Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Waiting and Losing Heart


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:

  1. 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)

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  2. 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!

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. Thank you for sharing these needful insights.

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  6. You must have worked in some of the same kinds of organizations I have :)

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