The Father of all nations put aside his high standing with the Lord, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I am but dust and ashes … Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again. Suppose 10 are found there.“ Only Lot and his family were spared, but the Lord’s justice was served as an unending fire torched this city. The Lord was Judge of the wicked but became the Savior of his people.

Moses also pleaded with God. He pleaded for God’s chosen Israel when His wrath burned against them when they turned the glory of God into a golden calf. The Lord’s judgment was fierce, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation out of you.”

Moses pleaded with the Lord to turn from His anger and remember the promise of salvation He had made with His people. The Lord relented from this disaster to be brought upon His people and He had mercy on them. He was the Judge of the wicked but became the Savior of his people.

Jesus tells the parable of the unjust steward in today’s Gospel reading. He was caught red-handed wasting his lord’s possessions. The unjust steward, who after pleading for his own livelihood, the stewardship which he had lost, lightened the load of his lord’s debtors. One owed a 100 measures of oil- “Make it 50.” Another owed a 100 measures of wheat- “Make it 80.” All was unrighteous mammon, all was injustice and unfair to what was owed to the lord.

And have we not also wasted the possessions of our Lord? In Genesis, God gave Adam and all humanity dominion over all creatures, over the fish of the sea, over the birds in the sky, and over all animals that crawl upon the earth. He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.

These are gifts of God of which we are the stewards. Body and Soul are not ours, but the Lord’s alone. In this light, man has nothing that he may call his own. All is from God and He can take it back at any moment. The Lord hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty. We remain God’s stewards and tenants over His creation.

All things have been placed beneath man by the Lord God and man has misused and tainted them by greed and arrogance. God gave man to be caretaker of the entire world. Man squandered these possessions and even God’s image in the fall into sin. Humanity was in endless deprivation, until Christ—our ordained Mediator—won back the polluted possessions. By virtue of His merits, we are granted mercy and a restored creation.

The unjust steward was counting on the mercy of his lord. The strategy of the steward benefited all parties: the debtors receive a break on their debt while the steward and his lord are viewed as good and gracious. While guilty of wasting his lord’s possessions, the steward found compassion and commendation from that same lord. The lord was judge of the wicked, but became the savior of this steward.

In this unjust steward, one might view the Christian life- a sinner until death- yet redeemed in the eyes of the Lord. The steward’s acts were fraudulent, yet cunning; he was malicious, yet prudent. Thus the Christian remains corrupt in sin, yet perfect in Christ.

We see the parable of the unjust steward, but know also the Lord Jesus Christ is the Unjust Steward for all. He pleads for a people who owe far more than a 100 measures of oil or grain. We have broken the law; we deserve the fate of sinners destroyed by fire and brim stone and God’s wrath for idolatry. If God is just, why does He not judge us in this way? What was the difference between these sinners and us sinners? Jesus.

We owe our very lives to God as a ransom for sin, but our Divine Unjust Steward instead gives His life; hear Him pleading in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.” This hour culminates the life of Christ ?born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and now in this hour, was crucified, even as he pleaded on the cross, “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?”

Yes, this Unjust Steward gives His life, a life worth certainly more than oil, or wheat, or gold or silver. For He has redeemed your life, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won you from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death, that you are now His own.

With our life now redeemed by the blood of Jesus, we are free to live for our neighbor. The goods and possessions we have in this world are used to serve and benefit the neighbor. As we serve our neighbor, we are serving Christ, when He comes to us in the person who is poor, sick, weak, imprisoned, or lonely.

When our earthly treasure fails, and it will, we find reception into eternal dwellings. For we have the greatest wealth and treasure in Christ. My Jesus is my treasure, my life, my health, my wealth, my friend, my love, my pleasure, my joy, my crown, my all, my bliss eternally, my Jesus, He alone, What is the world to me? Amen.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. ✠BJF✠