Two years in the past I used to be listening to Pastor Chip Ingram and one thing he mentioned hit me like a ton of gold bricks. Across the identical time I began Severance, Season 1, and though not in the identical religious “epiphany” class, the present is thought-provoking and expertly crafted. With Season 2 releasing (Episode 1 debuted January 17, 2025), we’ll do a fast, spoiler-free overview of Severance (you’ll be able to watch this recap with spoilers) and, extra importantly, discover Jesus’s assertion on every Christian’s fundamental accountability—on what forgotten advantage is definitely foundational and in some sense an ethical preliminary to higher issues.
Il(Lumon)ating Enterprise Practices
Lumon’s staff who show themselves competent in entry-level duties are then given the chance to obtain the irreversible severing surgical procedure.
Lumon Industries developed a revolutionary course of the place an implant inserted within the mind cuts an worker’s reminiscences between work and private time. The method is named “severing,” therefore the title’s witty double entendre (utilizing the enterprise time period “severance,” which is when an worker is compensated for leaving). The associates supposedly take pleasure in a piece/life stability and the corporate retains proprietary data protected. However a break up thoughts has its share of issues.
The collection follows the Macrodata Refinement Division which has 4 members: newly-appointed supervisor Mark (performed by Adam Scott), tenacious Dylan (Zach Cherry), by-the-book Irv (John Turturro), and trainee Helly (Britt Decrease). The viewers is launched to the bizarre, usually seemingly nefarious enterprise practices at Lumon by way of Helly’s orientation given by Mark.
The present does a superb job asking our questions: what are the refiners engaged on? What ache would drive somebody to separate their thoughts? What qualifies an individual to obtain the surgical procedure? Apparently, Lumon’s staff who show themselves competent in entry-level duties are then given the chance to obtain the irreversible severing surgical procedure. Severance completely illustrates Jesus’s instructing on accountability in accordance with one’s skills (minus the sinister company tint).
Jesus’s Gold Funding Portfolio
Earlier than delving into Jesus’s instructing, we should ask why He got here to earth. It might seem to be a foolish query, however curiously, most individuals give barely (or very!) totally different solutions. Was it to be an excellent trainer? To die on the cross for our errors? To liberate the oppressed and assist the sick and the poor? All of those are true, however not the principle cause.
John the Baptist and Jesus Himself repeatedly mentioned that Jesus got here with the intention to deliver the dominion of heaven to earth.1 However what does that imply? It’s slightly nebulous, however in Matthew 25 Jesus tells three parables about what “the dominion of heaven shall be like.”
Usually known as “The Parable of the Abilities” or “The Luggage of Gold,” the second story is a couple of boss using three managers. The boss is happening a protracted journey, giving the primary supervisor 5 baggage of gold, the second two baggage, and the third supervisor one bag, in accordance with every supervisor’s capability. The boss is aware of what every supervisor is able to by way of following directions (obedience) and work ethic, and the managers have shadowed and noticed how the boss does enterprise.
Competent Stewards: The “You” You Are
In Severance, the earlier Macrodata Refinement supervisor, Petey (Yul Vazquez), was a dynamic chief. Productiveness was within the inexperienced and engagement was excessive—as Mark says, “He set the tone.” However when Petey disappears, Mark is given the job. Though Irv was extra skilled and he assists Mark on parts of the orientation, it’s Mark who will get the promotion. Including to the awkwardness, administration doesn’t have full religion in Mark.
Severed staff have a reverence for Lumon Industries’ founder Kier Eagan, typically verging on idolatrous worship. Since his loss of life, Kier’s guidelines and phrases, developed right into a biblical-style handbook, present steering and elicit loyalty. Mark’s obedient work ethic has served him nicely, however issues have change into difficult for him, as he concurrently manages Helly’s contrarian perspective and handles the division’s discoveries of Lumon’s mysterious practices.
Cash could be a delicate topic. I at all times felt that if I thought of cash, I’d change into obsessed and/or grasping.
In Jesus’s parable, the primary two managers “put the grasp’s cash to work.” The phrase “work” right here within the Greek is ergazomai, which means “to toil [in a] job or occupation.” The third supervisor buries his gold. “After a very long time” the boss returns, demanding his gold again. The primary two managers (or stewards) have doubled the cash, whereas the final returns the identical bag. The boss is delighted with the primary two managers, giving them extra accountability and alluring them to “share in his happiness.”
However the boss calls the third supervisor “depraved and lazy.” The boss says that he himself is shrewd, harvesting the place he didn’t plant, and he asks the supervisor, Since you realize this about me, why didn’t you not less than make investments my cash to realize slightly curiosity? The supervisor agrees the boss is crafty, exclaiming he was petrified of dropping any cash; he felt hiding it was the most suitable choice.
