More Preparation

After he told the story about the ten young women, Jesus told another story. A man was going on a journey. His house and property would not take care of themselves, so he gave different servants different responsibilities. In the story, he gave three servants different amounts of cash.

When thinking about these stories, people usually focus on the cash. I think Jesus was focusing on the job and the servant’s attitude about the job they were given. The job was the same whether it was $50,000, $20,000 or $10,000. The attitude of two servants was to gain as much profit as they could with what they were given. The attitude of the other servant was to avoid trouble.

At the end of his ministry, Jesus gave his disciple marching orders.
•    Engage the peoples of the world.
•    Develop “apprentices” of Jesus by:
       o    Fostering identification with Jesus.
       o    Training the apprentices to follow the values attitudes and practices of Jesus.

There are some pre-requisites to these marching orders.
•    We are living like apprentices of Jesus.
       o    We have identified with Jesus.
       o    We are following Jesus’ value, attitudes and practices.
•    We are engaging people.
•    We are training more apprentices.

In the stories about preparation, being ready when the master, king or bridegroom comes, maybe he is talking about those marching orders?