Nothing like what has happened to you has ever happened in the
history of the world. That is Moses'
argument to the nation. If that is true,
and it is, how could you ever forget God's incredible mercy in electing you to
be His people in this way. You heard
Him, you saw the fire, and you saw that He personally delivered you from
Egypt. It is interesting that the same
was true of Moses, he saw the fire and heard the voice of the Lord yet he
hesitated about answering the call of God from the burning bush that day, he
doubted, but his doubt was in himself. Have
you heard the voice of the Lord calling you to Himself, making a covenant with
you in the blood of His Son, delivering you from a stronger enemy than
Egypt? If so, and if you have wandered
away from Him, let this be the day you respond by returning and seeking Him out
and finding forgiveness and hope in Him.
This is a difficult parable and I am not at all sure we have
a definitive interpretation of it. I would
say that the manager is fired for failure to do his job as a trustee of the
owner and he used his remaining moments to write down debts owed in order to
ingratiate himself with his master's clients so that when he is terminated he
may find favor with them. I would say
that the master is a good man and the manager knew it and therefore knew that the
master would not go back to these clients to restore the indebtedness to its
proper levels because the manager was still his agent at the time of his
dishonesty. It is confusing, however, to
hear the manager commended for his actions. How do we make friends "by means of
unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal
dwellings." The other option for
what the manager has done is to repent and reduce the amount of the debt by his
own commission which he has grossly inflated, a la the story of Zacchaeus who promised
to restore fourfold anything he may have stolen. In doing so, the manager has restored both
his own name and the name of the master.
The letter that was written on tablets of stones did not
make us sufficient, it made us sinners. The
letter written on human hearts makes us sufficient because of Jesus. The letter is written in his blood on our
hearts and it is his sufficiency that makes us meet to serve Him. Our confidence is not in our righteousness
but His alone. Paul's explanation that
what once had glory, the Law, now has none because of the surpassing glory of
Jesus tells us exactly what Moses said to the people in our first reading, that
we have seen such as has never been seen or heard before and we are heirs of a
better covenant even than the one that gave the Israelites the land in
perpetuity, we have an eternal covenant!
Are we seeing the transformation of our lives from one degree of glory
to another or are we stuck? The way to
see that is to fix your eyes upon Jesus and allow His glory to radiate upon and
within you. Get your eyes in the right place.
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