Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Jesus said, “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
—Matthew 25:14-30 (NRSV)
If you were listening to the gospel, read a few minutes ago, you are probably busy mentally scratching your head right now. Don’t feel alone. It’s a tough one to comprehend in any way that allows it to sound like a story Jesus would tell. So in a Bible Study sort of manner let’s talk about it.
A man was going on a journey, apparently a trip of some duration, and he asked three of his slaves to come and see him before he left. The first he handed five talents, the second two, and the third one.
Now please understand that a talent was a great deal of money. In that day the common man would have had to work fifteen years to earn the equivalent of one talent. The first slave therefore was entrusted with a fortune of seventy five years wages, the second thirty years wages, and the third fifteen. These are unimaginable sums, tremendous wealth.
Then we hear that the master of the slaves went away on his trip. Immediately the first slave went to work, and using his master’s money doubled it so that he now was in possession of ten talents. The second slave did the identically same thing, doubling his master’s money from two to four talents. Interestingly though the third slave chose to dig a hole and hide the single talent he had been given where he felt it would be safe.
Now let’s inject a little cultural history before we continue. What the first two slaves did would have been seen as offensive to a Jewish audience because they committed a grave sin, called usury, by making money with money. Worse, they did it immediately, with no hesitation at all, until they doubled their investments.
Contrarily, during the first century, Jewish culture taught that if one was entrusted with something of great value, one should bury it in the ground for safekeeping. So, from a cultural standpoint, the third slave is the one who did the most appropriate thing with the fortune he had been given.
We now have two indications that Jesus is up to his usual trick of blind siding us with the unexpected. The first indication is that no one in their right mind is going to entrust this kind of money to a slave. The sheer amount of money entrusted has some sort of meaning.
The second flag is what the slaves immediately begin to do with the fortunes that they have been entrusted with. Yep, I can see you nodding your heads already. The slave who did the correct thing by burying the money ends up being criticized and the ones who did the wrong thing by investing it get rewarded. We know for sure at this point that Jesus is about to turn common wisdom on its head.
So let’s continue. Back comes the slave owner from his trip. Sure enough he rewards the first two slaves for making him a bunch of money, even though they have done the opposite of what current wisdom would have suggested. As a matter of fact they doubled what had been given to them.
And the poor slave who did what his culture had suggested? Well he’s in trouble. He said he knew his owner was a tough and selfish guy and was afraid of him. So he did the wise and safe thing and made sure the owner’s investment was protected, to which the master told him he should have at least given the money to the bankers and made a little interest. What the third slave has done is so bad in fact that we next hear a summation of what has happened. For those who have much more will be added so that they have everything in abundance, and from those who have little even what little they have will be taken away.
Well isn’t that fun? Now be honest. Haven’t you suspected this idea of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer to be true from time to time in your lives? Yes, I think we all have. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about.
I would suggest to you that what Jesus is talking about is our conceptions of God versus the true nature of God. Jesus is talking about life in the Kingdom of God.
Let’s each of us think for a moment how we see God. Is your conception of God an old man with a long white beard sitting in a massive chair a long ways away? Is it some guy who created the world and then set it in motion and walked away from it? Is God for you a scorekeeper? Does God reward you for good things and punish you for bad, all the while making notes about you in a big black book? Is God an angry God? Is God a jealous God? Might God be somewhat unfair at times it seems to you?
I know some of these ways of thinking about God might sound a little dumb, but silly as they are, for most of us, some of these ideas are ingrained deeply within us and hard to let go of.
This is when we are like the third slave and we imagine a God that is pretty scary, a God we have no real relationship with. Please note that there is no indication that the master in the parable is a bad guy. We only hear about that from the third slave who believes that God is a scary God and gets the God he dreamed up. The God he knows about is the God of his imagination. This is the tragedy of the story.
You see in parable after parable Jesus presents God as generous and often throwing a party. Yet in the parable of the Prodigal Son the older brother refuses to come inside and join the party because he thinks God is unfair. The workers that came at the first of the day got the same money as the ones who came later in the day, again seeing God as unfair. The guy that wouldn’t wear a wedding robe, and wanted to do things his own way thus getting tossed out, probably saw God as unfair too. Yet in each and every case we, on the outside looking in, recognize the unbelievably giving God Jesus is presenting.
It’s the same here. Slaves have been given incredible fortunes to do what they will with it. Jesus presents God as a riverboat gambler, showering those who have virtually nothing with untold riches and there is no fear that the money will be lost. There’s not even a consideration of the possibility. You see it’s not important. What’s important is the recognition of the type of God to whom we are subjects, and the kind of trust God has in each of us. God has trust in us we do not even have in ourselves. God wants us to get out there and do something with the gifts we have been given. Do not be afraid. Don’t listen to the world around you and don’t listen to the voices inside that tell us we can’t.
There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a climbing competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.
And the race began…..
Honestly, no one in the crowd really believed the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. Heard throughout the race were statements such as, “Oh, way too difficult,” “They will never make it to the top,” “Not a chance they will succeed,” “The tower is too high.” “They will all fall down” “It’s impossible!” “Who do they think they are, Spiderman?”
Sure enough, the tiny frogs began collapsing, one by one—except for those who, in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher.
The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult! No one will ever make it!”
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up.
Most believed that the crowd was probably right….”It’s impossible!”
But one little frog continued to climb higher and higher.
This one refused to give up!
The crowd continued to berate and snicker at him. But this frog just wouldn’t give up!
At the end of the race, all had given up climbing the tower except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
Thrilled, all of the other tiny frogs wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it. They asked him how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal.
It turned out…… that the winning frog was deaf.
Don’t listen to the world around you. Don’t listen to your own doubts. Listen instead to the God that believes in you and trusts you. The gifts God has given each of us are not the same, but each of us has been entrusted with a fortune. Make something of it.