The Buffet

My husband and I decided to go out for Sunday Brunch Buffet. Visions of Belgian waffles and fluffy scrambled eggs danced in my head.  We arrived at the restaurant at precisely 11:00 a.m.  and were greeted at the Host station by a lady who looked at us and uttered one angry word, “Dinner!” as she pointed over and behind her head at the sign which listed the prices for the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Buffets.  As we stood there with confused looks on our faces, she once more spoke the word, this time separating it into two distinct syllables for emphasis, “Din-ner”, waving her finger over her head. “Do you understand?” I looked at my watch in bewilderment, wondering where lunch had gone since apparently brunch was no longer in existence, but she stared us down until we meekly acknowledged that we understood, then we were charged approximately $15.00 each, because we chose the more expensive option which included the beverage bar, and were released to the buffet.

I assumed there would still be remnants of breakfast somewhere, along with the “Dinner”, and as we walked up, sure enough I saw scrambled eggs on the next serving table.  I pointed them out to my husband as I scooped up the hash browns I had spied right in front of me, and then turned just in time to see a man whisking the pan of eggs up, out and away from the serving line. All that remained of breakfast were a few soggy pieces of bacon floating in several inches of hot grease.

I resigned myself to eating “Din-ner”, grabbing some dry chicken, macaroni and cheese and some mystery greens.  I set my plate on our table and went to get something to drink.  I decided to console myself with some white chocolate cappuccino, but couldn’t find any cups, only glasses.  I finally found someone who had a name tag, and asked about cups.  She insisted that they were on the other side of the beverage bar, but we looked together and there were none.  She set off to find some cups.  I waited.  When someone finally came out with a cart, I took a cup and proceeded to get my cappuccino.  As I carried it back to our table I noticed it was dripping. At first I thought I must have spilled some on the side, but as a puddle began to form in the hand I was holding under the cup, I came to the conclusion that it was actually leaking.  I gingerly carried the cup to an area where an employee had a large collection of dirty dishes. I told her my cup was leaking. She motioned for me to drop it in with the rest of the mess.  I did, and went off to find another cup.

I arrived back at our table with my non-leaky cup, only to discover to my chagrin that I had neglected to get silverware.  I trudged back to the buffet where I encountered empty silverware containers everywhere I looked.  Only a few stray soup spoons were available.  Finally, near the desserts I was able to secure a fork and spoon, but no knife to cut the dry chicken. This time, when I returned to the table I threw the utensils down, with my cappuccino-sticky hand, plunked myself down in the booth and began loudly proclaiming to pretty much the entire restaurant just how ridiculous this was.  I don’t even know all that I said; something about “Like eating at K-Mart” and some other choice words.  My husband looked astounded and asked if I wanted to go.  I indignantly insisted that we had paid a “fortune” and I was determined to eat even if I choked on my now cold “Din-ner”!

The employee who had looked for cups with me earlier overheard my rant and got the manager, who came to find out why I was upset, and I let him have it.  In an attempt to appease me he insisted on giving me his business card with the words “two free meals” written on it, even though I let him know in no uncertain terms that I would not be coming back.  After he left the table I ripped it up and left it there as the ultimate insult, and felt good about it.

It wasn’t until we were on our way home that my husband and I began to laugh hysterically at the experience, making references to the Seinfeld episode about the Soup Nazi, likening that infamous television character to the lady at the host station. “No Breakfast for You!”  (If you haven’t seen it, you won’t get it, but that’s okay.)  It occurred to me that I was glad I hadn’t been wearing a Christian T-shirt or cross necklace when I pitched my public fit. I also thought, as I have many times before, that I’m glad I preach that we are all, at the same time, sinners and declared by God to be righteous, because I definitely practice what I preach. Am I proud that I ‘lost it’ in the restaurant? No.  Am I sorry? Probably not as sorry as I should be.

My point in sharing this story is to illustrate that, even though Grace is the joy and light of my life, when things don’t go my way, I can default in a heartbeat to Action/Consequence, and can be astonishingly ungracious.  The Death/Resurrection state of mind—which acknowledges that there is nothing in any of us which deserves God’s favor and that we are all totally dependent on his grace and mercy for salvation—Is like a retreat I go to for R and R; but, functionally, I keep coming ‘home’ to Action/Consequence—stubbornly treating people as if they should be worthy, and when they are not, as if I have a right to shame or shun them because of it. I’m not happy to admit this is the case.  I long to reach a place where I can truthfully say that I spend more time living out of Death/Resurrection than  Action/Consequence; but it’s a slow go.  And, if I get there, I’ll probably be pretty self-righteous about it.

