To be honest, at first it’s hard to see how this is what the kingdom of heaven will be like.* What, exactly, feels heavenly about this? The hard-driving master who throws out the terrified servant? The other two servants hustling to make a profit? Maybe Jesus was a capitalist after all and is hinting at the vastly superior investment returns to be had in the kingdom? (Kidding, kidding).
But framing this parable in the last week of Jesus’s life makes the picture a little clearer. Jesus has an inkling of what’s coming, and he knows his disciples aren’t ready for it. So he tells them this parable, in which the only servant who fails is the one who made his decisions based on fear. His warning is clear: fear is a terrible decision-maker. It tells us we must prioritize things like urgency and self-preservation at the expense of consideration, kindness, even logic.
Despite all of the angels and prophets and Jesus himself telling us not to be so scared all the time, we humans are a fearful lot. While our fearful instincts helped keep us physically safe from prey and other dangers over the course of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, they don’t always serve us well when it comes to things like figuring out how to live lives of love and justice.
So, no, there’s no room for fear-based decision-making in the kingdom of heaven. Like the disciples, who are on the precipice of deep loss and profound mystery, best we start learning now how to choose a better way. Can we keep our minds about us when fear sets in? Can we turn the volume down on our fear long enough to hear the voice of the spirit speak clearly? Can we be like Jesus, making decisions driven not by fear, but by love, even in our scariest moments?
-- Erica Lloyd, Seekers Church
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What calms you when you are feeling afraid? For me, it’s singing this song that I learned as a teenager in my youth group.
