The
time is intense. The arrest of Jesus is imminent; his earthly ministry is
quickly drawing to a close. The sense of the passage from Matthew 23 to Matthew
25 is that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples as much as he can before it
all comes to an end.
He
warns against religious leaders and condemns them (“You snakes! You brood of
vipers!”). He grieves over Jerusalem. And then, on the Mount of Olives, he
teaches his disciples, using stories and parables. Be watchful. Be ready and
waiting. Be expectant. The last days are coming. Learn from the stories of the
10 bridesmaids and the loaned money. And let me tell you about the final
judgment.
This
is his last extended time to teach them, and Jesus is packing it in.
Tucked
among the various teachings is a warning about being ready. Jesus uses the
analogy of the wise and evil servants. The wise and faithful servant, put in charge
of the servants of the household, cares for them and feeds them at the proper
time. “It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he
returns. I tell you the truth, he will be put in charge of all his possessions.”
The
evil or wicked servant, however, waiting and waiting for the master’s return,
gets tired of waiting and “then begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and
drink with drunkards.” In his case, the master arrives unexpectedly. “He will
cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (I’ve always like that phrase – “gnashing of
teeth” – even though it makes my mouth hurt to think of it.)
Bob
Sorge, in The Fire of
Delayed Answers, notes
that two things happen to the evil servant: “He loses his heart for the
household, and he surrenders his self-control.” The two are inevitably linked;
one follows almost naturally from the other. The delay in the master’s return creates
both a crisis of the spirit and a crisis of behavior.
The causal problem in facing delay
is the loss of heart. At work, we’ve been experiencing major organizational and
management changes. What the new organization and leadership will be won’t be
known for some weeks. There are good reasons for the delay, but the waiting is
wearing on people. Anxiety is not uncommon. Speculation abounds. Things overheard
in casual conversations become amplified into statements of fact.
The reality is that, regardless of
anxiety and speculation, we still have to get work done. Work hasn’t gone away.
It didn’t decide to take a holiday while we worried and fretted.
That’s what the wise servant
understands and practices. He keeps focused on what he’s been entrusted with,
as difficult as that can be at times.
He is faithful. He doesn’t lose
heart.
Led
by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been reading The Fire of Delayed
Answers. To see more posts on this chapter, “Jesus’ Teaching on Delay,” please
visit Sarah at Living Between
the Lines.
Photograph by Nuzrath Nuzree via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
6 comments:
Good analogy with your job. Change in management can definitely create anxiety in the work place but work still has to be done.
Likewise, we have to keep on working until we are called home. Sometimes we will know more about what's going on than other times, but we are never excused from living a life sold out for Christ simply because we don't understand or feel as if the answers are delayed. (saying all that, I'm so thankful for God's grace)
The importance of waiting faithfully and trusting that the Master will return cannot be overstated. We do have our jobs to do, even in the midst of chaos and confusion. We can't lose sight and we can't lose hope.
Blessings, Glynn!
As you relate it to the workplace situation, it introduces another path to relate it to other things that may be going on in a person's life. It's easy to judge by a circumstance within our everyday life that looks to change what we have imagined was, is, or will be.
Before reading this, I hadn't considered the evil servant's behavior linked to his discouragement or disillusionment with the master being gone. I think it's so true. We can speculate, blow things out of proportion, and so much more but He calls us to return to a real and abiding trust. He WILL come back and He WILL reward the faithful. Good post, Glynn. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing these needful insights.
You must have worked in some of the same kinds of organizations I have :)
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