When Do You Earn the “Well Done”?

Anyone who has ever attended church or read the Bible is familiar with it: the parable of the talents.  It can be found in Matthew 25:14-30.  In it, a man gives talents – bags of money – to his servants and then leaves.  One servant got 5 bags, and turned them into 10.  Another servant got 2 bags and turned them into 4.  The last servant got one bag, hid it away, and made nothing from it.  In the end, when the master returned, he gave the first two servants a “well done’ and invited them to share in his happiness.  The last servant, he cast off into darkness with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth – pictures that usually indicate being cast into hell.  Wow  – that is a pretty powerful punishment for not doubling some money!

There are interpretations of this that leave me shaking my head.

I have read many different interpretations of this parable, which isn’t surprising.  Most parables are not that clear cut.  And Jesus intended that.  He wanted them to be for those who had ears to hear – for those that sincerely desired to walk with Him and to learn about Him and to focus their lives and hearts around Him.  I am not claiming to have all the answers.  Much wiser people than I have grappled with some of these issues.  But there are interpretations of this that leave me shaking my head.

I kept working and trying to earn the “well done” instead.

First of all, there is the idea that the talents refer to our actual talents and abilities.  This is the interpretation I grew up with.  It was the idea that God gave me certain talents and abilities to use for Him, and if I didn’t keep using them for Him – like all the time and for the rest of my life tirelessly – He would take the talents away from me.  Not only that, but He would be angry and disappointed enough to cast me off, just like He did with the last servant.  I lived in perpetual fear of that.  I kept working and trying to earn the “well done” instead. 

The word “talent” here does not refer to abilities.

One glaring problem with this interpretation is that the word “talent” here does not refer to abilities.  It refers to money.  A talent was equal to about 16 years of wages for the typical laborer – a LOT of money.  Some of the translations have gotten away from using the word talent, and actually use terms such as “bags of gold”, which I think of as much more helpful.  It is too easy to confuse what Jesus was really talking about with our modern definition of the word.

I desperately wanted to have Him say, “well done” at the end of my life.

So if it isn’t talking about our talents and abilities, what is Jesus saying here?  How do we please Him and earn that “well done”?  In all honestly, I have really been wrestling with this.  Even using the term “talent” to mean money, we, in our modern cash-based, salary-earning culture, equate money with hard work.  We don’t know how to make money double without putting in some good ol’ American elbow grease and grit.  We still focus on what we are doing.  I certainly was.  Ever since I turned my life over to Jesus, I have been looking for every single way I could “serve” Him.  I took every opportunity to do some work for Him.  I desperately longed for a full-time ministry calling of some kind so I could work all the time just for Him.  I did it because I love Him, yes, but I also did it because I desperately wanted to have Him say, “well done” at the end of my life.

It changed my entire view of why I was doing everything I was doing.

All of that changed this week.  Not the desire to serve Him, but the reason I desire to serve Him.  I have been blessed to work with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for the past few months, and to visit the Billy Graham home and museum, as well as their facilities at The Cove.  While there, I saw some pictures of Billy Graham’s funeral and got to hear some details about it from the friends who were showing me around.  So this past week, since I hadn’t watched it at the time, I watched Billy Graham’s funeral.  I stand in awe of how many people Billy Graham reached with the message of Jesus and the grace of God.  If there is anyone who should have stars in his crown for that, it should be Billy Graham, right?  So one of the talks given hit me all that much harder.  The gentleman that spoke said he knew when Billy Graham died, he heard Jesus tell him, “Well done.”  Billy got to see family and friends.  Angels were singing and trumpets were blowing.  Everything you would expect for someone who had done so much for the Lord.  But then the gentleman went on to say that all of this happened, not because it was Billy Graham, but just because one more soul had made it home to Heaven. It changed my entire view of why I was doing everything I was doing.

I realized I have already earned the “well done”.

All of a sudden, I really realized what the Bible kept trying to tell me over and over.  It is especially clear in Ephesians 2:8-9:  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”  I realized I have already earned the “well done”.  I have already earned the celebration in heaven when I die.  I have already earned the mansion in Gloryland and the stars in my crown that some of our popular old Christian songs sing about.  Even if I never did another thing my entire life for the Kingdom of God, but sit in my recliner and watch TV, I would still get a “well done”.  I earned it by doing one thing and one thing only – having faith in Jesus Christ.

Our job comes down to one decision – just one little moment in our lives – when we decide to quit being our own masters and make Jesus the Lord of our lives.

See, that is our job – to have faith that Jesus is the Son of God.  To have faith that He is the only way to our Father.  To recognize that without Him, we are incapable of being able to clean ourselves up enough to dwell with a perfectly holy God.  To give our lives and hearts to Him and quit trying to do it ourselves.  To accept the free gift of His sacrifice for our sins and weaknesses and inabilities, and let our shortcomings be covered by the blood He shed on the cross.  Our job comes down to one decision – just one little moment in our lives – when we decide to quit being our own masters and make Jesus the Lord of our lives.  That is the only thing that earns us the “well done”.  That is the only thing that pleases Jesus enough for Him to say, as in the parable, “Enter into my happiness”.  Our unwillingness to surrender our hearts, lives, and will to Him is the thing that make us be cast off with the weeping and gnashing of teeth.  It doesn’t matter what else we do.  Let me say that again – it doesn’t matter what else we do.

