Friday, August 31, 2012

Faithful with His Treasure

     "This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed." (1 Corinthians 4:1)
     In Luke 19, Jesus told a parable on the eve of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of the last week of his earthly life. The NIV calls it the Parable of the Minas; older versions call it the Parable of the Pounds.
     Context is everything in Bible study and interpretation. The context here is that Jesus had just given the purpose statement of His life after the transformation of the tax collector, Zacchaeus: He had come to seek and to save the lost. That was not the purpose His disciples and many others had for Him. I am reminded of a comical statement I heard a while back regarding the work of pastors: God loves you, and everybody else has a wonderful plan for your life!
     Everyone else was expecting Him to declare Himself King and drive the cursed Romans out of Israel and then bring in a new era for the nation. And now Passover was at hand, and they were only 17 miles from Jerusalem, where it would all take place. Now the disciples should have known better. Jesus had already declatred to them three times that He would be betrayed, mocked, tortured, and killed, only to rise again on the third day. But then, the twelve were never known for their mental and spiritual acumen on this issue.
     And so Jesus told the parable. There are three specific groups He mentioned in the story, but that part of it is for another time. I want to focus here on the minas themselves. (A mina represented about three months' wages, a fairly healthy sum in those days.) What do they represent? The key to understanding this is to not confuse it with a similar parable He told the twelve later that week on the Mount of Olives. We know it as the Parable of the Talents, found in Matthew 25. There are a lot of things that overlap between these two stories, but there is at least one significant difference: in the latter parable, each person received different amounts to signify the different gifts we get from the Lord for service (Romans 12:6). But in Luke 19, each servant receives the same gift, and the same amount. Now both stories talk about faithfulness with what we have been given, but I still believe our Lord had a different point to make in each.
     If the talents in Matthew 25 speak of our gifts and abilities, the minas speak of something else we have each been given. I checked out a number of commentators, pastors, and scholars, and for the most part, they agree, and I agree with them. The minas represent the gospel message itself. Christ, our treasure, has entrusted us with a treasure of His own - the story of who He is and what He has done for all who believe. Check out just a few texts:

     "On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts." (1 Thessalonians 2:4)
     "...the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me." (1 Timothy 1:11)
     "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge..." (1 Timothy 6:20)
     "And the things you have heard me say in the prsence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will be qualified to teach others." (2 Timothy 2:2) (emphasis mine)

     We have been entrusted with the gospel, and so we are stewards of it. Now of course, pastors and teachers have a special respinsibility in this area to proclaim it faithfully, passionately AND accurately. But in the parable, all the servants received minas. The gospel is a treasure that we ALL carry around in our jars of clay.
     We may not have all the same degree of success, because the "earnings" are in God's hands. But we are all called to share it. The one servant who did not was severely chastised for his lack of risk, as he played it safe, and buried his mina. He didn't steal it, he simply didn't use it. That person will suffer loss of reward and, possibly, the loss of the privilege of service. So resist that temptation:

     Hide it under a bushel? NO! I'm gonna let it shine.

     Are we investing the truth of what He has done for us? Are we investing the truth of what He can do for others? Are we investing our resources? In Luke 16, Jesus concluded another parable with these words: "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." (Luke 16:9). Welcomed by whom? By the Lord, of course, but also by those who heard the gospel because of our generosity.
     Are we investing our prayers? Prayer for our lost neighbors and loved ones and friends and co-workers and fellow students, prayer for those on the mission field, prayer for open doors and boldness to share, and more.
     Are we investing our deeds of compassion and mercy that show His love and that may gain us a hearing?
     And are we investing our words - the gospel story, our testimonies, our invitations to worship. Sooner or later, they have to hear it, because "...faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ." (Romans 10:17)
     No Christian is exempt from this responsibility. The parable has the king, in essence, say, "I am leaving for a time. While I am gone, take this treasure and invest it in the lives of those who are lost, the ones I have come to seek and to save. And when I return, there will be an accounting."
     Let us regularly ask ourselves, Am I investing well with the treasure of the gospel that I have been given - the gospel that saved me and the gospel I have been given to share with those who do not yet know Him?
     "And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him ... in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 1:18-19, 2:3) So let's invest like this is true.