Many of the parables of Jesus are about what the Kingdom
of God is like,
especially
in the Gospel of Matthew.
“The Kingdom of Heaven,” said Jesus, “is like…”
like
seed scattered willy nilly and then producing way more abundantly
than
can reasonably be expected,
like
a tiny mustard seed growing and expanding
until
it is a tree big enough to house the birds of the air,
like
leaven kneaded into THREE measures of flour
and
the dough expands and expands and expands.
The economy of the Kingdom of Heaven is exemplified by
absurd abundance.
So today’s parable, is it about
the expansive abundance of the Kingdom of God?
Well,
not really.
Many instead have viewed it as a parable about
stewardship.
But, if we were to stop looking at this parable of Jesus
as
a story about being good stewards of what is given us,
and if, instead, we were to read the parable literally,
we
might be shocked,
we
might come to some very different ideas about the parable,
and
we might find ourselves confronted by a strange paradox –
strange,
because this parable comes from the lips of Jesus.
We know the story, but do we really know it.
This is one of the kingdom of heaven parables,
and
it follows immediately after the parable we heard last week
about
the ten bridesmaids and the tardy groom.
This time Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is as if
a
man leaving home delivers his goods over to his slaves.
He gives varying amounts to each of the three.
Two of them go out and do just what he apparently would
want them to do:
they
make that capital grow,
they
double the man’s fortune,
they
are significantly successful commercially.
They know the art of the deal, how to do business.
The whole world admires that sort of entrepreneurial
acumen.
But the third slave won’t engage in that game.
And he has the audacity to tell the master to his face
that
he is a harsh man, taking what others worked on,
sort of like what I saw in the Yakima Valley where I
served congregations:
owners
letting the ICE agents come into their fruit packing plant
and
sweep up undocumented workers
right
before payday.
So the third slave hands back to the master what he had
been given,
what
he hadn’t engaged with, what he refused to be complicit with.
So the master takes back the single talent
and
hands it over
to
the one who made the biggest gains with his investment.
Smart move.
Use that servant to make even bigger profits.
“For to all those who have, more will be given, …
but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken
away.”
Isn’t
that true! It’s
the way of the world.
And then the slave that was worthless to him and his
investment enterprises
he
has him tossed out -- into outer darkness.
You know, sometimes Jesus told not so nice stories to get his
point across.
Cast into outer darkness, total darkness, oppressive and
hellish darkness.
It is not by accident
that the next verses that follow in this 25th
chapter of Matthew
is
the Kingdom of Heaven parable in which Jesus says,
“Inasmuch as you did this unto the least of these, you
have done it unto me.”
And
you will hear that parable in full next Sunday.
Slave #3 in today’s parable doesn’t just get fired;
he
gets disposed of.
Now he is homeless, hungry, jobless and without resources,
outside
the protection of the economy of his culture.
Just the sort of person that Jesus identifies with.
Just
the sort of person Jesus ministers to.
Just
the sort of person that fits the description of the Beatitudes.
Slave as he was, he would not copy his master’s economic
strategies,
right
down to usury, collecting interest
– which the Torah technically forbids.
This slave, fearful as he was about his owner,
stood
up to him and would not play his game –
and
suffered for it.
On the night before he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took
bread,
and
when he had given thanks,
he
took it and gave it to his disciples,
and
said,
“Take,
eat; this is my body.”
Likewise after supper he took the cup
and
gave it to his disciples, and said,
“This
is my blood of the new covenant.
[Drink
this.]
I
will not drink again of this cup until I drink it at the banquet
in
my Father’s kingdom.”
And then they went out into the darkness -- to Gethsemane
where
they couldn’t even keep watch, couldn’t stay awake,
while
Jesus had his last few minutes left
in
which he could pray and prepare himself
for being cast out into outer darkness –
for betrayal
for
arrest and contrived trial and physical torture and execution.
Because he had so infuriated the civil leadership and
religious leadership,
that
they feared a loss of control that would bring to an end
the
stability, such as it was,
of
their economic, political and religious establishments.
But the love that is behind the blood, behind this fullest
of self offering,
is
inescapably embracing.
This parable about the talents
is
a story designed to provoke awareness of our spiritual dereliction.
The way this world works,
the
world in which we live and have jobs
and
make investments for retirement,
places value on the bottom line of the budget report.
When does Jesus get to be recognized as the bottom line?
the
bottom line in our lives?
The gospels continually tell us of how Jesus offers us
another way of being,
the
way of self offering.
Jesus looked at all the suffering of our human condition
and
addressed that in the offering of himself fully,
in
the healing – physical healings, and liberation of the soul,
in
feeding multitudes,
in
his teachings,
but
most of all in giving his life blood in a voluntary death
so
that his Presence as Holy Spirit
could
live in as many as would receive him.
So that we too could become living offerings.
Do you not realize that in baptismal union in Jesus,
we
can be a human offering which becomes a God offering?!
I want to get down to the core dynamics of our Christian
faith.
Jesus offered and continues to offer anyone who has ears
to hear
a
path of spiritual revolution about our orientation of self.
This is so contrary to the world culture that we are very
familiar with.
This culture that we live in is a culture of desperation.
Think
about it. Isn’t
that true. A
culture of desperation.
We are trying to solve our problems by maintaining and
protecting
some
sort of sustainability, like sustaining free market capitalism;
We
try to solve our problems by protecting our own self interests.
In general that is the culture we live in.
And
I might say that sustainability will eventually fail.
Jesus is outside of that agenda.
Any
who refer to themselves as Christians need to acknowledge that.
So what do we do? Isn’t
that the usual question? What
do I do now?
Find out who Jesus is, who Jesus is in your own experience
of him.
Love him more than all these things in their lure from the
world culture.
It’s not in figuring out what to do, but in discovering who
he is.
If you find that out, and express that in your living and
in your dying,
then
you will act out of love and compassion
without
self interest.
That’s how one becomes a useful disciple.
I will end with on verse from
the epistle reading for today: the Apostle Paul wrote,
“God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.”
