Warfare [Trinity 9; St. Luke 16:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

We hear Jesus today, speaking to us, saying,

“There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.”

What we have in our Old Testament reading today is part of one of the last psalms that King David penned before he died, that of Psalm 18. In it, he thanks God for giving him his many victories and ending all his battles; all of his warfare. 

Now, on the surface you may be just fine with this reading being paired with the Gospel heard today. You may well be pleased with the merciful God showing mercy to the Dishonest Manager and will accept a very abstract view of God being our refuge and strength, as the psalm says, by Him simply forgiving the debt.

This is very pleasant and all and can be comforting in its own way, however, Psalm 18 is a psalm of war. Not any abstract war, but real, physical polemics. In it, King David minces no words saying, “He trains my hands for war”, “I thrust [my enemies] through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet.”, “They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them”, and “I beat them fine as dust before the wind”, and other such violent pleasantries (35, 38, 41, 42).

God even goes so far as to perhaps comment on our own modern issue of immigration policies saying, “Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses [to me]” (v.46) 

In these verses, you get the very real impression that King David loves war and glorifies violence. You would also not expect such sentiment from a man who is called “a man after God’s own heart”. Yet, this is King David and he is a mirror to you. Dr. Luther says that even if every single person were of sound mind in all things, but lusted after war, it would be enough to declare all to be insane.

Yes, we love war. We especially love war that is fought far away from us. But, if we must fight, we want God as a shield so we may find glory and we want God to make our feet swift like a deer in order to accomplish great deeds of honor for ourselves and those around us. 

And herein lies the connection with our Gospel reading. The Dishonest Manager has found glory that he thinks is all his to take, using his Lord’s possessions to do so. We’ll call Psalm 18 blue collar war and the Dishonest Manager white collar war. Though less blood is shed, white-collar war is just as brutal.

How dense is the darkness of men even to rejoice at war. To sing about it, and to praise the defeat, the butchery, the blood, murder and the whole chaos of evils which war brings in its train, when it would be far better to weep about all these things with tears of blood, particularly when war is waged not at the command of God but because of this insane lust for power and possession.

Does this then mean that God is similarly lustful of power and possession? Since we have Psalm 18 as proof, not to mention the rest of the wars in the Old Testament, all ordered by God, must we then conclude that “God is a man of war”, like Moses does in Ex. 15:3?

Of course, the answer is yes. God is not a tame God. As we say to each other, God is everywhere, He is all powerful, He is all knowing. He can do as He pleases. What right do you have to question His tactics and methods? Were you there at the beginning? Do you have understanding to teach God? Will you condemn God that you may be justified? (Job 38:4, 40:8)

If we take Psalm 18 as the only way we know about God, God indeed is violent and quite possibly deserves no worship, just as the Jews and the Muslims have come to realize. For they also only see God as waging war and have only the slightest of hopes that He is on their side, and that only when they are winning, which isn’t very often.

So why are we Christians able to say that the one, true God is different?

Easy. Jesus.

What the Jews don’t have; what the Muslim’s don’t have; what the war mongers don’t have is Jesus. What I mean is, without the sacrifice of God made man on the cross, God’s vengeance and bloodlust is unsatisfied and falls upon us to attempt to satisfy Him. Without Jesus dying on the cross, God is a man of war, even against us.

Even though King David wrote Psalm 18 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, David is the Dishonest Manager. He wasted His Lord’s possessions. He took the Lord’s gift of an earthy king to His people and wasted it, by abusing power in taking more wives than the one allowed by God’s word and even more concubines. He murdered, not just in war, but also for personal gain.

Among his many other sins, David could not answer his God according to these charges and he paid for it. Not only did he lose children in childbirth, but his legitimate sons made a mess of his kingdom, even before they inherited it. All David could do was lament his sins and hope that they would be, not just forgiven, but forgotten.

Jesus was brought up on charges of wasting the Lord’s possessions. In the Temple that God promised to dwell in and in front of the priests that God had chosen Himself, they said to Jesus, “What is this we hear about you?”. You can no longer be who You say You are on account of your management. You have broken Moses’ Laws, you have not submitted to our authority, which is also God’s, and you have claimed to be King of the Jews. Then they threw Hi into prison to die.

If the sword of God’s war-like wrath against sin and death falls anywhere other than upon Jesus on the cross, then we are still in our sin, still fighting a war against death we cannot win, and condemned where we stand. In this way, Psalm 18 is now a psalm about Jesus.

God shows mercy to Jesus Who is merciful to tax collectors and prostitutes. God is blameless in His judgment of Jesus, for Jesus was blameless in the false charges of our sins. Jesus was purified seven times in the furnace of God’s wrath, even tortured, but rises again in perfect purity.

Jesus had God’s eyes upon Him in His humiliation, because Jesus was bold to offer God our sins as an offering. This is God’s Lamp. This is God’s perfect way. That Jesus be the author and perfector of all warfare and violence. Not that He metes it out against those Who rebelled against Him, but that He takes it upon Himself and redirects it onto sin and death.

In order that you have a perfect share in this fulfillment. Baptism now allows you to run against a troop filled with soldiers of sin and death, for sin and death no longer hold dominion over you, in Christ. You are able to leap over the wall of suffering, for nothing the world can do will take away anything you have in Christ.

This is the shield, the rock, the fortress. The one that holds out even against the gates of hell. The promises that prove true in the face of all sinful odds. In Christ, you are blameless. Apart from Him you can do nothing. In Christ you are swift as a deer and can run from the lusts and temptations of this world. In Christ, a mansion has been secured for you on high.

In Christ, your warfare has not only ended, but has been forgiven, as Isaiah says in chapter 40. Your violence has found the holiest of places for outlet in the suffering and death of Jesus. Because Christ has taken all violence upon Himself, you are now free to offer your remaining violence into God’s hands. You get to confess your sin and let God handle it all.

True warfare is still spiritual and physical, though now through the light of the cross, it is your spirit in a fight against God’s Body and Blood offered for you. The real fight is getting yourself to the Lord’s Supper, remembering your baptism, and receiving absolution. These are the physical places of refuge your Savior has given to you to flee from your spiritual and physical violence and warfare.