once hast entered Through Thy blood the holy place:
Thy sacrifice holy there wrought my redemption, From Satan’s dominion I now have exemption;
The way is now free to the Father’s high throne, Where I may approach Him, in Thy name alone.
(ELH 182, v. 8)
And now, dear friends, God appoints stewards to dispense the marvels of His grace to you. This is the final thing I want you to learn from this parable. Even though the steward had been unfaithful, and even though the master had fired him, the debtors didn’t know that. They took the steward’s word for it that he was speaking for the master when he canceled out their debt. The master honored these agreements because, as I said, he was merciful. He was also faithful. The debtors could have complete confidence that their creditor would always be true to His word, even when it was spoken by an unfaithful steward. Just so St. Paul calls pastors “stewards of the mysteries of God.” Pastors are entrusted with delivering to Christ’s church the message of the cross and the holy Sacraments in the stead and by the command of Christ, and Christ is faithful to His Word even when His stewards are not faithful to their office.
Last week we heard that there are false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing. There are unfaithful stewards. Pastors sometimes abuse their office. They abuse their people, neglect their duties, live scandalous lives. Many pastors preach false doctrine. Pray that I and all pastors may be good stewards for your sake, and for our own. But whether a pastor is a believer or an unbeliever, a good man or a bad man; if he has been rightfully called and ordained to speak on God’s behalf, it is indeed God’s forgiveness that you hear and it is God’s sacraments that you receive. You can be as confident of that as those debtors were that their debt was canceled out by the master.
Dear Christian friends, We have been unfaithful as stewards of God’s possessions. We’re selfish and lustful and greedy. We have lived as if we mattered most and as if God and our neighbor did not matter at all. We’re lazy in prayer, in repentance, and in our use of God’s Word But our rich master, the Triune God, has had mercy on us. He won our forgiveness by the death of Christ. Then he appointed the Office of the Ministry and gave the Gospel and the sacraments to proclaim the message that Jesus made your peace with God by offering Himself for your sins. You are forgiven. That word comes from God and He will not go back on it. So, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon. That means, make friends with the Word and Sacraments, distributed to you by God’s steward. Through the voice of a sinful man the Gospel is preached; By means of earthly bread and wine Christ’s body and blood are distributed to you and you are given a heavenly treasure. Through these earthly things that perish you receive an eternal, imperishable gift. Believe the good Word of Jesus Christ, and you will have your heavenly reward. And so we pray:
I have naught, my God, to offer, Save the blood of Thy dear Son;
Graciously accept the proffer: Make His righteousness mine own.
His holy life gave He, was crucified for me;
His righteousness perfect He now pleads before Thee;
His own robe of righteousness, my highest good,
Shall clothe me in glory, through faith in His blood. (ELH 182:6)
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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