A young couple rented a cottage in the Okanagan for a couple weeks of vacation. One day, the husband looked out a window, saw people playing tennis on the tennis courts, and he said to his wife, “Let’s change our clothes and go outside and get some exercise.” The wife looked out a different window of the cottage, saw people swimming in a gorgeous swimming pool, and quickly agreed. When they were both ready to go outside, they stopped and stared at each other. The husband had on a set of tennis whites while the wife was wearing a bikini. The window through which a person looks at the world often determines their perception of reality, and our perception of reality directs the actions we take.
The same is true with our perception of God. The window through which we look at God determines how we perceive him. And the way that we perceive God influences how we perceive ourselves and how we live in this world and relate to others. So how can we have an accurate perception of God so that we live our life in this world to its fullest? To answer that question, we are going to dig into one of the many stories that Jesus told about heaven. The one that we are going to be reflecting on is recorded for us in Matthew 25:14-30. If you have a Bible or a Bible app nearby, I invite you to turn there now.
The Importance & Urgency of Jesus’ Story
Jesus told this story during the most challenging week in his life. On the Sunday of that week, Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. People were shouting praises to God, waving palm branches in celebration and laying their cloaks on the ground in front of the donkey, much like we would roll out the red carpet for a very special guest.
But Jesus also faced conflict that week. He went to the Temple and saw that merchants had set up their stalls for changing money and selling sacrificial animals in the only area where Gentiles, or non-Jewish people, could come to the Temple and pray to God. So Jesus overturned their tables and drove those merchants out of there. Also, there were people from different groups within Judaism, the same faith as Jesus, (these were the Pharisees and the Sadducees), who tried to trap Jesus with tricky questions. They wanted to get him into trouble with God’s people or the Roman occupiers. Either would serve their purposes. They considered Jesus a threat to their power and position in that society and they wanted to get rid of him. But Jesus outwitted them with his answers, and he warned them of the consequences of their actions, if they continued in the path they were on. The Pharisees and Sadducees withdrew for a time, but they still hated Jesus and they still wanted him dead.
Jesus’ time was short. Later that week, he would be condemned to die on a cross. And Jesus used the precious moments that he had to teach his followers about heaven through various stories.
There was an urgency to Jesus’ words because of the way future events would unfold. When walking by the Temple, his followers pointed out how grand it was, and Jesus then foretold its destruction. Jesus also taught about what things will be like when this present age comes to an end. With his followers considering the cataclysmic events of the End Times, Jesus tells them more stories about heaven, and his purpose is to help his followers to be aware of what is coming so that we can be prepared and live with faithfulness and intention whether our time in this world is long or short.
Jesus’ Story About a Master & His Three Servants
In the story we are focusing on today, Jesus talked about a businessman who is going to leave on a long trip to a far-off country. Before he went, he called three of his servants together and placed his property in their hands to look after while he is gone. To the first he entrusted the equivalent of a quarter of a million dollars in today’s money. The second servant was given $100,000 to watch over, and the third servant, $50,000. As soon as the master left, the first servant began using his money in business and eventually doubled it into a half a million dollars. The second servant did the same and turned $100,000 into $200,000 for his master. The third servant took the money he was given and and buried it in the ground.
Note that all three of the servants were given property by their master who trusted them to do something productive with it while he was gone. The amount each servant was given was in accordance with their ability. The master was not expecting any of the servants to do something that they could not do. He knew what they could do and adjusted the amount he gave them to manage accordingly. But the third servant responded to the opportunity his master had given him in a totally different way than the other two. Why did he do that?
After a long time, the master returned and called the three servants to come and report on what they had done with his property while he was gone. After the first two servants reported that they had doubled their master’s assets, the master blessed them and entrusted even more wealth into their care.
However, a very different outcome happened when the third servant came forward. Jesus said;
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘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. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. (Matthew 25:24-28)
The master’s response to the third servant’s report is drastically different from his responses to the first and second servants.
How Does Jesus’ Story Apply to Our Lives?
