Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 20 C

September 21, 2025
“Justified By Yourself Or By God”
Trinity Lutheran Church
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 20 C
Sermon on Luke 16:1-15

(This Sermon is slightly adapted from Lutheran Church – Canada pre-written sermons: https://www.lutheranchurchcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2025/08/Season-After-Pentecost-Sermon_Fifteenth-Sunday-After-Pentecost-Proper-20_Year-C-Gospel.pdf)

“¹He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. ¹⁰“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. ¹⁵And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:1–15, ESV)

In the Name of the Father and of the ☩Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:14–15)

In the Middle Ages, and in the days of the Reformation, the chief concern—spiritually speaking—was to be justified before God. That is, this question: Will God accept me, have me, bring me to heaven, not send me to hell, give me to live with Him forever? How can I be right before God?

One reason for this concern was perhaps this: people died early, and often. Living in the middle of wars, plagues, famines, sicknesses—there was a good chance you wouldn’t make it past the age of forty . . . if you first made it past the age of five. So, of course your eternal well-being was a top priority—you were most likely going to face God sooner rather than later.

Things change. We don’t have as many and as frequent plagues. And we feel like we have good medicine to get us through the sicknesses that we do face. The last war waged inside The United States was a long time ago. Around here we’re not too hungry. A lot of people live to ninety. So, death isn’t on the front burner for us. And because of that, eternal life doesn’t seem to be a pressing concern. And, as a result, God has thus been pushed out of the picture. Either we say He doesn’t exist; or we say that if He does exist, He could not and would not send any of us to hell since we are all such nice people . . . and He should be a nice God.

No, justification in the eyes of God isn’t a pressing concern. God is not on our radar. But other people are. What others think of me can make or break the life I have. The love of others makes me feel worthwhile . . . the support of others is our hope . . . the attention—that is, the good attention—of others is what we crave. So, being justified in the eyes of other people does seem a lot more pressing and important.

I know the feeling. I find it a challenge with some people I meet or know to ‘justify’ being a deacon. I mean, what does a deacon do anyway? Teachers and engineers and electricians get something done. They matter. But what does a deacon do?

Where do you feel the need to justify yourself? Do you have to somehow prove you are worth your paycheck at work? Do your in-laws still wonder why their child married someone like you? Do you have to explain why you are a vegetarian, or why you are not? Do you feel the need to show that your life is as valuable or as interesting as those in the rest of your family?

And this need to justify ourselves before others has grown exponentially in the last twenty years or so. Social media has ramped up our need to prove ourselves worthwhile. Now it’s not just our neighbours or mother-in-law who wonder what we are good for—it’s everyone who claims to be our Facebook friend or follows our social media feed.

That’s a lot of pressure when you think about it. There have been studies done on what they call the ‘self-justify / envy cycle’. People like to receive ‘likes’ or comments or have followers, which make them feel good about themselves and about their lives. But then, other people receive more of the same, because they take more interesting vacations and know how to pose better for their selfies. So envy sets in, and we have to find more interesting stuff we can post about ourselves so that we will be noticed. It turns into a vicious circle—a cycle of feeling worthy and then envying those who look more worthy.

When you think about it, it can be harder to justify yourself sometimes before other people than before God. Instead of standing before one Judge—the eternal, all-knowing, just, yet compassionate and merciful God; we stand before hundreds or thousands of judges. And before them all we try to justify ourselves.

So, we lie. Well, we don’t want to call it lying. But we want to look good—whatever good is—even when we are not. We want to prove that our life is good, and generous, and interesting, and worth living. We want to justify ourselves.

Now, all this, of course, is nothing new. After telling the parable in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus hits on one of the chief ways people have always used to justify themselves—their wealth. He concludes with this simple statement: “You cannot serve God and money.”

The Pharisees, however, don’t like hearing this because they were lovers of money, St. Luke tells us. Then notice that Jesus does not criticize their wealth; but rather, what they use it for. “You are those who justify yourselves before men.” It wasn’t their money that was a problem; but rather, the way they made it look like they were good and generous and loved God with all their heart and mind, even while they were holding tight to their money. If they were on social media, the Pharisees would post endless pictures to show how kind and honest they were. But they lied.

And God sees through the lies. Jesus told them: “God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” No, you cannot fool God. Oh, you can fool a lot of people, maybe most people, maybe all people sometimes; but you cannot fool God!

That’s what the prophet Amos was ranting on Israel about in today’s Old Testament Reading. Here they were, trying to look all upright and faithful—they were God’s chosen people after all—claiming to keep the Sabbath and be religiously justified. But God says: “Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end . . . You want to look good, to justify yourselves—but I see what you are really doing to your neighbours! Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds.”

Here’s the thing: People don’t see as well as God does. You can never fool God, no matter what you think. Even if you were to think that there is no God, you’d really be up against it when you finally do run into Him.

So give it up. Give up the attempt to justify yourself—whether before God or anyone else. That’s what Jesus tells us in this strange parable in our Gospel Reading today. That manager had no way out. He was losing his job, losing his life. His only hope was to lessen the load of his master’s debtors, so that they might be indebted to him. To be sure, it’s true, as Jesus said: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” But this can happen in surprising ways. The shrewd manager in Jesus’ parable doesn’t look—to our way of thinking—like he’s doing good works . . . like he’s letting his light shine. Instead, to us he looks like a scammer! But he doesn’t look that way to the people around him. He’s a generous debt-forgiver . . . a loan-chopper . . . a deal-maker. They think he’s great. And since he represents his master, they think his master is great too—gracious and generous, compassionate and merciful. And they love him too. He uses his master’s generosity to win generosity for himself, but in the process shows the character of his master.

And, yes, God is gracious and merciful. The only reason that you are justified before God is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered and bled and died on a cross to redeem you, to make you loved by your heavenly Father. Our worth, our hope, our acceptance lies only in Him. And in Jesus we have everything. So St. Paul puts it in Romans: “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? . . . Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the One who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

To be sure, we do care about others . . . now more than ever. We care about their justification. Jesus, after all, died for everyone. The payment, the ransom price, is completed before God once and for all—the righteous for the unrighteous . . . the godly for the ungodly. But they, too, need to know this and to receive this gift, this justification.

Think about it. You are free to give things away because God is generous. And they are, after all, His things that were first given to you. That’s why we give away money. That’s a start. But we also give away compliments and kudos and encouragement . . . and do so freely. We give away grace—that is, we do not hold on to the sins and failures of others since Jesus has died to take them away, and since it is God’s grace we are giving away!

Luther sums it up for us this way: “Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. Why was it necessary

for Him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions? You will find peace only in Him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from Him that just as He has received you, so He has made your sins His own and has made His righteousness yours.”

That is real justification! But then he adds this: “If you firmly believe this, receive your brothers, patiently help them, make their sins yours, and if you have any goodness, let it be theirs. Cursed is the righteousness of the man who is unwilling to assist others on the ground that they are worse than he is. If Christ had desired to live only among good people and to die only for His friends, for whom, pray, would He have died, and with whom would He ever have lived?”

Yes, you—dishonest manger that you might be—are now justified in Jesus Christ alone. You are free in Him to live that already justified life . . . to care for everyone else He gives you to love and forgive . . . to use earthly, “unrighteous wealth,” to give “true riches” to others as the justifying Jesus is at work through you. Thanks be to God!

Amen.