Jump Start # 889

Matthew 25:24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.”

Our verse today comes from the parable of the talents. It is the excuse that the one talent man used to justify doing nothing. His talent, a form of money, was buried in the ground. He returned to the master exactly what was given to him. There was no profit, increase, even though he had plenty of time and opportunity. The master was furious with this slave. He called him lazy and wicked and cast him out.

The servant claims he knows the master. His excuse states, “I knew you to be a hard man.” Actually, he didn’t know the master. His impression was wrong.

This passage is used to teach about the coming of Jesus and the judgment. We are responsible for what God has given to us.

The statement of the servant is interesting, “I knew you to be a hard man.” That is how some view God today. God, they think is hard. God, they believe is demanding too much. They have it in their minds that God demands the impossible. I’ve heard believers complain about how hard it is to be a Christian. That tone can scare some. It can make those who are uncertain quit and throw in the towel. They’ll think, I can’t do it. God expects too much. Most of the time, what is hard is resisting temptation. Often we have one foot still in the world and have not fully given ourselves over to the King’s side, so it is hard. Some want to live like a sinner and die like a saint. That won’t happen. What is hard, is not what God expects, but the way some of us go about it. Part time Christians only fool themselves.

There has been times when God has demanded hard things.

• Hosea was told to marry a harlot and then take her back after she was unfaithful to him. That’s hard.
• Ezekiel was told to lay on his side for a long time.
• Ezekiel’s wife died and Ezekiel was told by God not to mourn and rather to preach.
• Abraham was told to sacrifice his son.
• Noah and his family were the only people who survived the flood.
• Ezekiel was to eat food cooked over animal dung.

You and I have not been told to do any of those things. What God expects from us is our hearts given totally to Him. God wants us to be holy. That is something we can do. The fight for what is right is intense and demanding, but not impossible.

In the servant’s excuse, from our verse today, the master told him that he ought to have put the talent in the bank and gained interest on it. In other words, if you knew me to be hard, what did you not respond that way? If the master was exacting, why did you do nothing? His excuse and his behavior did not match. His excuse was just an attempt to hide from doing nothing. We do the same. We blame boring sermons, pitiful singing, hot buildings, small crowds, large crowds for reasons not to worship God. We find excuses to not do what we ought to do.

What God asked some of the prophets was hard. We can do what God says, because He knows us and knows what we are capable of.  It is the lazy and the wicked who find the master difficult. The five talent man and the two talent man didn’t seem to view the master as being hard. Could it be that they were wholly committed and their hearts were not lazy and wicked. Blaming others for our failures seems to be the norm for many folks. Instead of getting on the ball, the lazy servant simply said, “the master is hard.” He did nothing. Folks do the same today. It’s too hard to be a Christian, so they remain lost. It’s too much to worship, so they don’t. The Bible is too hard, so they fail to read it. Most of this is a failure on the individual and not God.

Is God too hard? No. He is only hard to those who do not want to do what He says.

Roger