January 9, 2008 - Be the best you can be - Hayward Fong

Luke 19:11-27

Last October before I had my hip dislocation, we examined the parable of the talents as recorded in Matthew 25:14-30. Today’s account as recorded by Luke bears a close resemblance to the account in Matthew. Perhaps they are two versions of the same story, or perhaps Jesus used the same story in slightly different forms on two different occasions. Whatever.

There is one very interesting thing about Luke’s version. Jesus in His parables frequently takes incidents from everyday life to illustrate great truths. He liked to teach. It may be in this instance that he used an incident from history to teach a truth.

The parable tells of a king who went to claim a kingdom, whose subjects sent an embassy of protest. He was given the kingdom but took revenge on his opponents. In the year 4 B.C., Herod the King died; he had the title of king but was always subject to the permission and goodwill of Rome. It had been expected that he would will his kingdom to his son Antipas, but he altered his will and left it instead to his son Archelaus. Before Archelaus could inherit the throne, he had to go to Rome to receive its “blessing.” The Jews promptly sent an embassy of fifty men to beg that the kingdom not be given to him. Augustus the Roman Emperor heard the embassy but gave Archelaus the kingdom. He did not, however, confer on him the title of king until he had proved himself worth of it, which, in fact he never did. These are exactly the circumstances in the parable and it looks as if for once Jesus is taking an incident from history to teach His lesson.

This parable repeats many of the lessons of the parable of the talents; but there are others we might examine. The nobleman did not demand the same result from each man. Though each received the same amount, equal results were not required. The one who turned his allocation ten-fold and the other who had turned his five-fold were both equally praised.

God does not demand the same from everyone. He knows well that people have different abilities. God’s demand is not, “How great is your work?” not even “How good is your work?” but rather, “Is this the best you can do?” In school and usually in the world it is the highest mark that receives the highest prize. But even in school it may well be that a score of fifty-five from a student who is not very sharp, represents more honest effort than a score of ninety from a student who finds things easy. God knows about these things and God sets the right value on our efforts when we do our best. As I stated when we last met, the U.S. Army had at one time a recruiting slogan, “Be the best you can be.”

This parable teaches, too, that if we should some day be given a task we must first prove ourselves by doing the little jobs well. It was because they had been faithful in quite small things that the servants were given greater tasks to do.

When I first went to work with the Los Angeles County Road Department, a graduate civil engineer with prior experience with the State Division of Highways, I was given many menial tasks, delivering papers to meetings, setting up conference rooms with everything needed at the meeting such as visual equipment, pencils, notepads, water pitchers, drinking glasses, etc. To be honest, it went against my grain to be assigned these tasks. One of the older men in the Department, who became one of my closest friends and mentor, saw my anguish. He showed me the positive side of these assignments. He said, “Hayward, you have a rare opportunity of seeing who the Department heads are, but more importantly, letting them see you. Do the best you can do with these assignments and it will pay off in years to come.” In later years that exposure did pay off. When promotional opportunities arose, I was more than a name on the roster. They were able to match a face with the name and recall how I cheerfully carried out those menial tasks.

Booker T. Washington, was one of our nation’s great educators. At the end of his life, he was President of Tuskegee Institute and held in honor by peoples around the world. But when he found it was very difficult for a Negro boy to obtain a college education. He heard of a university where Negroes were accepted as students and he walked miles to get there. But when he arrived he found that there were no openings left. They offered him a job sweeping the floors and making the beds in the dormitories. He took it at once, and did the menial job so well that soon he was admitted as a student.

My son, Stephen, wanted to learn how to create the special effects in television productions but didn’t know where or how to get the training. At that time, people took their basic technical knowledge and learned these special effects techniques on the job. He applied at various places, but his basic skills were sorely lacking. Eventually, he was offered a job as night custodian at a post production company which entailed sweeping the offices, answering the phone, where people could order TV tapes from their library and run errands for the people working on production work at night. At every opportunity, he would let the production people know of his interests and they reciprocated by teaching him as time permitted.

This is a very mobile industry, and as his co-workers moved on, various ones would invite Stephen to join them. One such move took him to work on the CBS TV crew for the Winter Olympics in France; others have brought him on the teams producing TV shows such as Star Trek, Lost, Alias, etc. none of which I’ve seen. He has been awarded three Emmys as a member of the winning teams.

It is impossible to start at the top and it would be bad for us if we could. It is foolish to despise the small jobs and to think they do not matter. It is doing the lesser things well that we prove ourselves fit for bigger things.

Further, this parable illustrates a great truth; the reward of work well done is more work to do. The servants who had done so well were not told to sit back and rest; they were given still more responsibility and still greater tasks to do. In almost all spheres of life we see that principle. The actor who is given a small part longs for the day when he will be given a lead role. The surgeon beginning his life work longs for the day when the hardest operations will be assigned to him.

We should always remember that it is not a millstone but a compliment to be given a task to do. The general chooses his best soldiers for his hardest tasks. The teacher puts his best students in for the hardest examinations. The coach makes his best players and athletes train the hardest. The bigger the task and the more the tasks given us the bigger the compliment is being paid us. The higher we rise in the world’s work the heavier the responsibilities. The real man regards a task not as something to be avoided but as a challenge to prove himself and as a compliment to his ability.

Both Matthew and Luke speak of the day when the master came back and demanded an accounting. In the early days people believed Jesus was going to come back to this world at any moment. They expected Him soon, certainly within their own lifetime. That didn’t happen. It is useless to speculate when it will happen; but the day will come when we will be called to account for the way in which we used this life and the talents that God gave us. It will make us work far better if we remember that all our work must some day pass the test of God. George Eliot wrote of Antonio Stradivarius that he winced at all false work and loved the true. At all our work we must remember that we must do it in such a way that it is fit for God to see.

As we step forth into 2008, let us make a single resolution, “Be the best you can be.”

Amen.