Prayer of the Day: O Lord of mercy and grace, who lifts the fallen and redeems the wasted years, teach us to trust not in our resumes but in the righteousness of Christ. Grant that we may turn our missteps into service, our shame into compassion, and our past into purpose. Through Jesus Christ, who welcomes sinners and rewrites our stories with grace; who lives and reigns with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. KJV

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our meditation is based on the parable of the shrewd steward. You will see that when every effort to climb the ladder of success leaves you falling flat, Jesus stands ready to pick you back up and put you to work in the kingdom of God. Again, the Savior defines the work ethic He seeks: “I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” O Lord Jesus, bless Thy Word that we may trust in Thee. Amen.

The top objective in writing a resume is to make yourself look good. Highlight your successes, gloss over any glaring gaps in employment, sugar coat any failures with business-world euphemisms: relocation… overqualified… no path for career development… the kind of power words which make getting fired from McDonald’s sound like earning a Harvard MB. And when it comes to references, don’t dare list anyone’s name and number unless absolutely certain they’d vouch for you in complete anonymity.

But in the parable we consider today, Jesus not only commends the shrewd steward’s desperate work ethic, Jesus says what He’s in desperate need of is more employees just like this one.

The parable presents an economic system increasingly common to Jesus’ day. Up top, you have the rich-man lord with global connections, and down below, the local farmer, with no means other than to barter with his next-door neighbor. The rich man can resell product at nine times cost, but in order to move the goods out of Israel and out across the Roman world, what he needs is a steward, a corporate rep from among the ranks of the lowly farmer, a middle man who, knowing their language and customs, can sweet-talk them into the global scheme.

A job opportunity which would be a young man’s ticket off the farm, his big break into a world his parents could never offer… the kind of upward mobility and cash in pocket which can all too easily go to one’s head, and that it did: “The same was accused… that he had wasted his goods.”

The verb here, “wasted,” doesn’t necessarily mean cut into the boss’s profits. “Wasted” is the same word Jesus uses in another parable, for the prodigal son and his wild, “riotous living.” Take careful note, the exact nature of the steward’s wastefulness goes undetailed, and whenever Jesus does that, it’s on purpose. That you might be able to read into the missing details of the parable the actual details of whatever you have wasted, whenever a little power has gone to your head, or as the Proverb puts it: “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

There’s a deceiving invulnerability which accompanies any new station in life. From the older child left in temporary charge of younger siblings, to the newly married couple, each determined to change the other, workplace or not, the mere taste of “I’ve finally made it” is a cliff-ledge which sets the sinner up for a hard crash: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

What I’m talking about is the tempting venture which ends up leaving you bankrupt, fiscally or morally. Each gamble you’ve taken with personal wealth or other people’s stuff which in no way belonged to you. Whenever you’ve been given too many chances to count, each taken for granted until there was no more.

We’d rather sugar-coat these moments with power words like overqualified, relocation, or no path for career advancement—which is nothing other than a resume of pride and blame. And a list of references, which though you hope no one actually takes time to review, the Lord has already fact-checked in full.

You might object, “Are you saying there’s really no one to blame but me?” No, but when obsessing over every other global factor which has led to your downfall just leads to more, what you have personally wasted is the only lesson worth learning from. Whether you do or not —learn that lesson—that’s a separate question. Have no doubt, you’ll get another chance.

So why does Jesus offer you the work record He does today as example to follow? Well, what Jesus commends is no power word resume but the marvelous about-face turn whereby this steward’s failures become his expertise.

What expertise? Business-savvy people pleasing and fast-thinking refinancing. The very job skills which both earned him success and forced his downfall, he now puts to use in reverse, cutting bills by as much as half, that no longer currying favor in a life no good for him, he might ease his way back into the farming life of his roots.

An action the lord of the parable commends with an outward chuckle: “Well played boy!” A sentiment Jesus echoes with His seemingly cryptic: “For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light,” which is to say, “Why can’t the rest of you be a little more like him?”

Here you learn that the Christian resume owns up to failures. Without sugar coating or glossing over. And those references the business world would tell you never dare list: “Go ahead and check, I am ready to share from each a good lesson learned.”

