PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE FAITHFUL AND UNFAITHFUL SERVANTS
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 12:35-48
FEBRUARY 28, 1999
On April 8, 1527, ten thousand people gathered in the city of Rome to be blessed by Pope Clement VII. In that crowd of ten thousand, there was a fanatic who stood up, clothed in a leather loincloth. He climbed a marble statue and he shouted at the Pope. He said, “You bastard of Sodom. Because of your sins, the city of Rome is soon to be destroyed. You must turn and repent.” Well, Pope Clement VII was not born out of wedlock. He was born into the wealthy Di Medici family in Europe. He was, however, corrupt, and he was thoroughly debauched. Only ten years earlier in 1517, Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg, and the Protestant Reformation had begun.
On April 8, 1527, the Christian world was in chaos. The Pope, as we have seen, was corrupt. Strangely enough, the prophecy of this fanatic who stood up in Rome that day, became true. Less than a month later, on May 6, 1527, a massive army invaded the city of Rome, the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, an army laden with barbarians which Charles V could no longer control. They stormed the walls of the city of Rome. They annihilated the Roman guard. They annihilated the Swiss guard. They began to butcher people in hospitals and in orphanages. They began to rape nuns and to murder priests, and they burned churches all over the city of Rome. One week later, on May 13, 1527, two thousand bodies were floating in the Tiber, and 10,000 bodies were rotting in the streets of Rome.
Pope Clement VII had fled to his fortress castle of St. Angelo. Cardinal Kaheaten who was the second most powerful person in the Roman Christian world, a godly man, a man who loved Christ, a man who debated Martin Luther at Augsburg—this man said, and I quote, “The church of Jesus Christ has been called to be the salt of the earth, but we have become so corrupt that we are no longer of any earthly good. Surely this has been the judgment of Jesus Christ upon His church.”
Throughout Christian history, a history that spans more than 1950 years, throughout that history, God has judged the church from time to time, but the real judgment of the church of Jesus Christ waits. It waits for the second coming of Christ. The real judgment of the church of Jesus Christ and the people of Christ waits for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that is what this little parable is all about. It’s all about judgment. From this parable, we have two teachings this morning. The first teaching concerns preparedness. Are you ready for the judgment?
I know that many of you have heard of the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards are given every year, tongue-in-cheek. They are given posthumously to individuals who have died that year in the most incredible and perhaps the most stupid fashion. The leading candidate this year appears to be a man named Samuel Randolph Strickson. Samuel Randolph Strickson died just recently in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was killed by his washing machine. It seems that one morning just a few days ago, Strickson decided to do a wash and he decided to put 50 pounds of clothes in his washing machine. He could not jam them into his top loader, so he climbed upon the machine. He climbed up on the machine, and he began to try to stomp the clothes down into the machine.
As he stomped, he accidentally hit the “on” button and the cycle began. The agitator began to turn, the machine began to vibrate, and he lost his balance and fell feet first down into the washing machine. He got his feet caught and he couldn’t get out. As the washing machine moved, he bumped his head on a shelf above the washing machine. Bleach fell off the shelf. It opened and fell over his face, blinding him. Then, apparently, according to the police who later tried to peace it together, and the forensic scientists who apparently tried to peace it together, apparently about that time, Mr. Strickson’s dog came into his laundry room. Some baking soda apparently fell, the dog was startled, and they think the dog urinated and the acidity of it combined with the baking soda formed a small explosion. Then, finally, we are told that the washing machine entered its high-speed spin cycle and Mr. Strickson began to move at approximately 70 miles an hour until his head hit a steel beam on the wall, and he died.
I have to say, when I read that story, I had a few questions. Despite the police report, despite the forensic report, despite the newspaper reports, I’ve got to say I find the whole story hard to believe. But I do know this, I know that every single person is going to die somehow. I know that every single one of us are going to die somehow. Hopefully our passing will be a little more peaceful and a little less stupid, but we’re all going to die. We’re all going to die. The Bible says, “It’s appointed unto men, once to die, and after that, the judgment. The only generation that will not see death is the generation that sees the second coming of Jesus Christ.”
