The Lutheran Hour
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"The Fifth Act"
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Text: 1 Corinthians 4:1
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They were renovating an old castle in England. Some workers stumble upon a hidden compartment, and there discover some preserved papers that appear to be an unfinished manuscript. Some experts examine it and confirm that it is as they suspected. The play had been authored by none other than William Shakespeare. It was authentic, but unfinished.
Shakespeare had clearly intended this to be a five-act play, but the Fifth Act is incomplete. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Acts are in final form. But the opening scene of Act Five breaks off abruptly, open-ended. The play, as it stands, however, is superb—a masterpiece. What is written provides such a wealth of character development, such a crescendo of action and surprising turn of events—that they agree that the play must be staged. It has to be performed.
But who? Who would be worthy to steward such a task, to finish the work of this creative genius?
A rag-tag troupe of Shakespearean performers decides to give it a try. If not them, who? If not now, when? They have all they need to do it. They have most of the script and the most important parts of it. But how should it end? That’s the question. They can’t just repeat lines from what already happened. That wouldn’t be true to the spirit of Shakespeare. Somehow, the unfinished Act 5 must bring it all together, tie up the loose ends, do something new. And yet they can’t just do whatever. They can’t go off in any direction. It’s not their play to do with as they please. To finish it, they’ll need both innovation and imitation—improvise, yet stay true to the spirit of the author. And whatever they try certainly wouldn’t be definitive. Other troupes could try out their own endings. And none of it would be the last word on the matter—unless we imagined a scenario in which Shakespeare rises from the dead and says, “Well done, good and faithful servants. You finished it.”
The British Bible teacher, Tom Wright, uses this hypothetical scenario as a model for how the followers of Jesus Christ—Christians—should understand the Bible, and how the Bible works within the coming kingdom of God.i Now, that’s not to say that the Bible is incomplete, and that we need to try to add more books to finish it. No, the Bible is finished in that sense. But, the story of everything, which the Bible tells, is not finished. But the Bible gives us what we need to finish it.
Maybe you’ve heard Christians talking about “going to Bible study.” Or maybe you’ve been part of a troupe that gets together to study the Bible. But why? Why do Christians study the Bible? Lots of reasons! The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. That fact alone warrants a close read of it. But for Christians, it’s much more. The Bible tells us our family history. It shapes our songs and prayers. It helps us get to know God better.
But, as a script for the unfolding drama that is our lives, it is unfinished. Unfinished, it seems, by design. Not unfinished in the sense of being insufficient. No, the Bible gives us all we need to know God, to be invited back into a right relationship with the One who created us and wants us to be His children. The Bible supplies the diagnosis for the sickness of our world. The Bible offers healing through God’s Son, Jesus, in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. And even more, the Bible is God’s invitation to you. Through the Bible, God is inviting you to help Him perform the unfinished Fifth Act in the drama He’s been writing for the world.
Act 1: Creation. Genesis. In the beginning, God created everything out of nothing. By the power of God’s Word, and His breath, by the Spirit of God, all things were created. And God saw that it was very good—good, but not finished. See, God—the ultimate creative genius—He isn’t stingy with His creativity. God could have done everything on His own without us. He could have finished it without help. He could have ruled the kingdom unilaterally. But instead, God chose to share His kingly, creative activity. He chose to share His Word and His Spirit with us humans, so that by His Word and Spirit, we would become His partners, His collaborators—not just passive characters, but living, active co-authors.
Act 2: Rebellion. It didn’t take long, though, before we humans wanted it our way. I wanted my name printed in 50-point font, front and center on the playbill. And you did, too. We wanted to be the celebrity director, executive producer, and star, all rolled up into one. We didn’t want to take directions from or share the glory with God. So, we each started scripting our own little dramas. And we’re still at it. How’s it been going for you? I bet you have more critics than fans. And even those who might be fans, they definitely don’t see you as the director of their lives. No, you’re just a minor character in the drama they’re starring in and writing and directing for themselves. And whatever you think you’ve got going on, on your stage, it’s not nearly as important as what they think they’ve got going on, on theirs.
