Hagar 3

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (Luke 12: 45, 46)

We are still on the topic of Christ calling His disciples friends.

The first post we looked at the qualification for that designation; being a sold-outed-ness to His vision and agenda and the complete surrender of ours.

On the second, we looked at two opposites; those who took that trust to extreme ends and those who betrayed it.

Today I want us to look at one aspect that will disqualify many ministers from heaven by looking at this slave in the verses above.

Had he been a friend of his master?

Of course he had been. That was the reason he was entrusted with his master’s whole enterprise in the master’s absence.

He could not have ruled over other slaves without his master’s absolute trust.

He couldn’t have been able to join in drunkenness unless his master’s wine vaults had been opened to him.

We are safe when we say that he had been a completely trusted servant before his master left.

His track record before then was exemplary.

We can compare him to Eleazar when he was being sent to get a wife for Isaac.

What then happened?

As is said he allowed the trust bestowed on him to get into his head.

Then he started imagining himself being like his master.

Remember that is what Lucifer imagined in Isaiah 14?

No wonder he forsook his servanthood and took on the role of a master to the rest of the servants.

No wonder he took to his master’s pastimes like drinking.

He thought that the absence of his master automatically made him his replacement.

Reminds me of an event in the not-so-distant past in our politics.

Then, a vice president was appointed by the president, meaning that he served at his boss’s pleasure.

It was rumoured that one such vice president once in brag called himself the acting president when his boss was outside the country.

And that spelt his doom, not only from the position, he was banished from politics.

The problem was not that he was the acting president since that was essentially what he was because even on the event of the death or incapacitation of the president he would automatically take over for three months before elections are held to fill the position.

And everybody knew that, even the president who had appointed him.

It is the proclamation that set him at odds with the whole political system just as Lucifer’s imaginings set him at odds with heaven.

Incidentally, it is possible to assume that the master in our discourse may not have had an heir as had been with Abraham before Isaac arrived.

He may therefore have started practicing his takeover before it actualised.

And that was where he was found when his master arrived unannounced.

Like Africans would say, he was in effect burying his master before he died.

And that is offensive and insulting. And no master will take to that kindly.

Before we get farther, I will explain the reason I always appear to be very harsh on us ministers.

The minister is Christ’s representative in the most basic sense.

Even enemies of the cross have no qualms about associating ministers with the God they speak about.

In fact, any complaints and opposition against ministers will dwell on the single factor of misrepresenting God.

This makes the minister the closest we get to being called Christ’s friends since the world takes that as the reality anyway.

Sadly, most ministers take that as a right instead of a trust.

That is what takes us to that wicked servant because we then start running roughshod on the other servants of our Lord. We take our seniority as an elevation beyond servanthood.

Our entitlement takes us to our Lord’s wine vats as that servant because we start behaving as if our Lord has left us on our own to run His enterprise.

This may appear like a parable to some but I have been in ministry for four decades and so am stating it from a point of knowledge and experience since I have seen it replicated again and again over the years.

I have seen ministers who exemplify servanthood; ministers who will wash others’ feet at no prompting. I have also seen ministers who will not take tea from a common cup because of the ‘anointing’ they carry.

I have seen ministers whose resources are unreservedly at the Lord’s service. I have seen others who will not minister at their own cost or at the very least must be assured beforehand that their last dime will be recompensed.

I do not know whether you are getting my drift.

The servant in our story took his position too seriously to allow even his master to interfere with it, especially if and when he was absent.

He forgot his master because running the master’s enterprise became too consuming for his elevated position.

Unlike Eleazar who refused to be entertained after the success of his mission (acquiring a wife for his master), our friend decides to bring the party on since he was the one now in charge.

Unlike Eleazar who refused to take even a cup of tea before stating the object of his mission, our friend decides that running his master’s errand equated him with him.

The faithful servant has no time for small talk in his mission. Even his prayers are guided by that mission and nothing else.

But the wicked servant behaves like a master because he has been entrusted with other servants.

The thinks that the fact that he is treated by other slaves as the master has elevated him to the master status.

No wonder his punishment is so dire.

And that is why there is no place for repentance even if he decides to repent.

And I am talking about us, servants of the Most High God.

I will repeat something I have said or implied enough times in this teaching.

And that is the fact that when the trust is breached, there is absolutely no chance for repentance. Once a slave turned friend loses that coveted position, he will sink lower than a slave because the best place it can end up is the dungeon. The most immediate position is the gallows like Haman.

Trust can never be played with. It can never be experimented with.

You will either walk in it or lose everything.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

Losing the trust of our Lord after He has entrusted us with the friend position answers my recurring question all my life about ministers being sent to hell.

And it is the fact that they had been elevated to the friend position by Christ but played with that position, many times by entitlement or self elevation, which is the same thing, basically.

This made them behave like the slave in this parable. No wonder they will end up like him in eternity.

Am I talking about you?