because you can no longer be my steward.’
How are we doing with the gifts that the LORD gives us? Are we at least putting them out there in the world, gaining interest, or are we instead burying them? Or worse, are we squandering our inheritance like the prodigal son?
Don't be afraid. We know that we fall short even when we are at our best.
Yet when we are called out on this what do we do? We ask for mercy ourselves, to be sure. But do we then call of our debtors to account and demand that they pay us (cf. Mat. 18:21-25)? Called to account ourselves, even in the face of such mercy, we often become so fearful that we cling to our own resources and assets, even though what we are owed is a much smaller amount.
What should we do instead? "I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth". Wait, what now? Come again? It certainly sounds shocking. Are we really trying to shore up our own resources by any means necessary? Emphatically, no! What we are meant to see in this example is mercy!
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (cf. Mat. 5:7).
So perhaps it's like this. Perhaps the rich man to whom we owe the debt of sin is the Enemy, Satan. After all, the whole world is under the power of the devil (cf. 1 Joh. 5:19). When Jesus sets us free, he takes captivity captive because when he comes we are captives (cf: Eph. 4:8). We are the ones "who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (cf. Heb. 2:15).
We don't want to be in prison until we can pay the last penny (cf. Mat. 18:29). The way we avoid that is by showing mercy ourselves.
He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Is this fair? To cheat the master? It is if the master is no longer entitled to this wealth. Jesus redeems us. He buys us back. So by helping our fellow men to get out from under the load of debt to sin we are really just helping them to see the mercy to which they are entitled because of what Jesus has done. But we can do more than the dishonest steward. We can say tell the world that it can now tear up the promissory note of sin if it will just trust in Jesus.
They conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ and accrue an unpayable debt thereby. But the debt is paid! And we can sneak in under the nose of the principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness (cf. Eph. 6:12), and let them know that they can be free. They can stop looks at the earthly things that hold them in bondage and lift their eyes to Jesus.
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we help people to do this we win friends thereby. They then intercede both here and, when they go before us, in heaven to help us to make it to that final goal.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
So let us not trust in our own resources so much that we become crazed and selfish in attempt to save our own lives. Let us instead be generous in sharing the mercy we ourselves receive. This is how we foster the unity that the heavenly Jerusalem must have.
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
So let us head there, rejoicing!
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