Of course, 1900 and approximately 70 years have passed since the death of Christ. Many generations of Christians have come and gone. The truth is that whether He comes for us, or we go to Him, the call is “Be prepared!” One generation, He will come for them. All other generations will go to Him. Either way, we’re going to stand before Christ. Either way. Those in the field of theology who study the eschaton, the Greek, meaning “last things,” are eschatologists. They study the last things. They study the end of the age, the consummation of history. They study the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Many of you are eschatologists, not by degrees, but by virtue of interest. You are interested in the things of eschatology. Many of you, I know, go to conferences and you go to seminars, and you go to classes relating to eschatology, relating to the second coming of Christ, relating to the end times. You want to know who the Antichrist is. You want to know what mystery Babylon represents. You want to know who the false prophet is. You want to know what the mark of the beast is, this mysterious mark that will be put on people’s foreheads or on the back of their hands, enabling them to buy and sell. You want to know what the number 666 refers to. You want to know about the desolating sacrilege. What is that? You want to know whether the temple must be rebuilt before the return of Christ.
You want to know the place of Israel in biblical prophecy. You want to know who the king of the north is in biblical prophecy, and the king of the south, and the king of the east. You want to know the meaning of Ezekiel’s writings and Daniel’s writings, and the statements of Paul in I and 2 Thessalonians, and the statements of Jesus in Matthew 24, You want to have an interpretation of the book of Revelation. You are eschatologists, and you are fascinated by the end of the world, the last things, the return of Christ. I think most of us, certainly who believe in Christ, have some interest in these things.
Many of us, myself included, have studied considerably with regard to these things. But, you see, God wants us to understand this morning that the most important thing is not that we know when He comes. The most important thing is that when He comes, we’re ready. You see, the most important thing is not that you’re able to identify all the signs that reflect the season of His coming. The most important thing is that when He comes, you are ready.
In this parable of Christ, the parable of the Faithful and the Unfaithful Servant, Jesus uses two words that are critical if we’re going to understand the message. First of all, He uses the word “hetoimos.” The word hetoimos is translated “ready.” Jesus said, “You also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Twice in this parable, Jesus uses the word hetoimos. This word simply means “to be prepared.” Now, another word Jesus uses is the word “gregoreo.” Gregoreo is translated “awake.” “Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when He comes.” This word literally means “to be alert on the job.” That’s how it was normally used, “to be alert on the job,” “to not be asleep on the job.” When Christ comes back, what’s important to Him? That you can say, “Oh, I’m not surprised. I knew it was the season of your coming.” No, that’s not what’s so important. What’s important is that when He comes back, you are alert on the job. You are at work. You are serving His house as it says in the parable, and you are serving His kingdom, and you are prepared as reflected in your behavior and your service.
Some of you know Clyde McDowell. Clyde McDowell is the President of Denver Theological Seminary. Clyde McDowell has brain cancer, and he’s been told by doctors that he only has two to six months to live. Clyde McDowell also was the Pastor at Mission Hills Baptist Church. Clyde McDowell is a wonderful man, and he has a wonderful family. We are all praying that Christ would heal Clyde McDowell. I know and I believe Christ has the power to heal any person of anything. We don’t know whether Christ is going to heal Clyde and give him more time in this world or whether Clyde is going to be taken home, but I can tell you this: he’s prepared. Clyde is prepared. He’s ready. He’s ready to see his Master. The only question is, how about you? How about me? Are we ready? Are we prepared? Are we ready to see Jesus Christ?
Well, there’s a second teaching in this parable, and we really can’t understand what readiness means and what preparedness means until we examine this second teaching. The second teaching concerns reciprocity. When we see Jesus Christ and when we experience the final judgment, reciprocity is going to be involved.
