What We Always Do - by Greg Steggerda
There’s a saying we use a lot at work: when the cat’s away, the mice will play. That’s our way of acknowledging the reality that when managers and supervisors are gone, workers often take advantage of the lack of oversight.
As with all things, it turns out that Jesus knows that about us, and he points out in Matthew 24:45-51 that this can be a dangerous human attitude. Writing about the final day when he will return again, he said this:
“‘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? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “My master is staying away a long time,” and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
This is a reminder of one of the basic truths about stewardship: God gives us things that we’re supposed to use (in his service) for other people. We know that, but do we really believe it?
Jesus will return; maybe in the next minute, maybe not for generations. The longer he waits, the more complacent we get, until it becomes easy for us to think this life is our purpose rather than the next. In fact, that’s one of the easiest ways to tell God’s people from the rest; this idea that our wealth and time and health isn’t really ours is one that we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand, because it just doesn’t feel right to us. Why should we take what we’ve worked so hard for and saved so diligently and give it to someone who might seem to us to be mailing it in? It isn’t our fault that they made bad choices. They made their bed, now let them lie in it.
To Jesus, that’s mistreatment of our fellow servants, something the master expects not to happen.
Jesus’ arrival is going to surprise us - he tells us that over and over. That means he’s going to find us doing what we always do. And what will that be?
As with all things, it turns out that Jesus knows that about us, and he points out in Matthew 24:45-51 that this can be a dangerous human attitude. Writing about the final day when he will return again, he said this:
“‘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? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “My master is staying away a long time,” and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
This is a reminder of one of the basic truths about stewardship: God gives us things that we’re supposed to use (in his service) for other people. We know that, but do we really believe it?
Jesus will return; maybe in the next minute, maybe not for generations. The longer he waits, the more complacent we get, until it becomes easy for us to think this life is our purpose rather than the next. In fact, that’s one of the easiest ways to tell God’s people from the rest; this idea that our wealth and time and health isn’t really ours is one that we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand, because it just doesn’t feel right to us. Why should we take what we’ve worked so hard for and saved so diligently and give it to someone who might seem to us to be mailing it in? It isn’t our fault that they made bad choices. They made their bed, now let them lie in it.
To Jesus, that’s mistreatment of our fellow servants, something the master expects not to happen.
Jesus’ arrival is going to surprise us - he tells us that over and over. That means he’s going to find us doing what we always do. And what will that be?