So, dear Christians, what do you do with your unrighteous mammon? Jesus says to make friends with unrighteous mammon. What does that mean? For the world “unrighteous mammon” is money, usually. The stuff of this world. The stuff that greases the skids. The money that makes the world go 'round. For you, however, there is a different kind of unrighteous mammon. The unrighteous mammon that you have is mammon you haven't earned. Something you have gotten not because you deserved it. It is a “currency” which you are given to use which you have not gotten by your hard work. What is that “unrighteous mammon?” It is the forgiveness of sins. This is the currency that Christians are given as a gift and spend to make friends with others. Forgiveness isn't yours. It's Gods. And Christ is teaching us to use that the way the world uses its mammon and money: for the true making of friends who last beyond this life!
I want you to think about what this cheating servant has done. He works for a master and has been wasting his money and goods. The master finds out. Time to come clean. The servant is in big trouble. But he's got one more play in his playbook. He goes and reduces the bills on what his master's debtors owe him. One more time he takes what is his master's and uses it to his own advantage. You owe a hundred? Make it fifty. You owe a hundred? Make it eighty. Now think about this: what can the master do? If he goes to the guy and says, “You owe me a hundred,” then he'll say, “No, I owe you fifty.” What is the master going to say? “Well, that's a mistake. You'd better pay your hundred.” How can he prove it? The bill says fifty? If the master denies the discount, he looks like an idiot, a guy who can't even manage his own servants. So what does he have to do? Grin and bear it? “Oh, you only owe fifty? Very well. Fifty it is.” You see, the servant not only wastes his masters money one more time, but he also relies on the master's honor and promise. The master, for the sake of his honor, can't get out of the reduced debt without looking like a fool. He can't get out of his promise that his servant dealing with a customer is the same as him dealing with them. So he honors the debt. And he congratulates the servant on being so sneaky. He congratulates the servant for so cleverly playing it in such a way that the thing that saves him is the master's honor and promise!
Now how does that work with the currency Christians have? Like this: Jesus dies for your sins. Far more than just reducing your sin debt, He completely wipes it out! Now, if the Father should ever look at you and say, “Give an account of what you owe,” you can say, “I don't owe anything! See my bill? Zero! Your Son paid the price.” Now the Father can't then say, “Well no, I'm not going to count that.” His honor is at stake! More than that, His Word and promise are at stake. It's like when the Lord was going to destroy the Israelites after they made the golden calf and Moses says, “Lord, you can't do that! Not only would you look bad to the Egyptians but you made a promise way back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to make a nation out of them!” Because Christ has died on the cross, you can stake your claim on Christ's forgiveness! The Father can't do anything but forgive you because His Son shed His blood. He can't ever get out of the promise that in Christ your sins are forgiven. God can never come back to you and say, “Hey, wait, there are some conditions you haven't met!” Nope. You just show Him Jesus. Show Him your Baptism in which He claimed you. Show Him your Absolution by which He has bound Himself to the words spoken by your pastor that your sins are forgiven. Show Him Christ in you by His body and blood. The Lord just can't get out of those promises! That's His goods. His currency. The forgiveness of sins.
But when it comes to spending that currency on others, suddenly we're stingy! Now I know that you, like the master's servant, are not stingy with the things of this world. If I asked you to pay for my lunch at Don Tequila's I'm sure someone would. But if I forgot to visit you in the hospital, how long would you remember? When your kids ask for gas money, you usually give it to them. If they want to start a sport or a hobby, you write the check. But how long does it take to get over it when they lie to you or do something stupid at school. When your neighbor is in need, you don't mind giving them a ride or helping them out in some way. But if they gossiped about you around town, how long until you would even talk to them again? When it comes to the world's currency, we're pretty generous. When it comes to Lord's currency, the forgiveness of sins, we're suddenly stingy! When someone says something about us, we get angry and we hang on to it. When someone does something against us, we remember it and we keep on remembering it. When something goes wrong, instead of admitting our part in it, we blame others. When a person sins against us, we suddenly shut our wallets of forgiveness and act as if they don't deserver to be forgiven! It's like all the sudden the “money,” the forgiveness is ours and we will do with it what we like. Instead of living like this steward, and using Jesus' forgiveness to save others and help others, we act as if we're the master and we control the forgiveness purse strings! Why is it that we can spend our money like the world to help others but when it comes to spending the cash of the Kingdom of God, the forgiveness of sins, we're suddenly such spendthrifts? Here is our repentance, to which Jesus calls us. Here He says that the sons of this world are more clever with how they spend what is not theirs than we are in spending what is not ours! Let's repent of that!
The unjust steward cheats his master to make friends for himself. He wants to make sure he's covered when he loses his job. One last time he abuses his masters goods in order to look out for himself and make sure that he'll be taken care of. But here's the difference with our Kingdom cash. We're not out. We're already IN thanks to Christ's death for sinners! We're already IN because we've been baptized and given this forgiveness. The reason we're stingy with the forgiveness is our unbelief. We don't really believe we're in so we don't act like we can spend that money. We want forgiveness for ourselves without wanting to give it to others because we believe that the kingdom of God works the way the world works. But it doesn't! In the Kingdom of God we can be generous in handing out forgiveness to others precisely because it's NOT our forgiveness. In fact, Jesus is calling us here to live like the unjust steward! Not in our earthly dealings, for that would be wrong to steal from someone! But in our dealings of forgiveness and setting aside the sins of others we are to throw His forgiveness around as if it's infinite! Because it is! There's nothing lost for the unjust steward to throw his master's money around and change everyone's bill. He's already lost his place. But just so, there's nothing lost for you to throw around the Lord's forgiveness because your position with the Master is already sure! So when someone sins against you, go ahead and cancel that debt, forgive that sin, as if it's no account to you! Because it's the Lord's account that is paying for it! What would others think of you if you were quick to forgive and overlook their sins instead of hating and holding a grudge? Go ahead and forgive them and tell them they're forgiven and just watch as the Lord has to forgive them! Just watch as the Lord makes good on His promise!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, what joy it will be on the Last Day to stand before the redeemed people of God and see those people pointing to you and saying, “There is one who forgave my sins! Who canceled my debts. Who passed on the Lord's forgiveness to me as if it was his to pass on!” It will be a great joy on that day to stand before God who can deal with you in no other way than as His baptized child in Christ and before others who receive you into everlasting habitations with their grateful thanks! Brothers and sisters in Christ: you have the forgiveness of sins! Go now and spend it wildly! “Waste” it on others! Throw it around like there's always more! Because there always is! Because it's from Jesus. For you and for others. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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