Today’s parable from Matthew 25, next in the series of parables,
has been viewed as a parable about stewardship.
We know the story, but do we really know it.
This is one of these parables that we have heard a hundred times,
one that we usually skim the surface of
and come to a quick moral for the story:
“Don’t bury your talents.”
And as usual this keeps us from noticing spiritual truth
hidden in plain sight.
Part of the reason why we do this is because our image of Jesus,
the one telling the parable,
is that he is a nice guy, loving and good,
and therefore must be telling us spiritually nice stories, holy stories,
for illustrating some good action that we should do.
But as we look at these parables,
we see that they always contain some twist that is unexpected,
something not quite right,
and often downright outrageous,
which is meant to get our attention and jar our moral sensibilities.
Today’s parable gives us an instance
in which the usual cultural and religious orientation
gets flipped over,
and Jesus,
the spiritual Teacher who consorted with tax collectors and sinners,
uses a morally corrupt story to deliver a vital spiritual message.
I think even more at the roots of the parable is the matter of faith.
The parable is about faith.
There was a big risk taken with the 5 talents and the 2 talents.
One talent equals 6,000 denarii, and one denarius is a day’s wage ,
so 6,000 is 20 years’ worth of income for the average worker.
Each talent as a coin would be large and heavy.
In this story
first, the master, while praising and rewarding risky business,
certainly comes across as greedy and avaricious,
and second, he even wants the slave to whom he gave the one talent
to practice usury, which is forbidden by Torah.
You weren’t supposed to charge interest with your own people,
although it was permitted with foreigners,
those outside the exclusive covenant community
of the Hebrew people.
So this story would have shocked those listening to Jesus,
and so caught their attention.
Well, the shock value of the story today
might not be the moral corruption,
as much as the high risk.
There was a big risk taken with the 5 talents and the 2 talents
that would be worth millions and millions of dollars today.
Each of those two slaves could be seen as both reckless
and, fortunately for them, very lucky with their master’s property
not to have lost it all on the stock market.
The third slave or servant was the most realistic and prudent,
you could say.
He knew the risks of investment,
money schemes,
how the stock market could go.
He also didn’t want to exploit others through usury.
So he didn’t make an exploitative investment with the money lenders,
and instead kept the expensive coin safe from theft
by burying it in a hidden place.
But instead, in the story the outrageous and greedy master
rewards the two slaves who have the Midas touch,
and the morally conscious slave is the one who gets tossed outside,
excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven.
But the parable is not about moral scruples
or successful financial investments,
It’s not about that but about faith.
Faith is taking the risk in the face of conventional wisdom,
conventional wisdom,
because faith is trusting not the perspective of the world,
but a new perspective on life that comes through the Spirit,
a new wisdom.
The ones who risked the most get rewarded.
But, notice this, get rewarded with what?
Remember, they were slaves; that money belonged to their master.
So they were rewarded with more responsibility,
more challenge for greater risk,
that is, greater faith.
That’s the way it is living in the Kingdom of God.
We get greater challenge to our faith.
So many of the Kingdom of Heaven parables that Jesus told
were about growth and expansion
from something relatively small
like a mustard seed or a handful of leaven
to something bigger than expected
like the seed sown on good soil
that produced a hundredfold.
So how to go about exercising faith – how do you do that?
Practice.
And a good way to practice
is to dare to speak about the focus of our faith.
What is the focus of our faith? The One we have faith in – Jesus
The great Archbishop of Canterbury of the last century, William Temple,
made probabl the most quoted statement:
we exist as a Church for the sake of those outside the Church,
to share the Gospel of reconciling, healing and transforming love.
Our purpose, according to this parable,
is to become useful, productive disciples
whose lives produce the fruit of such qualities of life
that we most desire: love, joy, peace;
qualities that attract others to faith.
How do we speak about our faith in Jesus?
Look at the cross – this cross here.
What do we notice about it?
It’s way up above the normal line of vision
What do you notice about this cross? It is not a crucifix.
The figure of Jesus is dressed in Eucharistic vestments.
It is not the body of a man who was being executed,
being purposely put to death.
We don’t really want to look at that – that’s too unsettling, disturbing.
But so important, especially now.
Because Jesus is the One,
who in the tradition of the great Spiritual Masters
was taking on suffering for the sake of others.
Only in this case Jesus went beyond his usual healing of individuals,
releasing them from suffering, liberating them.
Now he did what no spiritual master had done before
or needed to do since.
He took it all, all the suffering, of everyone, for all time.
He took it all until there was nothing left of it, nothing left of death
and he broke through to Life from the Source,
what we call Resurrection Life
so that no one else need go through death.
What incredible love this expresses!
Can you trust that? Can you hope in that? Can you desire that?
Back to the parable:
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.
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.
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 broke 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.
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 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?
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