This is what we have become in our rebellion: a contentious gaggle of struggling, self-promoting performers, competing for a piece of the same stage, acting out our solo dramas on top of each other. The Bible calls it “sin.” We humans introduced it in Act 2 and, humanly speaking, irreversibly altered God’s story with us.
Act 3: Israel. Israel is the name God gives to a troupe of people He wants to collaborate with to get the story back on track. But their name proves to be prophetic, and not in a good way. Israel means “God-struggles.” And Israel, they’ve got their “God-struggles” just like we do. They struggle and fight with God. And God struggles and fights back——not to conquer them, but again, just like in Act 1, to collaborate with them.
But, in this act—Act 3—which is most of the Old Testament of the Bible, Israel replays the same kinds of scenes as in the Rebellion of Act 2. Nothing seems to have changed. Israel, God’s people, they’re just like the rest of us, only more so. Everyone wants to be their own director, producer, star, and critic. They want to do what is right in their own eyes. It’s not hard to imagine why Act 3 ended in disaster.
Act 4: Jesus. No one saw this coming. God, the Author of the drama, becomes a character in His own script. Jesus! His Name means (loosely translated), “the Author who saves the show.” He is the Author, the Word of God become human, born into the family of Israel, given the Name Jesus, and the title, Christ, the King.
Act 4: the King takes center stage. But once again, all the familiar scenes from Act 2 and Act 3 play out. Jesus gets a lot of fans initially, but quickly they turn to critics. Eventually, most either turn on Him or drop Him to save themselves, while the handful stick around to watch Him die. Jesus gets killed, crucified. The cross: it was supposed to be our final rejection of God’s invitation to share his story with us. But the cross proved to be God’s most creative work yet. On the cross, God—ever-the-collaborator—God goes ahead and uses exactly what we gave Him: our sin, our rebellion, our rejection. And He uses it to bring the drama to its high point. What we meant as rejection of God, God used as the ultimate expression of His love for us, His creative power He still offers us when He raised Jesus from the dead. Our darkest failure becomes God’s finest hour. Not so that He could shame us, but so He could, once again, invite us to work with Him. The death and resurrection of Jesus—it is the greatest of the mysteries of God. And Act 4—it’s the key to understanding everything else. It’s a glimpse of how it all ends.
Act 5: The Church. It’s the unfinished Act. The ongoing drama. It’s what’s happening. The church is the rag-tag troupe of performers that God is inviting you into now. Jesus is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, but He hasn’t left the building. He’s taken a behind-the-scenes role, in the director’s seat. And He’s sent His Holy Spirit to nudge us, each of us in our unique role, to take the stage.
We study the Bible to learn our lines, to learn how to perform. Remember, the Bible includes the opening scene of this Fifth Act that we’re in now. You can read it The acts of the apostles and in the letters of the New Testament written by some of those apostles, that is, the first followers Jesus sent out—guys like Peter, John, Paul, and others.
On this program, we’ve been studying one of the letters of Paul, 1 Corinthians, which Paul wrote to the followers of Jesus who were struggling to perform their roles in the ancient city of Corinth, in Greece. Sadly, for the Christ-followers in Corinth, we hear some of the same old themes again. They’re still struggling, like we struggle, with that old urge to self promote, to be your own director, star, and critic.
In the letter, Paul refocuses them. They are called, not to self promote, but to finish the drama God is still scripting for the world. And we are listening to this letter today not just to be better informed, not just to have a personal relationship with God. We are listening because we, you and I, each have a part to play to finish the Fifth Act.
We are striving and struggling to be faithful stewards. What’s a steward? Have you ever been asked to house-sit? Or pet-sit? Or baby-sit? Then you’ve been a steward. A steward is a caretaker—someone charged to care for something valuable that doesn’t belong to them. And with God, you are called, not only to look after His property and people and pets. You are called to help steward God’s story, which means, you can’t just repeat lines from earlier acts, because the sets and the scenes have changed.
And so you have to own your part. At the same time, it’s not your story. It’s not mine. It’s God’s. We can’t do whatever we please. We are stewards. We must imitate and innovate—improvise, while staying true to the spirit of the Author.