I’m brave enough to admit this to you because I know it’s true about you, too.  Every single one of us is a mess!  The major difference between Christians and non-Christians, if we have our Gospel straight, is that Christians know they only deserve damnation; but they also know they have a Savior who already paid the price.

Noooo, I’m not saying that, because we have a Savior, we are all free to run around sinning whenever and wherever we want, so that God’s grace may abound (Romans 6:1); I’m saying that we do and we will sin, even though we wish it wasn’t so; and God’s grace will always abound.

 

 

The Faithful and Wise Servant

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  Romans 10:13-15

My friend recently told me that, when she was just sixteen, her life came crashing down.  First her father died and five months later her maternal grandfather passed away.  She and her mother were alone, and reeling.  They had been very active in their church, but these twin tragedies had taken such a toll that their faith in God suffered as well and they had stopped going to church.  My friend went to a Christian high school and one day the pastor of her church came to the school and pulled her out of class.  Instead of offering her words of comfort and hope, he told her that, if she did not begin attending services again immediately she would be removed from fellowship with the church—in other words, she would be kicked out.  She never went back.

I have another friend who is trying desperately to understand the concept of grace, but legalism has a stranglehold on her that is hard to break.  Her parents and the church she has gone to all her life taught her that her works are being judged and will be the determining factor as to whether or not she will be worthy of entering heaven. On one hand, she fears that if she falls for grace and it is a lie, she will be lost; on the other hand, she fears that, if grace is true, her parents who died without fully understanding it are lost. She teeters back and forth between those two fears.

I spoke with a young man this week that does not plan to take his sons to church regularly, primarily because of the way he was treated when he went off the rails as a teenager while his father was dying of cancer.  His youth pastor loved him, but it was painfully obvious that the other adults in the church, including the senior pastor, viewed him as a threat to their children’s spiritual well-being, and he felt unwelcome, shunned as though he had a contagious disease. He told me that he doesn’t want to expose his children to people who will make them feel the way he felt.  I suggested that maybe he just needed to find a “good” church, meaning one that taught grace.  He responded that, even if the church “taught grace”, he was sure there would still be people who would be “ungracious” in the name of God.

My three previous blog posts have tackled the parables found in Matthew 25.  Their central theme is what it means to “be ready” for Jesus’ return.  The question is: What is the criterion for a passing grade on Judgment Day in order to gain entrance to heaven? The unequivocal answer, found in each parable, is:  Faith in Christ, plus nothing. The problem is: The majority of our churches are not teaching that unequivocal answer.

In the first blog post of this trilogy, This Little Light of Mine, I said that the parable found at the end of Matthew 24, of the faithful and wise servant, actually laid the foundation for the parables which followed. In the story the master, representing Jesus, puts a servant in charge of the other servants to “give them their food at the proper time.” The food is the good news about who Jesus was, what he did and why he did it.  It is the gospel.  It is the story of grace.  Jesus said, “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”  The preachers and teachers who have been entrusted with the solemn responsibility of feeding the gospel to those under their care, and have been faithful to that task, will be blessed when Jesus returns. 

But a very different fate awaits the preachers and teachers who have become power hungry and have beaten those in their care with a false ‘gospel’ of works, shaming and shunning their fellow servants, while they were the worst sinners of all. Jesus says they will be cut in pieces and placed with the hypocrites in a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We humans are all Action/Consequence beings by default.  We do not naturally know anything other than, ‘if I do this, I will get that; if you do that, you will get this.’ We compete, we compare, we strive for our own glory at the expense of others. We demand our rights. We work for what we get; we expect to get what we work for; and we apply this to God.  If we are good he will reward us, if we are bad he will punish us.  What we are unable to see on our own is that, by God’s standard of goodness, we can never be good enough to deserve a reward; therefore, by our own Action/Consequence thinking, we are all deserving of nothing but punishment. We are all doomed to be punished, unable to meet the standard, yet blind to our situation. We are dead men walking.

