God Wants Our Devotion

The way to be master is to be servant;
The way to get up is to get down;
The way to receive is to give;
The way to be rich is to be poor;
The way to be wise is to be a fool;
The way to be exalted is to abase yourself;
The way to live is to die.    -Sunday School Times

It seems that most people have a problem moving from the relaxation of the weekend back to work on a Monday. Researchers have found that stress levels are always higher on a Monday. You’re more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day of the week, your blood pressure will be higher on a Monday, your stomach acidity is higher, so you’re more likely to develop an ulcer and the probability of suicide is higher. Sounds like a good reason to have tomorrow off doesn't it? Except that that just puts the problem back to Tuesday.

But if you’re a Christian the problem is even worse. How? You've been to Church on Sunday, you've been thinking about the Christian life, being encouraged to follow Christ, to think about how you might be a faithful disciple of Christ, and then Monday comes and you’re back in the old grind again. And it seems so far removed from what you were thinking about on Sunday. I mean you look at the workaday world and it seems to bears little relationship to a world in which Jesus is King. Few people have jobs where there’s never an ethical dilemma or a compromise required. Let's face it, we struggle to think about what it means to live as a Christian in a world like this.

I guess Jesus knew that we’d struggle with this sort of thing, because he told a parable to prepare us for just this situation. In Luke 19 we find Jesus nearing Jerusalem. His disciples are no doubt getting a bit excited. They've been listening to him talking about the Kingdom of God for the past 3 years or so, and they know that his entry to Jerusalem will be the final act in what he’s come to do. They think the kingdom of God will be brought in immediately.

But their expectation and the reality of the situation are poles apart. Jesus can see where their thoughts are going and he wants to clarify the situation and prepare them for what life is going to be like before long. Just as in John’s gospel he tells them that it won’t be long and he’ll no longer be with them, so here he tells them a parable that talks about the time to come when he will have gone to the Father and they’ll be waiting for him to return.

The setting of the story is a large empire, where a nobleman is about to receive royal power from the Emperor. Now it may be that Jesus is drawing on recent history here in telling this story. Apparently after the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus went to Rome to ask Caesar to make him king over Judea. But Herod hadn't been too popular among the Jews, so they sent a delegation of 50 men to oppose his appointment. So there’s a ring of truth about the story.

Well, here is this nobleman going on a long journey. He’s going to be away for some time, and when he gets back he expects to be king. So, what does he do? He calls his servants in and gives each of them a sum of money and tells them to put it to work until he comes back. (Luke 19:11-19:27)

Now notice that they each receive the same amount of money. About 3 to 4 months wages. This is different to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, where different people received different amounts. Here they’re all entrusted with the same amount and given the task of trading with it until the king returns. Then the nobleman leaves, and the servants are left behind. (This is clearly a picture of the situation the disciples are about to find themselves in; and that we are, as well). Left on their own, wondering what life is all about if there’s no king to give them instructions.

In fact, this parable hinges around 2 questions that arise in Jesus’ absence. The first is "What’s the point of life if Jesus isn't here to share it with us?"

Jesus knew that when he left them they’d be like sheep without a shepherd again. They wouldn't be clear on what they should be doing. Do you remember in John 21, when the disciples were waiting for Jesus to appear again? Peter got sick of hanging around, not knowing what to do, so he said "I’m going fishing." It was the best he could come up with at the time. But Jesus wants them to be more prepared than that. He wants them to understand why they should go fishing if that’s what they’re going to do.

The second question is perhaps more difficult. "Why does God allow people to oppose him? What’s he going to do about them?" Jesus warns them elsewhere of the dangers that face them from his enemies. They’ll face the same sort of opposition that he faced and they need to be prepared for it. But it isn't enough simply to be resigned to facing opposition and persecution. We need to be reassured that in the end, it’ll be worth persevering.

So this parable is an answer to both those questions: "What’s the point of life if Jesus isn't here to share it with us?" And "What’s God going to do about those who oppose his reign?"

Very briefly, what we find as we read through the parable is that those left behind divide themselves into 3 categories. There are the rebels who refuse to accept the nobleman’s lordship. There are the productive servants, the trustworthy ones, who use the money wisely. And there are the wicked servants who do nothing with what they’re given. 

There are countless passages we could think about that connect the way we live, the things we say and think, with our spiritual growth and with the glory of God and the welfare of his kingdom. These are the sorts of things that I think Jesus is referring to when he talks about the good servants using their resources well. Please don’t be put off by the money metaphor! The money simply refers to all the resources that Jesus has left us with. And the point of the parable is that those resources are given to us to use for God’s profit, for God’s glory. 

What this all means is that God wants our devotion. He wants us to serve his kingdom in everything we do, whether it’s in a secular job, leading a bible study, speaking to someone after church, etc. He wants us to devote all we have to him. God wants our devotion even in the little things of life!

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Luke 16:13; James 1:19-20; Hebrews 13:5; Acts 20:35; Matthew 6:1; Philippians 2:2; Galatians 6:7-8; Luke 16:10-12

Prayer: God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

God bless you,

Kirsten