The Master's Happiness

 Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! (Matthew 25:21)

The reward I think many people want is not being in charge of many things, but being relieved of any responsibility at all. It seems many of us would rather have the reward of the person Jesus called the rich fool: "I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.'" (Luke 12:19) Perhaps one of the biggest problems we have with seeking the kingdom of God is that we do not want to share in the master's happiness. We would rather hold on to our own version, our little illusion.

Both persons have plenty of good things. One has doubled the wealth given to him from ten to twenty talents, the other has to build bigger barns to keep all his wealth he thinks he has made. However, one is a servant working with his master's wealth. The other deems himself a master ready to to be served. One is living for his master and given charge of many things. The other is ready to live off the wealth he has earned and devour many things.

Apparently the master's happiness is not just taking life easy, but in making life good. The heart of the rich fool is the same as the servant who buried his talent in Jesus's parable. Both were afraid. Both saw the master as a hard man with unfair demands. We find ourselves wanting to be master because we fear the Lord God is hard and unfair.

Ironically, God wants us to master our lives, taking the little we have been given and offering it up to him rather than hoarding it for ourselves out of fear and distrust. We offer it up is many ways, but all of them involve letting it go. Whether the wealth leaves our hearts or our hands, we have to give it up and work with it. This is life: sacrifice. We cannot sacrifice if we have nothing to give. We also cannot sacrifice if we will not give it up.

God does not want us to merely bury it or throw it away. He wants us to increase and learn how to share out of our increase. We must learn how to move from loving our gifts and wealth to loving with our gifts and our wealth. Only then will we be able to enter into our master's happiness, marrying great power with great love.