The title may sound familiar to Spiderman fans. But neither Uncle Ben nor Stan Lee were the originators of this popularized adage. Jesus Christ was the first to explicitly state the same in Luke 12:48, ” From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” This verse is drawn from an oft-quoted passage wherein Christ is urging each of His servants to be watchful and ready for His return, so that we aren’t caught unawares.
The first half of chapter 12 has Christ warning us and fellow believers to be prepared for His return, not worrying about worldly things including our lives, but living as though Christ could appear the very next second. Would He find us ready to welcome and go back with Him? Or would we be too busy trying to get rich quick, planning what we’ll eat or wear, and completely losing sight of Him?
What I found interesting is that Peter asks Christ a simple question in Luke 12:41, “Lord are you telling this parable to us (your faithful, honest, troop of disciples) or to everyone (the rest of the crowd who probably don’t know You as well as we do)?” Forgive the added amplification, but this is Peter, the I-will-never-deny-you guy, we’re talking about. Unless Peter zoned out or was feeling a little defensive, it’s clear that Christ was mainly talking to his closest circle of disciples. In fact, the very first verse in this chapter states “When a crowd of many thousands had gathered…Jesus began to speak first to his disciples.”
Peter’s inquiry prompted Christ to be even more direct in His next parable, concerning a master returning to his home only to find the head of his servants abusing his power, drunk, and completely ill-prepared to receive his master. The reason for the servant’s lack of readiness is simple – he took advantage of his master’s ‘delay’.
To answer Peter’s question, all of His disciples are like the servant-manager, and Christ is the master of the house. If we, as believers, fail/refuse to follow His instructions and turn against our Lord despite knowing who He is, what He’s done, and what He will do, it will be worse for us than for those who don’t know the living God or His will.
In this case, the knowledge of Christ bears the great power to save. To know Christ is to know His gift of salvation, and we are now responsible for sharing that knowledge with all those around us. If we don’t share that knowledge or begin backsliding because our Master is “taking too long to return”, we may find ourselves ill-prepared to face Him. We’d be grouped along with the unbelievers and lose our place as friends of God and heirs with Christ (v. 46).
Knowing what we know now, we cannot go on living in sin – or else we’ll be worse off than if we never knew the Truth at all. There is no time to be on the fence about accepting Christ as our Lord and doing God’s will. We are either with Him or against Him.
If we ignore His Word, bury our talents, and act like we don’t know Christ in this current age of Grace, we’d better be prepared for a dark future where Christ says to us, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.” Instead, we must work like Christ did, living to please, serve, and eventually be with Him, until we hear that cherished “Well done, my faithful servant”.