So what can we take from Jesus’ story and apply to our lives? First, Life is a valuable opportunity entrusted to us by God. Our life in this world is not our own. It is a gift from God, and it is the only opportunity we have to make a difference that can last for all eternity.
Now, opportunities always involve risk and the way that we perceive risk can activate fear. So the second point we can draw from Jesus’ story is: The way that we manage our life is determined by how much fear clouds our view of the world.
In a research article published on the Frontiers in Psychology website, psychologists Kristina Hengen and Georg Alpers describe how risk assessment is a normal part of human life. As Jesus-followers, we could say that it is something that God has put in us to keep us alive. But, based on the research that they and others have done, Hengen and Alpers tell us that, in some individuals, their risk assessment function becomes a problem because they over-estimate the danger of being in certain situations or encountering certain objects, such as spiders or snakes. And the higher we perceive the risk to be, the more fear we feel. And the more fear we feel, the more we will do to avoid that situation or object.[1]
This is exactly what happened with the third servant. He was afraid of his master because he perceived him to be a hard man who unjustly took profits from enterprises where he had not invested. Was that perception accurate? No, it wasn’t. The master had invested generously with all three of the servants. But the third servant’s inaccurate perceptions, and the fear that they produced, caused the third servant to step back from the golden opportunity that the master had given him and do nothing with the master’s investment.
Imagine for a moment, that your life has come to an end, and you are standing before God to give an account of your life to him. How risky do you perceive that situation to be? How much danger do you think you would be in? How much fear are you feeling right now as you think about that situation? If you are feeling a high level of fear, I suggest to you that your fear of standing before God is likely holding you back from stepping into the opportunities that he is setting before you. And that is a tragedy because God wants to give you a rich, full, abundant life that is greater and grander than anything you could ask or imagine.
Now, the way to avoid this tragedy is not to try and not feel our fears. That never works because, even if we are successful in repressing our fears, they always come back. And so, our third takeaway from Jesus’ story is: God’s solution to our fears is love. In 1 John 4, we find a meditation on God’s love and how it impacts us. The version I am sharing with you is from The Message:
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. (1 John 4:16-19 MSG)
Dear friends, these are not just words. God has proven his love for us by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to take our place on a cross and suffer the judgment that we deserve for our sins. Through his sacrifice on our behalf, Jesus has opened the door to God’s house of love and invited us to come and live in that house with him forever. Because Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, we know that a profound change has happened for us. The normal boundaries of life have been transformed. Through our faith connection with Jesus, our old life of fear and faithlessness has died, and Jesus has raised us up to a new life with him which is defined by love and faithfulness. We do not need to fear judgment when we come before God at the end of time to give an account of our life. Our judgment has already happened when Jesus was nailed to a cross to suffer and die. With Jesus, we are always standing before God, basking in his infinite and unconditional love, grace and forgiveness for us, and reflecting that love, grace and forgiveness into the world around us. And when we stand before God at the end of time, our faith in Jesus will be vindicated, for we will see:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)
And we will hear those words we long to hear from God:
‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Matthew 25:21)
Somebody Built Bridges
There once was a young girl who was making a journey on a train for the first time. As she traveled, there were several times when the train would approach a river and she would begin to get very anxious. She feared that the train would tumble into the river and she would drown. But each time, as the train got close to the river’s edge, there would be a bridge to carry the train safely over the river. After several times of seeing a river, becoming fearful, and then experiencing a safe crossing over a bridge, the young girl settled back into her chair with her heart and mind at peace and said, “Somebody has built bridges for us all the way.”
Dear friends, life is full of challenges which can fill our hearts with fear as they loom before us. But as we move forward, we realize that there is a way through them. We can have peace in our hearts and minds knowing that, through Jesus, God has built bridges for us all the way. Amen.
[1] Kristina M. Hengen & Georg W. Alpers, “What’s the Risk? Fearful Individuals Generally Overestimate Negative Outcomes and They Dread Outcomes of Specific Events,” Frontiers in Psychology (Internet; available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01676/full; accessed July 31, 2024).
Farewell to Shadowlands 