What Did Jesus Teach About Patience and Stewardship?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

Leadership and Servanthood

This is the sixth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) directed his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile Messianic disciples to obey. It's also the fifth and last part of the series of Yeshua's teachings in the Book of Matthew on Leadership and Servanthood. To summarize Part V: What Did Jesus Teach About Being Good and Bad Fruit:

In a nutshell, we learn that as disciples and people responsible in the Kingdom, we must serve God and not ourselves. It doesn't matter how holy we look on the outside if we're unrepentant on the inside. We can't teach and lead if we're not willing to be taught and to follow Yeshua. We are condemned if we exalt ourselves and consider the superficial practices of religion more important than the true meaning of the Torah. If we want to obey Him, we must obey everything He teaches. God wants to gather us, but we will be alone until we wholeheartedly welcome Yeshua and bless his name.

That is what we can say about what Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentiles disciples about what happens when disciples produce bad fruit. Remember though, he also told the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples "to obey everything I have commanded you". In order to understand what everything means, we need to press on. Even after we complete the lessons on leadership and servanthood, there are more teachings to study.

Chapter 25 of Matthew might not strike you as providing leadership lessons, but a leader and a servant should be prepared to fulfill their assigned tasks, even if they (or we) don't know when that task is to be fulfilled. Using three different parables, the Master teaches us the benefits of being patient, being obedient, and being prepared for his return to occur at any time, and the ghastly consequences of failing the Master. If we, as disciples of Yeshua, can't demonstrate faithfulness in waiting for the Bridegroom, how can we pass on our faith on to others and ask them to do the same?

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. -Matthew 25:1-5

This parable is so familiar, we almost don't have to read the rest. We know how the saga concludes, but it also reads almost like the beginning of a fairy tale and like many fairy tales, it holds a moral.

The disciples who could still remember Yeshua's lifetime on Earth were told that he was returning soon, and many believed they'd see him again before they died. They didn't. How many would-be Messiahs have come and gone since the destruction of Herod's temple? I've lost count. How many times have Christians been sure that Jesus was going to return at any second, but he didn't?

When I was eight years old, I had to get my tonsils out. I don't remember very much about it, except brief flashes of being in a hospital bed, my throat hurting, drinking apple juice, and playing some sort of board game. What I didn't realize at the time, during those fateful days of October in 1962, was that the world was holding its breath waiting to see how the United States was going to react to the news that the Soviet Union had installed a number of intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles 90 miles off our coast in Communist Cuba. History would call this moment in time the Cuban Missile Crisis.

What I also didn't know, though it would have had a more personal impact, was that my father, a Sergeant in the Air Force, was in a bunker next to a missile silo ready to launch a nuclear weapon if the order came through from President Kennedy. Thank God the order never did.

While I was eating ice cream in a hospital bed and realizing that it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be to have my tonsils out, I can only imagine that the Christian world was expecting Jesus to return at any split second. Certainly God wouldn't let the world be incinerated in a radioactive fire, wiping out all of humanity, letting His creation be utterly destroyed, without sending Jesus back as He promised, would He?

No, of course not. But it must have been one of those times in the history of the church when we were sure this was it and that Jesus would show up in the sky at any second. It was a time when we checked out lamps to see if we had oil or not. In a way, it must have been a little disappointing when Jesus didn't return right then. On the other hand, maybe we should always imagine someone's in a missile silo with his hand on a key, waiting for an order to come in to launch an atomic weapon. Maybe then, we'd keep our oil fresh and ready and not grow tired of waiting for the Bridegroom to come.

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. -Matthew 25:14-18

This is like how we try to teach children how to save money; educating them in the simple lessons of the savings account at a bank, including the idea that money in a savings account accrues interest at a specific rate. The rate isn't usually very much, but if you leave the money there long enough and keep adding to it, after a long, long time, your wee little investment turns into something impressive (banking disasters not withstanding).