Sometimes the overly pious attitude toward life’s mistakes is “I’ll never do that again.” Though certainly a good first thought, when it comes to the proverbial dog apt to return to its vomit, it’s no real lesson learned. God is the One who has gifted you with whatever skills and abilities you have. And He does so as you climb the ladder, so to speak. Yes, we abuse them, they go to your head on your way up, but despite any ill behavior on your part, you cannot deny the Lord has equipped you with them all. In genuine repentance and faith, then, on account of the upside-down mystery of grace, your failures become an expertise which makes you the kind of servant your Lord is ever on the hunt for.

By the time of Jesus, the opportunistic marketing scheme of our parable was going on all over the place, much to the disgust of the Jerusalem elite, and for two reasons. One, because the laws of Moses forbade interest and multilevel financing altogether. But two, exporting goods interfered with temple profits, money which would otherwise have ended up in their hands.

And Jesus speaks this parable directly to a crowd of those once caught up in the scheme, the “publicans and sinners” the straight-laced Jews declared had nothing to offer the kingdom of God.

The likes of Zacchaeus, who when convicted in the heart at how he had manipulated public finances for personal gain, began to leverage his tax-law expertise toward his neighbor’s favor: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man… I restore him fourfold.”

The woman at the well. Five previous husbands and a current live-in life-partner of the week had made her a professional at sweet-talking men and riding the waves of town gossip. Skills she puts to new use by spreading a rumor like no other: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did… is not this the Christ?”

Throughout the four gospels, the shrewd efforts displayed by each publican and sinner, from climbing the sycamore tree to the anointing with expensive oil, were overflowing expression of the faith by which they had secured every heavenly treasure in Him.

Jesus the Son of God, clearly overqualified to be a carpenter, a resume riddled with relocation all across Judea, when asked by His new-hire disciples about career development, He repeatedly gave seminars on the value of bearing your crosses, Jesus’ highest aspiration to go to a cross of His own.

Even there, Jesus found one last of His kind of worker, a man with an employment history written all over his face, which no employer in his right mind would touch, and whose in-person application owned every bit of it: “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Jesus’ response, to send him right to the top: “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” He accepts your resume too.

In the parable, the shrewd steward wins his way back to his roots by giving former friends a break: “Take thy bill and cut it in half.” But Jesus, who died for our shady dealings with one another and rose again to settle your debt of sin before God, He makes you His eternal friend and receives you into everlasting habitations through the forgiveness of sins: “Take thy bill, and rip it to shreds.”

This is the good news which lifts you up and out of every failure and rewrites your resume with every line item of the righteous life Jesus lived in your place, His all-forgiving grace alone makes you just the kind of worker He needs.

Just as Jesus tells His closest friends just before they fail Him in a wide range of shameful ways: “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; [that] when you have returned to Me, [you might] strengthen your brethren.” That following His resurrection from the dead, their faith would come back to the fore and transform their failures into an expertise to preach the Gospel to every lost creature. If there be no better teacher than experience, count yourself blessed to be among the number of those who have so fallen in life: “My strength,” the Lord declares, “is made perfect in weakness!”

This is why the Apostle Paul refuses to sugar-coat any gaps in his success: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Trusting every experience of his life, though many a year of it a waste, to be the best preparation for each place the Lord of grace now needed him to be: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

The same goes for you. In the kingdom of God, your wasteful moments or years can only make you wiser for the wear, your failures no better training for living out the saving faith. Again from the Proverbs: Though “the wicked… fall to mischief… a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.”

Search with scrutiny, scouring over whatever it is you have wasted in great detail, and put whatever you learn to good, wholesome use, learning from our parable that it indeed can be. After all, the same exact skill-set required to amass personal wealth, isn’t that all it takes to help your neighbor improve and protect all that is his? Every crafty way by which you’ve been able to curry favor with those over you on the ladder, all that’s needed to genuinely respect and uplift those beneath you? Everything that’s gone to your head and forced your downfall, how can it not build unmatched compassion for those who repeat the very mistakes you have?

In all these efforts and more returning to your spiritual roots, the Holy Scriptures “which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Reading, hearing, and learning from parables like this one a deep appreciation of how the Lord has carried you back to Himself and the many friends glad to welcome you into the habitation of His house.

Now the peace that passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

—Pastor Timothy T. Daub

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
Hecla, SD

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Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Sermon archives, and subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail. Audio Sermons are available at: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.