To Whom Much Is Given . . .

The Yankees are not getting the job done in the American League Championship Series. In fact, by the time some of you read this they may have been eliminated. It’s just baseball, I know, but when the Yankees lose it’s seems worse than when other teams lose (I say this not because I’m a Yankees fan, though I am). The reason why it seems worse is because the Yankees are the Yankees, and when it comes to the Yankees expectations run high. Why are there such high expectations? Because they have an unparalleled history of winning and they consistently have one of the highest payrolls in professional baseball. Without necessarily being able to quote the verse, most people who care about it would agree with the teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required.” And when the Yankees don’t produce, they deserve all the verbal junk that gets thrown at them.

God’s judgment of Saul (1 Samuel 28, 31) was of a similar stripe. It’s true that Saul had been plucked unasked from obscurity and made king of Israel. But before we cut Saul slack for his failings, we must keep in mind that he had been given what he needed to accomplish the job he had been assigned: the anointing of God’s Spirit and the word of God. These are tremendous resources that Saul squandered or abused. And what applies to the Yankees applies to him, “to whom much is given, much will be required.”

God holds people responsible for what he has given to them. This seems an inescapable reality when we consider the many parables of Jesus that warn of the coming accounting. Like Saul, for the many around us who have heard and pushed away the revelation of God, a just judgment awaits. Their only hope is to repent and trust that what God has revealed in the person and work of his son is sufficient to atone for their squandering what had already been revealed to them by a generous and gracious God. Much has been given; much will be required. For those who repent and believe, what is required is met in the one who was given.