Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30; Psalm 123:1-4; Job 38:4-5; 1 Peter 3:18-19 Series: One offs
A sermon on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) arguing it is not about investment strategy but about the character of God and whether we trust him. The faithful servants act out of freedom and abundance; the third buries his talent out of fear, viewing God as a petty tyrant rather than a friend. Distinguishing fear-as-respect (Proverbs, Job’s whirlwind, respecting a mountain) from fear-as-insecurity, Pruitt identifies Jesus as the truly faithful servant who turns five talents into five more, yet who also took the place of the faithless servant cast into outer darkness. Via 1 Peter 3 and Holy Saturday’s harrowing of hell, even our failure and fear are redeemed, so we are freed to use our talents unafraid. Title from Yoda: do or do not, there is no try.
Illustrations: hundred-thousand-windfall, talent-word-etymology, investment-banker-take-risk, respecting-the-mountain, jesus-worldly-failure-nazareth, yoda-do-or-do-not
November 19
Do Or Do Not
To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud. - Psalm 123
“For 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. At once the one who had received the five talents went off 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, 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
If tomorrow, your boss or your fund manager or somebody else gave you $100,000, no strings attached, what would you do with it? Once we get past the shock, I think we all might look at it in a different way. Some of us would use it to pay down our debt. Others might pay for a vacation. Others might put it into an investment. What would you do if outta the blue you just received this great gift? I think there’s two general directions you can go with it. One is the direction of freedom, I can do what I want. The other, the direction of insecurity: I hope I don’t mess up what I do because it won’t happen again.
This is basically what happens with the parable of the talents. A talent is a large amount of silver and is a significant amount of money, between 80 and 100 pounds of silver, or 6,000 denarii, and could be worth around $100,000 or more in today’s money. 1 denarii was the basic wage for a 6 hour work day for a laborer. Servants do not receive talents. It is not a method of payment for servants. It is more like the currency you use to purchase homes.
So we have this parable where three servants receive down payments for homes or even the full cash value of some homes. They don’t receive an equal amount. One receives 5 talents, another two, another one. Two of the servants, though, act out of freedom. The other acts out of insecurity, fear. Fear about the consequences of what would happen if they make a mistake.
They all three received a gift. For now, let us focus on the servant who turned five talents into five more and the one who came back with only the one talent that he was given, we’ll come back to the middle one later. He is important, too.
The one who turned the one talent into five talents saw the gift as abundance. He traded with them and made five more. May be housing prices in the middle east were going up and he bought low and sold high. It doesn’t really matter. God isn’t interested in the methods of investments. The one who turned the one talent into one talent, just buried it. He saw the gift in terms of scarcity and fear. He thought about the giver and assumed that there must be a catch, and he didn’t wanna lose what he had. He ended up losing all that he had in the end. He was cast into the outer darkness, with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. He was so afraid of losing the talent that he ended up losing so much more.
The one who made five more talents trusted the giver and bore fruit abundantly. I think it’s fairly ironic, in the English language, how the word talent from this parable became the word talent we use today in common English. That is a very talented person or talented singer, or a talented football player. It originally was a term for a significant amount of money, and over time became translated into a term for a physical or mental gift of an attribute. A talent is a gift you have been given. We think about it as a genetic gift, an attribute that you have that others may not have. In the same level, how do you use your talents? How do you not bury them? I think if you’re an investment banker and a Christian, this is probably your favorite verse in the whole Bible. You gotta take risk. You gotta take risk, baby. The one who takes the risk, bears the fruit. The one who does not, who buries the risk ignores it, just buys a CD and moves on. They do not. However, when we read the parable in the context of the whole chapter and the whole gospel, something else emerges.
Matthew 25 is a unique series of parables. It covers a lot of human existence. Last week we had the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, the five who got oil and were ready, and the five who didn’t. Today, we have the parable and the talents. The wise servant used their talent, and the foolish servant ho didn’t. Next week we have the parable of the goats and the sheep of the coming of the son of man. It’s Christ the king Sunday next week.
Where is Christ in this parable? Last week, he was the bridegroom that the brides were waiting for. Christ is the son of man in the parable of the Goats and the sheep, the one who is coming? Where is Christ here? Is he the master? is he the servant?
