Trinity 9, 2022
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 16:1-13
Trinity 9
August 14, 2022
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager is perhaps the most difficult text in the canon of Holy Scripture. It is a parable so there is already a hidden and layered meaning to the text. There most likely was not an actual rich man who had a manager and fired him for wasting his possessions. There could have been, but we must remember that this is a parable.
Parables are one of the teaching devices Jesus uses to instruct His followers and reveal to them the hidden but glorious nature of the Kingdom of Heaven and how in Jesus Himself, the Kingdom of Heaven is now being revealed to them and to us. So, in a sense, it’s just like how we sometimes call the Lord’s Supper “a foretaste of the feast to come.” It is the feast itself. It is the fullness of the feast itself and while we are experiencing the fullness of its glory in receiving the forgiveness of sins, our outward senses are not experiencing the fullness of this feast. Because when we experience this feast every Sunday, we aren’t actually in heaven, seeing with our eyes the Lord and all the angels and all of our dearly departed brothers and sisters. We are stuck here on earth, where heaven comes down to us so that we might experience a foretaste, which is the great banquet itself, but not in its full glory that we can experience with our senses. For an outsider or unbeliever, this is difficult to understand. To someone who has not been catechized, the Lord’s Supper simply seems as though we walk up to a wooden communion rail and receive only bread and wine in a pious manner. We know, of course, that this isn’t the case. This is a foretaste of that great feast to come where Jesus comes to us in, with, and under the bread and wine.
And so it is that the parables Jesus uses to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven and also about what He is doing as God in the flesh, sometimes are difficult to understand, especially for those who do not study Holy Scripture or those who do not have faith—just as how the Lord’s Supper, to some, doesn’t seem to have any intrinsic value or to make sense as to why we do it, why we receive it.
But even to us, to those who have been given faith so as to understand Holy Scripture, still, because of our fallen flesh, some sayings of Jesus are difficult. St. Matthew, in his Gospel, records Jesus quoting the Prophet Isaiah, concerning the nature of the parables, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Even the Church Fathers—those great teachers and preachers of the Bible—complained in their own writings how this Parable of the Shrewd Manager seems to be obscure. But this forced them to be better theologians. This forced them to delve deeper into the text.
So let us then use context clues and the analogy of faith to figure out what Jesus is teaching in this parable. What is the summary of this parable? How does this relate to the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven? If we had to describe this parable and teach it to others, what would we say? How would we do it? In simple terms, there was a rich man who had a manager whom he fires for wasting his possessions as would happen in any other business, at any other company. Think of where you have worked whether it be at Collins or McDonalds or in a pharmacy or on a farm. If anyone wastes company time and money, if he defrauds the company out of thousands of dollars, he’s not going to be around for very long. The manager is to be sent away; he is to be cast out of that business; he is to be ignored, abandoned, forsaken by the rich man. And in so doing, because the manager knows the rich man is going to send him away, ignore him, and forsake him, the manager summons his master’s debtors one by one and forgives their debts. This manager was hired in order to take care of the rich man’s business. But instead of charging the debtors and demanding payment for what each of them owed, he forgives their debts. The debtors owed the rich man. But this manager lessens what they owe. This Shrewd Manager will be fired, cast out, and abandoned by the company and by his master, the rich man. But because of it, because he is the one who is to be punished, those who are below him actually benefit from it. And how does the rich man react from losing money and goods because of his manager? He is not angry. He does not seek to sue the manager or take him to court. He does not frown at him nor does he become angry. Instead, he is glad. He is happy. The rich man commends the manager for his shrewdness. He commends the manager for his shrewdness because He is happy that his debtors benefit.
This parable is difficult because this not how modern economics or business models work. No owner of a business would ever be glad that his debtors, those who owe him money and goods, get off scot-free without having to pay for what they owe. But if we notice, if you look around and notice where you are today, this is how it works in the Kingdom of Heaven. This parable is a parable about the Church—about what happens in the Church, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Of course, it’s difficult for us, in our fallen flesh with sinful minds and understanding to grasp this concept because for many, it seems as though Jesus is encouraging theft and fraud. But that’s not the point at all. This parable does seem to be obscure. But we must remember that all of Holy Scripture, all of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, and even the Parables, point to Jesus Christ and what He does according to His Father’s will and for us. He comes to fulfill it all.
Knowing and remembering this, could you imagine a Father, who sends His Son, His Only-Begotten Son into the world to fix what went wrong, in turn by being sent away, out of Jerusalem, to be cast out, and while being crucified, while hanging on the cross, He is ignored, abandoned, and forsaken by His Father? But by dying, by becoming sin though He knew no sin, by suffering the punishment, He relieves even the eternal debt of a thief by saying, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” The thief does not pay the debt he owes. He does not pay for his crimes in eternal damnation. He goes free, a saint of God.
In fact, this is how it is for all of us who are debtors. Because we have been corrupted by sin, by our thoughts, words, and deeds, we have offended God and our sins are a stench to Him. By this, we can only admit that we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. What we owe our Master, what we owe God Himself, is not a hundred measures of oil or a hundred measures of wheat, but we owe Him our very selves, due to be punished eternally in hell for crimes and sins we commit against Him. We owe Him our very lives. In order to pay this immense debt, only blood could be the payment, life itself. In order to pay off our debts, it would have only been right if you and I suffered the full blast of His wrath and punishment. But we didn’t pay with our blood or with our own lives and we won’t because we have a manager—someone above us. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous One, who comes to us and says, “Quickly, sit down at my table. Write down that you owe nothing. Not even fifty measures of oil or eighty measures of wheat, but nothing. Nothing. Write down that you owe nothing because I have paid for it all in full. Write down on your bill, use my own blood that I have shed for ink, and show the bill to my Father. Show Him that because I have paid in full, you owe nothing. You are no longer a debtor. Your sins have been atoned for and you are ahead, rich with forgiveness and grace.”
This is the work of the Triune God for us. The Father sends His Son to take away our sin, our guilt and our debt. What we could never pay back, is written off as nothing. The Father was owed an insurmountable debt. Jesus takes that away from us and places it upon Himself. And what can the Father do in this situation? He cannot and does not become angry, He does not frown. He is glad, delighted, and happy. He is overjoyed. He can only commend His Son for cancelling our debts. In fact, this is what He wanted all along. God desires not the death of the sinner. He does not desire to call in our debts, to make us pay. Instead of debtors, He would rather have sons, and if sons, then heirs in this Holy family business, this holy Kingdom of Heaven.
In +Jesus’ name.
