Nougat 14

Are you familiar with the BeeGees song, ’Nobody gets too much Heaven’? In a sense, it is most apt – getting to Heaven seems to be outside of many persons’ bucket list. And for those who do include it, it may seem like hard work. Is that all there is to Heaven tho, and if so, how do we get in? Today’s Holy Nougat offers a slightly different perspective.

““Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Entrusted … assigned responsibility; authorized to care for

Jesus often describes Heaven as a Kingdom. And this nougat is one example. Based on the context clues given, we can sense what it means for us and how to get there. So our first task is to identify our Sovereign. The ‘man going on the long trip’ without his servants seems a good starting point in this parable.

We don’t know much about the man, but we are told he has servants. We are also told that the servants were entrusted with the man’s finances. I don’t know about you but that’s where I begin to get a bitt uncomfortable with this comparison – for accounts is absolutely not my forte (1 point for the BeeGees!)

But if we extend the parable to the old English term ‘talent’, while superimposing it in our current context, there’s room for some of us non-finance folk. For a talent is nuanced in our current contexts as gifts and skills and not necessarily money. We can also read talents as assets. In that case, the metaphor would thus read ‘the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his assets, gifts and skills to them while he was gone’.

Do we believe that Jesus, the man gone on the long trip, has authorized us to care for His assets, gifts and skills till His return? Is that what Matthew 28:18 is all about when Jesus said ‘all power belongs to me [(Jesus). Now,] Go …’? For if it is, then we are indeed called to be stewards of all Creation (see Psalm 24:1). Then, it is not as much about our gifts and skills, rather it’s what God has authorized us to use to strengthen God’s asset base. Also, it means that we are not to work to get to Heaven, but that we are to work as though Heaven is already here (it is a vast kingdom – see Psalm 24 again, duh) and we are simply awaiting the return of our Sovereign.

I guess the BeeGees are wrong on a technicality – We can all get to Heaven; it’s what we do with our assigned gifts, skills and assets that makes the difference. Selah

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May all we seek be found in Christ