Listening to 1 Corinthians 4, we hear Paul tell the people, “This is how you should think of us [that is, Paul and his fellow apostles],” he says, “You should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. And for stewards, it is required that they be found faithful, trustworthy.” And then he explains how he deals with his critics (and his fans). Paul says, “It is a very small thing for me to be judged [to be critiqued] by you, or by any human court.” He says, “I don’t even judge myself. I’m not aware of anything against myself, but I am not, for that reason, justified. It is the Lord [Jesus] who judges me. So, stop pronouncing judgment before the appointed time, before the Lord comes—the Lord, who will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and uncover the intentions of the human heart. And then each person’s praise [each person’s “well done, good and faithful servant”] will come from God.” And then, what Paul just applied to himself, he applies to them, to me, to you. He reminds you that you don’t own anything. “What do you have that you didn’t freely receive as a gift?” Paul asks. “And if you’ve received it, why do you boast about it as though you hadn’t?” The apostle calls you to follow his example, to imitate him as a steward—not simply to copy him, but to apply the pattern of Jesus in your unique role, to play your part, to give yourself sacrificially in service to others, to perform for an audience of One, because when the curtain falls on this Fifth Act, and the kingdom of God comes in its fullness, and the mouth of every human critic is shut, the only praise, the only “well done” that matters, will come from just one—God.
We started with a hypothetical: an unfinished Shakespeare play. But it turns out, Shakespearean critics think that there is, in fact, at least one such play. It’s called Timon of Athens. One theory has it that Shakespeare started it but left it incomplete when he died. Then someone else tried to steward the script toward something more final, but even today, the play still seems unfinished.ii
The unfinished story is a tragedy about a generous nobleman in ancient Greece, Lord Timon. Timon starts the play as everybody’s friend. He’s got a great big heart and wants to share his wealth with everyone. But then, he learns just how self-centered and self-promoting all his so-called fans are. They don’t care about him. They were just using him. So, Timon becomes bitter. He denounces civilization and goes to live in a cave. And before he dies, resentful and alone, in Act 5, Scene 1 he becomes humankind’s worst critic. He wishes death and destruction on everyone,iii which is just the opposite of what God did when we despised His grace and killed His Son. It’s not that God rejoices in our wrongdoing. No, God is as passionate a critic of sinful humanity as any. But God’s judgment always comes from His love. And His love and creative power are so great and so mysterious, that He will take whatever you give Him—even rejection, regret, failure, fear, crucifixion. He will take it and find a way. That’s the kind of Creator you’re collaborating with here. I guess what I’m saying is, in Jesus, you don’t have to fear God’s judgment. In the end, sure, some of your lines and scenes will be cut. Much of our lives in this fallen world will be cut. But in Christ, you won’t be. That’s His promise for you, because you have a role, now and in the next one, in the life to come. This life is just the beginning.
My friend, Dee, remembers how God’s promise played out in her life that day. She was shopping at her local grocery store, waiting in a crowded checkout line. It was clear to everyone in the line that the cashier, the young woman checking them out that day, was not having a good day. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t want to deal with people. She was as fed up with the human race as Lord Timon of Athens, in Act 5, Scene 1. Even the few shoppers that are trying to mind their own business can’t help but hear her berate and dismiss one customer after another.
And then it’s Dee’s turn to check out. And she doesn’t even realize that the spotlight has turned on her, and everyone is watching. She has just been nudged stage center in this little drama that is playing out at register 13 at the local Food 4 Less. And some spirit possesses Dee that day not to lash back, but to answer her critic, kindly, to give her grace. Afterward, Dee was stewarding her little cart full of groceries through the parking lot toward her car, and an older gentleman catches up with her, and he says, “Excuse me, ma’am.”
Dee turns to face him. He says to her, “I was watching you back there in the checkout line. And, are you …well, you’re a Christian, aren’t you?”
A little embarrassed, Dee answered, “Well, yes. I am.”