Our only hope is to be shown the truth of Death/Resurrection, something that is alien to us and can only be known through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  We need to have revealed to us the fact that our condition is hopeless. We cannot dig our way out of our deadness by our own efforts; we must be resurrected by a power apart from us.  We can never be worthy of God’s blessing no matter how hard we try.  But God, in his mercy has provided a way apart from our pitiful efforts; he sent his own Son to meet every standard on our behalf and gives us the credit. And, he allowed his Son to be charged with all of our failures and to suffer the punishment in our place.  We cannot, however, comprehend this glorious truth unless those who have been entrusted with the blessed task of communicating it to us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, actually do their jobs.

Those who do their jobs well have clung to their own faith in the all sufficiency of Christ in the face of their own helplessness. They will be blessed. Those who have abused their positions have allowed themselves to sink back into the delusions of Action/Consequence, separating themselves and those in their care from their only hope. Their fate awaits them. 

Those who have been set apart as Ministers of the Gospel must, above all else, know the Gospel with which they have been entrusted so that they are able to feed it to others.  Many do not.  The results look like the stories at the beginning of this blog. The Church is in desperate need of faithful and wise servants.

So, what do I have to say to those in the stories above who were wounded by what scripture calls "wicked servants"?  

Thankfully, after a very long journey, my friend who was so ungraciously kicked out of church has been given the grace to forgive that so-called pastor and has recently found a church that feels like home.  To her, I say, I am so grateful that God showed you how precious you are and how much he loves you, by calling you back to him. God is always faithful when others are not!

To my friend who still lives in fear, I say, just keep saturating yourself with the news that seems too good to be true; God’s Holy Spirit will continue to free your heart and mind from that stranglehold of legalism. And remember, the degree to which we understand grace is not some new standard we must reach to earn salvation. Both of your parents loved and trusted in Jesus; even though they missed out on the peace that should have been theirs, that is enough.

To the young man who does not want to expose his children to those who might be ungracious in the name of God, I say, your sons still need to be exposed to the truth of Death/Resurrection which they will not hear anywhere else in this world.  Find a church with a faithful and wise servant, where grace is taught.  Then, if Action/Consequence rears its familiar head through someone who is ungracious, they will have a foundation to recognize it for what it is. Don’t leave them without God and without hope because of what happened to you!

 

 

 

 

 

Grace is in the Details

 

The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’  Matthew 25:34

 

If there is an Action/Consequence parable, at first glance, the parable of the sheep and the goats found in Matthew 25 would appear to be it.  Because our default way of viewing or interpreting everything is from the position of Action/Consequence, when we read verses 31-46 that is all we can initially see.  But, in order to find the truth of Death/Resurrection in any passage of scripture, we are called to dig; we are asked to seek.  It is only as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes that we are enabled to follow the trail which leads us to the deeper meaning of any scripture.

One thing I have found is, when I read scripture from an Action/Consequence point of view I typically don’t get “bogged down in the details”.  After a superficial skimming of the passage, something usually jumps out which causes me to feel guilt or fear and has a blinding effect which prevents me from noticing that the details don’t necessarily support the interpretation which caused me to feel that way.  After only a surface reading of this parable, it appears that it is a story about the Big Reveal at the Day of Judgment, when Jesus announces who will go to heaven and who won’t; and why.  The ‘why’, in this instance, appears to be based on whether or not you helped people who were in need.  Enter the guilt and fear.

Now let’s take a closer look at the details.  The setting for this parable begins in Matthew 24 where Jesus’ disciples ask him to tell them what signs will precede his return to earth at the end of time. After giving them a checklist of events, he tells them that no one knows the actual time he will return except his Father; and that, list or no list, people will be taken by surprise when he comes back.  He follows with a series of parables describing the state of those who profess to be watching for his return and what he will actually find at that time. Three of those parables are found in Matthew 25, and the parable of the sheep and the goats is the final one of those three. 

