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Mat 25:14-30
We’re back to the lectionary today with the parable of the Talents which we heard from Matt 25.
Who finds this one an intimidating parable???
I used to find it terrifying when I was younger, no gentle Jesus meek and mild in these words. The fate of the third slave who screwed up just reinforced to me the image of God sitting up in heaven with a big baseball bat waiting to hit me on the head if I ever made a mistake. But that’s a real shame. This parable does come to us from another period in history and another culture and is hard to understand; so, often it does inspire that kind of reaction. But, when we understand the context a little, this (for me anyway) becomes a really liberating and life-giving part of scripture.\
So, let us examine something of that context…
The parable began with these words…
14 "For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15 to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
There are 3 important points from these 2 verses to set the scene.
1. First of all – “For it is as if…”
The first question has to be, what is “it”??? What is this parable actually about? What’s the point?
If you open a Bible, you’ll see that this follows on from another parable at the beginning of Matthew 25, the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. And that parable begins with the words “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this…” So, “it” is the Kingdom of Heaven, what Luke calls the Kingdom of God and which I preached on a bit at the beginning of the year.
God’s kingdom means God’s values and God’s will; the way God wants the world to be, a vision of life on this planet that we as disciples are called to be praying and acting into being in the world around us – hence the line in the Lord’s prayer “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
☼ 2. The second scene-setter Jesus gives us is by introducing three characters, the 3 slaves. Having 3 characters was a normal pattern for telling stories in Jesus’ time. Like, imagine I came up to you and started saying “there was an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman.”
- What’s going on there? It’s a joke!
- And what’s going to happen in the joke? The Irishman will be the fool and the punch line.
So too, by introducing 3 characters, Jesus’ listeners knew straight away that the third slave (like the Irishman) would be the fool and the punch line of the story, and they’d be listening out for that. Unfair though it might sound to us, the rules of story-telling in Jesus day meant that this slave was fated to come to a sticky end right from the beginning.
3. The third point from these 2 opening verses is where Jesus throws a spanner in the works.
These three characters were introduced as slaves, and slaves did not have many rights under Roman law. They were property, they belonged to their master. They could be beaten, they could be abused, they could be killed. No-one cared, they were someone’s private property, like a owning a donkey. But, in this parable they get given money – lots of money
In Greek a ‘talent’ meant money, not giftings. So, one talent was worth 6,000 denarii; one denarii was a standard day’s wages for the working class, so, if you factor in the usual religious holidays, 1 talent came to about 20 year’s income for a labourer. If the average salary in NZ at the moment is around $45,000 a year; that means one talent was worth NZ$900,000.
So, they were being given a lot of money indeed! People did not give slaves this much money!!! This was a particularly generous and trusting master. In fact, in human terms this was unbelievable; the crowds would probably have laughed when Jesus said this.
For, as we saw, the first slave receives 5 talents = NZ$4,500,000
The second receives 2 talents = $1,800,000
And the third receives 1 talent = $900,000
The Master, who of course represents God (or perhaps Jesus who is about to go away, but who is expected to return one day…), is unlike any human master. This master trusts well beyond what is normal, to the point of stupidity even. This master doesn’t treat his slaves like slaves at all, but rather like a father would treat his sons (‘cos in those days fathers never trusted their daughters with money…). This is a master who is willing to risk his fortune in a way that would’ve sounded inconceivable to Jesus’ hearers that day, and this is a master who graciously breaks the normal class barriers of owner and slave.
So, this is a weird master, and he’s taking a risk; but, it is a considered risk! Verse 2 says that he gave “to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”
Naturally, in the symbolism of this parable, if the master represents God, then the slaves represent us. Indeed, the Bible often calls us slaves of Christ. To become a Christian in the first place, in a sense we take on the position of a slave. We surrender our lives to God, affirming Christ as our Lord and master, trying to give God and the values of God’s kingdom lordship over each area of our lives.
However, the Bible also says that because God has become human and lived among us as Jesus, that God now no longer regards us as slaves, but as friends – and that is reflected in the overwhelming generosity of the master in the parable to his slaves. God created us and is far greater than we could ever imagine, but yet, God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us – but still, more than that, God also wants to treat us like adults, wants to give us responsibility within creation, not just treat us like babies.