This is a little different than the lesson of just "being prepared". We have to take something we're given and, on behalf of someone else, do something with it to increase its worth. Keep in mind though, like the parable of the bridesmaids, we're never exactly sure of when the Master is supposed to come back. When he does though, we'd better have our bank accounts in order. Yeshua doesn't just hand out "talents" because he has nothing better to do with his time.

The following statement by the servant who just hid the Master's money in a hole in the ground is particularly stunning:

"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' -Matthew 25:24-25

Wow! The guy makes it sound like the Master didn't have any right to that money in the first place and that he was being unfair delegating the responsibility of investing his wealth to his servants. Guess he hadn't heard about this parable:

"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' -Matthew 20:13-15

The parable of the workers in the vineyard is a favorite of mine because it reminds me that, even though I didn't come to faith in Yeshua until my 40s, I am just as much a son of the Kingdom as a person who accepted Yeshua at age 20. Yet I used to worship at a church that judged how "good" a Christian you were by how long you'd been a believer. If your family had been attending that church for three generations or more, you were definitely in the "in" crowd. It's funny how God's people can behave in such a completely contrary manner to the teachings of the Christ they swear they love.

Getting back to the guy who thought it was a good idea to take his talent and bury it in the ground, we see that we are expected to take whatever we are given, no matter how great or how small, and to put it to work for the Kingdom, not just hoard it like Midas and his gold. Wealth of any sort isn't wealth unless you invest it and making even a single disciple for the Master is a good return.

So far, we've been distinguishing between two general types of believers: prepared and unprepared, investing and hoarding. Here's two more. Type one:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' -Matthew 25:34-40

Type two:

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." -Matthew 25:41-46

The teaching is very plain and we've seen it in past blog posts on Yeshua's lessons on leadership and servanthood. Feed the hungry. Give the thirsty something to drink. Welcome the stranger into your midst. Clothe those without adequate clothing. Take care of a sick person. Visit the person in prison. If you do this for someone...anyone, it's as if you've done it for the Messiah himself.

Please notice that Yeshua didn't say to only feed and clothe and welcome people who showed the right background, whose family have been Christians for three generations, or who were only Jewish believers. Yeshua himself said that he didn't come for the healthy but for the sick, so hanging out just with our buds isn't what he wants us to do. He also said that even pagans and tax collectors are nice to those people who are nice to them first. Don't play favorites.

How can you take the news of salvation to the unsaved if you only associate with the saved? How can Messianic Judaism take the Good News of the Messiah to the world if they only speak of Yeshua within their own walls and to only their own Jewish inner group? How can Gentile One Law or One Torah groups bridge the gap between themselves and their neighbors if they pay attention only to their own congregation or if they focus only on how "unfair" they think they're being treated by Jews in the Messianic movement?

Conclusion: Yeshua teaches us to be prepared and proactive with what he gives us and to offer what we have to give to anyone in need. Specifically though, what did Yeshua tell his Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples to obey about patience, good stewardship, and serving in his name?

1. Be prepared for Yeshua's return at any time. Keep your life and your soul in good order. Don't get lazy.
2. No matter what Yeshua gives you, invest it in other people. Salvation isn't an exclusively personal gift. It's meant to be spread around. Don't be stingy.
3. Don't just help your own group and don't just be nice to your friends. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Care for the sick. Welcome the stranger. If you do that for them, you have served the Master personally.

Being a leader isn't being a big shot. It isn't having a title, a fancy education, or being an ethnic type. That stuff only works in the secular world, not in God's world. In God's world, people are leaders when they're servants. People are greatest only when they're least. People are the strongest when they comfort the weakest. There's another way of putting it:

Who is wise? He who learns from every person. Who is strong? He who subdues his personal inclination. Who is rich? He who is happy with his lot. Who is honored? He who honors others.
-A well-known Mishnah in Avot (4:1)

This is the last lesson from the book of Matthew on Yeshua's teachings on leadership and servanthood, but it's not the last lesson he taught. The journey of exploration in my blog will continue as we strive to understand Yeshua's direct command to the Jewish disciples regarding their responsibilities of leadership and servanthood in making disciples of all nations teaching them (us, we Gentiles) to obey everything Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples.