When Mom Came Home

"You'd better have your chores done when I get home."
~ Mom

When my sisters and I were old enough, my mother would let us stay home by ourselves while she ran errands.  This only happened once in a while, so we learned to appreciate it when it did.  We were allowed to do pretty much anything we wanted outside of leaving the premises or making a disaster.  We had some great times when this happened.  This "treat" was all on one condition, however - we were required complete our assigned chores before my mother came back.  Needless to say, she wasn't very pleased if she came home and the work hadn't been done.  When this was the case, all three of us kids got punished.

All of these times sprung up into my mind as illustrations of a parable of Christ in Matthew.  I've been thinking quite a bit about parables lately, as you've probably noticed my last post.  The stories of Christs present the profound truths of God in simple form, and in that regards they are the best stories around.

In Matthew 24:45-51, Christ presents us with an allegorical story that describes how our attitude should be towards His unexpected coming.  The whole of the chapter concerns the suddenness of His glorious appearance, and how we should be prepared at every moment for His arrival here on earth.  The parable reads:


“A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (New Living Translation)


It's apparent from Christ's words that His expectations are for us to be hard at work spreading His gospel when He returns.  Just as my mother expect my and my sisters' duties to be completed when she got home from running errands, so does Christ have these same expectations of us.  If a human mother finds it unsatisfactory to return to their home and find their children having done nothing that they were supposed to, how much more will Christ find our useless "entertainment" unsatisfactory in the light of eternity?  We can be sure that if any of us are here at the time of His appearing that we will be wishing we had done more for Christ and His cause.


We can all become entangled in the "entertainment" of our society so easily.  Just as the servant in Christ's parable became caught up in the drunkenness, partying, and violence of the world, so can we fail to complete our Master's assignment to us to spread His message.  I recall from my childhood that there were many things that my sisters and  I let distract us from completing our assigned jobs, none of which were more important than keeping the house in good order.

Let's be clear.  Christ does not expect us to live lives that are no fun, lives  that are dull and filled with pious reverence.  He does not require us to live for 37 years atop a pillar, our sole activity being praying to God, as the famed Simon the Stylite did to show his devotion.  He's not unreasonable in His expectations of us.  He simply asks us to be mindful of His coming; to live in the light of His appearing.  He asks us to bring others to the saving knowledge of hope simply through getting to know them and spending time with them.  He allows us to be in the world in some ways - thought not of it.  We are, of course, to be separate from the world in that we refrain from its corrupt activities, but we are permitted to have a little fun here and there.  God does not want miserable, robot-like followers.  All He desires of us is to live life, realizing how important our mission is.

As our examples display, we should be very wary that we are not found being lax in our duties when Christ returns.  The faithful, hard-working servant will receive the blessing and thanks of the Creator of the Universe.   Let's be mindful that Christ could return today.  Even though that has become a sort of "Christian Cliche", it remains true.  We all want the reward we will receive if we are faithful to Christ's callings, but we don't want the blood, sweat, and tears that come along with that.  As Christians, we are called to eagerly await the return of our Lord, and we should all be striving to be showing effort for Him when He comes.  We'll wish we had done more.