So, if we are the slaves in this parable. If we are people whom God our master treats more like friends than slaves, and whom God risks much by giving incredibly generously to. It is (I think) reassuring to know that God only gives to us according to our abilities. If God created us then God knows us through and through, and only gives to us what we can handle. God never over-burdens us, God never asks more from us than we have the ability to give.
Yes, some people are given more in life and some people are given less. But still, in this parable, the least that is given to one of these slaves is $900,000! That’s still a heck of a lot. For, God loves each one of us, and richly blesses each one of us. Blesses us with the love of family, blesses us with this beautiful world, blesses us with a roof over our head and food on our table, blesses us with life, and blesses us with skills and talents. Skills with numbers, or music, or gardening, or creativity, or technology, or sport, or craft, or handyman abilities.
God has blessed us all richly, but still, the message of this parable is that God wants us to use those blessings, those talents, to make the world a better place. What we’ve been given is to be used, and used in a godly way. As always, we are blessed, not to keep it to ourselves, but so that we might share it and be a blessing to those around us.
So, the problem with the third slave wasn’t that he lost the talent he was entrusted with, but rather that he didn’t do anything with it. It’s a shame that one of the other slaves in the story didn’t make a bad investment and lose their money, but then that might confuse the teaching that the master only gave them what they could handle.
Because, I don’t think it’s whether they gained or lost money that is the point. The point to me seems to be that they were being expected to follow the example of their master. They were expected to be extravagant with their talents, to use them, to take risks – as the master was being extravagant and taking risks in giving them the talents in the first place.
So, as was said, the problem with the third slave is that he didn’t take risks, he didn’t follow the example of the master, he didn’t use what he had been entrusted with but just buried it.
So why? He was only given one talent, why did he bury it? The answer seems to be that he had a very distorted image of the master. This is what he says…
24 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; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’
This slave had just seen his master break the normal social class barriers and treat him as a son or a friend, trusting him with $900,000! Yet that generosity and grace just breeds within him a debilitating sense of fear, rather than a liberating sense of joy or gratitude. He has in his mind that his master is a harsh, unforgiving man… which blinds him to the grace and respect he is shown. This makes him freeze up. He’s too scared to risk losing what the master has trusted him with, and so he does nothing, he just sits on it.
And in doing this he fails the trust and respect he was given, and is rebuked.
26 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? 27 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. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29 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.
So, deep down, what is our view of God our master? Do we see God as harsh and judgemental, sitting up in heaven with a baseball bat waiting to hit us whenever we do anything wrong?
If so, like the third slave we might just sit on our gifts, sit in our pews; not trusting ourselves to take risks and give things a go; not using our gifts; not realising that God has trusted us with what we have been given because God has faith in us, God has faith that we can handle and use well what we have been given.
Of course, reading what happened to the third slave might make us a bit wary of God because yes it does seem a bit harsh. But we have to remember that as a parable this is a symbolic story. The master is like God in some ways, but also unlike God in some ways. Just as we are like the slaves in some ways, but the slaves are quite different from us in some ways too.
Because, scripture and the teachings of Jesus do tell us that God loves us and looks down on us with eyes of infinite compassion and grace – not with harsh, angry eyes. God has richly blessed us with many talents, and God wants us to realise this and to be liberated by this, and by the respect and trust that are inherent in these gifts.
But, in the parable, the talents are given for a reason, and it’s the same with us. God wants us to be free to use these talents, to fulfil the purpose for which they were given. To take them, to risk them, to be extravagant with them, to rejoice in them – all as we are able, remembering that God never asks of us more than we can give.
As we sit here this morning, imagine God looking down on us with those eyes of infinite compassion and love. Think of all the wondrous blessings God has given us, but also, are there any talents or giftings that we’re sitting on and that God yearns for us to break out, to use and to risk?
Is there an area where God is calling us to challenge ourselves, embrace the trust God has placed in us, and step out in faith?