Luke 16:1-15 - The Bottom Line - September 18, 2022

Today we’re going to talk about Money. I know…nobody wants to talk about money – especially at church. Church is supposed to be for “spiritual stuff.” But today Jesus doesn’t give us a choice. Plus, the reality is that Money is spiritual. Why? First and foremost because all Money belongs to God. But that’s not the only reason. It’s no secret that Money is one of the most important things in our lives. It keeps us busy during the day and awake at night. It guides many of our life choices. As Paul made clear, the love of Money lies at the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). The love of Money has destroyed marriages and families and churches and led people to wander from the faith. Today we’re going to talk about Money, and the bottom line is this: You cannot serve both God and [money].

First, I want to make sure that you heard that right. Jesus isn’t making up an 11th commandment. He didn’t say “do not serve both God and money.” He said: “You cannot serve both God and money.” It’s not a choice but a fact. The question is: which do you serve? Here’s the lesson we all must learn – sooner than later – about money. It’s a merciless master. I know, it doesn’t appear that way, at least not at first. Money looks like those glamorous celebrities promoting the newest credit card that promises you all kinds of free miles and cash back; like the well-dressed investment advisor who guarantees to make your money work for you; like the dream education that leads to the dream job with the dream salary that promises to make all your material dreams come true. But that’s only half the story. The dark side is that when you don’t make your credit card payments on time, you don’t get any miles but you do get an astronomical interest rate. The investment advisor can’t do much for you unless you keep handing him your money. The dream education may result in debt that you will be paying for decades (or that others will be forced to pay for you) and the dream job with the dream salary may end up costing you your mind, body, soul, marriage or family. Even in the church, the laws of money can’t be broken. We confess that faith alone saves, but budgets can’t be balanced by faith alone. Money is merciless.

Why? Because no matter how you talk about it, Money management is always a matter of the Law. And, as a result, we can always be accused of mismanaging our money. We see this in our parable. The manager was only accused of wasting his [master’s] possessions. Jesus doesn’t provide any evidence and he doesn’t state whether the manager was actually guilty or not. The point is that no matter how careful, how diligent, how generous you are with your money, you can always be accused of sinning in your use of it.

And I can prove it. I think that I can make you feel guilty about your money management – without a shred of evidence. The average American spends almost 5% of their income on various forms of entertainment [1] and, in comparison, the average WELS member gives only about 2.5% of their income in offerings. [2] That’s the average – where do you stand? What does your budget reveal about who or what has first place in your heart? We live in relatively nice homes, drive nice cars and take nice vacations. Just imagine if, instead of spending those thousands of dollars on ourselves, how many missionaries could be sent to foreign lands, how many churches could be built here in America, how many more pastors could be trained. See! I have no proof that you’ve mismanaged your money, yet you’re squirming anyway. But that’s not the point. The point is that no matter how you spend your money, no matter how frugal you are, no matter how much you give, you could still be accused of fiscal mismanagement. Money is a merciless master because serving Money is slavery to the Law.

Sadly, if we’ve never thought of Money that way, as a merciless idol, it might be because of the church. At some point the church decided that it could help people navigate the impossibly narrow road between serving God and Money; teaching that there is a way to find peace in money management, that you can serve both at the same time. You’ve heard the sermons, right? “God commanded his OT people to give 10% of their income and if you do too, then you’re off the hook.” “If you just prioritize your spending in this order: 1) Church; 2) Family; 3) Taxes; 4) Charity – then you can relax, you’re good.” In general, the impression is given that as long as you give God his cut, as long as you serve Money under God’s rules, then you don’t have to feel guilty.

But it’s a lie. You can’t stand before God’s omniscient audit and be found innocent based on your money management no matter how you’ve spent your money. Why not? Because the moment you begin to believe that you have satisfied God with your money management, then you’ve fallen into an even worse sin: the sin of self-righteousness. If you hope to stand before God and say “I’ve given enough, spent my money wisely, never wasted it, spent every penny perfectly,” then you’ve placed your hope for salvation in yourself. You are lost now and will be damned on the Last Day. But what’s the alternative? And that’s the problem with serving money, isn’t it? There is no alternative. Do whatever you want with it: keep it, save it, invest it, spend it, give it away, burn it up – it will never justify you before God. See what I mean about Money being merciless?

So what’s the answer? How do you escape Money’s tyrannical grip on your heart and life? Through repentance. By repenting of ever giving Money the place in your heart and life that belongs to God alone. Money is an inanimate object; it is not God; it did not create you; it does not preserve you or provide for you; it cannot accuse you; it cannot damn you; it cannot forgive you; it cannot save you. Recognize that Money is merciless and in the end, powerless, because it is an idol.

