A Good, Faithful & Sensible Servant

There is a story in bible told by Jesus that I couldn’t help but see in a medieval context of a movie.

Here is how I saw this passage. The master of a castle in the highlands appoints a servant to manage and be ruler of his household while he has to attend to urgent matters someplace else far away. In confidence, the lord of the castle tells the appointed servant that he doesn’t know when he will be back -hinting it could be many mouths and even years. The lord of the castle leaves and at first the servant does all that he is expected but slowly he starts to abuse his power. He starts oppressing the other servants and starts indulging himself as if he is master of the castle. He barrows and dresses in some of the master’s fur garments and jewelry. He begins to throw parties for him and his pals in the Lord’s magnificent dinning hall. They gorge from the master’s choice pantry and stock of meats. The now kooky indulgent servant sits in the master’s chair and drinks the master’s choice ale in one hand while a woman, open to whatever pleasures of men, sits in his lap. These occurrences become common place until one night the master of the castle returns unannounced and unexpected. Furious, the lord of the castle strips the man of his clothing and orders his armed men to take him to the dungeon where he personally cuts the man in two.

Jesus says “And ²⁵³² shall cut^{1371 0} him ⁸⁴⁶ asunder¹³⁷¹ , and ²⁵³² appoint ⁵⁰⁸⁷ [him] his ⁸⁴⁶ portion ³³¹³ with ³³²⁶ the hypocrites ⁵²⁷³: there ¹⁵⁶³ shall be ²⁰⁷¹ weeping ²⁸⁰⁵ and ²⁵³² gnashing ¹⁰³⁰ of teeth ³⁵⁹⁹” Mat 24:51

Be a good, faithful and sensible servant. You can read this illustration for yourself in Mathew 24:45-51

Another illustration that Jesus speaks of is of three servants who are given five bags of gold to invest for him while he is on a trip. It was divided in proportion to their abilities. Two of servants do well in investing the money but the third servant who hid the money in the ground because he was afraid to lose it - the Master was furious and he has servant thrown into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Reference: Matthew 25:14-30

This second passage can be confusing. What is Jesus talking about when he is speaking about gold? A better clarifying question is what has God given you?

God has given you faith. God has given you salvation through Jesus Christ. God has transformed your heart and given you a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who gives you power, knowledge, wisdom, encouragement, assurance and direction. He has also given you gifts and talents.

None of which are accidental or happen stance because Jesus created you to have those things.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

“But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.” 1 Corinthians 8:6

Still a bit confusing is this notion that if we don’t use what we are given we won’t only lose what we have but God will consider us unfaithful and throw us into hell (weeping and gnashing of teeth.)

We know we don’t go to heaven because of our good works but by faith yet this scripture makes it sound as if we are expected to do good works and if we don’t do good works we are going to hell.

I said, “Jesus this is confusing to me. You expect a person to do good deeds even if they don’t feel like it? So they grudgingly do the works? Or worse they do works to get human praise or think it saves them? That type of work is pointless because it isn’t based on faith or love. It is either based on puffing ones self up or some strained obligation. These works will burn and are not fruitful.”

This was his reply, “It’s not about the good deeds but the condition of the heart. How much do they love me? “

He then reminded me of two scriptures.

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45

He then reminded me of what he said to Peter. “What did I ask Peter?”

“Do you love me?” you asked.

“Then what else did I say? “

“Feed my sheep.”

Reference: John 21:15-17

Read Matthew 25:31-46 (Jesus separating the sheep from the goats.)

Interesting. Jesus wants us to have an unapologetic, unreformed love for him, the kind of love that runs over with joy, appreciation, generosity and an enormous amount of trust. Through this trust we can do many things that we didn’t think were possible in our lives for others.

Remember the servant that put gold in the ground because he was afraid to lose it? He was trusting in is his own understanding. He was trusting in what he knew about himself, maybe even in what others had told him in the past. The Master knew his servant was capable of doing more then servant thought of himself. His doubt was causing him to be unfaithful and unwilling to take chances.

“God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.” 1 Peter 4:10-11

Again be a good, faithful & sensible servant.