“Everyone to whom much has been given, of them much will be required.”
If somebody gives you the keys to a garden shed, expectations may be modest.
If somebody gives you the keys to Buckingham Palace, you probably should not say, “I left the front door open, but I am sure it will be fine.”
The greater the gift, the greater the responsibility.
Saint Paul understands that completely.
He speaks about “the stewardship of God’s grace” which has been given to him.
Paul has received the Gospel, but he does not treat it as a private possession.
It has been entrusted to him.
Christ has revealed something wonderful: salvation is being opened to all peoples.
Paul could have sat back and said: “How fortunate I am to know this.”
Instead he spends his life preaching it.
Grace has made him responsible.
And Jesus says the same thing in the Gospel.
The servant has been left in charge of the household.
The house is not theirs. The servants are not theirs. The food is not theirs.
Everything belongs to the master.
Their glory is simply to be faithful with what has been entrusted.
That is our position before God too.
Our life is entrusted to us.
Our time. Our abilities. Our money. Our family. Our faith.
The people God places in front of us.
We have a habit of adding the word my to everything.
My life. My body. My time. My money. My plans.
And of course there is a truth in that.
But the Christian goes one step deeper.
Before anything is mine, it is first a gift from God.
That changes everything.
Because then life is no longer simply: “What do I want to do with this?”
It becomes: “Lord, what have You given this to me for?”
That is stewardship.
And most of the time it looks very ordinary.
Doing a job properly when nobody is watching.
Keeping a promise.
Looking after someone when it is inconvenient.
Using money generously.
Refusing to join in the gossip.
Praying when we do not feel like it.
Doing the right thing quietly, without needing somebody to notice.
Nobody puts up a plaque for most of that.
But God sees it.
The bad servant in the Gospel begins to go wrong when the master seems far away.
“My master is delayed.”
That is enough.
The servant starts behaving as though the house belongs to him.
And that can happen to us.
God begins to feel distant.
Judgement seems a long way off.
Heaven feels remote.
And gradually we start living as though there were no Master at all.
That is when things slip.
Not always dramatically.
Just little by little.
Prayer gets neglected.
Conscience gets negotiated with.
We make peace with things we once knew were wrong.
We begin to live as though God were an occasional visitor in a life which really belongs to us.
But the Gospel wakes us up.
Christ does not want servants trembling behind the curtains in case He suddenly appears.
He wants people who are simply found doing what they were given to do.
And there is great freedom in that.
We do not need to do everything.
We do not need to be impressive.
We do not need somebody else’s gifts.
We only need to be faithful with what God has actually placed in our hands.
Paul had his stewardship.
We have ours.
And much has been given to us.
We know Christ.
We have heard His Word.
We know His mercy.
We have the life of the Church.
We know what we were made for.
That is an enormous privilege.
And yes, it carries responsibility.
But God does not give the responsibility without the grace.
The same Lord who entrusts the work also gives the strength to do it.
So use what He has given.
Use it well.
Use it for Him.
And when the Master comes, may He find us where a servant is safest of all:
simply being faithful.