As we saw, in the previous parables (See This Little Light of Mine and Love Isn’t Love ‘Til You Give it Away) Jesus uses a bridegroom and a master to represent himself, but in this parable there is no disguising who the central figure is.  Jesus begins by saying,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.” (verses 31-33)

In this parable, Jesus unabashedly represents himself as the King, sitting on his glorious throne, surrounded by all of his angels, ready to judge the people of every nation.  There is no mistaking the fact that Jesus is painting the scene of the final Judgment Day, and that he will be the Judge. His process will be to “separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Let’s think about that process for a minute.  On Judgment Day Jesus is not decreeing, ‘You will be a sheep’ and ‘you will be a goat’.  They already are what they are.  He is not separating them by their behavior. Their behavior did not determine whether they were a sheep or a goat; the opposite is true, they behaved the way they did because of what they were – either a sheep or a goat.  Jesus is simply separating the flocks.  John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  We become Jesus’ sheep in only one way:  by believing in him as our Lord and Savior.  (See John3:16)  We do not work for it, earn it or deserve it. We accept his finished work on our behalf, and we are his sheep.

Once the separating process has been accomplished, Jesus continues, “the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” (Verse 34) From the foundation of the world, the kingdom has been prepared for the sheep; for those who belong to Jesus. If you belong to Jesus, you are indeed blessed by the Father and the kingdom is yours!

When viewing this parable through the Action/Consequence lens, the next verses seem to be the most important because they appear give us a to-do list; the very criteria we fear God will use to determine whether or not we are worthy of eternal life:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (verses 35,36)

But, if you are viewing this parable through the Death/Resurrection Lens, you will interpret verses 35 and 36 in light of what you just learned from pondering the details in the previous verses:

1.       Behavior does not determine whether a person is a sheep or a goat.  What you are determines what you do.  If you’re a sheep you will do sheep things.  If you’re a goat you will act like a goat.  

2.      What makes you a sheep is belief in Jesus. Period. 

3.      Jesus is the judge; he knows about number 2 above.  He did not suddenly come up with a new set of rules.

Through the lens of Death/Resurrection we see that the verses cannot be the How-to-Inherit-Eternal-Life checklist.

Let’s continue looking at the story.

“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’” (verses 37-39)

Notice that those who are called “righteous”, not because of their own goodness, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ freely credited to them, were not even aware of having done these things.  Why?  Because they were simply doing what sheep do.  They weren’t going down the checklist of things they had to do for, or to, Jesus.  Instead, they were living their lives based on what Jesus had done for them. 

The sheep were living from the recognition that they had been hungry and thirsty and Jesus had satisfied their need:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

They remembered that they were strangers and Jesus had taken them in:

…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  Ephesians 2:12-13

They knew that they had been naked and Jesus clothed them:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

They understood that they had been sick and Jesus brought them healing:

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:10-13

They grasped that they had been imprisoned and Jesus had set them free:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  Isaiah 61:1

In the parable, the King responded, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (verse 40)

Jesus came to this world and stood in the place of all who are hungry and thirsty, alone and naked, sick and in prison; which is every one of us. He became one of us, for the express purpose of providing for our needs.  Those who have humbly, gratefully accepted his provisions are simply sharing the news, like ‘beggars telling other beggars where to find bread’ as Martin Luther once expressed it.  Or, in this story, like sheep telling other sheep where to find pasture. 

The parable concludes with the goats.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (verses 41-46)

The goats are those who those who never believed in Jesus or accepted his provisions. They were as unaware of their behavior as the sheep had been.  They were simply living like goats.  Perhaps some of them had been trying to live moral lives in an attempt to justify their own existence or look good to others, but their behavior had nothing to do with recognition of their own neediness, or Jesus’ provision for that need. Whatever ‘help’ they may have offered to others was empty help.

Now, standing before the King, In light of the curse being pronounced upon them, they were indignantly protesting that, if they had only been notified of the specific instances where they had been expected to help Jesus himself, they certainly would have.  They were still missing the point that Jesus came to be the representative of all who are in need, and that everyone is in need.

The goats went away to spend an eternity of being hungry, thirsty, alienated, naked, sick and in prison; but those who had done nothing but live as sheep, in joyful acceptance of Jesus’ provisions, went into eternal life.

Love Isn't Love 'Til You Give it Away

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

First, a little review: This is the second of a three part series of posts on the parables found in Matthew 25.  Last week’s post, This Little Light of Mine, was primarily about the story of the five wise and five foolish virgins found in verses 1-13.  But, in order to understand the context of that parable and the ones which follow it, we also looked at the preceding chapter where Jesus, in response to a request from his disciples, talked about the events heralding the end of time, when he would return.  He ended his recitation of events, however, by telling them that no one but the Father really knew the time he would return and indicated that, regardless of the signs he had just given them, his coming would still be unexpected and that they should watch and be ready.  These parables are about “watching and being ready”.

