Several years ago the leader of our Bible study classes opened with this question, “Who here does their morning devotional time right?” Oh boy…nobody and I mean NOBODY wanted to say yes to that question. Circular avoidance discussion abounded, but nobody chose either answer even though the teacher continued to ask the question, “Who is doing their morning devotional time right?”
Finally during a pause I raised my hand and I said, “Ok, I’ll be the one to be different and say, ‘yes, I am doing morning devotional time right’. I felt a little awkward saying that….as if I were proclaiming to have it all together. In fact I will proclaim here and now I didn’t have it all together then and still don’t have it all together now. When the teacher started to wind down that part of the discussion I raised my hand again, because I wanted to clarify why I had said what I said.
I pointed to an empty chair sitting next to me and said, “If Jesus were sitting here in this empty chair, how could I look at Him and tell Him He was doing our morning devotional time together wrong?” I couldn’t do it and so I had to say I was doing it right since the leader pressed hard for one of two answers, ‘yes, I’m doing it right’, or ‘no, I’m not doing it right’.
Sometimes my morning devotional time may not look like my preconceived idea of what it should look like, but it doesn’t mean my time with Jesus didn’t create more relationship because that’s what time with Jesus does…it creates more. And sometimes that requires me giving up my list of “how to”. Time spent with Jesus creates more relationship because Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit who gives us more spiritual eyesight, more spiritual hearing and more heart understanding.
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The Parable of theTalents
Matthew 25:14-29 NASB
14 “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. 16 The one who had received the five talents immediately went and did business with them, and earned five more talents. 17 In the same way the one who had received the two talents earned two more. 18 But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.
19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have earned five more talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’
22 “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have earned two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’
24 “Now the one who had received the one talent also came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed. 25 And I was afraid, so I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you still have what is yours.’
26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You worthless, lazy slave! Did you know that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter seed? 27 Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 Therefore: take the talent away from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’
29 “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 And throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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We are going to call these servants, Servant 1, Servant 2, and Servant 3. Servant 1 and Servant 2 received their talents and it says they immediately went and did business with them. The Parable of the Ten Virgins is told right before this one (Matt. 25:1-13). When you read through it, verse 4 says the five wise virgins took oil in their flasks with them for their lamps. They took it with them. The five unwise virgins did not take oil with them.
Servant 1 and Servant 2 took the talents with them immediately and did business with them. They both doubled the amount of talents they had before their master came back from his trip.
In the Parable of the Ten Virgins the oil represented the Holy Spirit, but the oil sitting in the flask did nothing to make the lamp give light. It wasn’t until the oil was poured into the lamp and lit that it gave the light needed to light the path to the wedding party.
In the Parable of the Talents the gold represents the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us, but the gift must be used by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to increase, a living out the words of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Servant 3 buried his talent. Jesus said, the least you could have done was to put the money in the bank and receive the interest from it, at least I would have that. The Holy Spirit has power, but Servant 3 buried it as if it had no power at all. In the end there were no works of the Spirit in this mans’ life…not even a little.
God has a plan for our lives and sometimes He gives people five talents, sometimes two talents and sometimes one talent. God see’s everything, past, present and future, the distribution of His gifts is perfect because all the work will get done. The problem is sometimes we wanted the five talents and so we go out and bury the one talent God gave us. We deny the power of God to create relationship with us.
Sometimes we have a plan, a ‘how to’ list of what building a relationship with God looks like. God also has a plan for building a relationship with us. We may be concerned with having prayer, moving on to reading a chapter or two in the Bible and then journaling about it. But maybe just before your devotional time a friend calls and needs to get to work but their car battery is dead and they ask you to jump their car so they can get to work. Maybe this is God growing His relationship with you.
Gods plan is our only hope…we should not bury it.
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When the master returned from his trip and received the increase of the gold he had given Servant 1 and Servant 2, he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.”
The servants had been faithful in the small things, now the master trusted them to be faithful in the bigger things. The master also invited them into his joy, the joy of a personal relationship with him.
Servant 3 told the master he hadn’t increased his talent because he was afraid of him. Why was the man afraid? Think about it, when someone does something they shouldn’t do sometimes they are afraid that if other’s find out they will look like a bad person.
In order to remedy the situation they tell a lie, and sometimes the lie involves telling a lie about someone else. You know, go back to the same thing you may have done as a kid, say your brother did it or your sister did it and if mom or dad believes you, you are off the hook.
The master had given the Servant 3 one talent. He took it and buried it. Later when the master returns Servant 3 digs it up and brings it back to the master. Now he has probably figured out the other two servants have doubled their money while he has nothing but the one talent the master gave him when he left. Fear creeps in the back door of his heart and casts a dark pall over his happy go lucky attitude.
Probably very similar to the type of fear experienced by a student who arrives to the point on the calendar where there is one whole week until the end of the semester and the cold hard facts of the truth that he never did any of his homework assignments, didn’t do well on his tests because he didn’t study, only showed up for half of his classes, didn’t respond to any emails his teacher sent him and has only now bothered to check his grades on Google Classroom and seen he is about to fail the class. Now he is afraid, he knows he can not pass the class but as he thinks about it, a light bulb flickers on in his brain and he realizes it’s not really his fault he’s about to fail, it’s all the teachers fault.
Fear has created the need to tell a lie. When Servant 3 faces the master with his one talent he says, “I was afraid because I knew what a hard hearted man you are, that you take what isn’t yours and you reap what you didn’t sow.” The master’s reply sounds a little harsh doesn’t it? “You are a lazy worthless servant.” Ouch. But think about it, he is doing nothing but telling the truth. The man didn’t do what the master asked him to do. Instead he buried the gold and went out and lived life how he wanted to live his life. He was selfish.
All selfish living is worthless and lazy living. Because being selfish takes no effort at all! What takes some real dedication is to follow Jesus out of the desert while leaving self behind gasping for her last breath and dying of thirst in the hot sun. At this point in time all I want to do is turn around and give her the tiniest bit of water and assure her everything is going to be ok. But in the meantime Jesus is calling me to streams of mercy never ceasing. See I was created to slake my thirst at streams of mercy rather than the lake of fire.
The longer I follow Jesus and the farther I get away from self the better I can see that she is nothing but a dark shadow filled with hot air which used to be sweet pretty nothings whispered in my ear that created an infatuation with doing things for myself rather than following God and allowing Him to do everything for me.
There is only one thing God wants me to do….quit fighting for self. Quit going back to give her drinks of water. Now I am doing nothing under my own power for self. When I use the gifts God gives me, I am doing nothing because I am doing for Him and not for self. Now I am His little lamb and He is the Good Shepherd doing all for me. When I give up fighting for self….now it is God who does all…His Holy Spirit…His good works….His great mercy…His great sacrifice….His great grace….His gold talents….His increase….
God has need of workers who follow close to Him and His will with their whole hearts not seeking their own will but God’s alone. God’s plan is our only hope. It is not sinking sand and will not crumble under us like humans plans are destined to do. God’s plans are a solid rock that man can not change. A heart that desires God and follows Him will always be in God’s plan.