Stewardship, in the Bible, has to do with managing God’s resources. 1 Peter 4:10-11: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” Our spiritual gifts are a little different today, but we can apply the same principle: as good stewards of God’s gifts, we ought to use them to serve selflessly and benefit others. Whatever gifts we have, they don’t really belong to us, and we need to keep that in mind as we work for the kingdom.
The parable of the talents
Money is the first place our minds go, when talking about stewardship. And it’s a good threshold for responsibility—if you can’t be responsible with someone else’s money, you probably won’t be responsible with anything else. In Matthew 25, Jesus told the parable of the talents. A master has three servants, and before he goes away he gives each of them a sum of talents (a monetary measurement for gold in the New Testament, but we can also view them as abilities or, well, talents). A talent was a lot of money—about 75 pounds, equaling 6,000 drachma, or the equivalent of 20 years’ wages for a laborer; based on the price of gold today, one talent would be worth nearly $4.5 million dollars. And the master gave his servants 5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent, respectively, each according to his abilities. He didn’t give his servants more than they could handle. The first servant works hard and turns 5 talents into 10 talents. The second servant turns 2 talents into 4 talents. But the last servant was afraid to lose the money, so he dug a hole and buried his talent to keep it safe.
When the master returned, the servants collected their talents and told him what they had done. The first two servants were praised and were allowed to keep their talents; but the third servant only had the talent he was given. He made excuses for himself, but the master said, “‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
For the master, inaction was as bad as losing the money. It wasn’t responsible stewardship. But we do similar things. We’ve all heard stereotypes about people who need money—that they’re “abusing the system,” or that they’re going to spend it on drugs and alcohol, or that they’re making more than the rest of us. But this fear that someone else might misuse money makes us wicked and lazy just like the third servant. We can’t let fear drive us to inaction. 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We shouldn’t give because we’re expected to, or because the Bible says to give 10%, but because we have happily chosen it—and we should be happy for the opportunity for charity. Our benevolence creates so many opportunities for Christ, both in our communities and around the globe. Mark 12:42-44: “And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.””
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Our heart and our intentions are the most important parts of good stewardship.
The parable of the good Samaritan
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise”” (Luke 10:30-37).
The Samaritan is a good steward of money, but also of time and resources. It took time to stop on the road and bandage the man’s wounds, to take him to the inn, to create a plan with the innkeeper to make sure the man would be healed. The priest and the Levite were too busy with their own schedules, but the Samaritan saw that helping the injured man was more important. And the Samaritan could have been in danger himself; there was no proof that the robbers were gone, or that he wouldn’t be hurt himself, and Samaritans were not treated well in that time. But he pushed all those concerns aside to care for a hurt person on the side of the road, waylaid his own plans to get him somewhere safe, and spent whatever coin it took to make him whole again. Compassion is a resource too; the Samaritan was a good steward of it.
Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat
Genesis 37:23-28: “So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.”
(In today’s money, 20 shekels of silver is worth about $365. That’s not a lot!)
Later, after Joseph had found some success and became the overseer of Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife accused him of attacking her. Joseph, a slave, was thrown into prison. There, he was made overseer again. He correctly interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and saw that he would go free, but the cupbearer did not remember him after he returned to his post. Over and over again, terrible things happened to Joseph, but thanks to God he found success no matter where he ended up.
Like Joseph, we need to be stewards of the bad parts in life. James 1:2-3: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” When you think of the strongest Christians you know, did they have easy lives? Did they never suffer? The strongest Christians are people who have struggled, who have faced trials and tribulations and kept faith in God. Even when we suffer, we can use those times to help others, and where we develop the character to become more. It puts enduring faith in our hearts.
Maybe we aren’t entrusted with literal talents, maybe we’re not picking people up off the road and taking them to the hospital to heal, maybe we aren’t being thrown in pits by our brothers and going to prison—we still have resources we can steward for God. Every part of your life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is a gift from God, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
Reflection questions
