A reading of the holy gospel according to Luke. Jesus said to his disciples, know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. And then Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everybody? And Jesus answered, who then is the faithful and wise steward?
Whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time, blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Truly, I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, and then he begins to beat the men servants and the maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he least expects him, and at an hour that he does not know. And then the master will punish and put him with the unfaithful.
And that servant who knew his master's will but did not make ready or act according to his will shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know and did what deserved a beating shall receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much is given, of him much will be required. And of him to whom men commit much, they will demand the more. And this is the gospel of the lord.
The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. In recent times, in the last 20 or so, there has been a strong tendency to overlook unwelcome aspects or unwelcome teachings of Jesus Christ. We have been we have been enveloped in love, in joy, in celebration. We have forgotten some of the harder things that Jesus Christ said.
In some ways, there's been a return to the belief in hell for various reasons, and acceptance of the devil for various reasons. Moving pictures have had a very important to role to play in this prophetic mission. But, you know, you cannot read the gospels of Jesus Christ without coming up to some very rude obstacles, obstacles, some very severe teachings if you read and not just select. Now no one can gain say the benevolence of Jesus Christ, but nobody can read the four gospels of Jesus Christ without getting a picture of a man who could be very severe. Now the interesting point is that that severity was never once, never once exercised on an individual sinner, not once.
The harshest words of our lord as regards the individual person, the harshest words were reserved for hypocrites. And the word pharisee has become almost a synonym because of this with hypocrite, and that is not quite just to the pharisees. But now there's another point to this, that all this is true. Christ never condemned a sinner, but you can't escape the fact time after time in very vivid parables, very vivid parables, in very spectacular repulsive language. Our lord has given us to understand that the wages of sin is death and that there is punishment to sin time and again.
Here today, we have another example of it, of the unjust of a a slave or a servant or whatever he was. It's hard to tell in some instances. It's very difficult to tell whether you're dealing with a slave or whether you're dealing with a servant. But the thing is, our blessed lord is insisting here upon duty of doing your job. And if you don't do it, you get clobbered.
That's what he's saying. We don't like that. You see, we don't like that. We like to think of the benevolent Christ. We like the older pictures, especially in some of the icons of God, the almighty father, of the as we say, of the old testament.
That's another idea that's been grossly exaggerated. But the thing is, they we don't like that concept. Here's a commandment, you obey it and you're rewarded. You disobey it and you get it in the neck. We don't like that.
See, we don't even like that in dealing with human beings. Look how this has affected education. So we are moving in a in a world of course, we create our own environment, and we we pick and choose the things that we like, but you can't do that with Jesus Christ and his doctrine. This is the problem. If our lord had only said, look, I'm gonna give you a lot of fine teachings.
Some of them you're going to like and others you may not like. Now just go shopping. Get your little old cart, go in the front door, and then do the weave your way around. Pick up those articles of faith that you like, that are that you feel comfortable with, that will give you self fulfillment. And just do that, and then everything will be lovely.
That's not the way it is. Oh, if only it were that way. If only it were that way. But you take Jesus Christ in his entirety or you don't take him a him at all. You may take something, but it won't be Jesus Christ.
And so no matter how we like to worm and squirm and slither out of it, our blessed lord taught us severe doctrine. You cannot summarize the the teachings of Jesus Christ in a word more simple than cross, c r o s s, which has nothing to do with a leather store. And this is the reality of the thing. After all, our blessed lord gave one one, only one essential characteristic of being his follower, and that was to take up his cross. So and you find you take a man like John Staple Lewis, he realized this thoroughly, thoroughly realized it.
The trouble is so often we don't. We don't realize it. Men like Saint Thomas More, they they understood it in their own lives as well as theoretically. And so today, we have to reaffirm. This is not a you see, today, just think how the motive of fear is downgraded.
They say fear to have somebody do things or live in a certain way or what have you based on fear, that is unbecoming a human being. We are more dignified than that. We are more mature than that. And yet who said the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the lord? See, we don't we don't like this doctrine sometimes.
We don't like it. I don't like it. I wish it were different. But remember, you don't get a diamond without polishing it up. And so let us take our Lord's words seriously and realize our stewardship.
Notice that word stewardship. It isn't just it isn't just doing your job. If you are in possession of something, you have something confided to you for your handling. It is in your possession. You are responsible for its use.
Notice how in the even this today's gospel, it the the the servants were supposed to prepare for the Lord. In other words, it isn't that just something they were doing, it is something over which they had control, their job. It was their responsibility to handle well their master's things. And so, see, some people don't even like the idea of of that our blessed lord is saying that after you've done everything, don't expect everybody to come along and and thank you for doing your duty. Yeah.
Our blessed lord gave just a few days ago, we had that kind of a parable. And so let us take Jesus Christ as he is. And just for the sake of the argument, remember that our only interest in Jesus Christ is that he is the son of God. In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Amen.