Tuesday 28 Oct 2014

October 28: Luke 19:11-14

Key Verse: Luke 19:11
Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

Devotion:
This is the parable of the nobleman who went to a far country and left some of his servants in charge. I am not going through the whole parable but just the first few verses to get a different insight into the parable. Jesus was telling this to the disciples so they would have something to look back on and compare to His life with them.

So the first point raised is that Jesus was telling them this parable now so that they would recognise the urgency of their work when he did not return immediately. He was going to leave them in charge of the church whilst He returned to Heaven for a while. We do not know how long that while is and is now coming close to 2000 years, but still we should be waiting with the same urgency and willingness to keep working as when Christ was amongst us as a man. When we read through the rest of the parable we see how the nobleman was pleased with the servants that worked but not with the servant who did nothing but wait!

The second point to raise was how Jesus described the nobleman as being hated by the citizens. This may be pointing to the fact that the Jews hated Jesus because He showed them up for what they were, or it could be in reference to the disciples and how they would each let Christ down before His return. We need to stay focused on God and focused on the commission that he has given each of us – to go out and tell people about Him and about His return. Any of us found lacking in this respect may not get the rewards we think we are due!

God is just and He will not be bending the rules just because we said that we loved Him at some stage in our lives. It is what we do now and the work we do for Him that counts. If we go about chasing people away from Him, then we have failed Him. If we go about being quiet and waiting for His return keeping ourselves safe, then we have failed Him. We need to focus on reaching the people who cannot see hope. Yes it is hard work!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know you are safe with Christ?

Are you ignoring others to keep yourself safer?