The Ninth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 16:1-9 “The Lord’s Proper Management”
August 10, 2025 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father, who appointed us all as Your stewards, grant that we may not waste the goods entrusted to us, but rightly employ them, and with our temporal things make to ourselves friends, that we may be received into everlasting dwellings; through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and forever. Amen. (The Lutheran Liturgy, companion altar book for The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 150)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
“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 manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who is not shrewd when dealing with us, but sternly preaches to us to be good managers of His possessions which He has graciously given to us to assist with sharing His loving Gospel message, dear fellow redeemed:
There are a few different ways to make a budget. You can make a budget by pinching your pennies. You can make a budget, where it’s a little more on the loose side, but it allows you to spend on some things you love, and it pays the bills. It makes us feel good when we have a successful budget. As budgets are constantly needed, Scripture points out that it is not a regular occurrence for budgets to succeed. Our budgets and management can fail so easily because as much as we may want to be good stewards, the devil likes to get us to second guess our contentment. To counter the devil’s temptations, God tells us to remember two things. The first and most important thing is that everything we have is His. He created it, He has given it to us, and He can take it away. The second is that He wants us to manage it wisely. As we account for our budget and management, in our struggles, we look to the Lord’s proper management of wealth and possessions. When following His ways, we are received into His eternal dwellings.
To reveal to us the wealth we don’t deserve, Jesus teaches a parable about the managing of God’s wealth. What will help us is when we see everything as God’s. The world likes to say it is hard to see God at work in the world He created. As Jesus teaches in His parables like this one, we see with our own eyes God’s wealth. Clearly, the management in this parable was not doing so well with this great amount of wealth. “There was a rich man who had a manager, 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 manager.’” Now this isn’t jumping to conclusions on the rich man’s part. The reports are true, and the wasteful manager will soon admit this. The rich man has every right to protect his means of income by stopping this wasteful manger. He tells him he is fired, and he will be held accountable.
The terrible manager knew what he was doing was wrong. This relates to some of the people in Jesus’ day. Some knew they were doing something wrong. Jesus and His cousin John, like the prophets of old, called out the wrong that was taking place because there was a lot of mismanagement. The people learned these practices from their own leaders. After this parable Jesus would tell them, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Luke 16:13). It doesn’t take much for money and possessions to be a distraction. The religious leaders had become distracted from their duties and Jesus told them so. He is direct because God is direct when it comes to sin. So, we see the rich man call out his dishonest manager.
The dishonest manager should have been content. He must have been paid well for the power he had overseeing all the rich man’s possessions. Yet, he wanted to live like the rich man. St. Paul tries to give us advice about this when He writes, but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content (1 Timothy 6:6-8). Sometimes we need this reminder that nothing is going to come with us. Otherwise, our response might look like this, “And the manager 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.’” Caught in the act of mismanagement and seeing self-weakness and shame, it looks like it is all over. His brain spins though and like many caught in sin, he tries to find his own way out.
This way out does not get us out of the hole. Jesus even says so in the parable even as He is going to make another point in the end. The first point is that the rich man still knew this manager was in the wrong. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs (1 Timothy 6:9-10). This parable is not to excuse what the manager did. It reveals how easy it can be to be sucked into sin. A simple temptation is all it takes for us to see destruction and the pain that will be piercing. The manager was going to face that pain and destruction. The Lord’s proper management is to have contentment. Contentment that is most of the time in short supply.
Well, the manager was commended, and it was not because he had done something right in any capacity. All he did was look after himself. Now Jesus is not teaching His people to look after themselves in this manner. He ends the parable, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Jesus wants His people to see when they are in the wrong, and how He makes it right. The world around His people focuses on what they can have, and they will even eat their own for power. The sons of light don’t act this way and obviously they wouldn’t as contentment is on the forefront. This contentment is only there because it is the Lord’s proper management. So how do the sons of light do these actions like the sons of the world? They take the action of being shrewd and applying it to the life of being the sons of the light.
It is hard to wrap our minds around this shrewdness which doesn’t seem right to add to the Lord’s proper management. Jesus teaches His disciples this great truth about management. The worldly wealth they have will not exist at some point. The heavenly wealth they have is the message of the Gospel they teach which will give the people of this world eternal riches and dwellings. Riches that would bring the sons of light into their houses because of how valuable the wealth they now have. Hearing this parable from the One who makes them sons of light, Jesus will say to them, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master'” (Matthew 25:2). For the disciples to be shrewd with the Gospel means they have faith in the message they are teaching. A message they can only have faith in if their very faith is a gift from the wealth and management of God.
This gift of management certainly is proper in the Lord’s sight as He told man in the beginning how He would have this great gift. And God blessed them. 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). God had made His great and perfect world. He gave it to man to take care of it and manage it wisely. One consumed fruit later, and yet God in His mercy still wants man to manage His creation. Man had been tempted to destruction and God sent His Son to do the opposite. Jesus’ perfect management was the management of all our sins, putting every one of them on His shoulders. A heavenly management plan that gives the whole world heavenly riches. He then extends these riches to all through His work. He searches out those who will manage His gifts wisely.
You hear this truth when the writer to the Hebrews writes, Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). The shrewd manager didn’t realize how rich he was. He thought it was based on earthly wealth. The rich man has extended to you His possessions for you to manage and even if He would take them away from you for any reason, He does so say He will take care of you. He will either give you something else to care for and manage or He will give you the heavenly riches and that were won for you on the cross. Riches that are found in the dwellings are prepared for you. This is hard for the world to grasp, but you see how much more it is worth. You believe how God has gifted it to you, and your wise management comes from the One who will never forget you.
As you look at your budget and management, in this great mission you can use the world’s shrewdness. As you teach them how everything you own comes from above, you teach them how you also have something more. You are rich with the riches of heaven. St. Paul encourages you ask for help with your management and the management of others. “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4). In God’s saving plan, you see the truth in what you believe and do. The budget of it all may be a struggle at times, and yet, your Lord is still guiding you to take care of what He has given you. You see the heavenly dwellings in the future as you shrewdly teach the world the care of the Gospel. With the Lord’s proper management of the wealth of the world, you will be received by those who believe your message, and you will be received by God into His eternal dwellings. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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