The Faithful. the Hypocrites, the Rebels

The Faithful. the Hypocrites, the Rebels

Backgound

This final parable during the Jerusalem journey highlights the disciples stewardship, in the period of Jesus death and return. Now the message continues as Jesus here is giving instructions, of how the disciples need to arrange and prepare themselves for life after His departures until His Second coming. One thing to pay attention here is that the kingdom mentioned here is yet to come and the people here are accountable for their service.

So in this parable, Lord Jesus is focus on teaching the important lesson of stewardship,

a) Getting Prepared for the kingdom of God

b) Be accountable for your service

c) Punishment for unfaithful followers

The purpose of Jesus we understood and now its important to see what is the focus of the disciples who are hearing from Jesus. Their motive here was the hoping for a political leadership, they eagerly expected an establishment of an earthly kingdom. Shall we read Luke 19:11 and even on the time of ascension of Jesus this was their doubt we see that in the passage of Acts 1:6.

So we get to see the picture of focus of both the disciples and Jesus, in this parable. The timing of this parable is important also as we see in the following verses Jesus is entering Jerusalem and this is future declaration, so we see here is a demonstration of God’s authority on His coming kingdom on earth.

The story is simple enough. A man goes to a faraway land to receive a kingdom. This portion of the parable portrays Jesus' departure in resurrection to receive the kingdom at the side of the Father, a major Lukan theme (Lk 24:26; Acts 2:36; 5:30-31; 7:55-56; 13:33-34;17:31; Stein 1992:473).In the meantime certain servants associated with Jesus are called together and given a mina each—about one hundred drachmas, or three months' average wage. They are to trade with the money and are responsible to make it grow in value. Some of his subjects, however, want nothing to do with the leader and send a delegation to ask that this one not be chosen to rule.

Those who refuse the rule are the Jewish leaders, while the servants represent all those who tie themselves to Jesus.

Main Points:

Now as we study from this passage we need to place a close eye on to the servants:-

a) The faithful ones – obedient ones

b) The hypocrites – people who not faithful

c) The rebels – people who are not willing to be under their ruler

So as believers, what can we learn from the lives of these people,

i. Our identity in Christ is revealed by our works on the earth (V11-19)

When I say that, let me tell as Christians it is not disassociation with unbelievers, it is not the self proclamations of oneself that He is a Christian or such things that describes your identity it is how you define your faith in Christ as a Christian by the way of working in the world at work place/ dealing with colleagues or customers etc. Shall we read from Mat 7:16 and 17– by their fruit you will recognize them!

So the main reason or the purpose of revealing our Christian identity is obtaining people of Christ through lifestyle evangelism. In other words this is your testimony that can win people to Christ, it is not always the preaching and teaching. There are some people who are called for a full time service, but the Great commission in the Bible is responsible for all the believers on the earth. The believers of God should be interested in expanding God’s kingdom, and one such example is our Brethren Church Centre in this Middle East.

God our Heavenly Father is interested to see how His people are living their Christian lives on earth for. Jesus teaches us here from the parable of the minas on the need of being productive and faithful. In one of my early sermons here in the church, I did talk about a complacent Christian life which can harm us, Jesus tells believers to avoid complacent Christian lives.

ii. My second thought this evening for those who lead complacent Christian lives is by examining the third servant, our wrong perceptions(ധാരണകൾ)and prejudice (മുൻവിധി) destroys lives. (V20-21)

Let me elaborate, we see here the third servant over here had wrong perceptions and ideas due to his lack of commitment to the master. He was a part of their team, but he had developed wrong thoughts and understandings about His master. He had a prejudice in his mind about his master. The servant never admired to be in the kingdom he only had a life of ritual. The lack of allegiance (കൂറ്) to his master drew him away from enjoying the work under the master and his fellow colleagues. So eventually he develops a disinterest. In his associations of work, he slowly grows away from his master and the people he worked along.

· He didn’t share in the master’s interest in the kingdom

· He developed a wrong understanding of the master

· He didn’t trust his master

· He was only concern about himself

· He did nothing with which what was given to him

I would call these servants today as hypocrites and backsliders, so what we can analyse about this guy. Now in verses 22 and down it is the evaluation of the master, it is the anger of God on unproductive people. The master accuses here in the passage such people as wicked slave. So Jesus here calls such people as wicked - the Greek word here is serious in saying porneros about the slave. Hypocrites God doesn’t entertain and they will be shattered, a superficial life God doesn’t appreciate and these people will be judged severely. As it is written in verse 26, … even what he has will be taken away.

iii. Judgements for people who reject – the rebels – V 27

My fair understanding here is that Jesus talks here about the Jewish people in the time of evaluation – who have rejected the authority of the leadership of Jesus on earth. I understand here that God here teaches to us who are reading this today this is a message of punishment for those who rejected God.

Practical Applications:

Things which we can learn, as Jesus teaches us here we need to be faithful in our service to God, by being–

a) Productive HOW?

As believers let us learn on how to use what we have - money is one of the many factors, but let us keep financial aside and let us try to find out what are the other methods?

a. Encouraging – the spirit of encouragement not everyone will have but I ask everyone here, can’t you see how you can motivate someone for their good services (Paul to Timothy).

b. Training – learning on how to prepare leaders for tomorrow. The important thing we need to understand here is never leave the position of our leadership handicapped. We are all mortal and we will one day die, learning to train young leaders to lead tomorrow to where God has appointed us matters. (Moses to Joshua and Elijah to Elisha)

Small example here on preaching, I can train people to speak but I am as a teacher responsible to make sure the person I train he or she expose the word of God according to the truth correctly. And when i hear something wrong I need to make sure I discipline them. Here this is not controlling but this is preparing for the kingdom of God.

c. Serving – some may have the gift of serving. One thing which I learned from my time as Clinical Pastoral Care Giver is how to serve as Bible teacher. I realised and I learned that speaking or talking is not always the ministry, but on how to serve a person over in a person’s pain even by being present there silently helps a lot. I would call that the ministry of presence between husband and wives/ families to families/ brother to brother/ sister to sister. Eventually the bond gets stronger in Christ.

d. Hospitality – Rom 12:9-13/ 1 Tim 5:8/ Prov 27:10. Learning about how my brother grows in faith

Conclusion

The question I would like to ask here is how are we preparing to build the kingdom of God? God has given us gifts, provided us blessings in life, are we able to utilize them for his purposes or are we like either people who reject God and his authority or as hypocrites or as faithful ones. We need to work on our decisions soon