How do we resemble this servant? Think of what we owe God. This regional ruler did not seem to think he owed anything to his king. You are a human being, with the gift of reason, of consciousness, and of delicate emotions. You can appreciate a wonderful range of things. You have the capacity to love; you have the gift of creativity; you have food, air, comfort and many other provisions in this world. You are supposed to be grateful to him and worship him; you think there will never be a day of reckoning, but there will be. Sometimes we are called to account in a small way. This isn’t the day of judgement; this is about the reminders God gives us in this life that we are accountable. Sometimes there is a miniature giving of account, something to fear. You think you have a serious illness and you have this sense of accountability. Some get depressed and the bottom falls out of life. We are not thinking of those who are unwell because of body chemistry, but of the sort of depression that comes because all the purpose of life disappears and we are laid bare. Some want to take their own life, and some do. Others are reminded about the brevity of life by the death of a friend or loved one. We may not want to admit we have been rattled to the core, and brazenly go back to our previous life, but for a while our eyes have been opened a little. That experience has given us a vague sense of what we owe to God, but the full debt will have to be paid at the end of life.
At his pleasure the king determined when his servants give account. and so also does God. The king required a reasonable return. What return does God require of us? Our lives, our worship, holiness and obedience, and we have not rendered it. The air we breathe is the Lord’s. As rebels we have not given thanks for any of his gifts. Now we have a debt so enormous that we can never pay it back. It is as if God’s eye comes in a searching way, and he reminds us how much we owe. It brings us to see our sinfulness and need. Every day there are so many acts of selfishness, pride, and deceitfulness. Largely we brush these aside and ignore them, but we would be astonished if we saw our sin as God sees it: our selfish, hostility, unreasonableness, filthiness. By the time we get to the point where God calls us at the end of life, our sin is so great it cannot be measured. One or two sins would be enough to bring God’s anger, but now we have a lifetime of transgressions. Many live as effective atheists. What a vile thing – that a creature should be so arrogant as to reject its Creator. Payment has to be made.