How Big Is Your Frying Pan?
A man went for a walk near a creek one day and came upon another man who was fishing. He watched for a while as the other man cast his line into the water, reeled it back in and then cast again. Finally the man caught a large trout. To the hikers amazement the fisherman removed the hook from the fish’s mouth, tossed him back in the water and continued with his fishing. Once again the fisherman caught a trout, but this one was only half the size of the first. This one he reeled in and put in a bucket and started off away from the creek. When the fisherman came near the hiker, the hiker asked, “I saw you catch a much bigger fish the first time and then throw him back. May I ask why you didn’t keep the first one?” “Well,” said the fisherman, “I would have liked to have kept the first one, but he was too big for my frying pan.”
That fisherman seems pretty silly to us, doesn’t he? But if we stop to think about it, we may realize that we can be more like him than we would like to admit.
In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells the parable of the talents. In that parable he shows how a master had given three of his servants portions of his wealth called talents and then left them to go to another country. The master was gone for an indeterminate time and then returned to see what the servants had done with the talents he had given them. Two of the men had succeeded in adding to the talents they had been given, doubling what they had started with. The third had hid the talent rather than use it to gain his master more wealth. On the day of reckoning the two faithful servants who had served their master well were allowed to “enter into the master’s joy”. However, the unprofitable servant tried to “reason” with the master, to justify his decision not to work with his talent. He seemed sure that the master would see his logic. Instead, the unprofitable servant was cast out of the master’s presence to a place of “darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
The symbols in this parable are easy to grasp. We recognize the day of reckoning with the master as speaking of the day of judgment. The talents are those things that God has given us to work with in this world. The journey to another country is the time we have till the Lord returns to judge. And the servants represent the two types of people on this earth. Those who serve the Master and those who do not. The only undetermined factor in this parable is: when will the return be?
Consider this: Knowing what we know of the servants, what would have happened if the Master had been gone even longer? It seems obvious that the one servant probably would have continued to be unprofitable, but until the master returned he still had a chance to serve. But what of the other two servants? It seems obvious that they probably would have continued to serve as before. However, as time passed they had even more resources to use for their Lord’s service. Unlike the fisherman who limited his efforts to the size of his frying pan, they would be able to do even more than what they had started out with.
We need to consider our own service, not only working with what the Master has given us at the start, but also growing in His work and doing more with what we gain in His service. Hebrews 5:12 teaches us that we are expected to grow into more talents as we walk our Christian walk. The questions we must ask ourselves are, “What are my talents? How can I make them grow? What can I do with the talents that I gain? How can I serve my master even more?” Now, let me ask you again:
How Big Is Your Frying Pan?