And he says, “I thought so. Thank you.”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.i N.T. Wright, “How Can the Bible be Authoritative? (The Laing Lecture for 1989),” Vox Evangelica 21 (1991), 18. Accessed on January 22, 2026 at https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/vox/vol21/bible_wright.pdf
ii E.K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Vol I. Oxford: Clarendon (1930), 482.
iii William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene I. Accessed on January 22, 2026 at https://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/full.htmlReflections for March 1, 2026
Title: The Fifth ActMark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, our mobile app, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Once again, here’s our Speaker, Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thanks, Mark. Today I’m visiting again with Dr. Jeff Gibbs, a longtime teacher and author in our church body. Welcome back to the program, Jeff.
Jeff Gibbs: Thank you, Mike, very much. It’s good to be here.
Mike Zeigler: As you know, we’ve been listening to passages of the First Letter to the Corinthians, written by the apostle Paul. We’ve made it through chapters 1-4, and it seems like this is a single unit of thought. How would you summarize what Paul is saying in these first four chapters?
Jeff Gibbs: Yeah. First thing is I would like to just really agree with you and underscore that a lot of people think that this is kind of a coherent first section of the letter. What it provides is a lens through which we can understand why Paul says what he says later on in the letter, because there’s a bunch of different topics that come up. First Corinthians, a lot of different topics, but I do think they’re all woven together by some foundational truths. So if we scan from chapters 1-4, really the place where Paul begins—you’ve forgotten what the cross is and what the implications of the cross might be for your life together. I think it’s important to say it that way, that it’s Jesus and what He did, and the difference between how the world would see that and how Christians who are being saved have come to see the shameful, lowly, despised death of the Son of God. Because the world thinks that’s either weakness, which in some ways it obviously is, or folly, which in some ways it obviously is. But in God’s way of thinking, and for Christians, I’ll say it this way, begin to see how it’s not weakness, but strength. It’s not folly, but God’s unbelievable wisdom. He runs with that, and he begins to show the Corinthians again. See, he was there for 18 months, at least. We see his ministry there summarized in Acts 18. So it’s not like these are new truths, probably, for them. But he’s been gone for a while, a couple of years and the world—you know, we talk about the unholy trinity, right? The devil, the world, and our flesh. Well, their flesh has been at work, the sinful part of them, but the world has been at work too, and the devil, to twist and try to get them to think the way the world is thinking about what’s great, what’s powerful, what matters. And the world says it’s things like money, influence, the opinion of others, impressive appearance. Does that sound like any place that you and I might live today?
Mike Zeigler: I think those are still valued pretty highly.
Jeff Gibbs: I think they are. And of course it’s the ancient world versus the modern world. But as much as there is no, no, no, it’s the weakness of service that is really strong. Because that’s what Jesus did. It’s the greatness of humility and positioning yourself, not over somebody else, but under them, in order to serve and lift them up rather than to be praised and put on a pedestal yourself. And so those kinds of truths, which again, they’re true because they’re what Jesus performed. Jesus actually did them when He suffered and died on the cross. And Paul will get to the resurrection soon enough. In fact, it’s already implicit in the very opening of the letter, talks about being perfected at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, right, the last day. But he really needs to reteach them. Maybe that would be the way to say it, these kind of foundational truths. And that takes us chapter 1, chapter 2, that’s the hidden wisdom that the rulers of this age didn’t understand, right? In chapter 3, and you guys, oh, Apollos or Paul, who cares? That’s Paul’s message because you’re judging me or Apollos, I don’t care if you judge me, he says in chapter 4, you’re judging by worldly earthly standards. That is foolishness. And so he’s setting the tone when he gets to chapter 4, it’s, look, we’re stewards of God’s mysteries. We’re Christ’s servants, not yours. That’s all that matters. And then it’s in chapter 5 that he begins to take up specific topics, and he wants them to approach all those topics with those truths in mind.
Mike Zeigler: And those foundational truths, they show up here and there.
Jeff Gibbs: Over and over.
Mike Zeigler: It’s like in chapter 4, the way I hear it is in, well, what do you have that you didn’t receive? And if you received it, why do you boast about it as though you hadn’t? And so it’s that God chose the weak and lowly things to give all things to you. All things are yours.
Jeff Gibbs: Right.
Mike Zeigler: Well, thank you for joining us.
Jeff Gibbs: Yeah, thank you, Mike.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.