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The Gospel of Matthew Bible Studies
The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
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September 2008
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December 2008
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Time after Pentecost - Lectionary 33a As we heard in today’s gospel: “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.” The three slaves faced the same circumstances. The differences in the amount of money that he gave to each are not that important except to note the fact that the master gave to each according to his ability. That said, it should be understood that even a single talent was an enormous amount of wealth! A talent consisted of about 75 pounds of silver and was worth about 6,000 denarii – representing almost twenty years of pay for an average worker of that day. Even though the amounts were different, the point is that all three slaves were given a responsibility for managing huge sums of money! In Luke’s version of this parable in his gospel, the master told his slaves to “do business” with what he had given them. Although that is not explicitly stated in Matthew’s gospel, it is obvious that the master’s intent was for his slaves to USE the wealth he had entrusted them with in order to make even more money for him. Then he went away – leaving them to their own devices and initiative as to what they would do. The three slaves were all faced with a major decision as to how to handle the tremendous responsibility that each had been given. They understood that the reward for success on their part could be great. But they also knew – or at least feared – that the penalty for failure could also be equally as great! What then should they do? Two of them at once went off and began trading with what their master had given them. They invested their master’s wealth in stocks, bonds, real estate, business ventures, and other moneymaking opportunities. The risks were great (they could have lost a lot if not all of their master’s money), but so were the potential rewards. And in Jesus’ parable at least, each of the first two slaves succeeded in DOUBLING what they had. The one who had received five talents made five talents more, and likewise the one who had received two talents made two talents more. Each of them ended up making a 100% return on their master’s investment! And their master, needless to say, was delighted when they informed him of this upon his return! The focus of Jesus’ parable, however, is upon the third slave who had been given the one talent. He did what a lot of people – including, perhaps, some of us – tend to do when faced with making major and perhaps risky decisions. He froze! He began to focus upon all of the things that could possibly go wrong if he started using his master’s money – so in the end he did nothing except to dig a hole in the ground to hide it in. And (note this!) when the slave finally had to give an account to his master of what he had done upon his return, he tries to excuse his inactivity by blaming the master for being such a “harsh man”!! Talk about “Chutzpah”!! The real problem, however, was that the third slave was AFRAID of the responsibility he had been given. The sheer amount of wealth that he had been entrusted with scared him to death! Perhaps if he had been given only a minor sum of money – say, ten or twenty denarii - to work with, he might have been much more willing to take some risks in investing it. It would be like us being willing to spend a couple of dollars on the Lottery – but being much less willing to gamble our entire paycheck on it! The slave was terrified about the possibility of losing an entire TALENT – twenty years of wages – if his investments would not work out. Because of the enormous amount of money that was involved, the third slave decided that the risk was simply too great. He was paralyzed into inaction! I think that a lot of people are like that third slave. They do not do much that is significant because they are afraid of the possibilities of failure. For example, I – and I think most of us – have known people who have been deeply unhappy with their job or with the general direction of their lives – and yet still have not taken steps to make any meaningful changes. When push comes to shove, they are afraid to risk the security of the money that they are receiving, or the status that they have, or whatever else they may perceive to be important – and so they are paralyzed into inaction, letting life and circumstances rule them instead of them boldly taking charge and taking some risks to change their life and circumstances! And often they – like that third slave – in the midst of their unhappiness tend to blame everything and everyone else (even God!) for their problems. But a major message of today’s gospel parable is that we do not need to be afraid of failure. In the end, it all comes down to our understanding of who and what our master – God – is like. If we believe that God will love us, forgive us, and be with us no matter what – even when we sin and fall short and sometimes fail in life – that gives us the confidence we need to risk and try new things. Yes, even when we fail God will still love us. Ultimately, that only thing that will make God really upset is for us to do nothing at all with what he has given us – to “bury our talent” in the ground!
The first two slaves in our gospel parable understood this. They were not intimidated by the responsibility of managing and investing their master’s wealth, because they were confident that even if they should lose their master’s money, he would still stand by them. They appreciated their master’s trust in them, of course – and they wanted to do well in order to validate that trust – but they also knew that he would still love them even if they failed. Their TRUST in their master’s fundamental goodness is what gave them the security and confidence they needed in order to undertake great risks. The third slave, however, did not trust the master – and THAT was his fundamental problem! His view of the master was that he was “a harsh man” who only wanted to use him and others to make money for himself. (That is what he meant when he accused the master of “reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.”) The third slave did not see his master as being gracious and compassionate – but instead saw him as being harsh, judgmental, and unfair. What is our view of God like? If we see God as being strict and judgmental we, like the third slave, will “bury our talents” in the ground and never know the joy that He wants us to experience. In the end, we will lose even what we have. But if we trust that God loves us and will always be with us (even if we sometimes fail) – then we can confidently use the talents he has given us to do his work in the world. We will experience the JOY that comes from serving him and others. And at the end, we can look forward to God saying to us: “Well done, good and faithful servants… enter into the joy of your master!” So may it be for us – in Jesus’ name! Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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