Who Is Jesus? Part 4Sample

Are You Holding Out?

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a series of stories that continue to teach and introduce us to His Kingdom. Jesus was a phenomenal storyteller. He used His insight into the human condition and also the nature of heaven to weave these masterful parables that cut to the core of who we are and who we were always meant to be. 

One of His most famous stories, called by many the Parable of the Talents, tells us about four individuals—three servants and their master. The master decides to go on this long journey, but before he leaves, he entrusts each of the three workers with a sum of money. The first guy quickly went to work and soon doubled his investment. The second servant followed suit, using the little he had to make more. But the last guy didn’t get the memo. He actually decided that the best course of action would be to dig a hole in his yard and bury his master’s money. Buried treasure is fun and all, but it does no good in the ground. 

So the master returns and calls his three managers in for a meeting. The first servant is deeply congratulated for his faithfulness with the money he was given and is rewarded with more resources and responsibility. The same thing occurs when the second servant offers his gains to the master. Then, we get to Pirate Guy (Get it? Because he buried his treasure?) and here’s what he says:

“... ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’” Matthew 25:24-25 NIV

The master calls the man out on his laziness and foolishness, asking why he hadn’t at least put the money in the bank so it could earn a little interest? The servant has no good defense and he’s fired from his job and thrown out of the master’s house.

Now, hearing this, we may be tempted to think it’s all about money and investing wisely for a good return. And while that’s great, there’s even more under the surface of this story. 

This story, among other things, illustrates the difference between operating in trust and operating in worry. Remember back to the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus was showing us that the kind of relationship we get to have with God is a partnership marked by trust, not worry.

The lazy servant hid his resources in fear instead of trusting the opportunity his master was offering. I wonder how many of us make the same mistake? How often do we hold back in following Jesus fully because we are scared of messing up? 

What we’ve got to recognize is that following Jesus is not about being successful; it’s about being faithful. We trust Him and put in the work. The master in this story didn’t care about the dollar amount returned to him, he said he would have been happy even if all the man did was put the money in the bank to earn a little interest. But the third man, like many of us, chose to withhold what he had. God wants to work through us, our gifts, resources, and influence, to bring good into the world. This kind of partnership has been God's desire for us from the very beginning. But partnerships don’t work out very well when one of the parties is holding back. 

So let’s choose to trust God with all that we have and all that we are, and He, as the perfect Partner, will do so much more with our faithful efforts than we ever could on our own.