This week we are looking at the story of what is commonly known as the parable of the talents, found in verses 14-30 of Matthew 25.  The story begins, “For it will be like a man going on a journey…”  Jesus is the man going on a journey. He is about to leave our world and return to heaven.   His disciples may not have completely grasped what was about to happen, but because they were asking him about the time of his return they obviously had some understanding that he would be going away.  Jesus expounds on that idea in this story.

The man going on the journey “called his servants and entrusted to them his property.”  The word for “servants” used here is the Greek word “doulos”.  This word was the common word for “slave”.  In our day and time, however, that word is so fraught with emotional baggage that most translators have chosen not to use it, but that is exactly what it meant to the people who were listening to Jesus.  There are some who prefer to translate the word as “bondservants”, a term which they relate to Exodus 21:5-6 where a bondservant is described as someone who had willingly sold himself as a slave (usually to pay a debt).  He could only be held for six years and then the master had to set him free; but, if at the end of six years the bondservant, because he loved his master, chose to remain with him, he would be marked by the master with an awl through his ear, and he would then belong to that master for the rest of his life. 

Those who prefer “bondservant” find this a heartwarming analogy, but, the problem is, those who belong to Christ did not sell themselves to Jesus in order to pay a debt, and then, after fulfilling their obligation, decide to stay because they loved him.  Romans 7:14 says that we were sold as slaves to sin.  We had a debt we could not pay, and 1 Corinthians 7:23 says we were “bought with a price”.  God bought us with the blood of Jesus; he redeemed us from our hopeless slavery to sin. Romans 6 says we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness, meaning we are either slaves to our Action/Consequence natures or slaves to all that the Death/Resurrection model implies.  Like it or not, we and the characters in this story are slaves.  The people in this story belonged to the man who purchased and owned them.

Notice that when the man called his slaves to him, he “entrusted” them with his wealth, or, in some translations, his possessions or property; he was not dividing up his riches for them to keep for themselves; nor was he paying them. He was trusting each slave to administer a portion of his assets for him while he was away. The slaves understood that the goods belonged to the master, and that he would be asking how they were handled when he returned.

Verse 15 says, “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”  Biblical scholars agree that one talent was equal to somewhere between fifteen and twenty years of wages for an average day laborer.  Think about the average annual income, times twenty; then multiply that by two or five.  Each slave was entrusted with an amazing amount of wealth for which to be responsible.

The amount the master gave to each slave was determined by their “ability”. Because we know that the master in the story represents Jesus, we know that his judgment regarding their capabilities was sound.  His intention was not to show favoritism, but to be fair.  He did not give anyone more than they could be expected to handle responsibly.  This does not mean that one was more worthy than the others; it simply means that the master knew each slave well and proportioned the responsibility in a way which would challenge, but not overwhelm them. 

So, what do the talents represent?  I’ve heard many sermons based on the idea that the talents are just that—talents, or abilities.  Scripture does talk about spiritual gifts which are given to each of us; but, would the master give abilities based on the slaves’ ability?  Does that interpretation fit this parable?

I’ve also heard many sermons based on the idea that the talents, a form of money, represent the finances we have been given, and how we handle them. But, even one talent equaled more money than especially a slave would ever see in a lifetime. Certainly we are called to be good stewards of our financial resources; but, that particular puzzle piece does not seem to fit this puzzle.

So, let’s go over what we do know.  The story is about Jesus. The time was soon approaching when, after his death and resurrection, he would be going back to heaven.  The parable indicates that, before he left, he would entrust a lavish amount of his riches to each of those he had purchased, with the idea that they would be responsible for what he gave them, and he would one day return and would see what they had done with what they were given.

Let’s continue looking at the story, beginning with verse 16: “He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.” We learn several things from these verses.  First, we learn more about the nature of the “talents”. Those who did something with the wealth they were given came back with more of the same.  They didn’t buy anything with the riches or even spend them to accomplish something; they did not deplete the resources; they “traded with them” and came back with more “talents”. 

