A Tense Moment: Standing before the master with empty hands.
- Luke 19:20
- After handing back to his master what he was given, the servant stands with empty hands. He has nothing more to give. He has done nothing productive with the mina entrusted to him. It is a tense moment, worthy of our attention.
- The relevance of that scene to us today obviously requires a look toward Final Judgment.
- Many people don’t really think about the idea that they will stand before the Master someday to be judged. They’re focused on the here and now and thoughts of standing before God someday are not more relevant and real than thoughts of meeting Santa Claus.
- Other people believe that God is a benevolent, slightly-senile old man who will smile big, ask them if they tried, wink at whatever massive shortcomings their service may have included, then take everyone for ice cream. A.k.a. Final Judgment seen as the aftermath of a t-ball game.
- Other people know they will stand before the Master. They also know their life has not been productive. But they are confident that a well-thought-out excuse will bring the begrudging agreement of the master that the failure is justified.
- The first two are wrong for reasons we’re not exploring this morning. The third is the focus of our attention for this message.
Is The Master Really A Harsh Man? The servant believed the master’s expectations were unreasonable.
- Luke 19:21.
- The servant characterizes the master as being a hard man, a harsh man.
- The thought here is reminiscent of an Old Testament. In Exodus 5:1-9, Pharaoh demands that Israel begin to make their daily quota of bricks, only now he refuses to give them the straw they need to make the bricks. He is demanding the same number of bricks as before, only now he’s refusing to provide a major ingredient in the bricks. You could say he’s asking for “something out of nothing.” The servant in the Luke 19 parable is looking at his master believing that he is the same type of unreasonable boss as Pharaoh was.
- The master never acknowledges this to be true, although he does go with the servant’s words in v. 22 (“You knew, did you. . .”) to show that even if what the servant said is true, his inaction is still not justified. This is not a concession to the accuracy of the servant’s argument; this is a rebuttal that if his characterization of the master as harsh were true, the servant would have behaved differently. The servant’s own actions (or, in this case, inactions) undermine his excuse.
- Let’s focus our attention, though, on why the servant thought the master was harsh.
- I think the comment the servant makes at the end of v. 21 is interesting: “You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.”
- That’s an odd phrase and there are at least a couple of things it might mean:
a. It might mean something like “You don’t deserve to have anything from me because you didn’t work for it.”
- This is not unlike what many people feel when paying taxes. “I do all the work and yet I have to send this much to the government who didn’t work for any of it?”
- The thought here would be that the servant didn’t feel that the master deserved to benefit from his labor. In this case, the “hard man” is more of an indictment than a complaint. He in essence is saying, “I didn’t do anything because the only thing I feel toward you is fear. You’re a bully, going around taking what doesn’t belong to you and demanding what you didn’t work for. I don’t have any desire to work to enrich you.” Perhaps his thinking here is influenced by the citizens (v. 14) who didn’t want this man as their king.
- Of course, this is not an accurate characterization of the master. While the master does have expectations of the servant, he both invested in the servant (giving the mina) and has legitimate jurisdiction over the servant (the recently-finalized kingship)
- This (although they probably wouldn’t say it like that) is similar to people claiming faith today who chafe at the suggestion that Christ has claims on their life.
- Sure, they like “believing in Him,” but that doesn’t mean they have to change their lives, right? That doesn’t mean they have to obey His instructions except when they want to, right? That doesn’t mean they have to suffer for God, right? That doesn’t mean that they would have to make uncomfortable changes in their life, right?
- There are many people claiming faith today who want to say they are believers in Jesus without being followers of Jesus. And they dismissively reject assertions from preachers (or others) that they might have to do something whether they want to or not simply because Jesus said to. Such crazy ideas receive the response: “It’s my life and I can do what I want to with it!”
b. It might mean something like “I don’t know where you get all your harvest from – it’s like it appears out of nowhere.”
- This would speak more to a frustration with not knowing what to do.
- “I hear you telling me to do something with this mina, but I don’t know where to start. You just seem to pull great harvests out of the air. I don’t know how to proceed to do something significant with your money.”
- This might be similar to person claiming faith who looks at others around him who appear to be doing great things and just throws up his hands, saying, “I don’t know that I could ever do stuff like that and I wouldn’t know where to start if I wanted to!”
- We’ll talk more later on Jesus would respond to such a person, but let’s just leave it now to say that this is a common feeling.
- Why the servant thought the master was harsh – what that looks like today.
- There are a number of claims from Christ that many people today would consider unreasonable.
a. Jesus’ expectation of fruitfulness.
- Matthew 9:37; Matthew 13:8, 23; Mark 4: 8, 20; Luke 8:8, 15; Luke 10:2; John 4:35; John 12:24; John 15:2, 5.
- These are a few of the passages that plainly state that a normal part of the Christian life is to be fruitfulness. A faithful but fruitless Christian faith is an oxymoron. If we are faithful, we will be fruitful.
b. Jesus’ demand that I “deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him.”
