Well done, good and Faithful…

At the memorial service for Pat Robertson, speaker after speaker praised his brilliance, his visionary leadership, his belief in God, his commitment to the Word and the impact his life had on the Kingdom of God worldwide.

Hundreds of TV stations, all over the world. Thousands of broadcasts. Multiple thousands of guests. Millions of calls saying they had prayed to be saved. Hundreds of millions of viewers over 50 years.

There are some lives which, when heard in the perspective of a memorial service, appear as a colossus compared to the feeble efforts of us “normal” people.

After multiple tributes from family members, and well-known Christian leaders, Pat’s son, Gordon, stood up to close the service. In his short remarks he referenced one of my favorite verses, which says, His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matt 25:21).

For many years those have been the words which have driven me to just do what I believe I have been told to do. I’ll never stand on a world stage, I’ll never be the richest preacher in the country (who did speak at the memorial, BTW). I’ll never win any beauty or talent contests, and I’ll never be the featured speaker at the funeral of an international luminary.

These are not “negative confessions.” These are simply statements of accepted reality.

To tell people, “You can do anything you set your mind to do” can be a load of nonsense, especially if Chris Christy (or I) decides he wants to dance for the Bolshoi. The sooner we can eliminate those things we will never do, the sooner we can get to the work we have actually been called and gifted to do.

But there just seem to be some people who are so very much more capable, gifted and effective; surely they will be ranked higher in glory than us mere mortals.

That memorial service served as a wonderful reminder: the metric God uses is not effectiveness, talents, impact, wealth or any other visible proof of value. The only metric God will use on that day will be, “Good and faithful.”

Not to DO good, but to BE good.

And our “goodness,” just like our righteousness, has nothing to do with us, but has everything to do with the applied “goodness (righteousness)” of Jesus on us.

How easy to substitute who we ARE with what we DO. Butwhen we hear “good,” it will not be because of our actions: it will be because of His gift of righteousness.

But that word “faithful:” none of us can get away from that one. We will not all experience international “effectiveness,” but we can all be faithful. In fact, it is absolutely required that we be faithful. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful (1 Cor 4:2). There is no getting around “faithful.”

“But I have never done anything great or momentous.”

“Were you asked to do something great or momentous?”

“Well, not really. I’ve been asked to do this piddly, insignificant thing over here.”

“And have you done what you consider to be piddly?”

“Well, no. It is so small, no one will ever notice it not being done.”

Is this “good and faithful?”

It certainly doesn’t sound like it!

All the percussionist does is play the cymbals, and there are not very many cymbal solos in orchestral music! It’s not that big of a thing to play the cymbals well. . . unless, of course, the orchestra is playing the 1812 Overture. What is the 4th of July without a faithful cymbal player?!?

Glory will not be divided into the faithful and the faithful-ER. There are no degrees of faithful. The Pat Robertsons of this life, whoever that may be for you, do not get a better, front row seat in glory because they proved to be better people than all the little people who helped make this possible.”

This brings an interesting approach to that parable Jesus told in Matthew 20 about laborers who were hired at the beginning of the day and other laborers who were hired late in the day. When everyone got paid the same amount, those who had been there all day took exception to the seeming discrepancy in pay. But no.

Everyone was paid exactly what they had agreed to, and everyone was on equal footing in the eyes of the vineyard owner. Great or small, much or little, faithfulness to the call they had been given provided everyone the same blessing from the Master.

Glory will be a level surface where there is no front row or back row. There will be no pedestals for the “really important Christians” from which they will look down on the rest of us lowly peons. The only thing that will matter on that day is the goodness of Jesus, and the faithfulness of His servants. And all of us can be faithful.

There will be no excuses. There will be no comparisons. There will be no gradations of importance. Either faithful or not.

Either faithful or not.

It will be either faithful or not. And all of us can be faithful.

Will you please do what God has called you to do with the very best effort you can bring to that task? Will you enter each day with an attitude of, “What have You called me to do today, Jesus?” and then do it with your best effort? Will you no longer rest on, “Oh, Jesus will understand,” and determine to just be faithful to do the task He has called you to do, with the very best energies you have?

And, at the end of the day, any successes which make it past the fire of testing (1 Cor 3) will be turned into crowns and thrown at the feet of Jesus (Rev 4:10-11).

Our faithfulness does not get us better standing, more recognition or a bigger mansion. It ALL goes to the feet of Jesus because He is the One who is worthy.

Let’s just be faithful to do what He has called us to do, because, faithfulness matters.