What if this isn’t a parable about investment strategies in the Roman governed Palestine? What if it is about Jesus? What if Jesus is the good and faithful servant? Jesus is the one who turns the five talents into five more. In many ways, it’s much more of a choice between the next two servants. We have the servant who turned two talents into two, or the servant who had one talent buried it and returned one talent. Margins are very small here. Margins are very small. But I think we need to read this parable as we read the other parables in Matthew 25 as a call towards following Jesus. It isn’t a call towards investment. It isn’t a call towards acting just to act, spending just to spend, using our talent just to use our talent, but living as Jesus lives, we see the example. We see the five talent turned to five. We see the words, “well done, good and faithful servant”, and that we can be trusted by God and that we can trust God in how we live and how we act in response to God’s promise and God’s love. It is a question of faith. How much faith do we put in God? Is God the giver of life of divine justice, or is God someone so scary that we need to hide our gifts because in case someone steals it, ‘cause we know if someone steals it, then God will be mad at us. Is our God a tyrant or a friend? Is our God big and powerful and far away, constantly judging us, telling us if we’re good enough, being really passive aggressive, or is our God nearer to us than our breath, meeting us where we are, and also telling us that we can do more. What the Good News of Jesus Christ shows us is that God is the latter.God is not finished with us, but God is not distant from us. God is not distant from you. You are not alone. Viewing God with fear can make us feel alone, as if we’re isolated. And we should be clear that there are multiple types of fear. Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is an important sense that fear is a term of respect. Wisdom is knowing the extent of God’s power. Wisdom is not found in an assumption that God will act unjustly towards me.
When I take my kids climbing in mountains, I drill into them the importance of respecting the mountain. FeaRing the mountain. Fearing what a mountain is capable of. Don’t get cocky with a mountain because the mountain is going to win. In Job, God speaks from the whirlwind and says to Job, Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?” Job 38:4-5 ESV
The fear of the Lord here is respect.
This language of fear and respect is very different from a fear of snakes or spiders or burglars. This latter fear is more about self-protection against irrational agents. It is not about respect but insecurity. The third servant did not fear God as a mountain or the whirlwind or the creator, but as a petty thief who would take back what had been given.
Ultimately, this parable of the talents is about how we see the character of God. Is God for us or against us? If God is for us, we should not fear in using our talents. If God is against us, we should be frightened. The logic continues, though. If we are afraid of using our talents, that means that somewhere inside we feel like God is not for us. God is not with us. God did not save us. God did not love us.
Here is the moment when this parable cuts right to our own heart. What are we willing to do with what God has given us?
Psalm 123 can help us. To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us. The third servant did not look to the heavens. The third servant did not look to the Lord. The third servant went away and hid. The first servant, Jesus, looked to heaven constantly. Jesus prayed without ceasing. Jesus showed us a life of prayer and sacrifice and mercy.
This is how we use our talents. This is how we invest them. Not by being cold and calculating or efficient with everything we have, but by aiming to be Christlike. We are not all given the same talents, but we are all given opportunities to love and serve, to seek and mend, to bring peace and hope in the lives of the people around us. It is not about trying but doing. As the wise Yoda said to Luke in the emperor strikes back: do or do not, there is no try. The third servant was trying. The second and first were doing.
Trying, though, is a rational decision according to the world. It is rational to save up your 120 pounds of silver. It is rational to not use your talent. If all there is is what is in front of our face or in our bank accounts or whatever material things are in this world, then, yes, be super frugal. When you use your talents, a 100% return on investment doesn’t always take place. Some times people take your talents and use them for their own benefit. Or, let’s continue to think about the life of Jesus. He failed according to the world. He had no retirement account. He was a bum. Never kept a steady job. Couldn’t stay in the same place. I mean, Mary and Joseph’s neighbor’s kids probably stayed and Nazareth while Mary and Joseph never really know where Jesus was. “So where is Jesus again?” the neighbor asks. Mary doesn’t know. She changes the subject.
And yet, Jesus turns the 5 talents into 5 more. The value in the parable, though, is not the worldly value but what matters to God. The talents are not silver or gold but the love of the Father for the Son through the Spirit which created all the silver, all the gold, all the life in all the universe.
And, ultimately, Jesus took the place of all three servants. He was there as the good servant, giving the best return on investment. He was there with moderate servant doing what needed to be done. He was there with the faithless servant, being cast into the outer darkness. He took our sin, our insufficiency: As Peter says, ”For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison.” On Holy Saturday, Jesus went even to those who had been cast off and brought them near. So even when we fail and fear, God will set us free. Therefore, let us not be afraid to use our talents, to use our lives, to give our lives.
May you see God’s mercy in what you can give as much as what you can receive. And may you be unafraid to give it.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us, forgiving us, and offering us a way to show love through your Spirit. May we use the talent of love you give us. May we not bury it. May we realize it is more precious than silver, it is more costly than gold. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.