Theme: Duty consciousness
Text: Zeph. 1:7, 12-18; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Matt. 25:14-30
Today’s Scripture reading from the gospel of Matthew belongs to what is referred to as the Olivet discourse as it was delivered as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. Addressed to His disciples it was intended to give them a prophetic overview of events that would take place in the near and distant future. It includes a generally chronological description of events preceding Christ’s return, lessons on watching, waiting and being prepared for Christ’s return and a warning of judgement and a promise of reward at Christ’s return. In today’s gospel reading Jesus Christ teaches about responsibility and about making the most out of the opportunities that God offers us. This parable is about a master who, before going on a journey, entrusted his possessions to three servants. The first servant was given 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and the third 1 talent. The servant with 5 talents invested and worked with his master’s money and doubled the amount. The servant who had been given two talents did the same by also doubling his master’s money. The third servant who had only one talent didn’t use it or invest it. Because he failed to use what his master had given him, his one talent was taken from him and given to the man who had ten talents. This parable is clearly teaching that God does not want to receive back merely what He has given to us. He wants us to use and multiply what He has given us. This has nothing to do with whether we have much or little but has everything to do with how we use what we have. It has everything to do with duty consciousness as we wait for Christ’s return.
God created man to serve Him faithfully. The Scriptures affirm this truth with the words “The just shall live by faith”. In spite of the uniqueness of every individual we have something that is common to all men. We are all created with a divine purpose that is with the ability to relate to God through our worship and our life of faith. We can all make a difference in one way or the other but we need to realise that what we have does not really belong to us. It belongs to God. We are really only stewards of what God has given us to manage. To say that God really owns our time, talent, and treasure is to say that He has the right to whatever He wants whenever He wants it. As the owner, He has all the rights. What we have are the responsibilities. Each person will be held accountable for what he or she does with what God has entrusted into their care. The Scriptures assure us that Christ will return and there will be a day of reckoning. We need to be always ready as we do not know the time but are certain that day is coming.
There are no two people in the world with the same features that are found in different organs of the body such as eyes, fingerprints or DNA. Today there is the move to use biometric data to identify individuals and very soon every human being will be registered in a centralised computerised data bank. The world is already compelling everyone to use biometric data and very soon we will see its use fulfilling biblical prophecy when the data becomes implanted in human beings as is already being done in animals. God made each one of us unique for a purpose and there is something that only you can do. You may not be able to teach but you may be able to pray. You may not be able to sing but you may be able to help with taking care of the Church buildings. We cannot do everything well, but we can each do something well. God has entrusted every individual with a gift. Unfortunately many people go through life without even discovering their gift. We have all heard of Ephraim Amu. He went to seminary to train as a minister but certain events in his life led him to discover His gift to compose music. Today Ephraim Amu is remembered for his legacy of world acclaimed compositions. Ephraim Amu discovered his gift and took responsibility to develop and use that gift for the benefit of mankind. God has entrusted each of us with various resources. We have all received what we can conveniently handle and to fail in our assignment can be only due to laziness or due to hatred toward the Master.
God is faithful and expects faithfulness. We have a choice, whether or not to submit to the Lordship of Christ. When we submit to God He expects faithfulness from us. He expects faithfulness in our management of the resources He entrusts to us. When God entrusts His resources into our care He expects an increase. No firm in the world would employ you if you were not capable of improving the fortunes of the company. You would actually lose your job if you failed to make profit for the company. If man demands this from you why should we expect otherwise from God. God expects obedience to His Word. He expects a life that impacts others as we wait for His promised return. His return is certain otherwise how else can we be held accountable for how we used His resources? Every prophecy about Christ will be fulfilled just as it was prophesied.
The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains and we should see ourselves as stewards of God’s provisions and use every opportunity to serve Him. When we refuse to use God’s provisions to serve Him, even the little we have will be taken away from us and we are left utterly useless. The Sea of Galilee is full of life and activity and on one occasion the disciples caught so much fish that their nets were about to burst. The Jordan River flows into the Sea of Galilee, and then continues south until it flows into the Dead Sea. It is called the Dead Sea because it contains no life. No plant or animal can live in the Dead Sea. It has no life because it has no outlet. It does not use what it receives. Are we being resourceful with what has been entrusted into our care? We all know that Jesus is coming back and we will have to account for what we did with our time, talents and treasures.
Jesus says that He will reward us according to what we do with the resources that He has given us. Those who are faithful would be given more responsibility. A manager who does not make any profit for his company would never be given more to manage. He would most likely loose his job so why should we expect it to be different with the Lord. Just as the world rewards good managers so God rewards those who manage His resources well. When we are faithful with what God has entrusted into our care when He returns He will entrust even more into our care. God owns everything and we must be careful about how we treat His possessions. The faithful ones will receive eternal joy in God’s presence. The unfaithful ones will receive condemnation and will spend eternity with the weeping and gnashing of teeth in outer darkness.
We often make the mistake the third servant made. We fail to invest what has been entrusted into our care because we feel cheated. Instead of investing what we have we spend the time feeling sorry for ourselves because we did not get as much as the others. The criterion for Christ’s reward was not the total amount but the percentage of increase. Even with the one talent it was possible to achieve a 100% increase. God was not expecting more out of him than the others. An increase of 1 talent would have meant a 100% increase just like what the other two achieved. He was given an opportunity to do something. Instead he thought he couldn’t make a difference with what he had. We can all make a difference with what we have. We cannot do everything, but we can do something. A boy once gave Jesus his meal of five loaves and two fish and this was used to feed more than 5,000 people. He used what he had when the opportunity came. Life gives us many opportunities and we can truly make a difference with our life if we are willing to make the most of those opportunities no matter how small they may seem. When we develop our muscles, our reward is that we can carry heavier burdens and still feel good. To those who have, more is given. When we lie in bed and do nothing, atrophy takes over and we find we can do less and less. We eventually lose the muscles we had at first. It is the same in the spiritual realm. When we act faithfully under the responsibilities the Master has entrusted to us, our capacities will grow. If we do nothing with them, our ability to respond and be useful will diminish.
Jesus has given us many resources that are especially designed for us and God expects us to do something with them. Warren Wiersbe in his autobiography said, “If life is to have meaning, and if God’s will is to be done, all of us have to accept who we are and what we are, give it back to God, and thank Him for the way He made us. What I am is God’s gift to me; what I do with it is my gift to Him.” We are accountable to God as stewards of His possessions. It does not matter how small or how large those possessions are which have been entrusted to us. We are not less accountable because we have only received a little. We will all be asked to account for what we have done with what we received. The world may despise small things, but our Lord doesn’t. Jesus Christ has given us all the resources we need to serve Him. We can, however, only serve Him when we have surrendered our lives to Him. We cannot call Christ Lord when He does not have access to our lives. Let us be resourceful and duty conscious with what the Lord has given us so that we also will hear on that day “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Amen!
