Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he
hath-Luke 12:43, 44.
The temptation for anyone who is much occupied with the hope of some great
change and betterment in the near future is to be restless and unable to
settle down to his work, and to yield to distaste of the humdrum duties of
every day. If some man that kept a little chandler's shop in a back street
was expecting to be made a king tomorrow, he would not be likely to look
after his poor trade with great diligence. So we find in the Apostle Paul's
second letter-that to the Thessalonians-that he had to encounter, as well as
he could, the tendency of hope to make men restless, and to insist upon the
thought-which is the same lesson as is taught us by this passage-that if a
man hoped, then he had with quietness to work and eat his own bread, and not
be shaken in mind [see 2 Thess. 2:2]. "Blessed is that servant whom his
Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing" [Luke 12:43]. It may seem humble
work to serve out hunches of bread and pots of black broth to the family of
slaves, when the steward is expecting the coming of the master of the house,
and every nerve is tingling with anticipation. But it is steadying work, and
it is blessed work. It is better that a man should be found doing the
homeliest duty as the outcome of his great expectations of the coming of his
Master, than that he should be fidgeting and restless and looking only at
that thought till it unfits him for his common tasks. Who was it who,
sitting playing a game of chess, and being addressed by some scandalized
disciple with the question, "What would you do if Jesus Christ came, and you
were playing your game?" answered, "I would finish it"? The best way for a
steward to be ready for the Master, and to show that he is watching, is that
he should be "found so doing" the humble tasks of his stewardship. The two
women that were stooping on either side of the millstone, and helping each
other to whirl the handle around in that night, were in the right place, and
the one that was taken had no cause to regret that she was not more
religiously employed. The watchful servant should be a working servant.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr. Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
Everything is wrong until God makes it right