So what’s the good news? Here’s where some might say that the good news is that Jesus died to free us from our slavery to Money so that we can now serve the Lord with our Money – and then send the offering plates shooting down the rows. After all, that’s what most people think the Church is after, right? God needs us to come here so that he can get our money and our time and our energy in order to make his Kingdom come. Is that true? Does God need anything from us in order to do what he wants? Is God angry with us unless we give him a few bucks to get him off our backs? It’s sheer blasphemy to suggest that God’s grace depends on something we do, or that God can’t possibly sustain the church without our help. God didn’t have much patience for that kind of attitude in either the Old or New Testaments. In Malachi God begged someone to close the doors of the Temple so that the priests would stop offering their sacrifices – because they thought that by merely going through the motions they were going to win God’s favor (Malachi 1:10). Paul told the idolaters in Athens point blank that God [is not] served by human hands, as if he needed anything (Acts 17:25).

So what’s the real bottom line, then? Remember that Jesus told parables to teach spiritual truths, not moral behavior – or here, proper money management. In parables, earthly things stand for heavenly things. So the point of comparison is not between the right and the wrong way to spend Money, but between the shrewdness with which unbelievers use the means at their disposal (their money) to give themselves comfortable lives in this world and how believers, the children of the light, use what is really valuable to ensure their eternity. Jesus himself gives this interpretation: the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light are. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

So where’s the real good news? The good news in Jesus’ parables is often found in the detail that doesn’t make sense – that isn’t true to life. Is there anything like that in this parable? For a rich guy, this master was pretty stupid, wasn’t he? He heard that his manager was wasting his possessions, but he didn’t immediately have him thrown in jail. He allowed him to go free to settle his outstanding accounts. It doesn’t work that way today. If you get caught stealing from your boss, security tosses your stuff into a box, walks you to your car and your access to anything financial is immediately cut off. That’s how things normally go. In fact, spiritually speaking, that’s how it should go for us. When we leave here with the true riches of God’s forgiveness and continue to feel guilt and shame over past sins, when we fail to find comfort and peace in the Sacrament, when we hear God’s promise to provide our daily bread but continue to lay awake at night worrying about money – we are wasting what is really valuable. We deserve to have them taken away. But God doesn’t do that. Like the master in the parable, our Lord lets us use and receive and give away his most precious possessions for free, demonstrating an almost foolish level of mercy to us.

And our only hope for passing God’s final audit is that he will remain merciful. That was the only hope of the shrewd servant, too. And so, far from suddenly toeing the line, he doubled down on spending his master’s money to secure his own future. And how does the master respond? [He] commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. This manager had forced his master into a corner: either drag his former manager in for punishment and then demand the full amount from his debtors – and be known as an unforgiving tyrant – or allow his manager’s actions to stand and be known throughout the community as a merciful and gracious lord. Of course, the punchline is that it will cost him significant revenue to be seen as merciful. But apparently, he figured that this loss to his bottom line was worth it to maintain his reputation.

That’s the thing about mercy: it doesn’t cost the recipient anything, but it costs the giver dearly. The master in the parable had to suffer a significant financial loss to be merciful. God is merciful to us, but it came at a steep price. It didn’t cost him 20% or 50% but 100% of his only beloved Son. Rather than send us to destruction, he sent his Son to earth. Rather than demand a perfect, flawless life from us, he demanded a perfect life from his Son. Rather than demand that we maintain hearts free from greed and covetousness – which we could never do – to earn heaven, the LORD demanded that his Son be content to live in poverty for 33 years on this earth. Rather than send us to hell to pay off our debts, the LORD sent his Son to hell on a cross to pay our debts in our place. The LORD, your real master, preferred to suffer the loss of his one and only Son and be merciful than be just and lose you forever in hell. So be shrewd – serve him by relying on his mercy – trust his Word with all your heart, live in his forgiveness and let your heart rest in his peace.

This parable isn’t really about how to spend your Money but about who your Master is. The manager was commended because he knew his master’s mercy and shrewdly used what belonged to his master to ensure his future. How much more should we freely use and spend the true riches God has given us – the Gospel in Word and Sacrament – the only wealth which can secure us a place in eternal dwellings. Here’s the bottom line: You cannot serve both God and [Money]. Money is merciless – in the end, the most it can do is purchase a nice plot of dirt to put your corpse in; but God, God in his mercy gave up his only Son to save you. That’s a merciful Master, that’s the only Master worth serving. Amen. 

[1] https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/american-households-spend-2900-per-year-on-entertainment-5-ways-to-have-fun-without-breaking-the-bank/#:~:text=It%20turns%20out%20that%20entertainment,average%20household%20spends%20on%20groceries.

[2] https://wels.net/faq/church-and-expenses/