November 23, 2015

I was reading my Bible the other day and I came across the Parable of the Three Servants.  I love the parables that Jesus tells us, it usually paints a very clear picture of what He expects us to do.  But this one, wasn’t quite as clear, to me anyways.  I had to go back and read it again, and then re-read it, and then I had to look up some commentaries online to hopefully clear some things up.

The parable is from Matthew 25:14-30, and the main points of the parable are this; their were three servants, one guy got five bags of silver, another got two bags of silver, and the last guy go only got one bag of silver.  The reason they were left this money, is because the Master was going out of town for a little while and He was entrusting them with His money.  Now when the Master returns, the guy with five bags doubled his money, the guy with two bags also doubled his money, but now we come to the final guy, the guy with very little, and this is where we are going to pick up the story.

Looking at Matthew 25:24-27, “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.  I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth.  Look, here is your money back.  “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank?  At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’  

So after reading these passages, my first thought was that the Master was being very harsh, just like the servant had said.  But then I kept re-reading the passage and different things started to make sense in a different ways.  The passage isn’t just talking about money, but all things, possessions, time, talents, these are things that we need to use for Christ, our Master.  We know what our job is as Christians, to seek and reach out to people who are hurting in this messed up world, and how do we do this, with our money, possessions, time, and talents.

The Master called that servant wicked and lazy, then a few verses down He also commands that this useless servant to be thrown out.  I don’t know about you, but those are three words that I don’t want my Master to use to describe me.  Instead, I want Him to tell me what He told the other two servants, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

So many times, we as Christians, just want to do what that lazy servant did, and hide and bury what God has given to us.  Go out and use your gifts to further your Father’s Kingdom.  Think about what response you want to receive when you stand before Christ and you give an account for your life, what do you want your Heavenly Father to say to you?