Secondly, we can detect a difference in the enthusiasm of the slaves.  The one who received five talents “went at once”.  He wasted no time, he went immediately.  And, he “traded with them.”  For me, that conjures up an image of an enthusiastic risk taker; he seems boldly daring in his quest to increase what he was given.  Both he and the slave who was given two talents doubled what they received.  But, the slave who was given one talent dug a hole and buried it.

Verse 19 then tells us, “Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.”  Jesus makes a point of saying that the master was gone a long time.  Just like the bridegroom in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, it seems that he took longer than expected, but when he came back he was ready to see what they had done with what they were given.

“And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” (Verses 20-23) 

We see in these verses that this was not a contest to determine who could come back with the most talents.  Action/Consequence wants it to be that way.  We want a winner.  But this is not an Action/Consequence story. The master was aware of the strengths and limitations of each slave when he assigned them their responsibilities.  It was not a competition.  The master says exactly the same thing to each of them.  There is no hint of a winner.  The master is pleased with both of them.  He invites them to share in his joy.

Action Consequence also desires a loser.  In verse 24 the story continues, “He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’

“But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.  For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

The problem with having a loser is, our Action/Consequence natures are likely to identify with him and then feel sorry for him. “The poor guy was just afraid to make a mistake and lose the money,” we think.  “He was only playing it safe, and for that he was berated and cast into darkness!” 

Let’s take a closer look at this slave.  The underlying issue with him was his view of the master.  He thought of him as harsh and demanding.  He essentially accused the master of being the kind of man who takes what does not belong to him; increasing his own wealth on the backs of those who actually do the work.  This slave was afraid of the master, because he believed the master’s expectations were too high and that the master was mean; and, therefore, he was not willing to take any risks with what he was given.  He simply buried it. 

Sadly, this is the way all of our Action/Consequence natures tend to view God.  Inside each of us there lurks the suspicion that God is mean.  It was the way Satan attacked Eve in the Garden of Eden.  He told her that God was mean; he didn’t want her to be happy; he was just trying to keep her under his thumb.  She believed the lie, and the rest of us followed.  After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the first thing they did was to hide from God.  They went from basking in his love to fearing him.  Their entire view of him had changed.

Now let’s try to tie everything together.  What did the master entrust to the slaves?  What riches has Jesus entrusted to those he purchased with his blood?  I believe we have been entrusted with the riches of his grace; specifically, his love.  Jesus poured out his love for us on the cross.  He lavished us with his unconditional love.  We did not and could not deserve it or earn it; it was a gift.  And, to each of us, according to our ability, he has given the joyful opportunity to share his love. This is not meant to be a chore or a test of some kind; it is meant to be a blessing-filled experience.  It is not something that we “have to do”; it’s something that we “get to do”.  God knows us.  He knows our history; he knows our dysfunctional families; he knows the painful life experiences which have shaped us and sometimes crippled us.  He knows whether we are introverts or extroverts, and he lovingly offers us the opportunity to extend the love we have received to others in a way that will be meaningful and beneficial to both the giver and the receiver.

And, we are not asked to share “our” love.  We can barely muster up brotherly love.  Even our love for family is often a struggle.  What Jesus wants is for us to joyfully, enthusiastically share his love—which we cannot muster; it is his love, given through us to others.  And, as we risk loving lavishly with his love, our love is increased. When Jesus returns, he wants to see that our love for him and our love for others has grown.  This is not a requirement for our salvation; it is because of our salvation. The more we experience the security of God’s love and the more we live into our status as his beloved, the greater our love will be in response, both toward God and toward others.

The slaves who increased their talents, did so because they understood they had nothing to fear; nothing to lose.  They trusted their master because they knew him, and they risked with bold enthusiasm.  The final slave is not worthy of our pity.  He was lavished with the same love as the others, but he did not respond to or acknowledge it. He cherished and cultivated his suspicions of God’s meanness.  He clung to the view of a harsh and demanding deity who could never be pleased. He never accepted the incredible love being offered to him, so he had nothing to share.  He buried what was given to him and chose to live in self-imposed distrust and fear, viewing the master with contempt. 

God’s response to him was, ‘if that is really what you thought of me; if you were so afraid of me that you couldn’t share my love, you could at least have put it in the bank to collect interest.’  I think that means, the slave could have at least kept the possibility of God’s love as something to consider, where it might have had an opportunity to increase; but because he buried it there was no chance for growth. 

