Luke 16,1-8. 2. Last Sunday

Luke 16,1-8   6120

Vorletzter. Sonntag des Kirchenjahres (26. Trinity) 071

Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors, France ✠ 654

Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Regensburg (1260-63), ✠ 1280 

Johannes Kepler, Mathematician and Astronomer, ✠ 1630

15. November 2020

1. O Resurrected Jesus, who has overcome death; help us to rest confidently in Your promise that the one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, so that we faithfully look forward to our heavenly reward.  Amen. (Starck 318 ¶ 1) 

2. »Jesus also said to the disciples: „There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him: ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be steward.’ And the steward said to himself: ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first: ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said: ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him: ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another: ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said: ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him: ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.“« 

3. Last week we heard Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (which occurred in ad 70); today we hear how all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ on the last day. 

4. In Luke 16 Jesus tells a parable about a dishonest steward, and at the end He observes: »The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of lights are.« The dishonest steward in Jesus’ parable is a son of this world: he will lie, cheat and steal to ensure he will have friends who owe him favors after he is dismissed as a steward. The sons of this world think nothing of this, for bribery and favors go hand-in-hand among businessmen, politicians and anyone else seeking a sympathizing heart and ready hand to pay back in kind when needed. 

5. The sons of light agonize over these temptations. On 3. September 1518 Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, Luther’s temporal lord, received from Pope Leo X the golden rose to express his highest esteem for Frederick’s lordship, heroic loyalty and devotion to the Church with the intention to entice Frederick to hand Luther over to Rome. Sir Peter Ustinov brilliantly portrays Frederick the Wise’s lament and agony upon receiving this esteemed gift in the 2003 movie Luther. „When I was a child I thought like a child, I was a child, I played like a child. And now, thanks to the adults, I’ve had to join the world of adults. And I am appalled by how easy they thought it was to bribe me.“ 

6. Our sinful nature thinks it can bribe God just as it bribes everyone else. Our sinful flesh would devise all sorts of ways to appease God. The most common device is to offset our sins with our good works. This was the premise behind the Medieval doctrine of indulgences, and Luther rightly saw this. Good works do not free us from sinful penalties nor do they save (Thesis 21); the assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is in vain (Thesis 52); a papal pardon is not able to remove the guilt of any venial sins (Thesis 76). 

7. What saves, forgives and pardons is Christ. It is His blood that forgives sins, His resurrection that raises all the dead; He speaks the words of absolution, grace and mercy. In Matthew 24, it is not the works that save those on the right but Christ who saves them. Those on Christ’s right are there because they believe, trust and love Him, and their works show that faith. Those on Christ’s left are there because they have rejected Christ, and their lack of works show that unbelief. Jesus explains that one of the points He makes in the parable of the dishonest steward is that those who are faithful in very little are also faithful in much (Luke 16,10). 

8. And realistically, Jesus doesn’t ask very much of us. He simply wants us to put our faith in Him. He doesn’t ask us to bear the weight of all the world; He doesn’t ask us to justify ourselves with tedious works; He simply says: believe in Me; trust in Me; let me carry the burden of the world and your sin. Jesus is the one who merits our salvation. Saint Paul tells us: »And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith« (Galatians 6,9-10). »For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them« (Ephesians 2,10). 

9. Jesus exhorts us to be prudent like the dishonest steward in His parable, but to be prudent in righteousness. The steward is praised because when faced with a crisis of eschatological proportions, namely, his very survival in the imminent day of reckoning before his lord, he cleverly uses the resources available to him in a wicked world in the context of his trust that his lord will treat him with the same mercy that he had shown in the past (Just 616). We live in the eschatological last days, namely that our Lord Jesus Christ may return from heaven any day. And so we use the resources Jesus has given us for these days to be prepared and ready for His second advent, namely, the Word and the Sacraments, for in them we receive Christ’s mercy and grace for the forgiveness of all our sins so that when He does return and we stand before Him at His right hand with certainty and with faith knowing that we are righteous on account of Christ and that our sins are already forgiven and that His judgment upon us is not a judgment of punishment but a judgment of praise: well done, good and faithful servants, enter into your eternal rest. Next week we will hear Jesus exhort us to be like the five wise bridesmaids who were ready for the arrival of the groom.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Dear Father, our Judge; as the heavens declare Your righteousness exhort us join in their declaration of Your righteousness, so that we live each day ready to stand before You with Christ as our Advocate.  Amen.  

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House. 

Just, Jr., Arthur A. Luke 9:51–24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.