One of my favorite stories took place in the year 1888. It was 1888 when a farmer was in Scotland working out in his field. He was working in the furthest reaches of his property, near the borders of his land. He was simply trying to make a living for his family. But suddenly he heard a cry. He heard somebody cry out. Somebody was in trouble. There was a bog, a marshy area beyond some trees just beyond his property, and he ran there. He saw a boy, a boy who, as it turned out, was 13 years old. This boy was almost up to his chest in the bog, and he was sinking. If the farmer hadn’t arrived, that boy would have died, but the farmer rescued him and was able to pull him out of the bog. The farmer didn’t know the boy. He didn’t live in the area, but the boy was so grateful to be alive and he just ran off.
The farmer went home, and later that day, a carriage came up to the farmer’s farm in Scotland. A carriage came up to his farmhouse. It was a beautiful carriage, and out of the carriage stepped a nobleman, an English nobleman. The English nobleman came up to the farmhouse, he greeted the farmer, and he said, “Thank you for saving my son’s life today. Thank you for saving my son.” The farmer was grateful to meet this man, and the nobleman said, “I want to give you a reward. I want to give you a great reward.” The farmer said, “No, I was just being a good Samaritan. I was happy to do it. I don’t want any reward.”
About that time, the farmer’s little boy came to the door, seven years old. His name was Alex. The nobleman said, “Is that your son?” The farmer said, “Yes.” The nobleman said, “Well, let me do this for you. You saved my son’s life. Let me bless your son. Let me pay for your son’s education through all of his schooling, all of his schooling all the way through university, let me bless your son.” Well, the farmer didn’t feel good about accepting an award, but he loved his son and longed to see his son provided for, and so the farmer said yes.
And so it was that that farmer’s son went through school, and all of his schooling was paid for by the English nobleman. That Scottish farmer’s son went to the University of London. He went to St. Mary’s Medical School and he received his doctorate. He grew up to become one of the most famous doctors in the world. His name was Alexander Fleming. It was Alexander Fleming who, of course, discovered penicillin.
All of us in this room, or most of us, have been blessed by that discovery of penicillin, the discovery of Alexander Fleming’s. The nobleman was Sir Randolph Churchill, and his son was Winston Churchill. He grew up, of course, to be Prime Minister of Great Britain. After World War It Winston Churchill, as many of you know, was afflicted with a severe case of pneumonia which surely would have taken his life were it not for the discovery of penicillin which saved his life. Winston Churchill and Alexander Fleming were both knighted, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Alexander Fleming. They both received the Nobel Prize. Winston Churchill in literature, Alexander Fleming in medicine.
But what makes that story so wonderful is the reciprocity of it. You see, the Fleming family blessed the Churchill family, and the Churchill family then blessed the Fleming family and then that blessing came back to the Churchill family once again. Reciprocity.
Now, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, and the Apostle Paul said, “What you sow, you shall reap. If you sow abundantly, you will reap abundantly. If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly.” Reciprocity. In the Bible in the book of Malachi, God says, “Bring the full tithes into My storehouse” says the Lord of Hosts, “and see if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down upon you an overflowing blessing.” Reciprocity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Give and it will be given to you.” Reciprocity.
We all understand, as believers in Jesus Christ, that there’s a certain reciprocity in the way that God deals with us in this world. When we live faithful lives, there’s a blessing that comes to our lives in the midst of that faithfulness because of that reciprocity. But, you see, in this parable, Christ wants us to understand that when we reach the final judgment, there’s going to be reciprocity there too, when we reach the judgment of the church and of Christians. Reciprocity there too. What we sow, we will reap. This is very difficult for many evangelicals. Very difficult for many evangelicals because, as evangelicals, we know that we are saved not by works. We know as evangelicals that we are saved by grace.