This is a parable about "being ready" when Jesus returns.  Jesus wants us to share his love with joyful abandon on this earth, confident that we are loved and have nothing to prove, no tests to pass, nothing to fear because he has already satisfied every demand on our behalf.  God is not mean! Because Jesus was good and faithful, God already views us as good and faithful if we have accepted Jesus' love freely given to us.  And when he comes back we will enter into the joy of our master forever.

This Little Light of Mine

 

Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this:  If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. –Matthew 24:42-44

 

 When Jesus returns, will you be ready to meet him; or will you be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?  I grew up on lessons and sermons where those questions were frequently asked.  I wanted to be ready to meet Jesus, but I wasn’t really sure what that entailed and was fearful that I wouldn’t be worthy.  ‘Being ready’ was always rather nebulously equated with being good enough; having reached some high level of obedience and righteousness.  I didn’t believe I had much chance of attaining that status. 

Matthew chapter 25 contains three parables where people arrive at judgment day and some are ready while others are not.  These stories have always made me uncomfortable.  I wanted to be able to look down my nose at the rejects and identify with the winners, but in my limited understanding, I much more closely resembled those I considered to be the losers. For that reason, I never cared for Matthew 25, at least not the Action/Consequence version I grew up with; but that has recently changed. I’m starting to identify with the winners now! Hopefully, you will, too.  So, in my next few blogs I want to take a fresh look at those parables, but this time through the lens of Death/Resurrection.

In order to get a sense of the context for the parables in chapter 25, you have to go back to the previous chapter. The disciples had asked Jesus to tell them what signs to look for at “the end of the age” when Jesus would return.  So, in chapter 24 he tells them about wars, increased wickedness, false Christs, fulfillment of prophecies found in the book of Daniel, signs in the heavens, etc.  But he concludes by saying that no one really knows the day or hour he will return. The angels don’t know. Even he doesn’t know; only the Father knows. And, he warns them that they will need to be vigilant in watching, because his coming will take them by surprise.

Chapter 24 concludes with a strange parable which begins with a question: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?” (Matthew 24:45) Jesus says that it will be good for this servant if, upon his mater’s return, he is found doing what he was assigned to do; but, if the servant, because the master’s return is delayed, begins to beat the other servants and begins to eat and drink with the drunkards, when the master returns unexpectedly he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; a rather violent and grizzly fate!

Understanding this parable is crucial, because it lays the foundation for the ones that follow.  Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant? This servant is someone who was put in charge of all of the other servants, and given the task of feeding them, at the proper time.  This servant represents all of those whom God has entrusted with the responsibility of “feeding” the rest of the church.  That task was given specifically to the apostles, pastors, evangelists and teachers.  Theirs is the job of unfolding the message of the gospel; “correctly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). They will be held accountable by the master for how and what the church is “fed”.  If the church is being fed properly, all is well.

However, there is a warning in this parable for those who mishandle that responsibility; for those who, instead of appropriately feeding the ones  in their charge, start thinking and acting like the master is out of the picture; those who become power hungry, and begin “beating” the other servants.  Whenever the good news of Death/Resurrection:  That we are helplessly, hopelessly dead in our sins; and, because of that, God sent Jesus to fulfill all of the demands of the law on our behalf, and to pay the penalty of God’s wrath which we deserved, so that we, together with Jesus, are resurrected to a new life where there is no more condemnation, no outstanding debt remaining against us, and where God views us as if we had never sinned. – Is twisted into the bad news of Action Consequence:  That we must earn God’s approval by our own works, by striving to deserve his acceptance with our own obedience and righteousness, or suffer the consequences – that is the spiritual equivalent of “beating” the church.  The servants who have betrayed the master’s trust are those who are starving the church with a false gospel of works rather than nourishing them with the finished work of Christ.  In the parable, the fact that the one doing the beating is the worst sinner of all, is the reason the master is so enraged; and why, after cutting the wicked servant to pieces, he assigns him a place with the hypocrites.  Anyone who “beats” others because they are not measuring up is most certainly a hypocrite, because no one can measure up.  And that kind of abuse is detestable to the master!

