I was thinking of the idea of how glorious it will be to meet Jesus and have him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I couldn’t remember where this came from in the scriptures. I thought it was from a parable, but I couldn’t remember which one. I looked it up and lo and behold it was from one of the hardest to understand parables.
The parable of the talents, as it’s known, is a tough bit of scripture. We like to focus on God’s grace and his forgiveness and yet here the master is shown as unmerciful and punitive in his dealing with his servant. It always seemed to me to be a threat; do well with what God gives you or else. I believed it was the results of the servant’s actions that cause the master’s ire. I focused solely on the fairness of the actions and thoughts of the master
But this time when I read it there was something new (to me). Perhaps it was more in the servants behaviour. Not only did the servant do nothing with the money, but rather his reasoning was also very telling. The bad servant focused on the master’s negative qualities (of which we are not told the validity), he insisted that his actions were caused by fear and distrust. He took an opportunity, one that other servants used to great advantage, and treated it as a curse. He decided his safest bet, to avoid angering what he saw as a ‘hard man’ was to do nothing.
This is what our world does with God. His morality and goodness is judged and found wanting. People refuse to worship a mean and judgmental God who is harsh and vindictive. And yet the god they persist that they can’t believe in, is nothing like the God I serve. They have built their own version of God’s character and then decide he is not worthy of respect. It would be better to get to know God before assessing his nature.
But there is a reminder in this parable for Christians too. Am I living a life afraid of punishment? Am I living freely in the grace of God? Or am I attributing the negative in my life to ‘correction’ or persecution? God does correct us. But he is also the author of all the good in the world. We mustn’t live our lives afraid to fail. It wasn’t failure that ailed this servant, it was fear of trying.
This is probably not new to you. But I was taken aback by this new insight. May God bless you as you go forward and give you the bravery you need to trust in His care and love.
Matthew 24: 14 – 30 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Roberta Writes 