- This self-denial sounds especially strange to our culture so focused on getting what we want. The idea that I have to put aside things that I want in order to do what the King wants falls strange on even the ears of many people claiming faith.
c. Jesus’ expectation that I work for the Kingdom.
- The idea that I owe Christ service is often rejected. Sure, I could do some if I wanted to, but that I have to sounds like too much.
- Excuses we use for why the mission didn’t need to be completed – what that looks like today.
- As we reject the claims of Christ that we consider unreasonable, we have a plethora of excuses to justify ourselves.
a. Not enough time to do anything substantial.
- Going back to v. 11, the main reason for Jesus telling this parable was the concern that people might think the time was so short that there was no need to do anything.
- Today, that “not enough time” excuse lives on.
- Sometimes it appears as we say that our lives are so busy that we have no time to do anything for God.
- Sometimes it appears because we procrastinate.
- Sometimes it appears as we see the task of making a huge difference as so big that we’re just certain that we’ll never have enough time, so why bother starting?
- Whatever the specifics, it ends with us telling ourselves, “I would do something with what the master has given me, but he didn’t give me a long enough time frame to be able to do something worthwhile. It’s his fault.”
- It would be like a friend asking you to hold $10,000 for him for a day. He’s going to pick it up the next day. You wouldn’t bother going to the bank or coming up with an investment plan. After all, you’re only going to have it 24 hours. If you’d had more time, you would have done more with it, but you weren’t given long enough.
b. The master’s instructions were not a big deal.
- If we do them, that’s fine. If we don’t, I’m sure he’ll understand.
- Part of this is failing to see that the master had a larger purpose in the task. More on this in a moment.
c. The master’s expectations for the results are too high.
- Notice in v. 13 that the master gives no quotas and makes no specific demand of a certain percentage return. He simply instructs them to put the money to work.
- Sometimes, though, we set standards that we can hardly meet. We approach it as though unless we produce something miraculous, our effort is a failure. We’re especially prone to this when we compare ourselves to those around us (especially those much further down the line).
- And so, knowing we can’t perform a miracle, we do nothing. But it’s not our fault – it’s the master and his high expectations.
d. What we’ve been entrusted with is not a big deal.
- I’ve been asked to do something, but what I have been given is so insignificant that it really doesn’t matter much whether I do anything or not. I would do something if I’d been given a large trust, but no one will care whether anything happens with this little thing.
- In general, we can let fear have a debilitating impact on us:
- “I can’t measure up.”
- “God is mean.”
- “He’s asking for the impossible.”
- “I can’t do all this on my own.”
- “What if I fail?”
- This issue is a big deal. Look around and see how many people who claim to be Christians do basically nothing for Him.
- They don’t follow Christ.
- They don’t obey His instructions.
- They don’t read His Word.
- They don’t given generously.
- They don’t love their enemies.
- They don’t freely forgive.
The Real Problem: The servant’s problem is not really fear, but instead a failure to recognize the seriousness of the task.
- Luke 19:22-23.
- If the master was really an incredibly harsh person, the servant would have tried to obey just out of fear.
- I remember a friend named John who attended a church I pastored. One Sunday afternoon I got a call in the church office. It was John. He’d just realized that he’d forgotten to put his check in the offering that morning and wanted to know if he could bring it up to the church right now. My conversation with him made it clear that he believed that if he didn’t get the check in that day that the Lord might punish him.
- Of course, this kind of fear is not the type of relationship that God wants, but one thing you can say about it is that type of fear gets results.
- If it’d really been fear that was filling the servant’s heart, he’d have done something with the money, at least putting it in the bank to get interest.
- Instead, he dismissed the task with an excuse and did nothing.
- Tellingly, the master calls the servant “wicked.” That’s a word that you would use to describe someone who has done something wrong.
- When the master gave the servant instructions to obey, he was serious about wanting them followed.
- The servant disobeyed a specific, direct command from his master (v. 13).
- When Jesus gives us instructions, He’s serious about wanting them followed. He’s not your buddy asking for a favor. He’s your Lord giving you a command.
- There are basically two reasons that this task was serious. One is that it was a direct command. The second reason (that it was a test) we’ll get into in a minute.
- There is the expectation of service, of fruitfulness, of profit as a natural part of being a servant.
- Just to mention a couple verses worth consideration here:
a. Ephesians 2:8-10 – “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.”
b. James 2:17, 26 – “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. . . . As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
- A provocative question posed by Bob Deffinbaugh centers on the idea of profit. He asks, “What if we scrutinized the church like a business? If every member were viewed as an employee, how many of us could reasonable expect to keep our jobs because we’ve been productive for the firm?”
- Clearly there are limitations to that type of thinking, but it does serve as a bold rebuttal to the “sit and soak” mentality that many church members have.
- In all this, are we on our own to produce fruit?
- Going back to what I mentioned a moment ago, what about when we feel overwhelmed by the command to be fruitful?
