Charismatic Gift: Miracles   

Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

Today’s scripture is a parable Jesus told about a master who entrusted his servants with his money  and asked them to trade with the money until his return. We know that the servants who were faithful and obedient were rewarded, and the servant that was fearful was punished.

One of the keys to this parable lies in what the master said to the faithful servant upon His return. The master says, “you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.”   Wow, that is quite a reward!  I doubt the servant thought he would ever govern over ten cities for a simple act of obedience.  The reward for his faithfulness far exceeded what the servant did to deserve it.  This highlights a spiritual truth; God is generous.  This parable illustrates that faithfulness in the small calls forth the generosity of God.

Our human ego is tempted to want to do great things for God so that in some way God “owes” us something in return. Obedience in the small or a faithful act that never gets noticed just doesn’t seem worth the time. Who will notice faithfulness to the small things such as kindness to a stranger or visiting the sick?  Jesus said, “when you do this to the least of my brothers you do it for me.” (Matt 25:40). Faithfulness to what God is asking in the small and unnoticed isn’t impressive to man, but it opens the generosity of God.

The Gift of Miracles is an extravagant generosity of God that transcends the natural and demonstrates His power and glory and sovereignty over creation. Resurrection miracles, multiplication of food, legs lengthening, metal, and screws disappearing from repaired bones are just a few examples. Jesus of course routinely performed the miraculous by the power of the Holy Spirit. But Jesus said,  “he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12)  Greater things than Jesus?

Who was the most faithful man in history? Jesus of course. Jesus’ faithfulness to his mission as savior and redeemer called forth the mercy and generosity of the Father to all mankind.  Jesus’ act of obedience created a benefit of salvation that was extravagant beyond what we deserved.   “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

The gift of miracles, like much of the work of the Holy Spirit, is a mystery. We can’t earn it. We can’t merit it. Like all the Charismatic gifts it is pure grace, freely given at the will of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. If we want to grow in this gift,  one sure path we know from our scripture for today;  be faithful in the small, and our reward will be great.