Shared with Nagoya All Saints International Congregation based on the Matthew 25: 14-30
I wonder about that hole in the ground, the one dug by the third servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents. Does he dig the hole by his own choice, or on account of the choices of others? Think about that with me. Is the servant a victim of circumstance, or was it his own “lack of talent” that led to his decisions or does he have some culpability in his choice he makes when he buries the talent? And, then there is the question, once the hole has been dug, is there any way out?
Jesus’ parables are like that. They invite listeners --- even require us --- to puzzle over their potential meanings. Some parables seem simpler for example, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”[1] Other parables sound like confusing riddles, or even bad jokes, and some challenge us to think more deeply about life and the systems that we are part of.
Let us take a moment to review today’s parable: this parable of the talents. In Jesus’ day, one talent represented wages for approximately 15 years: enough money to fund the winnings of a large lottery jackpot. The story begins simply enough: “It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his servants 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.”
While the man is gone, the first two servants put his money to work, doubling its initial value. The third servant guards the man’s fortune by burying it in the ground. When the man returns, the first two servants receive a handsome reward for their investment savvy. So far, so good, at least from the view of those of us who benefit from market economics: where one is rewarded for education, talent, ingenuity even luck. No joke here or riddle.
But then the parable takes a threatening turn. When the man learns that the third servant has hidden his money, he calls him out. “You wicked and lazy servant!” He confiscates the money and passes it along to the richest of the three servants. Adding insult to injury, he calls for the third servant to be cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The punch line of the parable seems to be that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Is this a simple parable, a good riddle or a bad joke or something else entirely?
Now to be honest, the parable of the talents has long encouraged the church’s fruitful stewardship of whatever gifts God has given. By this interpretation, the servant who buries his gift is like a tree that does not bear good fruit. Those who increase their gifts are like a faithful servant who is at work when the Lord comes. Admittedly I have even done a few sermons with that in mind.
But again, Jesus speaks in parables so that his followers will be required to ponder more deeply. For example, I have often found that I am far to quick to avoid the parts that do not fit with my first “go to” interpretation. We should not view the fruitful stewardship of gifts as the only interpretation that is worthwhile.
Because viewed from a different perspective, the parable exposes the challenges of faithfulness in a world dominated by power and wealth where one is rewarded for education, talent, and ingenuity, --- unless you are not. Return to the parable with me for we learn later that the man is rich, which should not have been a surprise because of the astronomical figures expressed in talents involved. But we also learn --- at least from one perspective --- this rich man has achieved his wealth at the expense of others; “I knew that you were a harsh man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed.”[2] With that lens in mind, we now discover in the parable that the first two servants multiply the rich man’s dishonesty. Whereas the third servant refuses to participate in this system, and for this refusal he is abandoned and condemned to a place of suffering.
So, in a roundabout way, the parable offers a clear-eyed analysis of the real world, one where we may find ourselves, perhaps not in much control of our circumstances, or comfortable in participating in something we find troubling. Or we may feel like the best way in this world is to dutifully play it safe not challenging ourselves with what we have. Or we may have been given something to which we do not want or care for. Look again at the precise accusation of the rich man who distributed the talents. The rich man calls the slave “wicked” and “lazy.” The laziness charge certainly sticks because whatever the method the rich man became wealthy, he certainly was trusting and generous in his servants and honest in his evaluation of what constitutes success.
Where is the good news for us in any of this? Remember again the parables are Jesus way to teach us, so Jesus may be adding further depth to some earlier words about the cost of discipleship: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. . . . For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”[3]
How do we see that in this parable?
If that were not enough to ponder, there is something else, as you may know from you own Bible study, context is important. In Matthew, Jesus tells this parable a couple of days before his arrest and crucifixion, events that will testify to many things, but one is the world’s fondness for punishing those who speak truth to power. And like the third servant in the story, Jesus will be condemned to suffering. Abandoned by most of his friends, he will cry out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Then he will be buried in a rock-hewn tomb, just as the talent is buried deep in the ground.
This is not the end of the story, however, even if it marks the ending of today’s parable. As Matthew’s Gospel makes clear, a hole in the ground --- even a tomb --- cannot contain Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah, raised from the dead. Or as another parable suggests, the “kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field,” and the day will come when the Messiah will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.
There is so much to make of this parable, so in that spirit, I began with a question for you and will end with a new one. I began by asking, does this third servant dig the hole by his own choice, or on account of the choices of others?
Thankfully, Jesus broke free from the tomb to reconcile us to God, to free us. A freedom that calls us to be wise as foxes and an innocent as doves. On one hand to live in the grace freely and fully into the grace have received, as well as to not be afraid to fully empty ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ including speaking truth to power.
Yet, unlike the two servants, the risks God would have us take are for the sake of others who have found themselves in holes of their or others making, for those who need to hear the promise of reconciliation. Risking ourselves, not just our money or our status --- that is a genuine risk of discipleship. Other people are the focus of our risk-taking. Relationships are the riskiest business around. A freedom to risk love and service, to risk rejection and ridicule, to risk despair for the promise of fulfillment --- those are the truly profound risks that God wants us all to take, a challenge to which none of us does alone. We have a loving Savior who wants to see us do well, to succeed with whatever he has given us to do. So the question is this, if God risked everything in the person of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation, doesn't it seem likely that this same God might expect more than self-seeking, self-motivated, safety- conscious behavior from those who have been so wondrously graced? Amen.
[1] Matthew 13:33
[2] Vs. 24
[3] Matt. 16:24–26