We dealt with this last week. We spoke of the fact that, as Christians, we’ve taken off our old garments which are soiled and cannot be patched, and we’ve put on new garments in Christ. White robes. We have been clothed in His righteousness. We are not saved by our righteousness. We are saved by His righteousness imputed to us. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by His works, on the cross as He died in substitutionary atonement. We are saved by grace through faith. We only get to heaven by grace and through faith. I think, as Christians, most of us at least understand that, but once we get there, this Parable of the Faithful and Unfaithful Servants tells us, once we get there, there’s going to be a judgment of the church and of Christians, and there’s going to be reciprocity. What we sow, we will reap. And there will be rewards and punishment. That’s what this parable tells us. There’s no question that this parable is addressing Christians. No question. In the parable, Jesus speaks of servants in the Master’s house. These servants call the master “Lord,” and they are awaiting His return. This parable is dealing with Christians.
In the midst of the parable, Simon Peter says, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” Virtually all Bible scholars agree when he says ‘us’ or ‘all,’ He doesn’t mean Christians or the world, He means ‘us disciples’ or ‘all Christians.’ The parable is addressed to Christians, those who are serving in the Master’s house, those who call the Master, Lord, those who are awaiting His coming.
Some are going to receive great reward, faithful in their service in the Master’s house. The parable tells us that the Master longs to gird Himself, have us sit at table and come and serve us. The parable tells us the Master longs to set us over all of His possessions. Everything in heaven and on earth belongs to Him, and He longs to entrust it to us. But, of course, the parable also tells us that some Christians are not faithful. Some Christians say to themselves, “The Master is delayed in coming. It’s been nineteen hundred and seventy years.” Some Christians begin to take license with their faithfulness, and they do not serve Christ’s house, and they do not treat people well, as in the parable, and they do not live right. They live in excess as in the parable where the unfaithful servant beat the men servants and maid servants and ate and drank and got drunk. All of that is going to be evaluated, you see, when you see the Master, whether He comes for you, or you go to Him. It’s all going to be evaluated and there’s going to be a reciprocity. We’re going to reap what we’ve sown.
And some, in the words of the parable, are going to receive a severe beating, and some are going to receive, in the words of the parable, a light beating, and I know that this bothers many of you. And perhaps it sounds more Catholic than Protestant to you, but the issue isn’t whether it’s Catholic or Protestant. The issue is, is it biblical? Maybe it doesn’t fit with your theology. Maybe you can’t run it through the grid of your theology. Well, you need to change your theology because, you see, when we get to heaven, Jesus tells us there’s going to be reward and there’s going to be punishment.
There’s another kind of reciprocity as we close, another kind of reciprocity that Jesus mentions at the end of this little parable. Jesus says, “Everyone to whom much has been given, of him much will be required.” When we get to heaven, that’s what’s going to be evaluated. It’s not just that we’re going to reap what we’ve sown. We’re to understand that He has sown in our lives, and He’s trying to reap in our lives. What have we done with that sowing? If He’s given much to us, much will be required of us. And here’s the scary thing for us who are Christians living in the suburbs of North America. The scary thing is we’ve been given so much. I mean by the world’s standards, we are rich. We have freedoms that Christians in many parts of the world will never enjoy. We have freedoms that generations of Christians in past centuries never contemplated. What are we doing with those freedoms? What are we doing with our wealth? What are we doing with our abilities and gifts? To whom much is given, much will be required.
Also, in the context of this parable, we need to understand we’ve been given much light. I mean in the parable, there are sins committed knowingly and unknowingly, but we’ve been given much light.
In 1972, Barb and I went with my mom and dad and with our brothers and their wives to Europe. We were blessed to do that, and we were blessed to have my parents pay for that. We went to Rome. In Rome, we went and visited the Catacombs. We only saw a small portion of the Catacombs, a system of tunnels that encompassed 600 miles. Of course, for the better portion of 300 years, Christian women and men dwelt in those tunnels. Seeking safety from Roman persecution, they lived in dens and caves of the earth. You can go down in the Catacombs and you will see on some of the walls where, long ago, Christians put scripture passages on the wall. They wrote scripture passages on the wall. Why did they do that? They did that because they didn’t have a Bible. They didn’t have Bibles. In fact, through most of Christian history, Christians have not had Bibles.
