Something that has been on my heart for a while now is the principle of stewardship. As Christians, we are ENTRUSTED with our lives, talents, gifts, resources, etc. that we are going to be held accountable for one day.
Matthew 25 is a clear study on stewardship, where Jesus shares 3 parables, all alluding to the accountability we face one day.
And this is where I find the biggest challenge to being a good steward: the notion of one day. One day when?
In a week?
Two?
In a month?
A year?
Years?
DRAFTJS_BLOCK_KEY:barreSomething tha
In the parable of the talents found in Matt 25, I never thought about the length of time before the day of accountability before. I don't know why, but to me the picture in my mind was that time between the Master giving out the talents to the servants, and the time he calls them to be accountable for them wasn't that significant.
If it wasn't a significant amount of time, then it is easy to picture the third servant with one talent simply waiting for the Master to return. Perhaps he was sitting where he buried the talent. Perhaps he was still thinking about what he could do with it.
But because the parable was that it was a LONG time, it is less likely that he could have simply been waiting for the Master's return.
I also consider the fact that this servant KNEW that the Master would demand fruit from his initial investment. He feared this fact. So it is strange that he returned the Master the investment with NO fruit.
Here's what I imagined happened. I think that the servant knew that IF he was to use the Master's talent, whatever he worked on would have to be given to the Mas
ter. I think he feared that upon returning it to the Master he would be left with nothing.
So he hid his Master's talent, and in the ensuing time went to work on his on talent. Whatever return he got from his own talent, the Master would have no claim over! At least this could have been what he was thinking.
This is the trap of the in-between time. I can work on my talent and build what I need first, then I'll get onto the Master's talent. There'll be time, right? The truth is when
we work on our own lives, wanting a return for ourselves, we end up with temporary treasures that do not pass into eternity (Matt 6:19). And the truth is while the Master held the servants acco
untable for the talent, the increase they brought would be enjoyed by them too! Notice that the Master said to the first 2 servants, "Come and share your Master's happiness"!
Our stewardship as Christians requires that we put aside agendas of building our own safety and security nets. It demands that we trust that God knows what we need, when we need, and that He delights in providing for us. We need to learn that as God's faithful steward we never miss out!
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