The 100% Failure

But his master answered and said to him, “You wicked, lazy slave,”  Matthew 25:26

Wicked, Lazy – Not many of us would expect words like this from the mouth of Jesus.  Far fewer, perhaps none, could imagine that Jesus would say this to the man who returned 100% of what he was given. 

In order to understand the terrible shock that this statement had in the first century, we need to know that as far as the religious community was concerned, a man who buried money in the ground for safe keeping fulfilled his entire obligation.  When he returned the sum, he owed nothing further.  Imagine the outrage when Jesus calls this man wicked and lazy.  The Greek is very strong.  Ponere kai oknere.  Not just wicked but evil.  Not just lazy but slothful.  We would be shaking our heads in disbelief too.

We underestimate the shock value in this story.  We think that we have fulfilled our obligation to the Master when we return 10%, not 100%.  If we take all that God puts in our hands, safeguard it until His coming and return it all, unspoiled and intact, we can’t imagine that this isn’t enough!  We are not prepared to be told that we are a 100% failure.  Certainly Jesus couldn’t have been that harsh!  Surely he must have meant something else.

Remember, Jesus is speaking about talanton (the Greek word means “a certain fixed weight of gold or silver”).  This is not about your musical ability or your gifted leadership.  This is about your money.  God owns it all and God expects you to use it to produce a return for Him.  100% is not enough in God’s economy.  Those who believe that simply returning to God what He gave in the fist place are wicked and slothful.  Try that on for size!

What passionate misers we are with God’s property!  We take what He gives and offer Him a token while we spend His resources on our temporal objectives.  The Master will return some day.  He will call us to the accounting office and examine every entry in the books.  Then He will say, “Where is my return?  What did you do with the financial assets I placed in your hands so that I might reap where I did not sow?”

What words will you hear next?  “Well done” or “Wicked and slothful?”