A Wise Investment!

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant…’. The servant said, “I was afraid!” (Mt.25:24-26a) Fear can evoke three different reactions from we humans, as I see it. It can evoke the reaction of alertness or readiness. It can evoke the reaction of run and hide. Or it can evoke the reaction of panic and irrationality. Here the servant in Jesus’ parable in Mt.25 runs and hides. The lord had made an investment in this servant and was looking for a dividend, but would not find one. In essence this servant despised his lord’s investment and wasted his life in doing nothing of any value. The lord calls him a ‘lazy servant’. This is the sad unwritten epitaph on many a gravestone: “Here lies the wasted life of a lazy servant!” God has invested Himself in each one of our lives personally, as our Creator, provider, and sustainer, and expects a dividend at the end of our lives too. As our Creator He has invested His image in each one of us that we may honour and glorify Him in all that we do. So we can run and hide and waste our lives in spiritual laziness, but He will deal with us in the end. Or we can panic at the demands of God and live irrationally and foolishly. Or we can be alert to the demands of our Creator to honour Him, by investing our lives in the work of His Kingdom, including trusting in His offering for our sin, His Son- Jesus Christ.