Even in the early centuries of the Middle Ages, Bibles were rare. They were handwritten. They were usually covered with a cover of gold or silver, and they were adorned with precious jewels and gems. Only priests and princes had Bibles. Sometimes priests or princes would give Bibles as gifts, but they would give those Bibles to the rich and famous. The Bibles would be chained to a desk in the library of a mansion on an estate, or a Bible would be chained to a pulpit in a cathedral. In fact, that is why, for hundreds of years, one of the words used as a description of a Bible was the word “cantonati” which is the Latin for “chained.”
Well, of course, we all have Bibles today, and why is that? Just a few weeks ago when our son, Drew, was home from college, he was reading the USA Today newspaper in our house. He noticed that the USA Today had identified the hundred most influential people of the past millennium. Here as we approach the new millennium, who were the hundred most influential people in the past millennium. Number one was Johann Gutenberg. Number one was Johann Gutenberg, the most influential person of the last thousand years. Drew and I agreed that’s probably correct, because Gutenberg invented the printing press, and, of course, that revolutionized the world. Books dropped 80% in cost overnight. People could begin to learn to read and write. Books became plentiful, and they began to be mass produced, and it changed the world.
From 1453 to 1456, Gutenberg printed 180 Bibles from the Latin Vulgate, about 50 of which remain today in various conditions. Those Gutenberg Bibles are, of course, extremely valuable. It reminds me of a little joke about this guy who cleaned out his house one day. After cleaning out his house, putting everything in the trash, and the trash being picked up by the trash disposal company, this man then went to an antiquities shop. He explained to this dealer in antiquities and in rare books, he explained, “Hey, I cleaned out my house and I just threw everything away.” The guys said, “Well, you really should be careful because you might have thrown away something valuable, something really old, something rare.” He said, “There didn’t seem to be anything really old. There was one Bible that was old, and I did throw it out.”
The dealer said, “You threw away an old Bible? You know, old Bibles can be valuable. What kind of Bible was it?” The guy said, “Well, it said Guten something.” The antiquities dealer said, “You threw away a Gutenberg Bible? Do you realize that might have been worth a million dollars?” This guy thought a second and he was amazed, but he said, “You know, that might be true, but I’ll bet you my Bible wouldn’t have been worth anything because it was ruined.” The antiquities dealer said, “What do you mean, ruined?” He said, “Well, some clown named Martin Luther had written all over it!”
It was Martin Luther who translated the Latin vulgate into German, using the Gutenberg Bible, and the Bible had already been translated into English, thanks to Wycliffe and thanks to others, but we all have Bible today, and most of you have many Bibles. The American Bible Society has already printed more than a billion Bibles and there are many other publishing companies who publish Bibles. Most of you have many Bibles. We have been given much because we’ve been given so much light. Our judgment will be more strict. It is true we live in a culture where many people are relatively biblically illiterate, but that is no excuse because the Bible is available, and it is there for everyone, and it will just increase our judgment.
And so, God’s word to you this morning is, study the scriptures to show yourselves approved unto God and live by the scriptures. Study the words of the Bible and live by the words of the Bible because “To whom much is given, much will be required.” And so we need to live lives that reflect Christ and His commandments, and we need to learn what it means to love God with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind, and what it means to love our neighbor as ourself, and we need to learn what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness. All these things will be seen when we stand before Christ. Don’t think that it won’t.
This little parable tells us we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared for the judgment. It tells us of reciprocity. We will reap what we have sown, and to whom much has been given, much will be required. As we close this morning, it’s an opportunity for us, as Christians, to recommit ourselves and reconsecrate ourselves to Christ. Let’s pray together.