Since this can be a parable, we’re not given totally fleshed-out motivations for the third supervisor’s habits apart from that he appears fearful. However one may speculate that such concern and laziness is indicative of (like Lumon’s severed staff) a split-mindedness, an uncertainty about the place to search out one’s identification.
The boss instantly offers the uninvested gold to the primary supervisor, explaining that the particular person trustworthy with slightly shall be given accountability over extra, however whoever is untrue with slightly can have all the things taken away. Then, angrily, he instructions that the “nugatory” supervisor be thrown into “outer darkness, the place there shall be weeping and gnashing of tooth.”
Jesus’s parables are open to interpretation, however utilizing the entire steering of Scripture, Tota Scriptura, we are able to perceive and apply Jesus’s which means to our lives. I imagine that in “The Parable of the Luggage of Gold” (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus is represented because the boss, Christians are the managers (with a variety of skills), and baggage of gold are… nicely, cash.
It needs to be mentioned that whereas Jesus’s authentic viewers would have unquestionably heard this as “cash,”2 a lot of church historical past has rightly broadened the which means to be something “tithable,” equivalent to cash, assets, religious presents, time, and so on. However we’re going to deal with the cash side as a result of Jesus spoke loads about cash (extra in a bit) and I imagine most fashionable Christians don’t perceive what is anticipated of them relating to their funds.
Cash could be a delicate topic. I at all times felt that if I thought of cash, I’d change into obsessed and/or grasping. As Sam McPheeters mentioned, “Monetary literacy itself felt morally suspect.” And perhaps you’re feeling like Flo from A Man on the Inside who contends, “I don’t like speaking about cash, it’s a jinx.”3 But when Jesus instructions us to assist Him usher within the kingdom of heaven by utilizing cash, the rest is an excuse.
Money is King: If You Don’t Rule Cash, it Guidelines You
And, as Severance teaches us, working away from our issues isn’t wholesome. Mark struggles balancing his particular person work tasks with managing his workforce’s assets and interpersonal conflicts. When a coworker makes an attempt suicide, Mark’s boss says it occurred on his watch so it’s his fault. And that he wants to repair it. Mark wrestles with a Western dilemma, deciding how a lot to let work management his life.
And severed staff solely know the half of it (actually). The viewers will get to see parts of their private lives outdoors the workplace and the way Lumon retains tabs on them. The query more and more insinuated is: do the means justify the ends?
In different phrases Jesus is saying, “In the event you can’t learn to handle cash properly, I gained’t entrust true riches to you.”
Talking on “The Parable of the Abilities,” Pastor Chip Ingram emphasizes that Jesus distributed the abilities in accordance with every particular person’s capability. “And the best way He evaluated them wasn’t on the top consequence, it was, ‘What did you do with what I gave you?’”4 That is utterly affordable and benevolent of Jesus. If I give my pal a automotive free of charge, it might get in an accident and definitely components will break. However my pal’s affordable response is to pay for repairs and maintenance and to deal with it nicely.
Pastor Ingram then confirms the significance of correct monetary administration by utilizing Luke 16:10 (“If you’re trustworthy in little issues, you’ll be trustworthy in giant ones. However in case you are dishonest in little issues, you gained’t be trustworthy with higher obligations”) as proof. To make clear, in Luke 16’s parable, Jesus calls cash a “little factor”!
Ingram says, “The explanation Jesus talks a lot about cash is as a result of it’s the cleanest, clearest, most seen, tangible factor the place you’ll be able to determine the way you’re a steward or not.” In different phrases Jesus is saying, “In the event you can’t learn to handle cash properly, I gained’t entrust true riches to you.”
That is the place Ingram’s rationalization of Jesus’s phrases hit me like a ton of gold bricks. In enterprise practices and secular mindsets, cash is essentially the most invaluable useful resource, so the higher quantity of wealth an individual has or manages, the extra highly effective and influential they’re. However, in a typical biblical distinction, Jesus says cash is a fundamental and low-level commodity to handle. And, to make it extra attention-grabbing, this isn’t the heresy of prosperity doctrine; as an alternative, correct cash administration means rising funds for the sake of being extra beneficiant, which ordinarily decreases one’s private internet value.
I slowly started to actually perceive that all of my cash was given to me by God and is due to this fact His. The phrase “cash administration” is fashionable, and figuring out cash is an idolatrous grasp (Luke 16:13) and the love of cash is the foundation of evil (1 Timothy 6:10), we must not ever view an excellent inventory return as proof of religious flourishing. As an alternative, being an excellent supervisor or steward entails not solely frugality but in addition generosity. The explanation wealth makes it extremely troublesome to enter heaven (Matthew 19:23-26) is as a result of humanity has a propensity for greed. As wealth will increase, so does the temptation to make use of these riches for private funds and particular person acquire.
