FollowBy Dan Amos
After Billy Graham died, my wife posted, “Can’t we all hear it? ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.'” I did a search on the reference to the parable of the servants in Matthew 25 and the results linked to many stories about Reverend Graham. He was a star of the evangelical Christian world, a man of good repute. We can easily imagine his homecoming, with Jesus waiting to welcome him.
The referenced parable has a couple of challenges for us. In the parable, Jesus told of servants being given varying amounts of responsibility and the servants carrying them out with varying levels of effort. Two served their master well and were diligent. One did not really like his master and chose to sit on what was given to him and do nothing. The first two were praised and rewarded. The third was chastised and cast out from the master’s presence.
Rev. Graham was reported as wondering why God had given him the ministry he did. We can easily equate him to the first servant who was given the most and produced a great return for the master. In terms of ministry, you may feel like you were given talents, gifts, ministry—or whatever you want to call it—more in line with the second or third servants. They may be smaller in human terms, but they are important to the master. Rev. Graham’s ministry was propelled by the Holy Spirit; the results are the Spirit’s work, just as any spiritual production of which we might be part. Our role is to be faithful in what we’ve been given and leave the results to God.
In the parable, the third servant is characterized differently than the first two. The third servant was critical of the master. He did not serve him with his whole heart. Indifferent or apathetic service, just going through the motions, is not service to the master but an outward show that doesn’t match an inward conviction. In this case, Jesus says the heart attitude is exposed and the servant is not truly a servant, is not saved, and will not be welcomed into the Master’s home. The faithless servant will see no reward and will spend eternity with all others lacking faith.
In part, the parable’s servants are judged by the results of their faith and rewarded accordingly. They are also judged on their faith. This judgment of faith is yes or no. Rev. Graham’s simple message straight from the Bible is we are all sinners and we all need the Savior. Billy knelt as a teenager and confessed his sin to Jesus. Jesus’s blood spilled 2,000 years earlier remains just as powerful then as it does today and has covered Billy’s sins and mine. Regardless of the things he achieved, the Father can only see Billy as righteous through the blood of Christ. That is the simple, enduring, and only way to salvation.
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