[This is pulled from the sermon two weeks ago:]
- I’ve shared this before, but it’s crucial enough for our point today to merit repetition. Living a fruitful life doesn’t happen by our effort, by our self-improvement attempts, by us trying harder to make a difference. Living a fruitful life happens by getting closer to God. This is the clear principle of John 15:1-8 – that abundant fruitfulness happens as a natural result of the branch being connected to the vine, of us abiding in Christ.
- The key idea here is that this morning’s sermon is not intended to create a fear that causes us to think that we have to go out and manufacture some great result. That will almost inevitably lead to failure, because it’s done in our strength and our wisdom.
- Rather, when we get close to God, He begins to make changes in our heart and in our soul that allow us to be more powerfully used by Him. When we let Him guide us, we end up in places where we can make an impact.
- A few words pictures toward getting there:
a. Dig into the Word like a hungry man finding bread.
- Imagine you’ve been without food for a couple days. You come across a loaf of bread and greedily dig into it.
- When we read the Bible, we need to take its truth into us with that kind of desire.
b. Pray like a lost man seeking directions.
- Imagine you’re lost in the woods. You wander for hours, becoming increasingly frantic and uncertain if you’re going somewhere or just wandering in circles. Then you run across someone who knows the forest. You seek instructions, directions, and insight from him, hanging on every word he says.
- When we pray, we need to listen and seek God like that lost traveler.
c. Obey all He says like a novice trying to land a plane.
- Imagine you’re in a small plane and the pilot dies. You’re the only one left. You radio the tower and they start giving you instructions on landing a plane. Needless to say, you’re going to listening to those tower instructions with absolute attention – after all, your life depends on it.
- In our life, we need to follow Christ’s commands with that kind of attention – like our life depends on it. Because, spiritually, it does.
Why Did The Master Give Them The Assignment Anyway? It was a test in handling responsibility that allowed the master to see who he could trust with important jobs.
- Luke 19:17, 19, 24.
- To go back up to vv. 17 and 19 for a moment, the solid results brought by the first two servants result in positions of importance and responsibility within the new ruler’s kingdom.
- We discussed last week the reality of the Kingdom that is coming. We do not spend eternity in heaven, but rather on the new earth and in the New Jerusalem. Christ will rule and desires for us to rule with Him, having jobs of importance and responsibility.
- What the master does in this parable is ingenious in a way. Rather than coming back to take over and having no idea who can be trusted and who is do-less, he gives these ten servants a task that serves as a test. When he comes back, he can plainly see in monetary terms how well they have handled their assignment. This test happens during time before the kingdom is begun because the master is away. It’s a good use of time that otherwise could have been wasted.
- What we do in this life is a test. Christ is watching how we handle what’s been entrusted to us and our assignment in eternity will be affected by this test.
- This life is a test.
- Luke 16:10-13 speaks to the truth that the person who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. Before we can be given grand responsibility, we need to show our faithfulness in little things.
- This life is the test of whether we will be faithful with a little.
- This makes our refusal to obey the master’s instructions a matter of much great significance, both to us and to the master. For us, because so much is riding on it. For the master, because big decisions for him are riding on it.
- I am not saying our salvation is by works. We are not saved by works, but we are saved unto works.
- Let’s go back to the response of the master in vv. 22-23. To some minds, the master’s words seem over-the-top and disproportionately harsh.
- They’re not, though, for several key reasons:
a. The master was serious about his desire to be obeyed.
b. The master is not one to treat disobedience with a wink and a smile.
c. The servant had no legitimate excuse for his behavior.
- And thinking of the specifics of all that we as Christians owe to Jesus, we have to also consider the servant’s inaction in light of:
a. How much we owe Jesus for what He did for us on the cross.
b. How clear His instructions were (i.e. He took the trouble of having them written down and preserved for us).
c. How essential His instructions are to us growing personally.
d. How important our work is to helping others see Christ.
e. How important our work is to getting His mission done.
f. How clear He was that following is required.
- For some who envision God as that senile grandfather or envision Jesus as Mr. Rogers, the master’s words here seem totally out of character. Those pictures, however, are of our creation, not the Bible’s.
- The master expects us to do as we’ve been instructed. Period.
- The third servant’s hands were as hollow as his excuse. And there were consequences for that.
- Those envisioning a God who never says a cross word and wouldn’t condemn anyone’s behavior need to take a long look at these verses. They are sobering, even terrifying, to such a mind. But they are Jesus’ words. They are the Bible’s words.
- To go back to this morning’s sermon title for a moment, what are the consequences of me doing nothing? As I hope we’ve now made clear, the consequences are rebuke and condemnation from our master.
Your Challenge For This Week: Mark your life answers knowing it’s a graded test.
- Jesus is paying attention. You will be judged by what you do.
- Sometimes we look at doing nothing as the safe option. “Just play it safe and do nothing.”
- Or we think “I don’t want to make a mistake, so I’ll just do nothing.”
- Spiritually, though, it’s not a safe option. It puts us in the dangerous position of refusing Christ.
- This week, think of the way you use your money, your gifts, your abilities, and your time in terms of doing well on this test.