Whereas, in God’s economic system, it seems that not solely ought to all financial savings and financial bonuses be funneled towards the dominion (protecting private funds internet impartial), however Christians ought to discover new methods to chop bills and provides much more. In order years go by, a Christian’s private wealth is reducing as their joyful generosity will increase.
Filling Out an Software
Severance juxtaposes the preeminent significance of labor and unquestioning job loyalty with private freedoms, life stability, and wholesome devotion. One of many present’s strengths is figuring out when to feed the viewers (and characters) clues with the intention to unravel its many mysteries (the fun of that are inconceivable to impart in a spoiler-free overview).
We should obey by spending our cash properly, oddly sufficient on these with a break up thoughts, on people who find themselves harm, typically unlovely and slightly dangerous.
Initially, Jesus’s parable was slightly mysterious to me however I’ve been a Christian lengthy sufficient to know, typically you simply must belief what He’s doing even once you don’t perceive. I waited two years to write down this text as a result of I wished to make sure I comprehended Jesus’s cash administration command, and that it was each potential and sustainable. And it’s! In the event you’re fascinated with find out how to dwell debt free there are some nice supplies on-line (most well-known are Dave Ramsey’s assets, which have helped many, however typically give off a cultish-inspirational-speaker-salesman vibe). Nonetheless, my concern right here is our coronary heart towards Jesus’s command.
There’s a case to be made for tithing (sure, particularly within the New Testomony age) and concurrently giving to parachurch organizations. And we could also be accustomed to Jesus’s instructions to offer generously and joyfully. However right here we additionally surprisingly see Jesus encourages risk-taking. I believe it could apply to how we make investments, equivalent to within the inventory market or in excessive interest-bearing accounts (each of which I’ve performed free of charge on my own). However extra seemingly, the danger is the place we make investments spiritually (i.e. how we spend the cash).
A contemporary analogy for the primary two cash managers’ success is perhaps like me shopping for meals for 2 drug addicts. I give every one $5 of meals and invite them to a Have fun Restoration assembly. One turns me down, curses God, and finally OD’s. The opposite attends, follows Jesus as his Savior, will get clear, and lives out his life serving to others. I don’t get factors or deductions for the place the addicts spend eternity—that was between them and God. But when Jesus harvested the place He didn’t plant (from below Devil’s affect of habit) and my cash administration was utilized by God, then I used to be trustworthy to assist deliver the dominion of heaven to earth.
As Severance Season 1 concludes, there are some surprising revelations and even greater questions that solely Season 2 can reply (take a look at the forged’s pop-up promo!). However one factor is evident: the Lumon staff live unnaturally with severed minds. Media like Severance is indicative of our tradition’s perception that firms (satirically) deal with their staff poorly when it’s these associates who ship the outcomes.
I believe Jesus’s lesson that it’s inconceivable to serve God and cash extends to comparable ideas: a enterprise whose major objective is revenue maximization can’t even have its staff’ greatest pursuits in thoughts. And that is Jesus’s level: don’t anticipate money-driven decision-making to have the facility or play by the identical life-changing guidelines that God’s economic system of affection and justice and generosity does.
Like many issues in God’s economic system, this parable appears paradoxical: (1) cash is a fundamental accountability, (2) although most of us could be lazy and incompetent we’re nonetheless managers, (3) the “little factor” of cash has a large impression on heaven, and (4) we’re solely accountable for the toiling, that arduous work of investing, not the outcomes.
Being accountable on earth is difficult work however brings higher success and extra accountability, blessing, happiness, and eternity in heaven. These irresponsible, the individuals with a break up thoughts, have an “simpler” life on earth, however slowly have extra taken away and finally might not even be a Christian, since “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of tooth” sounds loads like a literal hell.
However there’s hope. Our boss will not be Kier Eagan or a ladder-climbing C-Suite sociopath. Jesus is nice, forgiving, and repeatedly gives instruction. He additionally is aware of precisely what our skills are and solely holds us accountable for what we’re able to. However we should obey by spending our cash properly, oddly sufficient on these with a break up thoughts, on people who find themselves harm, typically unlovely and slightly dangerous.
- Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 5:3, 5:10; Mark 1:15, and so on. ↩︎
- Jesus makes use of talanton which was a weight making use of worth to cash. Subsequently, as France says, “the Greek talanton is just a sum of cash.” In actual fact, this Greek phrase is the place English will get its phrase “expertise,” therefore our fashionable confusion that Jesus (“erroneously,” per one commentator) meant “abilities” as merely one’s pure skills. ↩︎
- Flo (Margaret Avery) on A Man on the Inside, “Presents and Clear Hazard,” Season 1, Episode 5. ↩︎
- Chip Ingram, “Efficient Parenting,” Session 5. ↩︎
