[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during April 2021]
Once upon a time, more than half a century ago, my acting career began (and ended) in a school production of ‘The Stolen Prince’. My role was that of the executioner, a role that was without any dialogue and, because no executions actually occurred, it was also without any job satisfaction. In that way it was reminiscent of a better-known character who also was somewhat short on completed commissions. In ‘The Mikado’ the post of Lord High Executioner was a royal appointment and the Emperor himself was coming to find out why there had been no executions. It seemed that executioner himself might be the first victim of his own trade.
In Matthew 25 we read of a landowner who decided to review the work of various of his servants. He had left each one with a certain amount of resources and he was very satisfied to hear that several of them had doubled the value of those resources. However, one employee had simply put his allocation into safe storage and then returned the landowner’s assets exactly as he had received them.
Perhaps we should have a certain degree of sympathy with the unfortunate servant. He did at least retain the value of the assets and the owner did not suffer any actual loss, apart from perhaps a small amount of interest. How would the owner have reacted if the servant had made a poor investment and lost the lot? Of course, as with all parables, we must not push the story beyond its intended application but perhaps he was known to be lazy and this was a last opportunity to redeem himself. Anyway, he was dismissed, expelled from the household and left to lament his shortcomings.
Returning to the plight of the Lord High Executioner: a young man, being the losing party in a love triangle, had decided to commit suicide. The Lord High Executioner offered to perform the final dispatch for him and thus the lack of executions will be resolved before the Emperor arrives. However, the Emperor arrived before he was expected and then it transpired that the young man was actually the Emperor’s missing son. A certain amount of procrastination may have averted a disaster!
The music for The Mikado was composed by Arthur Sullivan, a gifted musician whose talents were not confined to entertaining theatre-goers. He also used his skills to become a prolific writer of hymn tunes. What are you doing with the talents and opportunities that God has given you? Are you willing to take risks to explore their potential? That unprofitable servant had two colleagues who should have been able to help him. Do you accept advice from Christian companions? Could you share your own experiences, for the benefit of others?
Like the Emperor and the landowner, Jesus Christ will return when he is not expected. Our relationship with Jesus is the foundation on which we build our faith, but heed the words of the apostle Paul:
If anyone’s work which he has built on [that foundation] endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. [1 Corinthians 3 v14-15 NKJV]
Will you receive the final assessment: “Well done, good and faithful servant”?
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
