In Luke 19 we find a parable of Jesus called the Parable of Minas. In it, the Master (Jesus) entrusts His servants (us) with minas (each mina is equivalent to around 100 days wages). Along with the minas comes the exhortation, “Occupy till I come.” I was curious what exactly Jesus was instructing when He said this, so I dug a little deeper.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, ‘Occupy till I come.’
Luke 19:13 KJV
I tend to consider myself a rather practical person. At its core, practicality is the trait of doing. One who is practical doesn’t spend a lot of time discussing the merits of an action or the philosophy behind an action. One who is practical merely does the action. Another word commonly used to describe this type of matter-of-fact, down-to-earth person is pragmatic. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pragmatic this way.
relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic
Pragmatism is about doing. We get our English word “pragmatic” from the Greek word πραγματεύομαι (pragmateuomai). Which is defined as “to busy oneself.” It was the term used of ancient merchants when they would trade or exchange goods for profit. In Jesus’ day the term was used for an occupation, exchanging goods and services to see an increase.
When Jesus gave us gifts and told us to “occupy”, He was telling us to remain occupied or to busy ourselves. He expects us to be about His work, taking the gifts He’s given and leveraging them for His profit. He wants to see an increase for His kingdom. Occupy sound like a motionless, static word. We are not called to merely fill a space, we are called to do something productive for His kingdom every where we go, with every person we encounter. We are to be busy, not for business sake, but fruitful.
Are you occupied?