Our works should come because we already earned the praise and the reward through our relationship with Jesus.

Some of you may be struggling with that.  I certainly have for most of my life.  You ask, “But what about where it says faith without works is dead”?  Or, doesn’t Jesus tell us we should love and serve others, and go the extra mile, and give of what we have?  Yes – all of that is true.  We should.  We should strive to live good lives and to love others and to serve those who are hurting.  But the REASON behind it is the important thing.  If you are doing it to make God happy or to earn your way to heaven or to get some heavenly praise or reward, you are doing it for the wrong reason.  You could be in danger of being the servant that gets cast off.  What good we do has nothing to do with God’s love or our salvation.  Nothing.  We get those through Jesus alone.  Our works should come because we already earned the praise and the reward through our relationship with Jesus.  Our works should come because by accepting Jesus into our hearts, He has changed our hearts to love others.  Our works should come not to earn our reward, but to try to help others earn their reward, as well, through God’s grace and Jesus’s love.

When the master in the parable gives the servants the money, it is a free gift.

So back to the parable.  Let’s compare it to Ephesians 2:8-9.  When the master in the parable gives the servants the money, it is a free gift.  In Matthew 25:14, it says the master entrusted His wealth to the men.  He gave them no commands about it.  He just gave it to them and went on his way.  Two of the servants accepted the money and we are told they “put the money to work”, after which the money doubled.  But the last servant didn’t keep the money.  He buried it. He hid it totally away from himself, completely out of sight.  When the master returned, He told the first two servants that they had been faithful in a few things and He would make them faithful over more.  But He told the last servant that since he hadn’t been faithful, even what he had been given would be taken away from him.

The greatest treasure we have is our salvation, and our salvation comes by faith, just as we are told in Ephesians. 

So in light of Ephesians, what can we say?  First, 16 years of wages is very valuable.  It would be hard to find a whole lot that is more valuable than that.  And that is just 1 talent of money, let alone 5.  So Jesus is obviously pointing to something that is a great treasure here – and a treasure that is a free gift.  The greatest treasure we have is our salvation, and our salvation comes by faith, just as we are told in Ephesians.  So what if the talents are really faith in the free gift of salvation, not money or abilities?  Then the two servants who took the money and doubled it would be like the person who, through faith, truly accepts the gift of Jesus’s sacrifice.  That person accepts Jesus into their hearts and what happens is that their heart changes.  Their faith grows just like the money grew.  They put that faith to work, not to get the treasure – they already got that – but to spread the treasure around and make it increase.  They took the little faith and treasure that Jesus gave them, and they faithfully believed in it.  And in the end, Jesus was pleased because they were faithful in a few things.  Actually, just one thing – believing in and accepting Him.  He made them faithful over many things, but that was AFTER He invited them to join Him in His happiness.  After they got the reward.  They won the prize for the little thing – the faithfulness in their belief.  No works involved.

We want to be able to earn something with Jesus.

The other servant rejected the treasure.  He buried it.  He did not take hold of it in his heart and make it grow.  He was ashamed of it, afraid of it, not willing to accept it.  He actually accused the master of being a hard man – of gaining profit and wealth without doing anything.  It almost sounds like he is angry because the master is not doing enough work.  Is that like us sometimes?  We want to be able to earn something with Jesus.  We don’t want Him to harvest souls who haven’t earned it, or give rewards to those who haven’t made the sacrifices and put in the effort.  So the last servant rebelled.  In response, the master took away even the little treasure he had.  Whatever little faith or hope for salvation he may have started with was gone, not because of lack of works, but because of unwillingness to accept that Jesus is the only way to salvation – we can’t earn it. 

We only have to do one thing – accept Jesus – then we get it all.

It is through faith we are saved.  Our faith is our righteousness.  Our faith is what earns us a place in Heaven because we are justified by it.  God told Abraham that in Genesis 15:6.  Nothing we do will ever earn justification or righteousness.  That is where grace comes in.  We only have to do one thing – accept Jesus is who He says He is and allow Him to enter our hearts and be the Lord of our lives.  Then we get it all – the reward, the “well done” – all of it.  It is a free gift.  If it weren’t, we would be just like the last servant.  We would get judgmental and angry.  We would start accusing people of not doing enough to earn the reward.  We would resent others that we thought didn’t meet the mark.  We would get selfish with what we had, not wanting anyone else to get the reward.  And we would boast, putting ourselves even equal to or over God in our own estimation.  We would become the Pharisees of Jesus’s time.

You have already earned the “Billy Graham welcome” because Jesus went to the cross to earn it for you.

My friend, quit trying so hard to earn the “well done”.  If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and you know that He has come to dwell in your heart and you are going to Heaven, you already earned the “well done”.  You have already earned everything Heaven has to offer.  You have already earned the “Billy Graham welcome” because Jesus went to the cross to earn it for you. And it doesn’t matter if you have been faithfully serving Jesus all your life, or if you accepted Him on your death bed without a chance to do anything good on this earth.  You get it all.  Another parable tells us that – you can find the parable of the workers and their wages in Matthew 20:1-16.  So breathe.  Be grateful.  Learn to love the One who earned you the reward.  Let Him multiply His Spirit and your faith inside of you, like money doubling.  Then do the good things He asks, not because it gets you anything, but because you love Him, you recognize what He bought for you, and you want everyone else to have it, too. 

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.