Settling Accounts

Matthew 25:19 – “After a long time the master of those slaves returned and settled accounts with them.”

Settled accounts. They’ve been given money to trade with and now the time has come to settle accounts, to present the results of their trades. The master wants to know whether his trust in them was misplaced, as any good businessperson would. In this employee review, results are all that matter.

The metaphor is that the Messiah (for the audience)/Jesus (for us) is coming to settle accounts with us. How well would we do? I heard two great sermons lately on the idea that they’ll know we’re Christians by our love. Have we been loving to others? Could we do better? As Rev. William Barber II put it, we’re each others’ test cases. If we don’t even treat our loved ones, church community, coworkers, or employees well, we certainly won’t treat others well either. The saying that we can tell how good a person is by how they treat the waiter is true. Here, Jesus is telling us that we can all do better. No matter how loving you are, there’s always room for improvement. There should always be some dissatisfaction and unease, because the world always needs more love.

It’s so easy to point to others and recognize how they fall short. With some of us it comes naturally. However, the real focus should be on how we personally love others. When it comes to settling accounts, the only account we’re responsible for is our own. Yes, we can see when others fall short, but that is not an excuse to make fun of or harass them. If we know them personally, we might say something. Otherwise, note it and move on. That is what it means to be wise as serpents, to see things as they are even as we might wish they were different.

However, when a person’s failure to love causes harm that we can address, we are absolutely called to do so. There are many such situations in the US today, and, sadly, I think that will be true for some time. There are many occasions to love others. I should be clear, by love I don’t mean feeling well toward others or telling them we love them. Loving others involves working on their behalf or for the common good. Even if all that entails is kindness toward another person. Loving our enemies sometimes looks like doing loving things for them; other times, it looks like holding them accountable in the here and now, so that no more damage can be done.

How well did we love yesterday? How well can we love today? Let’s love now. Now is all we’ve got.

B