Joshua Grubbs
“Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much.”
It can be the case when I read one of Jesus’s parables that I scratch my head for a second and put in some work to discern its meaning. In the sixteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, however, this is not the case. Jesus’s teaching here is clear as day, but just because we can easily parse it out doesn’t mean that its demands are easy to put into practice. If we are faithful in the small things, then it naturally follows that our faithfulness can extend to the larger things. Easy, right? Not so fast!
Think about laying a brick wall. If you take the time to organize and level your area and start laying your brick on a smooth, clean surface, you’ll end up with a good looking and strong wall. Inversely, if you don’t take the time to do the little tasks of preparation right and start laying your bricks on a mostly smooth surface you may not even notice that you’re laying your wall on top of a meager pebble. However, once you finish the wall, you’ll notice a large, uneven bulge throwing the whole thing out of whack. All from a tiny pebble!
It doesn’t take a huge decision to set yourself on the right path, nor does it take a huge decision to begin taking a perilous detour. In His parable, Jesus is talking about our responsibilities as members of God’s Kingdom to ourselves and our fellow Kingdom members, ultimately leading to the impact that we have on the world for Christ.
Let’s think through this practically.
What are the little things in our lives in the Kingdom? Well, it’s a pretty small thing to wake up and thank God for the day. A quick prayer, perhaps even just the one Jesus taught us, “Our Father…” When we pray in this small, but by no means insignificant, way, we are steeping ourselves in the Spirit, opening ourselves to His guiding presence in our lives. So now, we interact with our family, friends, and coworkers. Because we started right, did the little things, we can now meet those in our lives with love and respect. Not by our power, but by His. When we do that, we are faced directly with the goodness of God’s creation, and we begin to move through the world with a new attitude. Maybe the things we buy, the places we go, the things we give up, all start to point to God’s Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Do you see where this is going?
When we do the small things right, the big things are then able to fall into place. When we neglect the small things, we delude ourselves if we think we can then go on to handle larger things. Jesus encourages us to not think of “small” as “lesser.” In the Gospel of Mark He speaks of the Kingdom in this way, “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
Jesus directs us to take seriously those small acts, done with love, which can change the world to look more like the Kingdom.
Let’s dedicate ourselves in the coming days, weeks, and months to doing the small things right.
Who knows what God will build with our lives?
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