With the understanding of that parable in mind, let’s now take a look at the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.  Jesus begins by saying, “At that time”, referring not just to the End of Time, but to what he had just finished saying to them, which was the end of the story where the servant had been cut up and assigned a place with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. At that time, “the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.”  Jesus is describing the state of “the kingdom of heaven”, or the church, just before his return.  The state of the church is directly related to which “gospel” it has been fed, the Death/Resurrection or the Action/Consequence version.  The virgins represent a cross section of those who await the appearance of the “bridegroom”, who is Jesus himself. 

“Five of them were foolish and five were wise,” Jesus says. “The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.”  It is important to notice that Jesus says they did not take any oil with them.  He didn’t say, ‘they did not take extra oil’; they did not take any oil.  “The wise”, however, “took oil in jars along with their lamps.”  The wise virgins had extra oil; the foolish virgins had no oil at all.

The story continues, “The bridegroom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”  The Action/Consequence mindset would like the story to say that only the five foolish virgins fell asleep while the wise virgins remained awake and vigilantly watching, but Jesus says that all of them fell asleep; just like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane who could not stay awake and “watch” one hour with Jesus, they all fell asleep.

“At midnight,” Jesus says, the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’  Have you ever been caught napping when you weren’t supposed to be?  During my recent visit with my daughter and grandson, my daughter hired her regular babysitter for one evening so the two of us could go out for some mother/daughter bonding time.  We were out later than we planned to be, and when we got back the babysitter was sound asleep.  My daughter tried to gently wake her, but she ‘came to’ with much jerking, flailing and some pretty hilarious sounds of being startled from a deep sleep.  That’s how I picture the ten virgins as they awoke to the shouted announcement that the bridegroom was finally there. 

The first thing they did was to “trim their lamps” so that they could light the way for the wedding procession; this involved making sure there was oil to keep the wick burning, trimming the wick itself so the flame would be even, and then lighting it.  The wicks were, of course, made of flammable material, so they could be lit initially, even without oil; but just like anything else, they would go out if there was nothing to keep them burning.  Remember, the foolish virgins had no oil.  They lit the wicks, but the lamps immediately went out.  (They were ‘foolish’, remember.)  So, Jesus continues, “The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”

If I were telling the Action/Consequence version of the story, at this point I would have the wise virgins do the ‘right’ thing and share their oil, saving the day, and everyone would live happily ever after.  But, that is not how Jesus told the story.  The wise virgins said no, because they needed the oil they had.  Instead, they sent the foolish virgins off to ‘those who sell oil’ to purchase some for themselves.  “But while they were on their way to buy the oil,” Jesus says, “the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet.  And the door was shut.”

I believe that the five wise virgins were those who had been well fed on the Death/Resurrection version of the gospel. The oil was their faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on their behalf.  The five foolish virgins represent those who were fed only Action/Consequence.  They professed to be Christians, but they were dependent on their own works, their own righteousness, to make them ready for the bridegroom.  They had no oil, no real understanding of, or faith in, Jesus and what he had done for them.

No one can give another person their faith in Christ.  The wise virgins were not being selfish by not sharing their oil.  A measure of faith is given to each one of us by the Holy Spirit, and it is ours alone.  The five foolish virgins had to bring their own faith.  They were instructed to go and buy it from those who “sell oil”.  If faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit, what were they being told to do?  I believe they were being sent back to those who were peddling what was meant to be a free gift, at a price which no one could afford.  Action/Consequence insists that we pay, and we cannot.  The oil that was being sold was only “snake oil”.

Jesus gives us the epilogue to this story.  The five foolish virgins came to the shut door of the wedding feast, “’Sir! Sir!’ they said, ‘Open the door for us!’  But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’”  Jesus did not know them because they did not belong to him; they had never acknowledged him and trusted in what he had done for them.  They never grasped that the only requirement for being ‘ready’ is an acknowledgment of our total dependence on his mercy and grace.  We can bring nothing to the wedding feast but that; and it is all we need.

Jesus concludes with the admonition, “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”  Satan always directly attacks our faith in Jesus. His strategy isn’t only to get people to believe that Jesus isn’t real; his strategy is more often directed against those who think they believe in Jesus by convincing them that their salvation is dependent on Christ plus their good works, their obedience, their righteousness.  The battle of Action/Consequence against Death/Resurrection is ongoing and fierce.  We are called to stand firm in our belief in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.  That is the only way we can be ready to meet him when he returns.