LENT 2016 – GOING TO JERUSALEM

Sunday, Fourth Sunday in Lent

The Faithful or the Unfaithful Slave: Matthew 24: 45 - 51

            “Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives, (v.46).

            You know what they say, “idle hands are the devil’s tools.” Well, at least, my mother used to say that to me a lot. I wonder what she was trying to tell me.

It sounds right out of the Bible, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, not exactly anyway. But it comes close in some places. In Ecclesiastes, it reads, “Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house leaks,” (Ecclesiastes 10:18). Maybe, that’s why my carpenter father always insisted that hard work never killed anyone and it was the right thing for an honest man (or woman) to do.

Paul would have liked my father as he, too, felt good, honest work was redeeming, “doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need,” (Ephesians 4:28).  Idleness was not next to godliness. “We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies,” (2 Thess. 3:11).

So please note that in this short parable, the servants’ work plays a critical role while one awaits God’s Future.

I especially think it is interesting that this work seems to be about being a blessing to others. Specifically, it about food security, making sure that others have enough to eat, (v.45). I never really noticed this about the parable before; that the servant’s work was about providing others with food.

 Kingdom life equals daily bread. Our task as Christ’s stewards or disciples is to nurture or feed the people around us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled,” (Matthew 5:6).

If Jesus is anything, he is very much consistent in his association of food, real and spiritual, with God’s Kingdom Life. He gave Peter (and us) a job to do, interestingly right after they shared a post-resurrection breakfast together, “Feed my lambs,” (John 21:15). His insistence that the disciples find food for the huge crowds connects the miracle of the two fish and five loaves to Kingdom Life and our part in it. In another parable about the kingdom, the servants were instructed to go out into the streets and bring in everyone, the good and the bad, to share in the wedding banquet, (Matthew 22: 9 – 10).

On the other hand, self- serving selfishness leads to disaster. Greed, gluttony and rampant consumerism have no place in God’s Future. Looking after our own individual needs first and foremost take away the Future. Our insatiable appetites for self-indulgence at the expense of others leads to our downfall.

There is an old hymn by Anna L. Coghill, of which the first verse reads like this:

Work, for the night is coming,

                        Work through the morning hours;
                        Work while the dew is sparkling,
                        Work ’mid springing flowers;
                        Work when the day grows brighter,
                        Work in the glowing sun;
                        Work, for the night is coming,
                        When man’s (sic) work is done.