When we talk about stewardship, we’re talking about our lives here on earth. But to understand stewardship, we need to understand what we mean by “our lives”.

It doesn’t mean the same thing as when the world talks about “our lives”. The world lives according to the false illusion that our lives belong to us. We don’t owe any obedience to anyone, not even God. “It’s my body. I can do what I want with it. It’s my time, my energy, my money, my possessions. I’m going to live my life the way that I want.”

The gospel reading today are words that Jesus spoke during His Sermon on the Mount. In the passages previous to the reading, Jesus spoke about the two ways. All people are on one of these two ways. Jesus said “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.” This is the way of unbelief, the way of denying Christ, the way of works-righteousness. Those who enter this path and are on the way to eternal destruction in hell are many. On the other hand, Jesus said, “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life.” This is the way of repentance and faith in Christ’s works. This is the way of denying oneself, and following Christ the Savior. There are few who find this way.

The scribes and Pharisees didn’t see themselves as slaves of sin. Sin wasn’t a master to them in their mind. Those Commandments that they read in Exodus, the very same ones we read today, they believed that they were completely free to keep them. And they thought they did. They thought that they were able to rise above the desires to sin, and have a righteousness of their own, keeping the Commandments, and meriting a place in the kingdom of heaven.

Not all judging is forbidden. There must be judging. Judges and jurors must judge people and evaluate their guilt in order for justice to take place.

The parable of the prodigal is a such beautiful story. And notice that it is not the prodigal son that makes it a beautiful story. Rather it is the forgiving love of the Father towards the prodigal son that does it. And this parable describes a beautiful true story, the story of God’s forgiving love for sinners. And by God’s grace, we are very much a part of it.