Many people have the impression that the Old Testament is the harsh, fire-and-brimstone part of the Bible, while the New Testament is filled only with good news. In the Old Testament, God is always angry and smiting this person or punishing that nation. The New Testament is all love and happiness. In reality, this picture does not reflect reality. God displays his love for us throughout the Bible, and judgment can be found sprinkled among all the good news that is in the New Testament.
Today’s scripture readings are a case in point. Our first reading (Revelation 4:1-11), John’s vision of heaven is beautiful. The images are rich and humbling. The twenty-four elders fall down and worship and throw down their crowns before the throne. The psalmist continues the theme of praise using all sorts of musical instruments (Psalm 150:1-6). “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” Then we come to the gospel (Luke 19:11‑28). The parable told is one of those stories that you’d really like to skip. The story seems so incredibly harsh.
Jesus tells the story of a nobleman who leaves on a journey to become king over a conquered land. He leaves a gold coin with each of ten servants with instructions to engage in trade, to “invest this until I get back.” The story tells us that the nobleman’s countrymen despise him and plot to thwart his kingship. When the nobleman returns as king, some servants are rewarded for their stewardship, but one servant is condemned for his failure to produce a profit on what he was given. The coin the king gave the servant is taken from him and given to another. The king then says, “that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he does have will be taken away.” With that statement, the king calls for those who were plotting against him to be brought in and orders that they be slain in front of him.
This is hard reading. Perhaps I simply do not want to hear what Jesus is saying. “Invest this until I get back.” So much of who we are and what we are called to do is contained in this brief line in the parable. We are called and we are gifted. All that we have – all that we are – we have as “gift,” given to us for a very special purpose. The contrast Jesus uses is amazingly contemporary and is very helpful for our everyday lives. Jesus does not want us to take that which we have been given and simply preserve it – to protect the gifts. Jesus wants us to “invest” our gifts – to take some risks, to grow the value of his investment in us.
In many ways, the message of Jesus is very counter-cultural. We resist, even though we know the truth of what Jesus says from so many examples in life – muscles grow stronger when we use them, and they atrophy when we do not. In our self-absorbed culture, we are often discouraged from taking personal risks. We are often told, in hundreds of direct and subliminal ways, that we should always choose what will keep us healthy and safe. Personal sacrifice, even for a greater good, is not always seen as good for me, and is therefore to be avoided. Being “stretched,” denying myself, serving the needs of others before my own needs, suffering greatly to stay faithful to a commitment, giving my self away in love, are all viewed with suspicion in a culture adverse to self-risk.
Jesus frees us from that way of thinking. The one who has given us the gifts that we have will give us even more. Even in the spiritual life, the “rate of return” is directly related to “the amount of risk” we take. Jesus stimulates our desires with this parable, stirring in us a confident desire to make better use of the gifts he has given us, by risking more and investing them for a higher rate of return.
Each of us can go through our day, asking if we are being “overly cautious” with the gifts that God has given us. We can ask how much energy we are expending on avoiding risk, and how “tired” we are, from protecting ourselves. But we also can imagine ways to take the gifts we have and use them to love more, listen more deeply, do something more self-sacrificing, offer forgiveness, spend some time for others we’d otherwise use on ourselves. At the end of the day, we can feel some of the fatigue that comes from being stretched. We can look at the summary of our investments for the day and give thanks.
I know that when Jesus returns, I want him to say to me, “Well done, good servant.” But sometimes I wonder if He will. What kind of servant am I? Am I pleasing God? Am I doing God’s will? Someone once said that there will be three surprises when we get to heaven. Some people we expected to see won’t be there. People who went to church, helped their fellow man, but apparently had no personal relationship with Christ. Some we see we will wonder how the heck did they got there. People who never got past their porch except to yell at their neighbors, but they knew who Jesus was. For myself, what a glorious gift it will be just to be there. I’ll then know that I was pleasing to God. I will be able to see what John describes in Revelation. Like the 24 elders, I will fall down and worship Christ. It will be an amazing day. My prayer today is for discernment and understanding, and a soft, open heart for those of us who sometimes struggle when what we read in scripture seems hard to bear.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!