Talent
Matthew 25: 14-30 (NIV)
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
If you've ever worked with money or investments before, then the parable Jesus tells his disciples in the morning's Gospel reading will make a lot of sense to you.
Like with last week's Gospel reading, Jesus is trying to get his disciples ready for the near future, when Jesus won't be with them anymore, and they will need to carry on his ministry without him, prepared for an ultimate day when Jesus returns.
So Jesus is trying to explain to them what exactly it will mean for them to carry out Jesus' ministry in his absence, and be ready for him to come back.
Last week, Jesus talked about something most of us can relate to: a wedding. This week, Jesus is relating to his disciples with something even more common than weddings: money.
We all have it, we all need it, we all spend it. Like it or not, money is so common we can all understand this story.
So this story is about a master and three servants. We really don't know what it is this master does for a living, just that he is super wealthy, and he's made his incredible wealth through excellent returns on his investments.
Now, for some reason, he has to go away for a while, and he needs to leave not only his land, but also his work, in the hands of his servants. So he leaves each of his three servants with a ton of money. It's worth noting that even though the translation I read from this morning, the NIV, says that the master left his servants with "bags of gold", other translations say the master left his servants with a specific form of currency called a "talent".
The master goes away, for a long time, and then comes back, and immediately wants to judge what his servants accomplished in his business while he was gone. One servant had five bags of gold, and invested it, so he could return to his master ten bags of gold. The second only had two bags of gold, but also invested it, and doubled it, returning to his master four bags of gold. But the poor third servant was entrusted with one bag of gold, and was so afraid of his master, and so afraid he would lose his master's money, that he didn't do anything with the money but bury it. The master, Jesus tells us, was ecstatic with the first two servants, and commended them on their good work, but was furious with the third servant, and took his bag of gold away and gave it to the first servant, the one who had ten bags of gold, effectively kicking the third servant out of his business.
So those are the facts. But what are we supposed to learn from this Gospel story?
The unfortunate truth is that this story has been seriously misinterpreted and misunderstood, by some. Some people have gotten hung up on the fact that Jesus talks about money in this story, and a number of outspoken televangelists have proclaimed that Jesus teaches us through this text that God blesses rich people. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just do a Google search for "prosperity Gospel".
No offense to those preachers, but I don't think that's what Jesus is getting at with this parable. So let's get past the symbol of the gold bags, and get to the real meat of this story--the work of the servants.
Yes, Jesus is telling us a story about three people working with money. But the more important detail here is what the master actually asked his servants to do while he was away. He asked them to do three things:
- Continue his business
- Act like him
- Take a risk
So let's talk about where we fit into this story. If you haven't figured it out, we're the servants, and Jesus is the master. Jesus, over the course of a year, planted a strong ministry with many very dedicated followers. He did as much earth-side as he possibly could. Then he died on the cross, and went on to heaven. Now he's left his life's work, his ministry, with his servants--us. He's entrusted his ministry to us.
And, like the master in this story, he's done the work of dividing his ministry up amongst us, rather than leaving all the work in one piece and making us divvy up the responsibilities. Not everyone has been entrusted with the same thing. Jesus has entrusted some of us with a ton, and some of us with only a little.
But, from now until he comes back someday--whenever that is--he expects us to take what he's entrusted us with and do three things with it:
- Continue his work, his ministry
- Act like him
- And take risks
And, since we're not really dealing with money here, what was it that Jesus entrusted us with? Talent.
And the scripture says that master left his servants with certain amounts of his gold "according to their ability", so the first bit of Good News is that Jesus only expects us to do our personal best, what we can. The master in this story was just as impressed with the servant who raised up 2 more bags of gold as he was with the servant who raised up five more bags of gold, because they both worked to their own potential. They both gave it their all and did what they could.
The master in the story had a business of making investments, and he wanted his servants to continue that business by doing exactly what he did to make that fortune--invest the money and get a big return on that investment. If you've ever made any kind of an investment before, whether it was buying a savings bond, or starting a business, or buying a house or paying college tuition--any kind of investment--you know you're risking what you're putting inin the hopes that you'll get much more out of it.
Jesus' business was planting the seeds for the Kingdom of God in this world. Jesus' business was changing the way we all treat each other, and changing our priorities. His business was to radically love the people who had nothing to offer him in return--to cure the sick, to befriend the people no one liked, and to stand up for the people who couldn't stand up for themselves, like women and children. By doing this, he wanted to make a world ruled by love, justice, and servanthood, with no one in charge but God.
That's the work he's entrusted us with until he comes back. That's a very tall order, so rest assured that he doesn't expect any one of us to take all of that on. The master in Jesus' story was fabulously wealthy, but only handed out a few bags of gold to each of his servants. In the same way, Jesus has entrusted each one of us with just a very small part of the work it would take to bring about the Kingdom of God, a world that's ruled by God and reflects God's image.
That's what Jesus wants to see when he comes back. And he's entrusted us with our own unique abilities, or with our talents, to do what we can to minister to this world the same way Jesus would. We can't all do the same kind of ministry, and we can't all take on the same amount of ministry work, but we can all do something, and whatever that something is, Jesus expects us to do it.
He expects us to risk our time and resources to do what he would do: to take care of the sick and the hungry, to be a friend to someone that doesn't have one, and to speak up for people who have been silenced.
However you do that in this life, you are doubling the talents Jesus entrusted to you. But when we fail to bring that kind of love to the people who need it, we take the precious gifts Jesus' trusted us with, and we bury them so they can't help anyone. Don't bury your talent. Use it.
And when you do, know that someday you will see Jesus face to face, and he will say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
Amen.
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