Today’s readings continue to prepare us for the end of the Church year which we’ll reach next Sunday when we celebrate the Reign of Christ the King. These apocalyptic texts challenge us to remember that the same God who created us and put us on the earth is with us “from age to age” (Ps. 90:2) and, in St. Paul’s words, “has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
The parable in Matthew’s gospel appears at first to contradict that. It puts into words the fear many of us have that when we face God, the Master will chastise us, call us wicked and lazy, (Matt. 25:26) and cast us into an outer darkness where we will suffer. (Matt. 25:30) But I think it warrants a second look.
Remember that Scripture reveals who God is?
When our interpretation of the parable focuses on the math of the five talents, the two talents, and the one talent and what each slave did to increase their yield, we aren’t focused on God. We are focused on human efforts and abilities.
To begin with, the master entrusted the slaves, or servants, with the abundant wealth that he had. A talent was a measure of money worth fifteen years of labor. One received five, another two and another one: 75 years of earnings, 30 years, 15 years. Each received an extravagant trust.
And then the master went away for a long time, leaving them each to live with this abundance. The text doesn’t tell us that the master demanded anything from them during that time. The master trusted each of them to live according to his ability. But the Greek word ‘ability’ used in v. 15 isn’t skill or expertise. It is ‘power’ or ‘capacity’.
So what is the ‘ability’ or ‘capacity’ that’s being measured?
For all of us who aren’t mathematicians, or financiers, I think we can breathe a sigh of relief that the parable isn’t about financial or mathematical acumen. Instead, what is measured is our capacity to live as a disciple of Christ, a follower of Jesus, a servant to all.
Martin Luther defined sin as being curved in on one’s self. The temptation of our human nature is to keep focused inwardly on ourselves, on the expertise we bring and the work we are doing, and only to look outwardly to see how others are falling short.
So, when the master returns and speaks to the slaves we immediately hear the accusation and cursing to the outer darkness that is delivered to the third one but it’s really easy to miss what he says to the first two.
(I know I had missed it.)
The master responds to the first two servants with an invitation, “Enter into the joy of your master.”
A cynical reading might say the master is joyful because his wealth increased, but that’s not the context where we see joy expressed in Matthew’s gospel or elsewhere in Scripture.
There is joy when the birth of the Savior is announced (Matt. 2:10);
there is joy when the Gospel’s good news is heard and received (Matt. 13:20); and,
there is joy when the disciples discover the empty tomb (Matt. 28:8).
Joy is not mere happiness or contentment with our current circumstances, or increased safety or security, but a response to God’s presence with us, in all places and all situations.
The judgment against the third servant still sounds harsh, but in the context of gift and invitation, we see that person has chosen to bury himself and to ignore the gift and trust given by the master.
Artist and poet Jan Richardson writes that
when we cannot imagine other possibilities we tend to hoard what we have, clinging to what is comfortable or at least familiar, and not only to hoard but to hide.[i]
Unable to escape his own fears, he’s created a cell of his own design that he cannot escape.
The Good News is that God invites us into a kingdom of possibilities where we live fully in the abundance of God’s love, mercy and compassion and enter into God’s joy and delight.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your Son Jesus who died for us and in whom we have salvation.
Help us remember your love and mercy for us does not end in death and suffering but joy.
Free us from our fears and show us how to enter your joy that we would live the abundant life you give us.
We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
[i] Jan Richardson. “Parabolic Curves.” https://paintedprayerbook.com/2008/11/11/parabolic-curves/, accessed 11/14/2020.
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